{"id":356,"date":"2021-02-08T20:55:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T20:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sam.directory\/blog\/?p=356"},"modified":"2025-05-21T05:45:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T05:45:13","slug":"the-future-of-federal-contracting-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sam.directory\/blog\/the-future-of-federal-contracting-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Future Of Federal Contracting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The United States Federal Government<\/strong>
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The United States government buys many of the products and services it needs from suppliers who meet certain qualifications. It applies standardized procedures by which to acquire goods and services. That is, the government does not purchase items or services in the same way in which private companies might secure business. The procedures used by the government can be found in the  Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)<\/a>.
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What is FAR?<\/strong>
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The FAR is a standardized set of regulations employed by all federal agencies in making purchases. It provides procedures for how to maneuver in the procurement process. It takes you through the need for the product and service to the award of the contract.
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The Federal Government Offers Great Opportunities For Many Types Of Businesses<\/strong>
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The government actually designates a portion of the contracts for women-owned small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, companies within historically underutilized business zones (HUBZone), and service-disabled, veteran-owned small organizations. This allows for underserved groups to have a real chance to get awarded lucrative government contracts.
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Streamlining and Modernizing Information Technology<\/strong>
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Did you know that the Internal Revenue Service, the Veteran\u2019s Affairs Department, Defense Department, and the Transportation Department are operating on computer systems that are over 50 years old? Some are still using 1970 IBM mainframe computers that store information on floppy disks!
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This has caused the government to pass the Modernizing Government Technology Act<\/a>, also known as the MGT. The MGT has authorized that 100 hundred million dollars be allocated to modernizing the federal government Information Technology systems in 2018. Then another 150 million dollars were added to the MGT in 2019. The Consolidated Appropriations Act<\/a> also then added billions of dollars to upgrade the government\u2019s I.T. systems and update infrastructure.
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So small businesses that can help the government reduce redundancies, save money, and streamline government technology have a great chance of obtaining very profitable government contracts in 2020 and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blockchain<\/strong>
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Blockchain allows for the distribution of data on multiple platforms at the same time. It grows as a new set of recordings, referred to as blocks, are added to it. All the blocks contain timestamp information linking it to previous blocks, thus creating a chain. This allows for no data block to be altered without the alteration of all the blocks that came before it.
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The government is interested in blockchain data management because it is decentralized and allows for more security for transactions. This usually also means that operating costs can be lower. The United States government became interested in blockchain technology in 2016 and it should be a very lucrative avenue for many small businesses. 
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Innovation OTS is a five-year program that will continue in 2020. It aims to provide opportunities for nontraditional government contractors to work with the Department of Homeland Security developing new technologies to address upcoming threats. In 2020,  small business contractors can take advantage of Innovation OTS to form government partnerships and provide innovative technologies.
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Department of Energy<\/strong>
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The Department of Energy<\/a> defines its mission as \u201c…. to ensure America\u2019s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.\u201d
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The Department of Energy has a network of 36 Facility Management Contracts.  They include the following:
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