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LAB 6 -Bid Solicitation to Awarding.pptx
- 1. “How Small Businesses Can Improve their Proposals” Rosetta Rodwell, Contracting Officer 1 PROCUREMENT PROCESS
- 2. 2
- 3. FY 17 ACQUISITION AWARDS (M&O)
- 4. FY 17 ACQUISITION AWARDS (NON- M&O)
- 5. TYPES OF SOLICITATION • An RFQ is used to obtain information and quotations on pricing. This solicitation type is used when the estimated value of the government’s need is less than $150,000. • An RFP is used to communicate government requirements to prospective contractors and solicit proposals. The RFP will describe the government’s requirements, anticipated terms and conditions, information required and factors that will be used to evaluate the proposal. • An IFB is often referred to as a sealed bid solicitation. Typically there will not be any discussions or negotiations following the IFB response. Price is the key consideration during this bid process.
- 6. UNDERSTAND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING PROCESS What YOU understand… • Pre-Solicitation • Solicitation • Evaluation • Award • Administration What to Avoid….. • Not fully understanding the solicitation and governing regulations • Submitting an incomplete or late submission • Not providing specificity or focus • Highlighting too much fluff and not enough substance • Not understanding best value considerations • Unrealistic pricing • Failure to address evaluation factors • Errors in submission
- 7. DID YOU KNOW? • Small Business Set-Aside: Each acquisition of supplies or services that has an anticipated dollar value exceeding $3,500 (micro-purchase threshold) but not exceeding the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT) of $150,000 ($300,000 for contingency operations) is reserved exclusively for small business concerns and should be set aside per FAR 19.5. • Purchases from required sources of supply under FAR 8 are exempt from small business set-aside requirements. • However, if the CO is recommending that the acquisition should not be set-aside for small business, the CO must obtain the OSDBU approval.
- 8. HOW ARE YOU MARKETING YOUR COMPANY? Market Research: • Conducted first by the Customer/Project Officer and again by the Contracting Officer before soliciting offers. • Extent of market research will vary depending on such factors as urgency, estimated dollar value, and complexity of the requirement, and past performance. • Market research objectives: • Identify products and technologies, particularly to determine if a commercial item can meet the Government’s requirements • Identify the size and status of potential vendors • Assess the competitiveness of the market • Identify commercial practices 8
- 9. PLANNING 9
- 10. SOLICITATION 10
- 11. DOE/GOVERNMENT POINTS OF ENTRY FOR ANNOUNCEMENTS: • FedBizOpps - www.fbo.gov • FedConnect - www.fedconnect.net/ • e-buy - www.ebuy.gsa.gov/advantage/ebuy/start_page.do • Grant Opportunities – www.grants.gov • ARPA-E funding opportunities – www.arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/ • DOE Laboratories business opportunities (Oak Ridge, Sandia, NETL, NREL, etc.)
- 12. EVALUATION 12
- 13. EVALUATION OF NON-PRICE/COST FACTORS The government applies a rating to each category for each proposal received on the following factors: Factor 1: Technical Approach Factor 2: Past Performance Factor 3: Management Approach Factor 4: Experience Factor 5: Quality Control Approach
- 14. WHEN DEVELOPING A TECHNICAL PROPOSAL: Include past performance to show that you have successfully completed projects that are similar to the one in the solicitation. Create a high level sketch of how the project will be managed then drill down to specific tasks, timelines, and deliverables. Develop a team with adequate experience to meet the requirements—this might require you to develop a strategic alliance or bid with a partner. Use a quality assurance process that includes Plan, Do, Check, Act, and Improve.
- 15. HOW TO GET TECHNICAL Did you consider? • List past performance of individuals • Team with others. • Personal vs non-personal services • All service contracts, whether performance-based or not, requires the use of a QASP in accordance with FAR 46.103(a) to measure performance. Did you review? • Performance Work Statement (PWS) that provides required outcomes and quality standards. • Place of performance • Period of performance or delivery schedule for supplies • Key experience or skills required of Contractor personnel
- 16. HOW TO WIN! • The government evaluates the proposals it gets and decides which represent the “best value.” Best value is not simply about price but is a judgment concerning several factors including capability, capacity, past performance, and price. • The technical aspects of a proposal are often more important than those involving price. • Proposal evaluation is an assessment of the proposal and your ability to perform the prospective contract successfully. The technical evaluation of a proposal is made by technical specialists who are deliberately kept in ignorance of the bid cost of the several proposals. • When developing a proposal, confine the text to essential matters; the quality of the information is significantly more important than the quantity. • The government evaluates all proposals on the same non-price/cost factors: Technical Approach, Past Performance, Management Approach, Experience, and Quality Control Approach.
