White Paper

Department of Veterans Affairs
Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization
OMB 2900- New (Awards & ROI)
White Paper

Situation

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) requests approval from the Office of Management and Budget to collect return-on-investment data from the 2015 National Veteran Small Business Engagement (NVSBE), through the Awards and Return-on-Investment information collection. The NVSBE is the signature event of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Secretary to the small business; primarily to Veteran-owned small business (VOSB) and service-disabled Veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB). The 2015 NVSBE will take place in November 17th through the 19th in in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Due to the economic situation, budget constraints, and the over one million dollar cost of this event, the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) has to measure its return-on-investment to the small business community, VA, and other Federal internal and external stakeholders employees attending this event.

Purpose

OSDBU aims to measure the return on investment (ROI) through the incidence of federal and commercial contracts and subcontract awarded as the result of attending the 2013 NVSBC, and the benefits received by connecting with procurement decision makers during the event. The collected information will be used as an internal measure of ROI, as well as to inform potential attendees about the outcome and benefit they may expect by participating at this event. OSDBU pursuits the goal of sharing this quantitative information with potential attendees in order to help them to make an informed and objective decision regarding their attendance and level of participation at this event.

Conclusion

It is imperative that the Department of Veterans Affairs can provide to its constituents validate data that can be used in determining if the people, money, time, and commitment in holding an engagement of this capacity is in keeping with being good stewards of the tax payers dollars and providing a high return of investment to the Veteran Owned Small Business community.