The U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, fully complies with the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act (SBREFA) of 1996 and supports the government’s policy of placing a fair proportion of our contracts with qualified small, small disadvantaged, women-owned, HUBZone, veteran-owned and service-disabled veteran-owned business concerns. At Huntsville Center, we consider small business to be the heart of the U.S. economy and a vital part of the Army Corps of Engineers’ procurement process.
Know Your Customer
Do your homework. There are different marketing strategies and different customers within the USACE for each product or service. As with any customer, it is best to do some research about the activity before contacting them. We maintain our own web and provide valuable information that is helpful in identifying our many programs. You can familiarize yourself with us by reviewing all our program fact sheets. It is very important that you first know if your firm’s capabilities match the product or service the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers procures.
Consider the following:
- Why should the Huntsville Center contract with my company?
- In what ways are my products or services well beyond those of my competitors?
- What are my demonstrated qualifications?
- Why is my specialized experience and technical competence better than others in my field?
- Do I have the capacity to accomplish the work in the required time and within the allocated budget?
- How has my performance been in the past?
Be Ready
It is important that you are familiar with the federal regulations that govern contracting procedures and regulations. All regulations are available online.
- Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR)
- The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (DFARS)
- The Army Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (AFARS)
- The Engineer Federal Acquisition Regulations Supplement (EFARS)
You must have a CAGE Code, a UEI number and be registered in the System for Award Management to be eligible for a contract award.
Monitor procurement advertisements daily.Huntsville Center uses formal solicitation procedures and publishes public notices for major program actions and predominantly utilizes best value, negotiation procedures. For solicitations more than $25,000, all federal agencies are required to provide public notice at https://www.sam.gov/content/opportunities.
Stay Alert!
Always respond to announcements for “Sources Sought” on the Federal Business Opportunities website that match with your firm’s capabilities. Adequate responses could lead to the actual procurement being set aside for small businesses.
Make it a point to attend business networking opportunity conferences, trade fairs and other federally sponsored liaison meetings in your area. The Army Corps of Engineers is represented at most such meetings. This is an excellent opportunity to meet on a person-to-person basis with small business and procurement specialists and program managers who can assist small businesses with finding information about upcoming government contracts.
GSA Schedules
More and more of our products and services are being purchased from General Services Administration (GSA) schedules. GSA schedules information can be found on the GSA website.
Other Valuable Sources and websites
Contact us
After you have identified our programs, researched our requirements and familiarized yourself with procurement regulations and strategies, it is time to market your product or service directly. Realize that, like you, our time is valuable and if the match is a good one, you can provide us with a cost-effective, quality solution to our requirements. Send us an email at sbo-hnc@usace.army.mil expressing an interest in self-marketing your firm to the Army Corps of Engineers and be prepared to provide a brief written summary of your products or services.
Download the Small Business Marketing Guide Fact Sheet (PDF)
Small Business Guide fact sheet
(as of September 2022)