- 17. BUILDING A WINNING STRATEGY! • Be prepared • Start small • Understand your market place • Demonstrate your strengths • Meet the scope • Ask for feedback • Learn from mistakes
- 18. RESEARCH TOOLS • Register With the System for Award Management https://www.sam.gov/portal/SAM/ • Team up With Other Organizations https://www.sba.gov/tools/events#events-page • Small Businesses Can Contact Local PTACs http://www.aptac-us.org/ • Find Government contractor jobs on Sites Like TendersPage https://tenderspage.com • How the Government buy from Small Businesses https://tenderspage.com/government-contracting-tips-federal- government-buys-small-businesses/
- 19. Questions? Name: Rosetta Rodwell Title: Contracting Officer Email address: Rosetta.Rodwell-Bisiriyu@hq.doe.gov Phone:202-587-1556 19
Editor's Notes
- There are four formats of government opportunities: Request for Quote (RFQ), Request for Proposal (RFP), Invitation for Bid (IFB), and Source Sought or Request for Information (RFI). Each type has its own purpose and required response. The key in responding to government opportunities is the responsiveness and the ability to abide by the instructions. If you are not sure about something in the solicitation then don’t be afraid to ask questions. Questions should be addressed to the contracting officer listed on the solicitation. Prepare your response appropriately with diligence and professionalism. Your main goal is to articulate what makes you the best solution provider. These elements are critical to successful proposal writing:
- The Typical Federal Government Contracting Process A government agency usually solicits proposals from businesses having previous experience or interest in the relevant field. The technical staff of the agency draws up a work statement describing the mission of the project and develops specifications to which proposals must conform. This work statement is incorporated in a formal request for proposal or quote (RFP/RFQ) which is sent to select service providers. When proposals come back, the government evaluates them and assigns ratings to the factors it feels are most important. The basic phases of the contracting process include: Pre-Solicitation: Identifying the requirement, performing market research, and preparing the statement of work and solicitation package. Solicitation: Identifying prospective service providers, distributing the solicitation package, and receiving proposals. Evaluation: Evaluating the technical and price proposals submitted by the offerors. The proposals must be responsive to the solicitation package. Award: Making the best value decision for the award, obtaining all pre-award approvals, executing the contract with the successful offeror, notifying the unsuccessful offerors, and conducting debriefings. Administration: Ensuring that the contractor adheres to the terms and conditions of the contract, monitoring contractor performance, processing and paying invoices, executing modifications, handling claims, and closing out the contract. Government agencies evaluate proposals in terms of how well offerors can articulate performance of the prospective contract. The technical evaluation of a proposal is made by technical specialists who are deliberately not shown the costs. The final contract awards are made by others (including the Contracting Officer) who consider both technical quality and cost in an effort to find the proposal that offers the best value to the government.
- Evaluation of Non-Price/Cost Factors All proposals are evaluated against the Performance Work Statement (PWS)/Statement of Objectives (SOO) and the stated evaluation criteria. They are all evaluated using the same rating standards. The government applies a rating to each category for each proposal received on the following factors: Factor 1: Technical Approach Factor 2: Past Performance Factor 3: Management Approach Factor 4: Experience Factor 5: Quality Control Approach Factor 1: Technical Approach The government evaluates the degree to which your proposal reflects a clear understanding of the work statement in the proposal. Your approach shows how you plan to conduct the project in order to meet the requirements that are set out in the solicitation. In some cases, the evaluation team will provide a rating and cite the specific proposal page, proposal paragraph, and comment identifying a significant strength or weakness in the Technical Approach. If you ask for a debriefing, the Contracting Officer will likely go over your evaluation and note the issues. How to Get Technical Your proposal is your only platform to communicate your services and capabilities; this is your one opportunity to win over the evaluation panel. You should include a full discussion of the nature and scope of the project, including your approach and the results you expect. Think carefully about the needs of the agency, and the requirements listed in the proposal; speak to each of them in your technical proposal. Quality is more important that quantity - so keep your response Factor 2: Past Performance Your past performance evaluations reflect your business’ performance risk: they tell prospective clients how well you did on other, similar projects. To learn about your past performance, evaluation teams will look at the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) database and conduct Internet searches as appropriate. PPIRS is a web-enabled, enterprise application that provides timely and pertinent contractor past performance information to the federal acquisition community for use in selection decisions. The typical Rating Standards for past performance are: Unknown Risk (UR): No record of past performance or contact information. Low Risk (LR): The offeror consistently meets work schedules, provides specified services, and meets contract terms without failure. Moderate Risk (MR): The offeror meets specified services most of the time and has not defaulted on any contract within the past three years. High Risk (HR): The offeror has consistently not met work schedules and other obligations, has defaulted on at least one contract within the past three years, or has chronically failed to meet contract terms. The government may also call or email the references you provide in your proposal, and evaluators are encouraged to document their efforts in obtaining past performance information.
