Study: E-Procurement Works, Up to a Point The federal government should create true one-stop websites for contractors to register and to find information about active procurements, according to a study by Innovation & Information Consultants Inc. of Concord, MA. While the Central Contractor Registration is proclaimed to be the single point of registration for contractors and FedBizOpps is touted as the one-stop for all procurement opportunities, the researchers said, “Those who do business with the federal government insist, however, that there continue to be multiple sites where a business needs to register in order to compete for opportunities. “For example, not only do individual agencies, supply centers, and bases within the Department of Defense have their own sites for posting and contracting for business, but many of the major prime contractors (e.g., Raytheon or Northrop Grumman) host sites where prospective subcontractors need to register.” The need to navigate many points of entry “has caused much confusion among small businesses, which may lack the depth of staffing required to follow and master these developments,” the report says. “Some small businesses have successfully developed a working relationship with one agency, and then chosen to ignore other methods of interacting with the government that are no longer relevant. Other small businesses have given up.” The researchers recommended that information in the Central Contractor Registration be automatically moved into other agencies’ contractor databases, so a business would have to register only once. “Central registration needs to become a reality,” the report says. The study of small businesses’ use of electronic procurement was conducted for SBA’s Office of Advocacy. The researchers found that small contractors rely on e-procurement more than large businesses. In fiscal 2002, they calculated that small firms received about 6.5% of their federal revenues through simplified acquisition procedures, which are largely electronic, compared to just 1% for big companies. The study also found that the government has embraced e-commerce only up to a point. While contracting opportunities are advertised electronically through FedBizOpps, the researchers found that the rest of the contracting process is often still conducted with paper and fax. They said federal contracting officers need training to take full advantage of e-procurement tools.