By Brice Wallace
Deseret Morning News
KAYSVILLE — Another milestone in a statewide effort to get more Utah companies involved in government contracting was reached Wednesday with the grand opening of a program that could result in thousands of jobs.
Dozens of people attended the kickoff ceremonies for Utah Bid Development Solutions, also known as UBiDS, a partnership among the Utah Defense Alliance, the Davis and Ogden/Weber chambers of commerce and Logistics Specialties Inc. to help Utah businesses land federal, state and local government contracts. Housed on the Davis Applied Technology College campus, UBiDS received a financial go-ahead thanks to a $250,000 legislative appropriation for a procurement technical assistance center. The Governor's Office of Economic Development received the funds and contracted with the Utah Defense Alliance, which then subcontracted with LSI.
"I think UBiDS is the greatest single economic development initiative in the state," said Sean Slatter, LSI's president. "We've identified the opportunity to secure 4,000 new jobs under this program. That's amazing. A lot of these jobs will be based in northern Utah to support Hill Air Force Base and the other military and industrial centers in the state."
Slatter said the Roy W. and Elizabeth E. Simmons Entrepreneurship Center is "dedicated to creating an environment where defense contractors — government contractors in general — can come and be mentored and grow their businesses."
Kori Ann Edwards, UBiDS director at LSI, said LSI has been matching company products and capabilities to federal contracts for 34 years. "Through the UBiDS contract, we will be able to take this expertise and to share it with Utah businesses who are interested in doing business with the federal government."
She cited Hill Air Force Base as an example of opportunities, noting that the base contracts out about $3 billion annually.
"The objective of the UBiDS program is to help work with Utah businesses to ensure that our Utah economy is able to capture as many of these dollars as possible. ... Through this effort, the state of Utah will realize significant growth in job creation and corporate business expansion," Edwards said.
Rick Mayfield, chief executive officer of the Utah Defense Alliance, noted that the organization had worked to keep Hill Air Force Base open during two rounds of base closings.
"Now we want to kind of move away from that aspect because, at this point in time and hopefully in the future, our bases aren't threatened. But there's a lot of changes in the defense industry, and our community organization has stepped up and said, 'We want to take advantage of those opportunities,"' he said.
The alliance's strategic plan has five goals and 27 objectives. "We are working hard to try and bring additional workload into the state of Utah, but we're also trying to protect what we have and enhance the military value of our bases," Mayfield said.
Sen. Sheldon Killpack, R-Syracuse, said there is "no question" that the program will yield results.
"Truly, the more we can bring the resources that are important to them (Hill Air Force Base) closer to them and make it more efficient and more effective for them, the big picture is that's good for Utah. ... It truly is critical that we try to connect the dots much better to keep the business at home," Killpack said.
Representatives in higher education, the chambers, state government, companies and others have an interest in seeing the program succeed, he said.
"It doesn't matter where these jobs come, as long as they're within the state. ... Any job we can create — I don't care if it's here; I don't care if it's out in the West Desert — we just need to bring them here, and I think this will give us the opportunity to do that," he said.
GOED's executive director, Jason Perry, noted that even Utah's smallest businesses can compete for government contracts. Utah's prime contractors and subcontracting companies receive $1.9 million in government and military contracts, "and we all know in this room ... this is just scratching the surface of the potential for our great state," he said.
The procurement technical assistance center, he said, will "show real results" in time for the next legislative session.
"This one-time money we received from the Legislature to do this very thing is a grand experiment, really," Perry said. "We are expected to do something great with these funds. I have no doubt, because of the people that are here in this room, we will do a lot of great work with these funds. The pieces of the puzzle are all together."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------