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Service-Growth Consultants
Service-Growth on the On the Single Issue Spotlight: Service:
My business partner and I spent three months developing a contract opportunity in the US to take advantage of state fiscal year end (FYE) funds that expired at the end of June for a deal ultimately worth US$25,000 to US$500,000. The FYE funds were for a pilot adoption of our online employment readiness tool which, if successful, would lead to the larger amount of money. All aspects of the contract had been negotiated and the paperwork forwarded to the State purchasing office.
With ten days to go before the funds would lapse, an officer in the purchasing office said that the Buy American Act had to apply. I didn't think that was correct but wasn't sure how to confirm my suspicions. Then I remembered Judy Bradt, and decided to try calling her.
In minutes, Judy asked me a series of questions that diagnosed the nature of my difficulties: First, state government procurement is not covered by NAFTA so the state government could, if it wished, discriminate against a Canadian firm. But the root of the problem was that the state had received a grant from the US Federal Department of Labor for the contract we were pursuing. The grant required the recipient – our client – to comply with Buy American provisions when carrying out any federally-funded project.
Once Judy knew precisely what kind of barrier we were dealing with, she immediately offered accurate interpretive advice based on her years of experience: contrary to the contracting officer's concerns, that particular Buy American provision did not apply to the purchase of services.
Judy gave me practical ideas to gain support for that position from all the key officials whose agreement we needed – and fast – to keep our project on the rails.
The most important thing that Judy did for me was to reassure me that my take on the Buy American text was accurate – that it applied to goods and not services. She clarified the language to use with the client and the state purchasing officer and explained, "This is how you refer to the provision. This is what it's called."
With two days remaining in which to access the FYE funds, I resumed discussions with our client. We succeeded in getting an agreement that a portion of the funds could be available in the new fiscal year, and we were successful in negotiating with the procurement officer after everyone calmed down.
Judy Bradt's advice was the saving grace. Without that conversation, I wouldn't have had the confidence to persist in saying to our client that this was the accurate interpretation. And I would not have been clear about the fact that the purchasing officer saw our client (not us!) as her client.
Judy got our marketing back on track for our ability to access US government markets worth in the millions.
If we had gotten an incorrectly negative ruling on the interpretation of how the Buy American Act applied to that contract, it could have affected our ability to market into ANY state. And, because we already had licensed our software to other state governments, those clients could have read about the negative ruling and worried about whether to doing business with us would leave them vulnerable to problems with an audit ... and perhaps cancelled their licenses with us.
Instead of talking about economic theory and trade policy, Judy talked pragmatics in terms of what the Buy American Act was designed to achieve, how I could be sure it didn't apply to services contracts, and what language to use to put a procurement officer at ease.
Judy was responsive and knowledgeable, very competent and a pleasure to work with. I took away from the experience that she would take urgency seriously, that if she didn't know the answer she knew how to find it, and that her advice is very practical.
Without Judy's help, my business partner and I would have missed out on a major opportunity to expand in the US, which is a huge market for us. Judy's advice was worth millions to our company.
Dorothy Riddle
President
Service-Growth Consultants
Vancouver, BC
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