Making it easier for Small Businesses to become Government Contractors

How rebuilding a maps app is bringing economic opportunity to disadvantaged areas

By Andrés Colón Perez & Alberto Colón-Viera

The USDS team at the Small Business Administration is excited to announce the public release of the modernized Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) map tool.

Small businesses are encouraged to participate in the HUBZone program to gain access to competitive and sole-source contracting, sub-contracting opportunities, and a 10% price evaluation preference in full and open contract competitions. The Federal Government has a goal of awarding 3% of all dollars for federal prime contracts to HUBZone certified small businesses. The goal of the small business certification program is to promote economic development and employment growth in distressed areas by providing access to more Federal contracting opportunities, and modernizing the HUBZone map tool is one step toward accomplishing that goal.

To qualify for the Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Program, a business must be headquartered in a HUBZone. Common examples include Native American Reservations and areas where unemployment has sharply increased. Additionally, 35% of the business’ employees must reside inside a HUBZone. Generally, companies don’t apply for the program unless they know they qualify, which makes an updated map central to the process. The previous map was no longer meeting user expectations, it was difficult to use and read, took months to update instead of days, and confused users with a language oriented towards policy, making it a hurdle for small business owners who may have otherwise applied for the program.

The recently launched HUBZone Map features significant improvements to usability and accessibility, including simplified language, intuitive searching capabilities, modernized mapping technology with the latest HUBZone regulation and designations changes, and support for mobile devices. These improvements will incentivize business owners to locate in economically distressed areas, correctly identify themselves as HUBZone employers, and have the ability to access additional federal contracting opportunities.

Product Before Launch

Previously, SBA was using old technology to maintain its HUBZone Maps application which made finding out if you were located in a HUBZone a major challenge. The map data was updated infrequently which often meant the map was out of date. This made fraud investigations harder at the SBA. Two versions of the map existed, one that was accessible to screen readers and one that was not. Not to mention that the previous version was not accessible on mobile devices.

In the past, the old system didn’t use best practices in terms of modern software development which lead SBA to spend millions of dollars to attempt to modernize without results.

Old version of the HUBZone Map

Process Behind the Project

In 2015, the SBA invited a small team from USDS to run a discovery sprint, a two-week deep investigation that yielded a set of recommendations to modernize the government contracting systems. In 2015 and 2016, based on these recommendations, agency champions worked closely with USDS to procure agile contractors and to assign a team of talented engineers, user researchers, designers and strategists to assist SBA in its modernization efforts.

The goal of the USDS team was to provide assistance and technical guidance to the agency while supporting vendors selected for the modernization effort. As part of this overarching effort, USDS took the time to carefully analyze the old system to determine which elements could be salvaged and integrated into the new product, and which needed to be eliminated entirely. For example, when USDS realized there were no APIs to facilitate integration, it became undeniably clear that the HUBZone’s Spatial System would need to be rebuilt from scratch to make the product as a whole work better, faster, and on more devices for more people.

Building a map from scratch required the USDS to dig out the sources of data that made up the maps: the census tracks from the Census Bureau, the closed military bases from DOD, among others, and integrate them with different data about median income in geographic areas, unemployment rates, and other criteria classifying areas as disadvantaged or lacking economic opportunity.

Once the team had a working prototype of the maps product that was easier to read, they showed small businesses to get feedback on the new experience. The team tried to make this group as diverse and representative as possible, bringing in users with disabilities to ensure the site would be 508 compliant and provide an equivalent, if not better, experience for all. The team even attended the annual HUBZone small business owner conference to show attendees a demo and document additional feedback. These pivotal recommendations were ultimately actualized and made visible in today’s final product.

What the Product Looks Like Today

The new product color codes maps to show which geographic areas qualify for what type of assistance or special contracting conditions. Addresses are converted into coordinates to allow business owners to enter the company’s address and immediately discover whether it lands inside one of these qualified areas. The new product removes the burden of maintaining mapping systems and analysis from SBA’s shoulders and give interested users visual answers immediately.

Modernized HUBZone Map

The team also built APIs that help owners determine how many company employees live inside qualified HUBZone areas. Recognizing SBA has limited capacity for IT, the team made the conscious decision to use software-as-a-service solutions to remove SBA’s burden while giving end users access to modern solutions grounded in open source technologies and open data formats. In this way, the team engineered a truly modern service built on a modern stack hosted on the cloud without relying on costly maintenance measures.

Today, the HUBZone Maps product is a standalone portable system that anyone can use. You can easily pull HubZone Maps up on a cellphone, and, using GPS, the product will immediately show you if you’re in an eligibility zone or not.

By removing the burden of printing and matching maps from the applicant and the analyst to the technology, the new map provides easily understood visual answers immediately. Because the HUBZone program requires compliance both at certification and when a contract is awarded, it’s important for analysts to be able to accurately verify the address at both times. A new advanced street view in the HUBZone Map allows SBA analysts to conduct “virtual site visits” to gather information about a location allowing for better prioritization before spending time and money visiting a site.

The data reflected on HUBZone Maps is also much more reliable today. The geo-coding is done by Google through an API, and the geographical zones are updated at least once a year, so that information regarding zone expiration or transformation is always up to date.

What’s most exciting about this project is that it clearly exemplifies all the steps of an effective USDS engagement. Beginning with a thorough discovery sprint, this project leveraged better procurement practices to choose the best vendor for the work, and highlighted innovative project management practices by implementing a simpler, higher-quality solution for end users based on their behaviors, preferences and feedback.

This project is of significant importance to small business owners. If you’re a small business owner looking to increase revenue, you can find out if you’re eligible for government contracts through the HUBZone program, which could make a big difference for your bottom line. If you’re looking to expand or move your headquarters, you can use the map to find geographic areas where it might be advantageous to move. Ultimately, this project will lead to the improvement of local economies because business owners will be incentivized to locate in areas that are in need of additional sources of employment.

If small businesses have questions about the HUBZone map, the HUBzone team offers office hours every Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2pm to 3pm ET at: 1–888–858–2144 or visit www.sba.gov/hubzone

Andrés Colón is the Team Lead and Alberto Colón Viera is the Product Manager of USDS at SBA

U.S. Digital Service

The United States Digital Service is a tech startup working across the Federal government to deliver better services to the American people.

U.S. Digital Service

Written by

The United States Digital Service is a tech startup working across the Federal government to deliver better services to the American people. www.usds.gov

U.S. Digital Service

The United States Digital Service is a tech startup working across the Federal government to deliver better services to the American people.

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