State and Local Government Contract Volume up 5% in Q1 2014 - led by IT Hardware, Public Safety and Construction

SEATTLE, July 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Onvia (NASDAQ: ONVI), the leading provider of "Intelligence for Winning More Government Business," today announced the availability of the Onvia State & Local Procurement Snapshot for Q1 2014. The report analyzes state and local government contracting activity across the nation.

The Q1 2014 analysis shows an overall lift of 5% in government contracting opportunity volume among state and local agencies across the country on a year-over-year basis (Q1 2014 vs. Q1 2013). Opportunity volume represents the number of government bids and RFPs submitted for open bidding by government vendors.

"This quarter's Onvia State and Local Procurement Snapshot really highlights the strength of the state, local and education (SLED) contracting market for our clients. Overall, SLED opportunities are on the rise, and we're excited to continue to bring new intelligence tools to our customers operating in this market to help them grow their public sector business," said Hank Riner, President and CEO of Onvia.

The report segments the contracting market into 4 key sectors: IT/Telecom, Business Services, Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) and Operations/Maintenance/Transportation (OMT). The AEC sector saw the healthiest growth of 7.4% year-over-year, driven by large construction, construction supplies and general contracting opportunities. 

The report, prepared by Onvia Market Research Analyst Paul Irby, outlines some unexpected areas of decline for Q1 '14 vs. Q1 '13. Irby states, "IT Software as an industry sector actually saw a slight decrease in opportunity volume. While this is counter-intuitive on the surface with the continued growth in IT, the decline was driven mostly by a drop in IT Software RFPs – more often associated with large implementation and custom software work."

Government contracting consultant Jennifer Schaus contributes to this quarter's report as well, adding insights as to what her firm is seeing in working with government contractors to increase their government contract win rates. Schaus recommends government vendors diversify their sales efforts to expand their market potential, adding, "We have been encouraging diversification for federal-only contractors especially, encouraging them to focus on selling to the state and local governments where they are headquartered, pay taxes and have a footprint of sales reps."

In addition to industry-specific growth rates and key insights for government vendors, the report segments opportunity growth data by level of government. City, county and education agencies all showed growth while state procurement opportunity volume declined by 3.1% in Q1 '14 vs. Q1 '13. A leading contributor to the state procurement softness was the decline in food and food services bidding opportunities. Onvia's data indicates that even though state agencies issued fewer food and food service opportunities for the period, the average award value of those contracts increased. 

Readers can download the full report for free from Onvia's website at:
http://www.onvia.com/business-resources/white-papers/SLED-procurement-snapshot-q1-2014

About Onvia
For more than 13 years Onvia (NASDAQ: ONVI) has been delivering the data and tools companies rely on to succeed in the government contracting market. Onvia tracks and reports the spending of tens of thousands of federal, state and local government agencies, giving companies a single source for conducting business with government. For information about Onvia, visit http://www.onvia.com/.

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SOURCE Onvia, Inc.