Some of the desks and file cabinets manufactured at a plant in Manistee, Michigan are sold by major office furniture companies around the country. While many of those companies have familiar names like Herman Miller and Steelcase, a lot of people don't recognize the name of the company that manufactures some of their products: Great Openings. The company is a metal manufacturer of office furniture filing cabinets and metal desking products. 50 percent of their Corporate sales are to office furniture dealers across the United States.

"The other half of our business is with the major office furniture contract companies like Steelcase, Trendway, American Seating, some of the more renowned names in the industry," said Steve Paine, Great Openings Corporate Principal.

Great Openings is a family-run company with manufacturing plants in Ludington and Manistee. While they have customers around the country, about five years ago they decided to add a new market-government contracts.

"Five years ago we would have never thought that it would have been as important a part of our sales channel," said Paine. "It's really been an avenue that has prevented our sales from dropping off to the similar levels of what our competition's sales have dropped off to."

When they decided to start going after government contracts, Great Openings turned to the Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) for help.

"To this date we have regularly scheduled meetings, we attend seminars [sponsored by PTAC] that are of value for us to attend," said Paine. "So it's been a great advantage and the local PTAC in Traverse City is a huge asset for the companies that are in his territory in northwest Michigan."

The work Great Openings has done to move in to the government contract market has earned them a nomination from PTAC for the 2009 Michigan Government Contractor of the Year Award.

"The great thing about Great Openings is that they always set sales goals for their government sales," said Todd Olson, PTAC Program Director. "When you run across a government contractor that has goals like that in place, it's always impressive."

"The last year or so we've had some nice increase in the sales and we're looking forward to another buying season in the next year with all our government customers," said Paine.

A workshop in Traverse City brought together businesses interested in working together in a way that could create new business for all of them. They were exploring the idea of something called team bidding.

"[It's] basically a collection of small companies that come together to act as a large company and compete against large companies that traditionally do assembly work," said Harley Luplow of Government Outsourcers LLC.

"Now they can go to the rest of the companies in the team and utilize their strengths in order to pursue the bigger contract opportunities," said Todd Olson, Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) Program Director.

"Being suppliers in northern Michigan we want to have business in the community and as long as we're not competitors, we might as well help each other out," said Laurie Elsener, Sales Project Manager at Great lakes Fastener & Supply.

The workshop was put on by the PTAC in cooperation with a business called Government Outsourcers. They wanted to make companies aware of some of the potential advantages of team bidding as many of them move away from the shrinking automotive industry and in to areas like government contracts, aerospace and medical devices.

"In order for [small companies] to experience the new economy and go where the trends are going, I think they're best advantaged if they're to team with someone else," said Luplow.

He says government contracts and projects for small emerging companies are a couple of areas where team bidding could work well. If businesses do decide to work together, Luplow says it's a good idea to bring in an outside third party to coordinate the team's efforts.

"I've seen committees try and do this before," said Luplow. "I don't think they're quite as effective as using an outside third party whose one hundred percent focus is on making the group a success."

Luplow says there are some things businesses should consider before deciding if they want to be part of a team.

"If you're going to be a member of a team you've got to make sure everybody shares the same values as you do," said Luplow. "There might be times where the group wants to do something and you might not be on board with it, yet you're part of the group so you might have to compromise here and there."

A steel loading ramp for an Air Force base in California and an aluminum ramp for a medical clinic on the island of Saipan. Those are just two recent examples of government contracts landed by Cadillac Fabrication/Yard King in Cadillac.

"The government prefers to buy mainly heavy duty loading products off us," said Mike Gibbons, the Product Manager for Cadillac Fabrication/Yard King. "I'm in 20 different countries with our normal aluminum loading ramps-most of those on military bases."

Cadillac Fabrication is a general metal fabricator that turns out made-to-order products for customers. The Yard King division specializes in loading ramps, platforms and bridges. Cadillac Fabrication/Yard King used to be primarily a regional company. But that changed about five years ago when they got some help from the Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) and started pursuing government contracts.

"As an avenue to increase business we felt that we should go in to government contracting," said Gibbons. "Now they are roughly 50 percent of our business."

Gibbons says several things have helped Cadillac Fabrication/Yard King be successful. He says they have creative engineers who are able to design products to meet customer's needs and experienced workers who are able to build those products. All the material Cadillac Fabrication/Yard King uses is made in America, and all their products come with a one year, unconditional warranty.

"The government buys reliability," said Gibbons. "If they can't count on you you'll be off their buy schedule in an eye blink."

Cadillac Fabrications/Yard King's success in the area of government contracts earned them a nomination from PTAC for the Michigan Government Contractor of the Year Award.

"Cadillac Fabrication/Yard King is an outstanding operation," said Todd Olson, PTAC Program Director. "They know the direction that they want to go in government contracting and they pursue that direction."

"We had to learn what it was that the government was using," said Gibbons. "Once we did, our business has expanded quite a bit. We're really honored that our hard work has been honored by this nomination."