What are Open Government Contracts and Where To Find Them

Searching for open government contracts from government agencies in the U.S. or Canada? This guide is designed to help you and your public sector business development team develop plans for pursuing new government bids and finding the right government contracts for your business.

When a government entity has a need for a particular good or service, they will create an open government contract and begin a process that ultimately ends with a government contract award to one or more successful contractors.

Open government contracts can come in many forms, including a Request for Proposal (RFP), a Request for Quote (RFQ), and an Invitation to Tender, which are all contractually binding.

Request for Proposal

A Request for Proposal is a less rigid form of open contract. It publicly informs prospective suppliers of government procurement opportunities. There’s a focus on bidders determining solutions to stated needs. Research and development are often integral to the RFP bidding process to help contractors win a government contract.

Request for Quote

A Request for Quote is often smaller in scope. An RFQ features specific requirements for goods or services. Price is usually a key consideration.

Invitation to Tender

An Invitation to Tender is common in large public sector projects. Project details are pre-established, and bidders are pre-qualified.

Guide To Government Contract Types

This guide is designed to help you and your public sector business development team develop a functional understanding of the primary types of government contracts.

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The U.S. government is the world’s largest buyer of products and services, and governments in Canada spend a significant amount of money as well. In these broad and diverse markets, businesses of all sizes can find relevant contract opportunities to supply a wide range of goods and services.

Federal contracts or state and local contracts can give your firm a stable and reliable source of revenue, even in times of economic uncertainty. Because government work tends to be more predictable than private-sector work, landing even one public contract can help you plan your company's growth and scale your operations.

Additionally, working on government contracts can allow you to network with contracting officers or other officials at governments, and build relationships with subcontracting or teaming partners. These contacts can lead to new contracts, ventures or opportunities for collaboration.

Small business set-aside contracts are open contract opportunities that governments save specifically for small businesses meeting specific sets of criteria. Small business set-aside contracts fall into categories such as:

• 8(a) sole source and set-aside contracts
• Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) set-asides
• HUBZone
• Women-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB).

8a Business Development Program

The 8(a) program is designed to help small disadvantaged businesses access government contracting opportunities. It allows these firms to compete for set-aside and sole-source contracts in the federal marketplace. The program also provides business development assistance to help 8(a)-certified businesses improve their competitive edge.

Your firm must have at least two years of business operations to qualify for the 8(a) Business Development program. It must also be majority-owned by socially and economically disadvantaged people who have:

• A personal net worth of $850,000 or less.
• An adjusted gross income of $400,000 or less.
• Total assets of less than $6.5 million.

Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) Program

Each year, the federal government aims to make sure that small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans get a certain amount of the overall award of contracts. The SDVOSB Program offers exclusive set-aside contracts for SDVOSBs, allowing these firms to compete in the federal marketplace.

HUBZone Program

The HUBZone program encourages economic development in historically underutilized business zones by providing firms with preferential access to government contracts. If your company obtains HUBZone certification, you can benefit from competitive and sole-source contracting opportunities as well as a 10% price evaluation preference in full and open contract competitions.

Guide to Government Contracting as a Small Business

Review our free guide to learn how to win government contracts as a small business, get tips on bidding on contracts and discover best practices for developing strong proposals.

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One alternative to working directly with federal agencies or smaller government entities is by partnering with other companies or contracting specialists, either as part of a government subcontract or as a teaming agreement.

Teaming Agreements

A teaming agreement is an agreement between two or more companies to combine their resources to better obtain and deliver upon a government contract. These agreements are generally formed between a company competing for a prime contract and a prospective subcontractor or joint venture. Teaming agreements generally focus on proposal preparation responsibilities, division of work upon award, the exclusivity of the teaming agreement and subcontract terms should a subcontract be awarded.

Free Guide: Teaming Agreements 101

This guide outlines what teaming agreements are, best practices for subcontracting, why small businesses should team with larger primes and next steps to get started.

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Subcontracting Opportunities

Subcontracting is a different type of contracting activity where a prime contractor partners with one or more smaller businesses, or subcontractors. These are useful for assigning or outsourcing components of a government contract’s obligations under a separate contract with a third party. A subcontract is a legally binding agreement setting forth the work to be performed, pricing, delivery requirements, flow-down clauses and procedures for resolving subcontractor disputes.

Free Webinar: Top Subcontracting Considerations

Register for this free, on-demand webinar to learn how prime contractors and subcontractors alike can successfully navigate the subcontracting process.

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Government contracts are published on the websites of federal agencies, state and local governments and Canadian governments. But the information found in these locations - and on the websites of bid aggregators - is fragmented and difficult to sort through. There are tens of thousands of government entities in the U.S. and Canada and combing through all of them to find the best-fit opportunities can be a massive task.

A better solution is to use Deltek's GovWin IQ, the market-leading platform of government market intelligence. GovWin IQ brings its subscribers intuitive, accessible platform that empowers U.S. and Canadian government contracting business development. With GovWin IQ, you can scour the market for opportunities that are right for your business, get early access to government pre-RFPs, gain market intelligence on your competition and even access a teaming network to increase your eligibility to compete.

Find & Win Government Contracts With Govwin IQ

Learn how the leading market intelligence platform can help you find more open government contracts and win more government contract awards.

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