Government contracting is a byzantine business—a long and plodding trek through a jungle filled with complicated regulation, documentation requirements, and new marketing challenges.
Sound impossible? Not if you have help.
[Read More ...]Industry experts from around the state are developing a detailed plan for growing Iowa manufacturing—with CIRAS slated to play a leading role both in the plan’s design and its implementation.
The ongoing effort stems from 2017’s governor’s Year of Manufacturing initiative, which charged the Iowa Economic Development Authority and the Iowa Innovation Council (IIC) with finding ways to increase a $29 billion manufacturing gross domestic product to $32 billion by 2022.
[Read More ...]By the time CIRAS walked through his door, Adam Gold was ready to listen.
It was 2014, and it was clear that The Dimensional Group was a company with problems. The Mason City custom packaging and commercial printing firm had stretched beyond its capabilities.
[Read More ...]For most of the online era, companies were able to maintain two separate growth strategies: a traditional marketing plan and a web/e-commerce plan. Not anymore.
Buyers, from consumers to professional B2B purchasing agents, have changed. It is now imperative to include your website, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and web analytics as integrated pieces of your overall marketing plan.
[Read More ...]Asked to explain the value of his two-year-old electronic supply cabinets, the comparison Joe Greving reaches for is to a major technological shift.
“I can’t imagine going back to the way we used to do it,” said Greving, president of Iowa Steel Fabrication in Osceola. “Once you have an iPhone X for 30 days, you’re not going back to a flip phone.”
[Read More ...]It was a quest for help with the paperwork that sent Patrick Richards to the Flying J truck stop in Avoca.
In 2016, Richards was in the beginning stages of creating what would become Avoca Surfaces, a countertop business owned by Richards, his son, and another father-son team. Lori Holste, executive director of the Western Iowa Development Association, suggested that Richards meet with Andy Alexander, a government contracting specialist with CIRAS’ Procurement Technical Assistance Program (PTAP). And a long-term partnership was born.
[Read More ...]CIRAS projects have a big impact on Iowa and its communities.
Over the last five years, we’ve helped Iowa companies invest, expand sales and avoid costs to the tune of more than $2 billion.
[Read More ...]CIRAS projects have a big impact on Iowa and its communities.
One of the things we do is to help companies find their way around a scarcity of workers. Sometimes, that means helping them reach out to graduating students:
[Read More ...]CIRAS projects have a big impact on Iowa and its communities.
For example, our latest edition of CIRAS News took a look at the breadth of who we’ve helped over the past five years:
[Read More ...]CIRAS projects have a big impact on Iowa and its communities.
For example, our latest edition of CIRAS News took a look at how we’ve affected employment over the past five years:
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