As I’ve written about before, pairing up with other businesses is a very common and successful practice in the federal contracting sector – “teaming” can help small businesses win more contracts.
IBM and other large companies have joined up to provide a platform to help large and small businesses find each other. It’s an attempt to standardize small business registration and help both parties work together more successfully.
Called the Supplier Connection Portal, this is another place you may want to register your small business. This doesn’t replace the CCR (Central Contractor Registry) – you still need to be in there if you plan to do any business with the federal government.
What it does is give you a central place to access opportunities with larger companies, and to be visible as a potential partner when those large companies are searching for small businesses to work with.
This article explains more about the background of the project: http://www.supplychaindigital.com/procurement/ibm-launches-new-supplier-connection-portal.
Here’s another blog post that’s worth reading – you’ll get one small business owner’s realistic portrayal of actually using the site: http://smallbiztrends.com/2012/03/supplier-connection-small-businesses-corporate-contracts.html.
You can find the IBM Supplier Connection portal at https://www.supplier-connection.net/SupplierConnection/about.html.
What do you think? Will you sign up? If you’ve already signed up, how is it working for you? Please post your comments below.
