As the New Year starts, all of us here at OCI want to take this opportunity to thank you for your business. We strive as hard as humanly possible to consistently provide excellent service to you. If we make a mistake, we try to correct it as near to immediately as possible.
The question at top of all our minds is that asking, how much proposal business will we see in 2014? In this article, I will attempt to answer this question. The article is addressed primarily to OCI consultants.
Last Year – 2013
It is no secret that calendar year 2014 was slower than usual. The proposal market was slow enough that most consultants experienced abnormal amounts of time on the bench. Business in 2013 was slower than in 2012 at all proposal consultant agencies known to OCI. The volume of 2013 business at OCI was about 9% slower than in 2012. As far as we know, business at all other proposal consultant agencies was farther down. Figures we have heard in networking with significant competitors include business that was 14%, 17%, 25%, 35%, 40% and 50% lower in 2013 than it was in 2012. A few consultants have left the industry, while others have worked some in areas other than proposal services to augment their income.
Overview
CIO-CS is one of the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Chief Information Officer (CIO) series of Information Technology (IT) solutions for government-wide procurement, specially aimed at Commodity Solutions, thus the CS suffix. It first dawned on the procurement scene in March 2013 as a Sources Sought RFI and draft RFP and has now been through two rounds of questions and answers and a second, updated draft dated June 14, 2013. Since that date, the solicitation has been dormant, running into the strong winds of Budget Sequester, budget gridlock in Congress, and lack of GWAC approval by OMB.
One of the most challenging aspects of contract management is controlling the costs of proposal preparation. Recently a customer asked me to prepare a cost analysis on a very expensive proposal, and I got the idea of expanding the study to six Beltway firms. Based on examining three large and three small businesses, I found the following lessons learned on how to economize in preparing technical proposals.
Our CIO-CS expert, Russ Schramm, examines the upcoming $10B NIH contract.
What is CIO-CS (ECS IV)?
According to the Federal Government, the Chief Information Officer – Commodities and Solutions (CIO-CS) Government-wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) is a 10-year Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. This contract is intended to provide information technology (IT) commodities and solutions as defined in FAR 2.101(b) and further clarified in the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996. These IT commodities and solutions include health and biomedical-related IT commodities to meet scientific, health, administrative, operational, managerial, and information management requirements. The contract also contains general IT commodities, partly because medical systems are increasingly integrated within a broader IT architecture, requiring a systems approach to their implementation and a sound infrastructure for their operation.
In this author's opinion, The National Institutes of Health (NIH) CIO-CS contract is one of the largest desk-top PC buys to be out on the street soon.
OCI is launching a new 1-day workshop designed to help companies greatly increase the chances of winning their recompetes early next year. Workshop Overview The OCI facilitator meets with key personnel. The facilitator brings with him templates designed to systematically (1) assess the current status of the company, and (2) develop a [...]
Imagine you are confident about your technical proposal and you have put a lot of resources into crafting it. You impatiently wait to find out if you won and then….. you lose because of subcontractor-sabotaged pricing, last minute staffing changes that affected both the technical and price volume, and overlooking an obscure clause in the RFP that impacted your pricing.
Too many price proposals are changed in the hour before you push the “send” button on the electronic submission.
Here at OCI we believe that we have a responsibility to help people in need. The company recently provided a scholarship to Johan Duarte, a low-income youth from Caracas, Venezuela. The scholarship lets him attend a 2-month baseball training camp in Miami, Florida. This camp provides an opportunity through which talented and [...]
OCI will begin offering a recompete workshop starting in February 2014. The one-day workshop helps recompete teams get the best possible start to their recompete campaign, make the most of their incumbency, and avoid the mistakes that often cause incumbents to lose. The workshop is structured around a series of proven templates designed to systematically determine everything that needs to be done to win the recompetition. Under the OCI facilitator, key company personnel will go through a rigorous process designed to uncover and share key contract and recompete factors, formulate a comprehensive plan for the recompete, and define and schedule every activity needed to win.
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Nearly none of the industry analysts and pundits expected we would have a government shutdown. After it happened, many predicted it would last a few days, or a week or two at worst. Now the preponderance of opinion is that it will probably end in the next few days.
By statute the debt ceiling needs to be raised by October 17, to avoid a federal default on its financial obligations. However, the actual date when a default would take place without an increase in the debt ceiling is nearer the end of the month.
