February marks an important milestone for the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC) as it enters its 33^rd year of continuous operation in aiding Georgia businesses that are pursuing government contracts.

Specifically, GTPAC helps businesses identify, compete for, and win contracts at all levels of government – federal, state, and local.

GTPAC is one of about a dozen programs – known as Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs) – that were established shortly after Congress launched the initiative in 1985.  Today, there are 95 PTACs across the nation that serve all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico.

GTPAC’s continued operation is made possible through funds provided by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) along with state funding made available through Georgia Tech’s Enterprise Innovation Institute (EI²).

GTPAC received a fully executed award document from the DLA on Jan. 24, 2019, ensuring that funding would be made available to the Georgia Institute of Technology for another year of PTAC operations in the state of Georgia.

GTPAC maintains staff in Albany, Atlanta, Gainesville, Carrollton, Savannah, and Warner Robins. Training also is conducted in Athens and Columbus as well as via online webinars. All businesses in Georgia are eligible to receive GTPAC’s services at no cost. The program provides Georgia businesses with counseling, training, and a complete set of electronic tools to research and identify government contracting opportunities.

“We are grateful for the confidence DLA places in us to carry out this program in Georgia,” says Program Manager Andrew Smith, “and we are very thankful for the support that Georgia Tech provides to the program.”

Since its inception in 1986, GTPAC has helped Georgia businesses win more than 100,000 contracts — both prime and subcontracts — worth more than $14.1 billion.

While tabulations for calendar year 2018 are not yet complete, preliminary reports show that GTPAC’s clients won at least 3,400 government prime contracts and subcontracts worth more than $1 billion.

GTPAC is widely recognized as a PTAC with one of the strongest track records in the nation.  Over the last decade, GTPAC helped Georgia businesses win between $500 million and $1 billion in government contracts, annually.

GTPAC counseled, instructed, and identified bid opportunities for 2,300 businesses across the state of Georgia in 2018. GTPAC also conducted 150 training workshops and participated in 31 events statewide where more than 3,000 businessmen and women received instruction on how to effectively compete for government contracts.

Among those clients is Glenn Singfield, a principal of Albany, Georgia-based Artesian Construction.

"GTPAC’s team consistently keeps us informed about what's going on in the government marketplace," Singfield said. "Through the program, we connected with another small business that we were able to partner with and, as a result, we’ve won several government contracts." 

Other clients, such as Michelle Thompson, group purchasing administrator for United Pharmacy Partners in Suwanee, Georgia, added GTPAC also helps by educating them on how to successfully get those contracts and connecting them with the resources to do so.

“I reach out at least once a month with a government contracting-related question," Thompson said. "The GTPAC team always comes through with the answer or resources to find the answer.”