FY2012 -- Quick Outlook

By Guest Blogger, Olessia Smotrova-Taylor
President/CEO, OST Global Solutions

Olessia shares these notes from the Small and Emerging Contractors Advisory Forum (SECAF)’s recent Opportunity Landscape for Government briefing 

With a national debt level like we haven’t seen since World War II, expect more reductions in discretionary spending in FY 2012. While Congress is still working out exactly how they're going to do that, watch for cuts that will likely affect the war effort, as well as science, NASA, Agriculture, financial services, Interior, Environment, and Justice. 

Opportunities, despite that:

• Energy
  R & D initiatives to reduce dependence on foreign oil and building infrastructure investments to drive energy conservation. 
  
• Healthcare
  Funding for projects to reduce costs by further implementation of electronic health records and modernization of of healthcare systems, expansion of government health care programs, and associated monitoring of these programs to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.  Health care program for both veterans and active military have been growing in double digits. So have construction and health IT investment.
   
• Cyber security
  Will continue to expand. There may be more centralized management and real-time cyber monitoring (rather than FISMA paperwork-based security). 
  
• Information Technology
  Expect further consolidation, performance improvements, and cloud-related projects, with the military getting the lion's share. Top projects include the Army's recompete its giant S3 professional services contract. 
  
• Small Business
  The percentage share of small business set-asides has been steadily growing, even if the contracting dollars have shrunk. Agencies such as the VA, DHS, HHS, USDA, and DOE are actively courting small businesses. In the greater Washington area, there is seven times more small business spending than in any other U.S. metro area. Almost agency-wide, the government has not achieved yet its procurement goals for WOSBs, HubZone, and SDVOSBs. 

OST Global Solutions, Inc. is a Washington, DC metro area business development company specializing in capture and proposal management.