Anthony Maggert -- a former Contracting Officer (CO) Evaluating thousands of federal proposals I’ve seen a lot of bad. As a Contracting Officer (CO), my job was to weed out the bad and embrace the good. What does bad look like? Easy. Remember your 8th grade English class? Bad grammar, misspelling, punctuation, [...]
Ken Blair-- Background With the release of the Sources Sought Notice (SSN) in January of 2017, the Navy began its journey on a long road to replace seven contracts with a single vehicle to provide Cyber technical, training, and analytical support to Naval Information Forces and its subordinate commands. The seven previous [...]
Tom Hodges-- Political Considerations A recent change in political climate enhances the value of RMADA 2.0. Whereas the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was controversial at the time RMADA 1.0 began, its services have recently won endorsement across the political spectrum. Notable for bidders, this removes an element of risk from the contract, [...]
Nigel Thacker-- This article provides critical insight into the way customer priorities change during a contract life cycle. Aligning your performance to these changing priorities is the key to winning the recompete. Many Government customers have a lifecycle approach to managing contracts. That means their priorities change at different points during the [...]
John Capewell-- Background I accepted, what I was led to believe, was a typical assignment to be a consulting proposal manager for a Washington D.C.-based, 8(a) company. The reality detail was that the Client company had recently been purchased by a large business, thereby losing their small business status and their ability [...]
Ken Blair This is the story two prop efforts I have experienced and how I overcame unique difficulties to help win. Challenge # 1 I was working with a small business in Ohio supporting their proposal effort for a DLA solicitation for enhanced combat helmets. My client had been in business for [...]
Tony Constable-- Note: Tony Constable is a senior pricing analyst with over 30 years of experience working large programs. The object of pursuing competitive opportunities is, of course, to win. To win single award "best value" competitions bidders have to: 1) convince the evaluators to turn a bidder's proposed team, solution, transition [...]
John Capewell --- Early in my independent BD career, I was fortunate to receive a long-term contract to provide a wide variety of BD/Capture/Proposal/Program development services to a top-5 defense contractor. They were entering the full and open, competitive service contract world for the first time – a huge and difficult undertaking. [...]
Gary Everett --- We all know, the key personnel you propose and the way you prepare their resumes are critical factors in winning the contract. The closer the key staff match the work requirements, the better. These personnel should be introduced to the government decision makers before the bid goes in. Or [...]
By Frank Konkel, Respondents found some recurring challenges were offset by an improvement in acquisition talent. The federal government’s procurement professionals are bullish about improvements to federal acquisition, according to survey released Wednesday, but it definitely isn’t because they’re high on innovation. Rather, the ninth biennial Acquisition Policy Survey, compiled by the [...]
