DISA exceeds fiscal 2012 small business goals

The Defense Information Systems Agency awarded $1.3 billion in contracting dollars to small businesses in fiscal 2012, exceeding its goals for the fiscal year, the agency said Jan. 7.

By awarding 26 percent of its contracts to small businesses, DISA surpassed its own goal by one percent, outperformed the federal small business goal of 23 percent and helped the Defense Department in the department-wide effort to achieve a small business goal of 22.5 percent, DISA's Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) said.

DISA awarded 10 percent of contracts to small disadvantaged businesses (totaling $484 million in contract award dollars), 5 percent to woman-owned small businesses (totaling $247 million), 3.8 percent to service-disabled veteran-owned businesses (totaling $188 million), and 0.6 percent to small businesses in historically underutilized business zones (totaling $32 million).

All 4,460 contract actions that allowed DISA to exceed its small business goals were prime contracts, DISA said. Contract awards where a large business subcontracts out specific areas of work to a small business are not counted toward DISA’s small business goals.

The agency negotiates its small business goals with the Office of the Secretary of Defense's OSBP. It is then up to DISA’s OSBP to implement programs and initiatives that support the agency’s commitment to small business contracting. To achieve DISA’s goals, the OSBP hosted a number of events and held meetings with many small businesses.

DISA will work in fiscal 2013 to contract 26 percent of all agency awards to small businesses, with nine percent to SDBs, five percent to WOSBs, three percent to SDVOSBs, and one percent to HUBZone businesses, the agency said.

To help achieve its small business contracting goals, DISA's OSBP is planning to initiate a small business speakers’ series and host a HUBZone vendor showcase to raise awareness of these small businesses.