- How to Get Technical Past performance information is one indicator of your ability to perform the contract successfully. Although the government can evaluate your business with no relevant performance history, most organizations require you to identify past or current contracts (including federal, State, and local government, and private) for efforts similar to their requirements. From time to time, a solicitation may require past performance that your business doesn’t have, and this situation can impact you negatively in the evaluation. To address this issue: List past performance of individuals. Even if your business doesn’t have a specific area of performance, the past experiences of the proposed team members may be enough to show credibility. Team with others. Small businesses frequently team with other organizations that can provide the required past performance or work with a larger prime contractor to pursue the federal government opportunity. If you do team with others: Illustrate your past performance and experiences and that of your strategic alliance partners in a format that is understandable by the federal government. Categorize each performance statement by experiences with federal government, state government, private sector, and nonprofit experience. Ensure that past performance statements highlight the specific work previously performed and the particular industry sector (e.g., automotive, banking & financial services, US Federal Government, military, state & local govt., technology, etc.). List your role or that of your organization on the past performance engagement and be transparent about the role of your strategic alliance partner in delivering the solution to the past client.
- 1. Prevent Pipeline “Creep” To keep it manageable, review your opportunity pipeline early and often. Triage and eliminate unwelcome targets. A contractor’s pipeline is its contract opportunity tracking system. Most contractors don’t have a problem with too few contract opportunities. Their problem is that they have too many. For every contract opportunity that they add to the pipeline, it is a good practice to delete another. It is better to have fewer opportunities closely tracked than to have too many opportunities loosely monitored. The most successful contractors have strict contract selection criteria and they stick to them. No exceptions. 2. Have A Targeted Approach Use a laser not a shotgun. Err on the side of caution and conservatism to select targets. Be practical. Even with a manageable pipeline, contractors still need to have a targeted approach. A lot of new or less successful government contractors want to be all things to all people in order to hedge their bets. It rarely works. Instead, they would be better served to select targets conservatively and cautiously. It is better to have two bids out in your expertise and delivery sweet spot than 15 bids that are all over the place. 3. Don’t Go It Alone Starting out, consider teaming to increase your bandwidth and the range of acceptable opportunities. Small or new contractors should find team mates or alliance partners with whom they have a business and cultural compatibility. Doing so spreads their risk, extends their experience and gives them a much deeper bench of talent. Arguably, 15 years ago, many government agencies did not look upon teaming agreements favorably. The monolithic prime contractor was preferred. Some RFPs would state that they were not looking for joint ventures or teaming arrangements. They warned contractors that if they ignored this caution, they really had to make the case for why it was in the government’s interest.. Now, the paradigm has reversed itself – even the largest primes are teaming. Contractors are now pursuing more of a “best athlete” approach to form winning teams. 4. Assign Accountability Appoint an opportunity advocate and a contrarian “devil’s advocate”. Then let them go at it. Most contractors have business development, capture managers, proposal managers and others involved in preparing proposals. But the winning contractors are also appointing devil’s advocate contrarians. The contrarians are not unprofessional irritants, but rather are there to make the proposal team prove their points, to ask questions, to challenge conventional wisdom, and to help the team avoid unsubstantiated claims. The devil’s advocate is not the enemy of the proposal effort; they are to “sharpen the sword” of the proposal team and to make sure every claim can be substantiated. 5. Avoid Pop-Up Opportunities Then Ask: “Can I Win?” Not “Can I Perform.” When an RFP is published, most contractors say to themselves, “yeah, we could do that work.” But they are not giving much thought to if they can actually win that work. It happens all the time, with contractors big and small. The CEO comes in on Monday morning and logs on to FedBizOps, sees a new RFP and the next thing you know, everybody is chasing after that opportunity. What they haven’t done is really think through their chances of actually winning. Have they ever met the customer? Does the customer know anything about the contractor? Does the contractor understand the customer’s problems and real issues (not just what is in the RFP)? Do they know anything about the incumbent, their performance and when the contract was last awarded? If a contractor sees