OkAPEX is celebrating 40 years of helping Oklahoma businesses secure billions of dollars in government contracts and sales.
Oklahoma CareerTech has offered the assistance through the system’s technology centers since 1986, first under the name Oklahoma Bid Assistance Network and then the Oklahoma Procurement Technical Assistance Center.
In 2023, the program changed its name again to the Oklahoma APEX Accelerator, a name that the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education chose in coordination with a change in the federal grant program under the U.S. Department of War. OkAPEX is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the Department of War, which changed the program name in November 2022.
OkAPEX works with 1,138 companies in Oklahoma; those companies have brought more than $2.5 trillion to the state in the past fiscal year, said Lana Knott, OkAPEX program manager at Oklahoma CareerTech.
“Since our inception 40 years ago, the economic development is unimaginable,” she said.
OkAPEX works through 12 procurement counselors at 10 technology centers and a junior college across Oklahoma. They help businesses through one-on-one counseling, training programs and business networking events.
The counselors help businesses find ways to be more competitive and new opportunities to pursue, help them be aware of regulatory requirements and help them avoid missteps that can cost them business. The program also helps government agencies connect with supply chains and helps larger prime contractors find smaller partners to complete complex projects and meet government-required small business subcontracting goals.
OkAPEX offers businesses assistance in several ways. They can get help writing capability statements that let federal, state and local government entities know what they can provide and with compliance with cybersecurity maturity model certification, which they must have to contract with the government, Knott said.
In addition, OkAPEX counselors help companies make sure they don’t have too many foreign ties to be trusted with sensitive or classified work, she said.
The U.S. Department of War has identified six critical technology areas: applied artificial intelligence; biomanufacturing; contested logistics technologies; quantum and battlefield information dominance; scaled directed energy; and scaled hypersonics.
“We have several companies in Oklahoma doing those types of things,” Knott said. “Our Oklahoma companies are focused on applied artificial intelligence.”
OkAPEX partners with OK Catalyst, the city of Oklahoma City, the Department of Transportation, Tinker Air Force Base, Sheppard Air Force Base; the Federal Aviation Administration, Tinker Small Business Development Center; the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs; Native American tribes; and others.
OkAPEX offers in-person and online assistance, Knott said, adding that to qualify, businesses must be established and have financial history. The first step, she said, is requesting a coordinator on the OkAPEX website.
Information about OkAPEX, including locations and contact information is available at https://oklahoma.gov/careertech/business-and-industry/okapex.html.
Oklahoma CareerTech: Oklahoma’s Workforce Leader
The Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education provides leadership and resources and assures standards of excellence for a comprehensive statewide system of career and technology education. The system offers programs and services in 29 technology center districts operating on 63 campuses, 394 PK-12 school districts, 20 skills centers campuses that include three juvenile facilities and 49 adult education and family literacy providers.
The agency is governed by the State Board of Career and Technology Education and works closely with the State Department of Education and the State Regents for Higher Education to provide a seamless educational system for all Oklahomans.
