December 19, 2014 

Background of ALLIANT 2

ALLIANT 2 will likely be the largest services program competed in 2015. The RFI was released on October 24th and the first Industry Day was held on November 2nd. The draft RFP is expected to be released in the next few months.

The ALLIANT 2 Master Contract provides all Federal government agencies and other eligible entities the ability to perform all current, leading edge and/or emerging integrated IT services to satisfy all IT services requirements anywhere and anytime worldwide. Both large business (unrestricted) and small business contracts will be awarded. The unrestricted ceiling is $50B and the small business ceiling is $15B.

The size, history and potential of this contract make it a very desirable target for large and small companies. Over the years several primes have generated significant revenue and corporate growth by winning and then performing on the contract. Numerous ALLIANT primes have booked over $100M on the current contract and several have done significantly more.

Keys to Winning ALLIANT 2

The key to being awarded an ALLIANT 2 contract is effective planning and preparing and submitting an outstanding compliant proposal. Pre-RFP marketing will have little impact. There are so many companies interested in ALLIANT 2 there is little chance that preselling your capabilities will affect your probability of a win. Remember, it doesn’t matter if you come in first or just make the cut. What matters is if you are one of those awarded a contract. If you missed the Industry Day in November this is not a disaster, but don’t miss the next one.

Assign a capture manager as soon as possible. If you don’t have one with ALLIANT experience, find one. This does not have to be a full time commitment, but you need a capture plan, milestones, and regular reviews to position yourself to win. By the time the final RFP is released, you should know exactly what your proposal will look like.

Since unrestricted primes will be required to subcontract a large portion of their work to small businesses, the small business share of the overall contract will be significant. If you are a large business, line up your small business subcontractors before someone else does. If you are a small business, decide if you are going to prime or get on a team you believe will win. Another option is to consider a Partnership or Joint Venture. There are also opportunities for non-small businesses to provide unique capabilities to primes lacking some technical requirements.

Review your past performance now. If it doesn’t meet the requirements spelled out in the RFI, see if it can be enhanced before the final RFP is released. Past performance evaluation is a major factor in winning. Your capture manager should drive this but may need the assistance of your proposal manager.

You have a distinct advantage if you can demonstrate your ability to bring new customers and/or capabilities to the contract. The technical requirements are extensive, and anything you can do to make your proposal stand out will help.

Proposal Must Be Highest Quality

One of the reasons the last procurement took so long was the number of proposals submitted. When there are large numbers of proposals, the first thing the evaluators do is try to decrease the number to evaluate by throwing out non-compliant proposals. Your proposal has to be of the highest quality and absolutely compliant. Make sure your proposal manager has the experience to create a winning proposal and if possible, has already won an ALLIANT contract.

The labor costs you use to win the GWAC are important and are a factor in winning but, they are ceilings and you will probably be required to discount those rates to win a task order.

Successful ALLIANT primes have processes and procedures in place that allow them to effectively receive, review, bid and win task orders rapidly with as little pain as possible and with positive results. If you don’t have a process, work on developing one that you can talk about in your proposal. As an ALLIANT prime, you will receive RFPs from numerous agencies and be required to turn around complete bids quickly.

Questions can be addressed to John Cook at jcook@ociwins.com.  

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