a published RFP and they’ve never met the customer and this is the first they’ve heard about the contract, they’re too late. 6. Handoff from Capture to Proposal A good handoff between the capture manager and the proposal manager is like the artistry between the quarterback and the running back. Fumble the ball and the team takes a loss. This is where most business development processes break down: between the capture manager and the proposal manager. In truth, a complete handoff should not happen. Let’s say everything is working like it should - this is not a “pop up” RFP that came in over the transom. The capture manager has met the customer and has a solid knowledge base. He knows the price points, the hot buttons, the customer’s vision, etc. The RFP is issued, a proposal manager is assigned and the capture manager moves on. Then, the proposal manager decides to take a fresh approach and change the direction originally recommended by the capture manager. Bad idea. At that point the contractor loses the momentum built up by the capture manager. To solve that disconnect that occurs all too often, the capture manager should stay involved in the proposal preparation as the opportunity advocate. Their primary role should be to serve on the review team, represent the customer’s perspective and push back when the proposal team goes off strategy. 7. Get It In Writing Woe to the small business with no signed teaming agreement prior to proposal submission. In the heat of battle, and often at the eleventh hour, teaming activity picks up. The prime approaches the subcontractors (or vice versa), there is a lot of excitement, vague promises and a handshake. At that point, some subcontractors will ask for a teaming agreement. They may or may not get one. All too often nothing gets put in writing, but lots of assurances are given that once the contract is awarded, the subs will be given their share of the work. Then some time passes until the contract is awarded, and the sub shows up at the victory party and nobody knows who they are. The winning proposal manager who made the handshake agreement has moved on to other proposals, or is no longer even working at the company. The program managers or operations people are now in charge of the awarded contract and they’ve already picked the subs for the new contract. The sub has then lost any leverage with the prime contractor. With so much teaming going on with government contractors, written teaming agreements are now more important than ever. And the subs need to have a fully executed teaming agreement before proposal submission when they still have leverage. The streets are littered with small subcontractors that thought they had an agreement with a prime, but were instead left at the altar. 8. Find Real Discriminator(s) The term "discriminator" is tossed around as if there are dozens of them. Most companies are fortunate if they have one true discriminator. In government contracting, the term “discriminator” describes something about your company that is truly unique. For instance, it could be a proprietary process or a patent. Or something that you invented that has a measure of merit. Having been in business for 20 years is not a discriminator. Nor is claiming to “understand” the agency who is issuing the contract, or the fact that a contractor has won a “best places to work” award or is ISO 9001 certified. 9. Perform Constructive Reviews Had the Magna Carta been handed to a Red Team, the march towards democracy would have been set back several centuries. In government contracting, the Red Team reviews the proposal and recommends, or better, directs, mid-course corrections. However, the process is broken. The proposal team works long and hard on the proposal. Then the company brings in the Red Team – executives and subject matter experts to serve as “fresh eyes.” Invariably, the Red Team concludes that the proposal is fatally flawed and puts the whole effort into a tail spin. It’s more destructive than constructive. Instead, consider a Red Team to be a “Win Team,” with instructions not to tear the proposal apart, but instead to strengthen it. Every problem must be accompanied by a recommended fix. 10. Listen to Your Customer Try something different during customer visits. Instead of listening to your own voice, try listening to theirs. Instead of convincing them how smart you are, allow them to prove to you how smart they are. Some companies place too much emphasis on hiring persuasive, smooth-talking business development people who make great presentations. While that doesn’t hurt, the really successful contractors focus first on hiring good listeners. If you can stop talking about your company and instead listen for the customer’s real problems, your winning percentage will increase. A good listener is worth their weight in gold. 11. Understand Your Customer The best win strategy ever developed is to uncover a customer’s wants and needs. Then meet them. This is the easiest to explain, but the most difficult for contractors to do. When preparing proposals, focus on the customer’s problems first, then your solution. Winning contractors tend to deliver proposals that focus on solving the problems that are keeping the customer up at night. Very often, the customer will convey that the winning contractor “really understood us and what we needed.”