Ten Steps to Profit from GPO Work

Oct. 12, 2010 - PRLog -- Doing work for the United States Government Printing Office (GPO) in Washington, D.C., and its 15 regional offices located across the country can be quite profitable… if GPO is developed as a secondary market and… if you know what you are doing, according to Deborah Snider, senior vice president of e-LYNXX Corporation and division president of its Government Print Management division.  There are a lot of rules, regulations and documentation, as with most government work, but with experienced guidance, printers of all sizes and capabilities can benefit.  GPO awards more than $425 million in print jobs to the private sector each year.

Snider said printers that struggle with GPO work fail to take 10 basic steps.  
•   Get every bid for which you qualify.   The only comprehensive way of obtaining the less competitive bid opportunities is to subscribe to the GPO Bid Subscription System (BSS).  Through this program, bid opportunities are delivered to the subscriber via fax, e-mail, other transmission methods and by the subscriber actually picking up bid postings in each and every GPO regional office.  Subscribers must pay for all of the costs of the program including the requirement to have adequate communication capabilities, i.e. phone and internet capacity for the receiving numerous communications simultaneously as well as pay for the every-day pick-up and delivery from each office.  The alternative to buying the program directly from GPO is to obtain screened opportunities from a GPO bid service. Only one GPO bid service subscribes to the GPO Bid Subscription System.
•   Do not miss GPO deadlines.  GPO is very precise about all dates and times from bidding to delivery.  If you miss a bid by even a few seconds, you are out of the running. Being late on a delivery is the number one reason why private sector printers fall out of good graces with GPO.  
•   Complete paperwork properly.  This can cost you the job if you are low bid, and your submission paperwork is not in order. Documentation is all important to GPO.  GPO assumes no responsibility to unilaterally update records unless properly documented by you or the print management firm representing you.  

•   Printer does not acknowledge job change notifications.   After all, this is the government about which we are talking.  

•   Manage contract modifications correctly.  Proper documentation must be provided to obtain contract modifications, and to receive payment you must negotiate requested amounts with the GPO contract administrator, not a representative from the government agency for which the work is being done.  GPO is the customer, not the agency.  
•   Understand paper specs and substitutions.  Sometimes paper on a GPO job can be substituted, and sometimes doing so can be considered fraud.  You must understand the JCP code numbers that are contained in the Government Paper Specifications Standards.  These spell out requirements for everything from acidity, weight and bursting strength to opacity, thickness, color, finishing and formation.  
•   Package and label correctly.  GPO specifications spell out how printed material is to be packaged and labeled for shipping, storage, redistribution and final delivery.  Sometimes the instructions are a bit sketchy, and there is an assumption that the printer knows where to look to fill in the blanks.  Lack of knowing what to do or where to get further information can cause a serious problem.
•   Invoice GPO correctly the first time to receive prompt pay.  GPO requires precision and timeliness or the invoice submitted sits in the unpaid pile.  Knowing what to submit is as important as knowing what not to submit.  
•   Monitor  GPO’s compliance records to be certain your information is accurate.   Right or wrong,  GPO sees the record and makes its decisions accordingly.  
•   Take advantage of all of the data you can get.  Making money on GPO is about numbers. Knowing when and what to bid, based on a thorough knowledge of the marketplace at any given point in time, like competition on a job and other considerations.  In the GPO business, crystal balls and guessing do not work well.  .
GPO is a dependable and profitable source for work to fill non-productive, non-revenue generating downtime.  Snider said printers that enter the GPO marketplace both strategically and consistently, with knowledge of how to work the numbers and fulfill requirements, increase their bottom line annual profitability from a national average of less than 3% to more than 10%.  


About e-LYNXX Corporation
e-LYNXX Corporation developed the patented technology integral to e-commerce.  Endorsed by Educational & Institutional Cooperative Purchasing (E&I) and Printing Industries of America (PIA), e-LYNXX drives results through its three divisions.  ● Patented Procurement Method licenses the Automated Vendor Selection Technology (AVS TechnologyTM) used in e-commerce and procurement systems.  ● American Print Management provides systems, services and the patented AVS TechnologyTM to reduce substantially the procured costs of direct mail, marketing materials, labels, packaging and other procured print.  ● Government Print Management offers effective U.S. GPO bid services and strategies.  www.e-LYNXX.com – 888-876-5432