The Obama administration is keeping its promise of more transparency in federal contract and grant spending. At the state and local level, grants may become contracts; we hope. The status of stimulus project funding legislation will be posted at recovery.gov. This includes information at the state and local level.

All of this transparency is great for good government and for reporters and bloggers. It will help some in identifying federal sales opportunities but not significantly- particularly for companies new to the market. Why won't it help more? It will not be a considerable help because experienced federal contractors work mostly from the bottom up, not the top down. Legislation and published spending can only point them to where the dollars are. From this information, experienced federal contractors will identify the project quickly by using their knowledge base, customer insights, and customer contacts, and then these experienced contractors will be selling in a flash.

Should this be discouraging to newcomers to the federal market place? Yes and no. Newcomers can spend the research dollars to identify a project reasonably quickly, and there should be enough stimulus dollars to create many new opportunities. Also, newcomers can work with experienced federal contractors as subcontractors to gain entrance into the federal marketplace and break into this lucrative arena.