A program that collects transactional data at the line-item level is reportedly boosting the participation of small businesses in the government contracting market.
The General Services Administration said on Tuesday that the group, Transactional Data Reporting — dubbed TDR — led to small business sales exceeding large business sales by 22 percent on the Federal Acquisition Service’s 2nd Generation IT Products blanket purchase agreement, or 2GIT BPA, during the first quarter of 2024.
The 2GIT BPA team analyzed transactional data to identify high-demand items. They found that most of these items are being provided by large business resellers.
The team also discovered that small businesses are less likely to participate in the BPA because they lacked the letter of supply from the original equipment manufacturer. To boost small business participation, the team worked with OEMs to issue more letters of supply to small businesses.
The program also reportedly accelerated response to cyber incidents in GovCon.
According to GSA, an Office of Policy and Compliance supply chain risk management group used transactional data to trace and alert customers who have purchased products on a multiple-award schedule following an emergency directive from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
The TDR program promotes transparency by requiring contractors to share sales data from governmentwide contracts. GSA plans to make more transactional data available in the coming years.
