How to Find and Win Government Contracts in California

State, local and education (SLED) governments are estimated to spend an average of $1.5 trillion dollars on supplier, vendor and contractor-provided goods and services every year. In this article, you will learn how to company’s sales, marketing and business development divisions can enter or expand your business into the State of California government marketplace.

With a $3.63 trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2022, the State of California is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation, it would in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) rank as the world’s fifth largest economy, behind Germany and ahead of India. It’s no surprise then that the State of California a mainstay customer for suppliers, vendors and contractors providing goods and services across almost every industry imaginable to help the Golden State operate efficiently and effectively.

Read on and prepare your firm to win your share of California’s state government significant government contract spending dollars.

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To join the State of California marketplace and compete for government contracts, the state has a process for you to certify your company and be deemed eligible.

Seeing how California’s state government is a large economy in need of support, your business must be registered with the state’s Cal eProcure database.

Cal eProcure is an online portal designed to make it easier for businesses to sell their products and services to California. At the site, you can:

• Register your company as a bidder with the State of California
• Certify your company as a small business or Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (DVBE)
• Search the California State Contracts Register on Cal eProcure for public procurement information, such as bids, contracts for solicitation, and updates or amendments to a solicitation

How to Register with Cal eProcure

Registering in Cal eProcure is a relatively easy process:

1. First, your business must input its Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) or a Social Security Number
2. The next steps ask for details about your company, such as the primary address, company website, and related industry. Manufacturing companies have an additional step referencing its North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code.
3. You will then fill in details about the industry in which your company works. There are specific notification preferences for bids and certifications.
4. Lastly, your company must agree to terms and conditions.
5. Once all of the above is complete, Cal eProcure will send confirmation to the email address provided. It will include a link to the login to finalize the process by updating a temporary password.

The California Multiple Award Schedules (CMAS) program offers a wide variety of commodity, non-IT Services, and information technology products and services at prices which have been assessed to be fair, reasonable and competitive. CMAS is a means of helping government procurement officials to make quick buys from a pool of companies using pre-negotiated maximum pricing. CMAS is a streamlined, best value purchasing solution for a range of commodities, non-information technology services and IT products and services. It’s open to state government agencies, as well as local governments, across California.

The pool of CMAS contractors is key for your company to join. When in the pool, a state agency or local government will be able to find your company’s product or service as a viable option for meeting their needs. Not being a part of CMAS limits your company to potential contracts.

CMAS does not host competitions for contract opportunities like solicitations in CSCR. Instead, it’s similar to the U.S. General Service Administration’s (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule Program, or GSA Schedules.

The pricing for CMAS’s goods and services is based on GSA Schedules. GSA has already pre-negotiated prices, set delivery terms, warranties, and other terms and conditions. Those prices and details must be posted in the GSA eLibrary. Based on that information, a CMAS contractor can bid the same maximum GSA Schedule price or lower.

There is no fee to become a CMAS contractor, although there may be an administrative fee for some procurements. There is no fee to your company for a CMAS sale to a California state government agency. However, for sales to local governments, your company will pay a 1.2% incentive fee to the Department of General Services based on the total of the purchase order. As another bonus to small businesses and DVBE’s, all administrative fees are waived. Typically, CMAS application processing time is 10 days.

Steps to apply to become a CMAS contractor:

1. Find a base Federal GSA schedule: It will be the basis for the products, services and prices your company will want to offer CMAS. Read the instructions for completing the application.
2. Complete the CMAS Contract Application: The application asks for details on your company, contacts for contract-related questions, various licenses, and company status. The application requires a separate CMAS application for each base GSA Schedule offered.
3. Submit your CMAS Contract Application
4. Send your CMAS Contract Application to:
   
   California Department of General Services
   Procurement Division – CMAS unit
   Attention – Application Processing
   PO Box 989052, MS # 2-202
   West Sacramento, CA 95798-9052
   
   Or hand deliver it to:
   
   California Department of General Services
   Procurement Division – CMAS unit
   Attention – Application Processing
   707 Third Street, 2^nd Floor, MS# 2-202
   West Sacramento, CA 95605-2811

The State of California offers special set-aside contracts for small and disadvantaged companies. There are even subcategories of small businesses based on owner or on particular regions.

State of California government agencies strive to award 25% of their annual contracting dollars to certified small businesses and award 3% to certified disabled veteran business enterprises (DVBEs). The state gives more insights and award details in its Small Business & Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Contract Activity Reports.

Furthermore, agencies may give a 5% bid preference to certified small businesses and may offer as much as 5% as an incentive to DVBEs in the formal bid process. The state also has the “SB/DVBE Option,” a streamlined procurement process for small businesses and DVBEs. It allows an agency to choose the option by contracting directly with a California-certified small business and DVBE for goods, services, and information technology after receiving bid quotes from at least two of either type of certified company.

A small business or DVBE can be certified at the Cal eProcure portal. The certification process requires several pieces of business-related information:

• Applicant/Affiliate Federal Tax Returns for the 3 most recent tax years
• Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN)
• Secretary of State Number
• Home address of officers, members/managers and partners
• Dun & Bradstreet Number, if applicable
• Contractors State License Board Number, if applicable
• A list of keywords describing your business activities to ensure it is easily and appropriately identified in any search for certified firms

The Office of Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Services (OSDS) has a full list of required documents when applying for either Small Business or DVBE certification.

The parameters for being considered “small” are narrow and well defined. Similar to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), California has particular qualifications that a business must meet to be considered small. A company must match these specifications:

• Independently owned and operated
• Not dominant in field of operation
• The principal office located in California
• Owners, or officers, if its corporation is domiciled in California

In addition, affiliates must have one of three of the following qualifications:

• A business with 100 or fewer employees, with average annual gross receipts of $15 million or less, over the last three tax years, or
• A manufacturer with 100 or fewer employees, or
• A microbusiness. A small business will automatically be designated as a microbusiness, if gross annual receipts are less than $5 million, or the small business is a manufacturer with 25 or fewer employees.

If your company meets the standards, the state allows you to certify your business online.

Access the state’s online application at the Small Business Certification Application on the Cal eProcure website.

Deltek has been serving government contractors with solutions that support their business endeavors for over 30 years. With GovWin IQ, a business development market intelligence solution and Costpoint, an ERP solution for government contractors, Deltek helps businesses find, win and deliver on more U.S. state, local and education government contracts.