Agency helps small local firms navigate tangled web of government contracts

Amanda Wang knows that landing government contracts is not always about the lowest or strongest bid.

Sometimes, it’s about meeting the right people.

“It’s very much relationshipbased,” she said. “If you sit at the end of a funnel, waiting on a contract, the odds are you will not win it.”

It’s a lesson she learned through a Department of Defense effort in Central Florida that helps small businesses land contracts with federal, state and local government agencies.

The Procurement Technical Assistance Center can be a key aide in entering a lucrative market, with government spending on such contracts annually reaching into the billions of dollars.

Seeking such business, which brings with it special complexities like security clearances, word-of-mouth contract notifications and high-level secrecy, is something Wang has grown to appreciate.

“It’s not right, it’s not wrong,” said Wang, whose Oviedo company DigaTek Web Solutions provides IT support for its clients. “It’s the government. You have to figure out how to navigate it.”

PTAC has nine offices in Florida, including one in the National Entrepreneur Center, at Fashion Square mall in Orlando. Funding comes primarily through the federal Defense Logistics Agency, which helps keep it mostly free.

Some fees apply, however, when the center partners with other agencies to conduct on-site workshops and educational sessions.