Staples’ Small Business Program
Background
The Staples’ Small Business Program has a mission to motivate, encourage and assist small businesses (SB), including HUBZone small businesses (HUBZONE), small disadvantaged businesses (SDB), women-owned small businesses (WOSB), veteran-owned small businesses (VOSB), and service disabled veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOB), in enhancing their capabilities to perform on contracts and subcontracts for Federal Government organizations. The program is designed to foster the establishment of long-term business relationships between these entities and Federal Government customers and increase the overall number of these entities that receive government contract and subcontract awards.
Overview
Staples has been working to establish a formal Small Business Program and relationships with qualified small business firms since June of 2008. We have hired Brian Caskie to be the Staples’ Small Business Program Manager. Mr. Caskie has 28 years of Federal Government sales, GSA contract management and subcontracting experience, including 10 years of developing small business relationships.
Federal Government customers have the option to utilize one or more of these alliances to obtain small business credit while at the same time taking advantage of Staples’ distribution capabilities.
To become a qualified small business under the Staples’ Small Business Program a firm must satisfactorily meet the following criteria:
w Verifiable Certifications issued by independent third-party certifying agency (i.e. NMSDC, WBENC, SBA, VA)
w Good standing with the Federal Government
w Be a registered office supply distributor (Independent)
w Be an established business in operation more than four years (cannot be a start-up)
w Financially stable (must be able to provide certified financial statements prepared by an outside auditor)
w Be registered to collect, report and remit tax in all applicable jurisdictions
w Appropriate IT and systems infrastructure
w Adequate Customer Service capabilities
w Appropriate personnel and resources for IT, AP, Tax, Marketing, Sales, etc.
w Excellent service quality
w Demonstrate established credit worthiness
w Adequate technical capabilities - must be able to perform EDI Integration with Staples for PO/Invoice processing or punch out
w Technical capabilities (internal or outsourced) for an automated tax rate management and reporting
w Have a GSA Schedule Contract or be willing to apply for Office Supplies, Facility Supplies, Business Machines, or Furniture for NAICS codes of 424120, 339944, 322231, and 325992.
w Be an Authorized AbilityOne Distributor if selling office or facility supplies or willing to apply to be an Authorized AbilityOne Distributor.
We currently have 3 small business allies with GSA Schedule 75 Contracts. They are:
w Veterans Imaging Products (SDVOB) – GS-14F-0005L , www.VeteransImaging.com
w Cufis Office Supply (SDB) – GS-02F-0074W, www.CufisOffice.com
w Capture LLC (SDVOB) – GS-02F-0125W, www.CaptureOffice.com
Staples through the use of communication (scheduled meetings, intranet, business reviews, etc.) can coordinate implementation meetings between the Federal Government Agency and the small business awardees. Those meetings serve as an effective tool to review goals, plans, status, schedules, open items and performance. Formal business reviews, held quarterly can be a forum to leverage senior management from both OSDBU offices and Staples to discuss business strategies, outlooks and plans with our small business allies.
The primary objectives of Staples’ Small Business Program are to:
w Develop greater small business participation in a strategic sourcing environment.
w Develop long term, mutually beneficial, open partnerships with best-in-class small business provider(s) of office supplies.
w Establish competitive pricing structures with selected suppliers.
w Define and mutually work towards standards, metrics, performance measurement and reporting, as well as processes to generate efficient, effective and consistent results for Federal Government Agencies, Staples and its small business suppliers.
w Identify value-added services and processes focused on reducing Total Cost of Ownership for Federal Government Agencies, Staples and the small business suppliers.
w Ensure consistency in compliance issues including CPG, AbilityOne substitutions, and TAA.
Conclusion
In the end, Federal Government Agencies that utilize the Staples’ Small Business Program will obtain greater small business participation, reduce operational costs and drive efficiencies. The agencies will be able to leverage their purchasing power and reduce the purchase costs associated with office supplies through Staples’ Small Business Program.
Staples is committed to the growth of our small business allies, which will generate revenue and create jobs. We have created innovative solutions that maximize benefits to our customers, our small business allies and our own organization. The purpose of the Staples’ Small Business Program is to enable a small business firm with high potential to perform well as a prime contractor and/or subcontractor through our alliances.
Program Manager Contact Information
Brian Caskie
Phone 571-606-5519
Confidential and Proprietary – Not to be copied or distributed without permission. 1