NASA Agency Logo

John H. Glenn Research Center

GUIDANCE PERTINENT TO NASA GLENN


 

Nearly all of the Agency guidance provided at Guidance Common For All NASA Centers also applies to GRC.   However, there are some exceptions or specific nuances that you should be aware of when marketing or seeking opportunities here.


Doing Business with GRC

Solicitation Mailing Lists:

While some NASA centers and other Federal Government buying activities still maintain solicitation mailing lists, vendor lists, bidder lists, etc., GRC does not.   In fact, vendors or potential contractors need not fill out any Center-specific forms to avail themselves of opportunities here.  (HUB Zone and 8(a) businesses, however, do need to be certified with the SBA.)

Requirements Valued Over $25,000:

Requirements with estimated values over $25,000 will be posted to FedBizOpps (http://www.fedbizopps.gov/) and NAIS (http://procurement.nasa.gov/) so your active monitoring of those media precludes the need to mail out solicitation or bid packages.

Requirements Valued at $25,000 and Below:

At this time, GRC has no routine procedure to electronically advertise or post at this lower dollar level. If your company typically sells products or services at this dollar level, an easy way to get your company and product lines known to our Procurement Buyers is to send ten (10) copies of your company's line card (or similar descriptive information about your company) to the following address:

NASA Glenn Research Center
Attn: Vendor Information
Mail Stop 500-313
21000 Brookpark Road
Cleveland, OH 44135

Your company's information will be distributed to our Buyers.

IMPORTANT: Vendors doing business with NASA are required to have a CAGE CODE. Bankcard purchases (see below) are the only exceptions at this time. To register for a CAGE CODE, visit the Central Contractor Registration web site.

Vendors also have the option of continuing to use direct marketing. This includes continuing with follow-up sales efforts with your previous GRC customers or with their branch or division heads.   If you are unsure of the organization you sold to, or you are new to GRC and haven’t done business here before, you are encouraged to access the GRC Web sites, as described below:

Marketing to GRC for “Direct” Purchase Order or Contract Awards:

Whether your products or services potentially fall below or above the NAIS-advertising threshold of $25,000, direct marketing is always a useful approach.   While you are free to contact any GRC employee, all we ask is for you to please be mindful of many of our employees’ tight project schedules and related workload.   People may not always be able to talk with you. Following is some information on utilizing the GRC web pages to your advantage:

Identifying Your Customer Base: This will be one of your biggest challenges.   Many firms sell products or services that are useful to many organizations at this Center.   Identifying one ultimate customer is usually not practical.   Depending on what you are offering, any number of customers could have a need for your product or service at any given time.   Therefore, if you’ve done business here before, it behooves you to continue following-up with your previously identified customers to determine their future needs.   You may also get “leads” from them.   Don’t be afraid to ask them.   If you have not done business here before (and even if you have), it would be wise for you to review GRC’s internal organizations and their missions and/or ongoing projects to determine if there is a potential “match” between what our organizations or project offices potentially could need and what products or services your firm offers.   As we continue to expand and update our Web sites and make them more customer-friendly, you will be able to glean -- on your own -- useful information in identifying your potential customers here at GRC.
 
Perusing the GRC Organizational Structure: Your first recommended step would be to go to the GRC Home Page (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/). There you will find links to some good, general information about this Center, its missions, organizations, projects, etc.   You can scan the many projects that are ongoing at GRC and find out the names of people, organizations, phone numbers, etc.   Feel free to call anyone listed. In addition, you can also go to our On-line Organization Listing (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/Doc/GRC_org.htm).   By reviewing it, you can glean a good idea of the kinds of work that may be underway in various divisions and/or branches simply by viewing the division or branch title.   Some of these divisions and/or branches may have links to their own home pages, staff, phone numbers, etc.   (Currently under development)
 
Acquisition Forecast: Don’t forget to check GRC’s Acquisition Forecast for some of our identified upcoming requirements that are valued at over $100,000.   You will be able to identify points of contact and phone numbers for a number of projected requirements.   These persons can provide you information on their listed requirement or may provide you a “lead” of other upcoming requirements in that organization that may fall below $100,000, below $25,000, etc.

Credit Card Purchases ($3,000 and below):

Requirements valued at the "micropurchase" level of $3,000 and below are typically purchased with a government issued credit card (currently MasterCard). NASA Glenn has around 350 civil servant credit card holders.

Cardholder names are available through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and can also be found at Cardholders Table. By using this table in conjunction with the GRC On-Line Organization Listing, vendors can get an idea of the kinds of work that may be underway in particular organizations in order to align potential sales offerings with a potential organization and its credit cardholders. In addition, our new integrated financial management system, which was recently implemented, has the capability of gathering and storing vendor information which can be accessed by cardholders as possible sources for future purchases.

Marketing to GRC’s Prime Contractors for Subcontract Awards:

While it is always desirable to sell direct to GRC, you should not overlook the opportunities to market your firm’s products or services to any of our prime contractors.   As a supplement to the Agency’s Top Prime Contractors lists cited above, we are providing you a fairly current List of GRC's Active Large Prime Contractors.  Most of our contracts with large businesses have built-in goals for subcontracting to small, small disadvantaged, HUB Zone, Veteran-owned, Service-disabled Veteran-owned, and women-owned small businesses. So, you should not overlook these opportunities.   For your convenience, our GRC contract list also identifies the contracts’ primary NAICS codes.   Since many firms specialize in certain NAICS codes, it may be easier for them to focus on those contracts with those specific NAICS codes.   In addition to the contractor’s name, address, contract award date, etc., you will also find a very brief description of the contract.   You may use the description, in addition to the NAICS code, to help determine which contractors might have a potential need for your services or products.

As an added convenience, we are also providing you a listing of just our On-site Support-Services Contractors who are providing basic facilities support services at GRC.   Most of these contractors are small and have no requirement to subcontract services.   However, most do have a need for some outside services and supplies, so it would be advantageous for you to contact them directly.


Return to Doing Business with GRC Page


Responsible NASA Official: ((Retired; Replacement to be named shortly)
Send comments regarding this web site to the Web Curator
NASA Privacy Statement/ NASA Accessibility Statement
Friday, 23-Oct-2009 11:39:30 EDT