Contract coming for small-biz system

Federal agencies eventually will have a common system for tracking their prime contractors' progress on their small-business subcontracting goals.

Many agencies have systems, but each comes with its own processes and reports, said Teresa Sorrenti, program manager for the Integrated Acquisition Environment at the General Services Administration.

GSA officials expect to award a contract for the development of the Electronic Subcontracting Reporting System in the near future and to roll out the system during the next year.

Some of the existing systems are good, but "vendors don't want to go to 24 really good reporting systems," Sorrenti said, speaking at the IRMCO conference in Cambridge, Md.

Likewise, the common system will make it easier for organizations to track small business activity across government.

"Technically, you could go into 24 agency sites and find the data," but it would not be in a standard format, making it difficult to pool the data, she said.