February 19, 2007
Grand Rapids Business Journal Express
Elizabeth Sanders

MUSKEGON — Contracting with the government can be complicated but rewarding, said Pamela Poort, director of the Procurement Technical Assistance Center, a nonprofit organization meant to make the process easier for companies across western and central Michigan.

The office, based in Muskegon, serves 14 counties and helped companies gain $92 million in government contracts in fiscal year 2005-2006 alone. Poort said the majority of those contracts were for defense, and went to companies such as General Dynamics, Howmet and Kaydon Corp., but some also went to smaller companies such as ServCorp Inc., a 3M wholesale distributor.

Martha Herman, procurement specialist with ServCorp, said she is in contact with the center nearly every day to check on national stock numbers, gathering information about products and bids.

“It gives me leverage so that I can bid appropriately,” she said.

Herman said she may bid on projects an average of five times a day.

ServCorp was recently the recipient of a $1.6 million contract with the government General Service Administration. The contract for latex caulk, corrosive epoxy and standard adhesive is over two years with three one-year options.

ServCorp President Sue Joslin said the Procurement Technical Assistance Center has helped her company to better market itself to the government, which accounts for 50 percent of its business.

“Those are the areas that they’re set up to help us out: how to market yourself to the government,” Joslin said.

To further help companies such as ServCorp, Poort said the center is launching a new class on March 8. Procurement 101: How to Become a Government Contractor will take place at Muskegon Community College and is mandatory for companies that want to be aided by the center in their search for government contracts.

The three-hour class will teach companies how to find bid opportunities within the government, as well as how to stay eligible.

“We give them an overview of us and an overview of how the governments buy,” she said of the class.

The Procurement Technical Assistance Center offers help in many areas: bids; forms and publications; government registrations; counseling; procurement history; specifications, standards and drawings; subcontracting assistance; and State of Michigan Contracting Assistance.

Procurement history is an especially important service, Poort said. If a company misses a bid it was after, it can look at the procurement history to see what price the government paid, the buying intervals, and then be prepared with a competitive bid when the next opportunity comes.

Poort said companies use key words that explain what the company does, which helps match them with bids. “Those words become the medium to match every procurement …,” she said.

The Procurement Technical Assistance Center contracts with a Texas company that matches the bids; then the member companies are alerted to the opportunities.

“They get an e-mail every day that matches the procurement (to) their capabilities,” Poort said.

Sometimes the matches do not connect, and it is then a matter of finding the right word or explanation, Poort said.

“It’s a manipulative game to figure out what a buyer will call a wrench compared to what a company will call a wrench,” she said.

The center, which is housed at Muskegon Area First, is funded 50 percent by the Defense Logistics Agency and 50 percent by the Michigan Economic Development Agency, Muskegon Area First and other local funding.

This year’s budget is $216,315, up from previous years with additional funding from the federal government. Poort said the office, which used to cover only a few counties, was expanded in 1991 to include the 14 counties it now serves.

Poort said the center is in the process of creating a strategic plan to serve clients better.

“It’s tough to get the information out there if we don’t have one single tool to do that,” she said.

Companies that believe they have nothing to offer the government should keep an open mind, Poort said, especially when it comes to homeland security.

“When people think of homeland security, they don’t think that (the government) might buy the services of an individual for border control,” Poort said as an example, noting that the government needs to contract for everything from bottled water and toilet paper to missiles and bird control netting for aircraft hangers. “I’d never thought outside the box, and it was just amazing.” BJX