Firms learning to bid electronically> By law, smaller military contracts to be paperless

The order came down from the federal government two years ago — military contracts valued at less than $100,000 will be administered exclusively through electronic means.

Call it another lurch forward in pursuit of the much-ballyhooed paperless society. In fact, the change in procurement procedure does result in less paperwork for the government and its thousands of military contractors.

“All you need is a personal computer and the software,” said George Rybarczyk, minority owner of Creative Apparel Associates and manager of its factory in Belmont, near Belfast.

Creative Apparel is perhaps best known as the Passamaquoddy-owned firm that was recently awarded a $26 million contract from the United States armed forces to manufacture 132,000 high-tech, chemical protective overgarments. The company received the work through traditional means, but, according to Rybarczyk, more and more contracts are being facilitated by an electronic bulletin board that can be easily accessed with a computer and some special software.

He estimated that as a result of using the electronic bulletin board, Creative Apparel has successfully bid on $3 million worth of work, about 15 percent of the company’s total annual output. When the new government procurement policy initially came down two years ago, the company had no work based on “paperless contracts.”

“In the future, it’s going to be a lot more important,” for the company, Rybarczyk said.

As part of this transition in military procurement methods, the state’s regional economic development agencies have put together an electronic network for information exchange, and are assisting Maine businesses such as Creative Apparel in acquiring the necessary software and training for the new techniques.

“The whole area of communication technologies is one of our major thrusts,” in assisting businesses, said Michael Robinson, an official with the market development center at Eastern Maine Development Corp.

Robinson estimates that about 40 percent of the businesses that are assisted through the development center are utilizing the “electronic data interchange.” Through the bulletin boards, $55 million in contracts have been secured.

Not all businesses are seeking out federal work, nor, according to Eastern Maine Development’s director, David Cole, is the electronic interchange exclusively the realm of contracting. “The idea was to get the technology in place to help facilitate communication between the different development agencies [across the state],” he said. “It brings everybody up to the same level,” with the same technical infrastructure and common information databases.

Cole can now boast not only a local area network in his office of 35 employees, connecting each electronically through personal computers, but what is essentialy a wide-area network allowing his agency to communicate with other agencies across the state.

He estimated that his agency assists about 500 businesses a year through its business counseling and market development center services.

The statewide electronic network was developed at the University of Southern Maine, using more than $200,000 in state and federal funds.