Why FedBizOpps Will Enhance Opportunities for Minorities
FedBizOpps offers different development opportunities for numerous people. Through this website, the ordinary person is able to post solicitations. The website also offers opportunity for posting procurement documents. Practically, FedBizOpps has increased business opportunities for people. Observably, people from remote areas can also access services offered by the organization. The system is under strict monitoring by the General Service Administration (GSA) (Garvin, 2009). The system allows for the various contract personalities to post their itineraries as well as synopses. The website has increased accountability within the procurement system. This is because it allows for the advertisement of the available procurement opportunities for all people. This is irrespective of the cadre of financial limitation. Perhaps, it is for this reason that FedBizOpps has been largely attributed to increase equality within the public procurement arena. This is a considerable provision when scrutinized critically in the business realms.
It is notable that through this system, the local vendors are able to access several services and business opportunities (Rumbaugh, 2010). For instance, it is observed that vendors are able to search appropriate databases containing information from diverse federal agencies. In this context, finances and other related expenses that might have been incurred by these local vendors in conducting a physical search is greatly minimized. As a result, it can be concluded that the FedBizOpps has led to a great deal of cost saving by the vendors. Another distinct remote service that can be gotten by these vendors from FedBizOpps is eminent.
Through this system, vendors are able to subscribe in order to get their daily mail notifications. These notifications pertain to the needs as well as procurement advertisements that are already sorted out by specific organizations that are already chosen. These services may also be applicable to product service categories. The legal mandate given to this site by the government increases its authenticity (Lidstrom & Showers, 2010). Consequently, this enables the minority groups to engage in constructive and legal trade and tendering processes. In other words, it can be viewed as a protective mechanism for the minority groups that are engaged in the tendering as well as procurement businesses. Generally, it can be observed that the web site offers an array of beneficial services to the minority groups. It offers various opportunities for these groups and enhances their capacity to engage in legal business.
The Factors the Government Used To Design and Build This Web Site
The Federal government considered several factors in the design and establishment of FedBizOpps website. One of these factors includes the consideration of minority groups in obtaining the government tenders as well as procurement opportunities. It is important to note that for a long time, the minority groups within the U.S. have been deprived of the opportunity for acquiring public tenders. The complex bureaucratic systems and processes, coupled with instances of corruption and shear discrimination largely contributed to this disparity. Therefore, by establishing the FedBizOpps, the federal government sought to indulge a more transparent and fair system of bidding (Rumbaugh, 2010). This system was intended to restore confidence in the deprived groups through open systems of bidding. Therefore, designing and development of the FedBizOpps largely considered the plight of the minority groups. Another government consideration was the institution of systematic order and procedures within all government agencies’ tendering and bidding processes.
The federal government formulated a policy and provided directives for all its agencies on the mode of tendering for contracts with an approximate value of more than $25,000. In doing this, the basic consideration was to provide a systematic tendering process within all public agencies (Stanberry, 2009). The urge to create a platform for monitoring the level of transparency and accountability within operations of the federal agencies was another critical consideration. Ideally, it can be observed that the system enhances the level of transparency and increases accountability in the public tendering process. Through the website, all persons are able to equally obtain bidding opportunities. It is also important to note that all these processes are meant for the entire interested population without any sort of discrimination. To a greater extent, it can be noted that the physical bidding process earlier utilized by these agencies were susceptible to corruption and shear discrimination (Stanberry, 2009). The need to increase the level of efficiency in the public tendering process through application of robust technology explains another consideration. Indeed, the system has remarkably increased efficiency relative to the previous manual system. Costs are also significantly reduced in the process. These explain some of the major reasons behind the design and development of this web site by the government.
Improvements to Be Applied To the FedBizOpps Website in the Future
There are notable areas that require important improvements in order to ensure the efficiency of the website in future. To begin with, the correspondence time or feedback period must be improved. The feedback period is the duration taken for the bidder to obtain or get feedback from the various organizations or agencies involved. This improvement in time would increase the real time processing of business dealings for the minority groups. From this improvement, an individual would be able to acquire faster and efficient services within considerably shorter periods of time. The system should also consider the various disadvantaged groups with interests in the bidding process. In order to ensure effective equity as well as equality measures, the disabled and other disadvantaged members of the society must be given access to special consideration. The FedBizOpps must be designed in a manner that allows for the most disadvantaged groups to access quick and reliable services (Rumbaugh, 2010). Some groups considered to be incorporate the sick, elderly, and physically disabled persons. Another important improvement area is the capacity to enhance confidentiality and security of the concerned information.
Information regarding individual bidders must be well protected from the general public. This critical observation should be accompanied by the institution and compliance with the various regulations regarding internet or cyber crimes. Such initiatives will help to curtail the instances of theft and malpractices that may arise from the operations of FedBizOpps. Application of robust technological concepts such as cloud computing might be used to increase confidentiality, minimize losses and enhance data security. Being a process involving financial implications, the security of the system must be continuously reinforced by skilled personnel (Lidstrom & Showers, 2010). Additionally, adequate monitoring will also be applied in case there is a dangerous system breach. In order to avoid cases of malfunctions, the processes must be solely undertaken by accredited institutions. These include some of the proposed measures of improvement to be undertaken in the future.
Three Services Offered By This Web Site
It is crucial to note that the website (FedBizOpps) acts as a “Public Announcement Bulletin Board”. In playing this role, it operates to attain fair standards within the federal government contracting regulations. The ability of the web site to provide equal opportunities to the minority groups engaged in business makes it unique. Therefore, it is largely viewed as a fair bargain ground for the success of young and other upcoming business persons. Generally, the website also operates to regulate the process of contracting as well as tendering within all the federal agencies. The website also acts as a potential tool specifically for focused market research. There are various functions that have been simplified through this initiative (Rumbaugh, 2010). For instance, the contracting officers are able to avail a wide array of information over short periods of time. This helps to fasten the business process and minimize associated costs. This is, particularly, if the processes were to be manually conducted.
Concurrently, there is increased accountability and responsibility with regard to officers and individuals involved in the contracting processes (Garvin, 2009). The recent addition of special units within the site is an indicator that there is a potential capacity for revolution of the site and processes to be involved in the future. The importance of conducting market research cannot be underscored. The site provides a potentially important source for conducting market research even to the minority groups. The easy availability of information is a critical achievement that enables contracting processes to efficiently operate. However, it is also important to recognize that there might be instances of malpractices that must be adequately addressed and mitigated.
References
Garvin, P. (2009). E-government and Web directory: U.S. federal government online. Lanham, MD: Bernan Press.
Lidstrom,S. & Showers, C. (2010). Facility and Road Design Tips: FedBizOpps Provides Examples. Web.
Rumbaugh, M. (2010). Understanding government contract source selection. Vienna, VA: Management Concepts.
Stanberry, S. (2009). Federal contracting made easy. Vienna, VA: Management Concepts, Inc.