Northwest Michigan Procurement Technical Assistance Center Receives National Award

News Release                                                                       
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 13, 2014

Contact:         
Dan Boss, Program Publicity Specialist
(231) 929-5047  |  danboss@nwm.cog.mi.us

 

Northwest Michigan Procurement Technical Assistance Center Receives National Award

 

TRAVERSE CITY, MI —Work on a U.S. government combat ship project has earned national recognition for a northern Michigan organization that helps local businesses get government contracts. The Northwest Michigan Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) has received the 2014 Outstanding Project Award from the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC). The Northwest Michigan PTAC and the Wisconsin Procurement Institute (WPI) received the award for their collaboration on the Littoral Combat Ship Project.

Since 2010, the Northwest Michigan PTAC and WPI have been working with the Marinette Marine Corporation (MMC) of Marinette, Wisconsin to educate their subcontracting base in support of their multi-billion dollar Littoral Combat Ship contract. The ships are fast, agile surface vessels intended for operation in waters close to shore known as the littoral zone. Marinette Marine is located on the border of Wisconsin and Michigan, and is one of the major employers in Michigan’s Central Upper Peninsula.

APTAC’s Outstanding Project Award is given to projects that benefit all APTAC members and/or serve as a model for other PTACs to emulate. The Northwest Michigan PTAC and WPI were recognized for pooling energy and resources to provide focused training to small businesses across a multi-state region to leverage a major contracting opportunity.

“In the rural area we serve, we have to be creative and effective with the resources we have available to best serve our northern Michigan businesses,” said Anne Helbig, Northwest Michigan PTAC Program Director. “Our partnership with WPI is a great example of how we can pool our resources to achieve something greater than we could have done separately.”

APTAC is the professional organization of and for the 98 Procurement Technical Assistance Centers in the United States. APTAC supports the PTACs by providing them information, professional networking, comprehensive training opportunities, and a voice in national government contracting assistance and policy arenas.

The Northwest Michigan PTAC is a non-profit organization that provides assistance (normally at no cost) to companies in northwest Lower Michigan and the western Upper Peninsula interested in doing business with state and federal government agencies. For more information about services provided by the PTAC go to: nwm.org/ptac. The Northwest Michigan PTAC is a program of the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments.

 

 

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