Small businesses involved in selling into the federal government contracting marketplace have more opportunities than ever to succeed. Certified members of the 8(a) program have access to billions of dollars’ worth of awards, sole source contracts, and set-asides each year. But to effectively compete, these companies need the right tools and resources to avoid pitfalls and to effectively navigate the federal market.
As a leader in the industry, Deltek's committed to providing a solid foundation for 8(a) businesses to successfully build their business development pipelines and increase their sales to the government. Here are four ways that we are doing exactly that.
1. 8(a) Firms Identify Better Opportunities & Win More Business with Deltek
Deltek’s government contracting intelligence platform, GovWin IQ, is designed to help 8(a) firms succeed. Within the platform, GovWin customers can search for contracts that best fit their needs: they can select from a wide array of fields including the opportunity type, contract value, and competition type or set-aside category. GovWin also provides assessments of major purchasing types and active buyers within the government contracting marketplace to help customers choose the agencies they want to sell to and identify those that may not be a good fit.
For example, companies like Sealaska Government Services, an 8(a) contractor, are able to leverage GovWin IQ to look at federal spending trends, as well as specific agency budgets to see which products and services procurement officials plan to purchase. All of this helps them focus their scope on the opportunities they are most likely to win and help them improve their win-rates overall.
"With Deltek we are able to get ahead of opportunities and be far more prepared to respond before they’re released to the public. Deltek enables us to do a deep-dive analysis of our competition, and learn about agency spending trends. With all that information, we are absolutely winning more business."
– April Horsley, Business Development Manager, Sealaska Government Services
2. Product Integration Helps 8(a) Businesses Succeed Across the Entire Project Lifecycle
Our Deltek Costpoint solution is designed to provide government contractors of all sizes with an ERP system that is easy to use, supports their need to comply with government cost accounting standards and responds efficiently to audits. Investing time and money in creating intuitive interfaces and straightforward user experiences is a priority for all of Deltek’s products.
Deltek has added a Contract Management module into Costpoint that is integrated with GovWin IQ to automatically track opportunities, convert opportunities to contracts and subcontracts, leverage data to create bid and proposal budgets, and streamline the project setup process. All of this is aimed at making life easier for small businesses and helping them spend more time on the things that are most crucial to their business – like winning more government contracts.
3. Valuable Research Helps 8(a) Contractors Get Ahead of the Competition
Did you know that according to Deltek’s most recent 8(a) Contracting Trends report, 8(a) contracting dollars awarded by the U.S. federal government are trending upward, with $25.92 billion spent in FY 2024, up from $24.96 billion in FY 2023?
These are the kinds of details that Deltek’s team of 150+ research analysts are constantly unearthing. Through their tireless work and contributions to our GovWin IQ service, our analysts find the patterns that define business success in the government market, and present them to the public in the form of in-depth research reports and informative webinars.
4. Innovation and New Features Save Small Businesses Time and Money
It goes without saying that Deltek is constantly seeking ways in which we can improve the overall experience for our customers. We’ve recently made improvements to our government contracting platform such as the addition of SmartFit Score, which have been extended to all opportunity and contract data, revolutionizing how clients assess opportunities and quickly identify best-fit leads to pursue; GovWin Smart Tags, which allow customers to build more comprehensive and personalized searches, and updates to our Federal Organization Charts, which help users navigate the complicated relationships and bureaucracy of the federal government, and better position themselves to win federal contracting opportunities that fit their category of business.
For companies who choose to participate in the 8(a) program and do business with the federal government, the rewards are there in the form of billions of dollars of government contracts. With the right tools and research in hand, 8(a) businesses can take advantage of the many opportunities and grow their public sector sales pipelines.
8(a) Contracting Trends for 2025
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