This year, the consultant supply will be challenged because there are so many large IDIQ programs coming. Sometimes we have experienced a “Solomon problem” with two customers wanting the same consultant. The problem has arisen because of coordination problems. For example, one customer wanted to extend a consultant but did not provide [...]
Don’t delay your recompete preparations on the expectation of an extension Expecting to get an extension and then being surprised by an announcement that the official recompete is starting has happened to more incumbents than it should. And the resulting lack of recompete preparation wastes many of the advantages you should have [...]
Extensions are often an opportunity to renegotiate elements of the contract. Sometimes the customer will ask for a cost reduction; perhaps you will ask for a price increase to cover inflation over the additional period. Usually a compromise is agreed. But you can also use the extension as an opportunity to agree [...]
Our recent survey of Government contractors revealed a large increase in the use of Price to Win (PTW). Ten years ago, bidders did not use PTW techniques on even five percent of proposals. We estimate that bidders now use at least a primitive form of PTW on over 60 percent of proposals. [...]
Note: Kevin Carroll was previously in charge of the ITES, ADMC and CHS programs as the Army Program Executive Officer, Enterprise Information Systems (PEO EIS). He is probably the leading authority on Army programs outside of Government. Biggest thing to remember is that ITES 2S had a lot of different customers [...]
As we all know, the Sequestration has ushered in a new era in contracting. The decline in federal spending has led to a decrease in spending not seen in recent memory. OCI president Russell Smith completed a survey designed to assess what companies are doing to survive on the “new normal” post [...]
2015 It goes without saying, 2015 has seen a challenged market for proposal professionals. In 2015 the forces unleashed by the Sequestration filtered down to the proposal business. It is estimated that the market for proposal services fell on the order of 15% during 2015. The reasons for the decline in level [...]
With its challenging LPTA structure, ENCORE III takes another step on the path to the “commoditization” of IT services. However, its $17.5B ceiling and long life still make it an attractive piece of business. According to the trade press, DISA / DITCO is on schedule to issue the ENCORE III solicitation in [...]
The US Government Accountability Office’s decisions on bidders protests regarding lost bids is a source we have used several times to illustrate real examples of common incumbent mistakes. Below we have pulled together two real life recompete losses which, while being over 17 years apart, illustrate what we believe is essentially the [...]
The far-reaching strategy to improve the way government acquires communications and information technology infrastructure services -- know as Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) -- may soon become a reality. EIS is planned to be the new contract vehicle offering telecommunications and IT solutions. EIS will provide voice, video, and data transport services, as [...]
