Some shredding service providers don’t bother with government contracts for a variety of reasons. When we ran our own shredding company, Quality Shredding, we discovered some interesting insights on what is important for landing a government contract.
Quality Shredding was located in Deer Park, New York at the time. On this particular day, the team was involved in a regular community shred event, when a specific woman, who didn’t stand out from anyone else coming through, had some personal papers shredding. She seemed impressed by the event, the professionalism of the team, and how her documents were handled. So, like others in attendance, she requested a business card before leaving. At that moment, we had no way of knowing who this innocuous person was, that she was employed in IT in a rather high position for a government entity, or that she would take that business card with her back to work.
Not long afterward, an IT employee from that government entity contacted us with an RFQ for hard drive and non-paper media destruction. They also had several questions about the destruction process. We were happy to answer them.
It was no surprise that the organization, as with all government contracts, had specific requirements:
- Shredded on-site
- NAID AAA Certified for non-paper media, and the physical destruction of hard drives
- State licensed, a legal requirement in New York State
They were eager to know about the process, asking a lot of questions. “What if we did it this way, could you do that?” “What if we did it that way, could we do that?”
Government is unlike the commercial world. While both are interested in the least expensive option, government entities need partners who specifically meet all of their requirements.
The government entity was also impressed by the fact that we had a Certified Secure Destruction Specialist (CSDS) on staff. It also seemed that being a certified Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB) may have been the clincher. After talking through all the various options, a negotiated contract was signed that met the client’s needs for regularly scheduled hard drives and non-paper media destruction. Eventually, they added more services too.
There is government work out there, but not a lot of companies can meet their needs. NAID AAA Certification is absolutely a requirement in much of the government world. And while we were able to obtain some contracts where it wasn’t originally a requirement, the landscape has changed. Even where “or equivalent” is written into the specifications, there really isn’t an equivalent certification that offers unannounced third-party audits – so NAID AAA Certification is still the only real option in the market.
So, the question begs, is it worth it? Back when we still owned Quality Shredding, the Director of Certification Operations for NAID at the time was Katie Mahoney. She said it succinctly, “This means that the competition is presently a set pool because you truly have to be NAID Certified to compete.”
There it is. The competition is limited. The water is warm. The pool is fine. It’s time to jump in.
