Lee Cooper Note: Author Lee Cooper was previously a BD executive at Raytheon, L-3 National Security Solutions, and UNISYS. He is currently providing strategy, BD, capture and proposal support services to Federal contractors and technology suppliers. Federal agencies continue to expand the ID/IQ contracts used to procure information technology (IT) solutions and [...]
Every year about this time, we see a repeated ritual: DoD commands rush to spend remaining budget dollars as fast as possible. (DoD spends 1/3 of its annual budget in fourth fiscal quarter.) The result is a frenzy of procurement activity, mostly through simple contracts such as Task Orders (TO) and Invitation [...]
After what has seemed like an eon, the draft RFP for the $6B RAPID IV program finally came out yesterday – July 18, 2019. And the final RFP is expected in late September. It comes as a relief to contractors that the RFP doesn’t even genuflect to the new NASA paradigm that [...]
Last March 14, the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) issued a Request for Information (RFI) for its Infrastructure Development and Sustainment (IDS2) acquisition. ISD2 will provide the US military’s designated intel component with integrated IT services and technical support -- worldwide. It’s expected to weigh in at $3B. CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGY [...]
Dennis Lucey and Gary Shumaker -- Editor’s Note: No matter how hard they try, both large and small business must bid some programs where they lack the customer intimacy usually needed to win. These two seasoned contractors offer insight into a work-around -- discovering what is inside the customer’s head through careful RFP [...]
John Capewell In this article I look at the top-level purpose of the Capture Process. Is it to perform Cheerleader and team building activity for favored opportunities, or is it to be the devil’s advocate to protect B&P from bids with low pWin that are not improvable? Or possibly some blend of [...]
Peter Adam – The Trump Administration is re-trajectorizing America’s space agency. Regime Change To meet its new ambitious objectives, NASA is reconfiguring the way it does procurement. Contractors, including RAPID IV bidders -- get ready for Space Travel as a Service (STaaS). Not your Father’s (or Grandma’s) Space Race NASA’s new way [...]
Barry J. Lerner This article is written to explain how my previous employer increased their pWin by 300% during my 3 years as Proposal Center Director. The Traditional Proposal Manager In most organizations, Proposal Managers are added toward the end of the business development (BD) cycle. They assist in solutioning, and prepare [...]
Tim Birdsell -- You would not believe the waste in government proposal resources I’ve seen, due to lack of planning. During the past 20 years, I have developed and led government proposal groups for all sizes of business. And I am writing this article to share planning techniques that will enable you [...]
An Interview of Rick Harris, APMP CEO Question 1: What are the greatest challenges facing the industry? Answer: On the Federal side I see three challenges: 1. First are the government shutdowns that wreak havoc on the industry. They are not good for business. They are not good for our industry and [...]
