Maryland is Open for Business

Jack Howard gives an update on OBP’s strategic plan at the Secretary’s senior staff meeting in March.

Today, I am pleased to present a guest blog by Jack Howard, Director of the Office of Business Programs

At the March meeting of the Maryland Minority Contractors Association in Baltimore, a Board member said, “We are very pleased with the efforts that the Hogan Administration is making to provide access to opportunities for minority contractors, and we can clearly see that Secretary Bassette keeps her word.” It was the first time DGS representatives attended one of the Association’s monthly meetings.

The DGS attendees had invited representatives from contractors Harkins Builders and Gilbane Construction to join them. Harkins is the prime contractor on the $20 million Havre de Grace Military Readiness Center, which has a 30 percent MBE subcontracting goal. Gilbane is the prime contractor for the $85 million Enoch Pratt Library Renovation project, which has a 40 percent MBE subcontracting goal and a five percent veteran-owned business subcontracting goal. These two projects represent over $100 million in contracts, and DGS wanted the minority contractors to know about them.

Our first-time attendance at the meeting is one of many examples where DGS, under Secretary Bassette’s leadership, is transforming the way the agency does business. They reflect the Secretary’s commitment to the Hogan Administration’s overarching goal of changing Maryland for the better. Every division is implementing initiatives to make doing business with DGS more effective, efficient and customer-focused.

The Office of Business Programs (OBP) is one example.

In alignment with Governor Hogan’s goal, and to underscore his message that Maryland is open for business, Secretary Bassette has made expanding the pool of small, local, minority, woman and veteran-owned businesses competing for DGS contracts a priority. We kicked off this effort with last November’s first state agency-sponsored Business Opportunities & Entrepreneurial Training Summit, a joint effort of DGS and MDOT. The event drew over 400 businesses, who heard from project managers and procurement officers about current and upcoming projects. They also learned from agency experts about how to do business with the state.

The tremendous success of the business summit served as the launching pad for another new initiative implemented by OBP under Secretary Bassette’s leadership – business opportunities information sessions. These smaller events can be either industry or project-specific. OBP is working closely with various DGS divisions to coordinate and host the information sessions, with a particular focus on small, local, woman, minority and veteran-owned businesses. The sessions are designed to provide small businesses with actionable information about upcoming contracting opportunities, as well as provide training on submitting the proper bid documentation. The sessions also provide small businesses with the valuable opportunity to network with prime contractors.

In 15 short months, we’ve transformed the Office of Business Programs from business as usual to being more responsive to our customer’s needs. This includes not only the annual business summit and the regular business information sessions but also aggressive customer-focused strategies to increase awareness of DGS contracting opportunities. For example, OBP has partnered with MBE support organizations statewide and has created a notification database that includes over 2,000 small businesses.

Other initiatives are being developed. Examples include creating a more effective MBE compliance completion process that will more efficiently monitor, collect and track data on all prime and MBE subcontracting agreements, as well as implementing Secretary Bassette’s vision of creating a training and capacity building program for small businesses. The program will equip them with the necessary skills to secure and then successfully execute DGS contracts.