THE DAILY RECORD (Baltimore, MD)

Volume: 2 Number: 208_tuesday March 12, 2002

Bethesda firm opening $200 billion public-sector market to small

By LAURA FICK
Daily Record Business Writer

About two years ago, employees at Bethesda-based MidLantic Contract Management began to notice that clients
were complaining in ever-larger numbers about lost contracts.

The reason for the losses, clients said, was that they were not part of the U.S. General Services Administrations
(GSA) Schedules — a contract program where government agencies can easily purchase services from
approved vendors without having to send out a request for proposals or go through typical procurement
processes.

So MidLantic, a consultancy to federal government contractors, decided to do something and promptly launched
EZGSA, a company aimed at getting small, women-owned and minority-owned businesses listed on the schedules
to supply government agencies with goods and services.

"We kind of looked [at the situation] and said, "Whoa, there is obviously something not being provided here," said Evie Altman, vice president of EZGSA.

The government spends more than $200 billion each year purchasing goods and services, according to the GSA. With the private sector cutting costs and the public sector expanding, it's becoming increasingly important to sell to the government, said EZGSA company officials.

"The reason someone wants to be on the GSA Schedule is that it opens the door," said Scott Orbach, president of EZGSA. "It's as important for a business … to work with the GSA as it is for a gas station to take credit cards. You want your services to be as easily buyable as possible. And no one buys more stuff than the U.S. government."

"One of the easy ways to keep your business in front of government contractors is to get on the GSA Schedules," said Hallot Watkins, assistant director of 8(a) business development at the U.S. Small Business Administration's Baltimore District Office. "It's important to be on there. It's a self-marketing effort."

According to Orbach, for an average of $10,000, EZGSA can get businesses into that program. It takes about two to four months to complete the process, saving the company an estimated 200 hours of data compilation and negotiations with the government.

"It is very time consuming," he said. "There is a substantial learning curve. We find that most of our customers, particularly small businesses, don't have a CEO who has 200 hours to learn and complete this [process]. Gosh, they might not come up with 200 hours across two years."

Business has picked up at EZGSA during the last six months. The company has gone from attracting one to three new clients per week. Much of this is based on increased needs from the government for technology and security-related services, said Orbach.

Despite the recent success of the business, company officials still feel there is a need for more education about the GSA Schedules.

"Our problem is getting the word out that the GSA actually exists," said Altman. "Some people know about it, but they don't know about the opportunities that exist. They don't know the particulars and how much time and money it can save them."