Insights Blog

The keys to winning government contracts | Amtower Off Center

An important discussion on identifying, pursuing, bidding and winning contracts

Click here to listen to Mark’s interview On July 22, 2019 on Amtower Off Center, host Mark Amtower interviews Bob Lohfeld, Founder and CEO of Lohfeld Consulting Group and Andy Patrichuk, partner and GM of Deep Water Point on identifying, pursuing, bidding and winning contracts. Topics include: market outlook, including the growth of “Best in class” contracts what companies need to do to make “go/no go” bid decisions the need to “influence” the RFP the power of relationships in the market Hosted by nationally-known speaker and consultant Mark Amtower, Amtower Off Center highlights the good, the bad, the ugly and the just plain silly of doing business in the government market. Every week experts join Mark for a lively discussion of current issues facing the government contractor community. Bob Lohfeld, CF, APMP Fellow, serves as Chairman of Lohfeld Consulting Group. He has more than 30 years’ experience winning … Continue reading The keys to winning government contracts | Amtower Off Center →

Five Tips to Improve Past Performance Ratings

Past performance ratings impact your ability to win option years, recompetes and new business

Contractors often struggle to define a discriminating value proposition. While a value proposition is certainly comprised of your service or product solution, it also incorporates your past performance. A proposal demonstrates to the Government a company’s prospective ability to perform the work. How does the Government gain confidence in your prospective ability to deliver your solution at high quality and low risk? By examining your past performance, both on relevant contracts, as well as trends across time. Past Performance Ratings Are Trending Towards Satisfactory Past performance is almost always an evaluation factor whether you are bidding a competitive best value trade-off opportunity, Low Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA), sole source, or other procurement methods including Other Transaction Authority (OTA) contracts. Yet, recent analysis shows that more and more Contracting Officers (COs) are grading their contractors as Satisfactory in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS). Overall, from 2010-2017, the percentage of Satisfactory ratings … Continue reading Five Tips to Improve Past Performance Ratings →

Opportunity Alert: OASIS Unrestricted On-Ramps

Here are five things you can do now to maximize chances of success

The General Services Administration (GSA) on-ramp proposals to the existing One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services Small Business (OASIS SB) Pools 1, 3 and 4 and 8(a) sub-Pools are due on June 27, 2019. OASIS is a Multiple Award (MA), Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract classified as a Tier 3, Best-in-Class (BIC) contract providing solutions for complex professional services requirements. OASIS also helps agencies meet their government-wide spend under management (SUM) goals. SUM is the percentage of an organization’s spend that is actively managed according to category management principles. GSA issued a Pre-Solicitation Notice on June 26 stating that the final OASIS Unrestricted On-Ramp solicitation will be available on or about July 8, 2019. The notice further stated that GSA intends to add 40 contracts to each of the three on-ramp Pools. With only weeks remaining, it is time to get ready. Here are five things you can do … Continue reading Opportunity Alert: OASIS Unrestricted On-Ramps →

L versus M – Where do I start?

Using section M as the basis of your proposal could result in a non-compliant bid

I’ve noticed a trend with some companies to use section M of the government solicitation document as the basis for their proposal structure. While I understand the desire to make it easy for the evaluators to score your proposal, this could result in a non-compliant bid. Organize your bid or proposal according to the customer’s instructions. A compliant proposal meets the customer’s requirements and submittal instructions. U.S. federal bid requests issued under the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 15 must comply with detailed instructions on how the bid request and bid response are to be structured. Requirements for the structure of the proposal are provided in section L. Evaluation factors for the award are provided in section M. Evaluators often review proposals in two passes. The first pass is a compliance review to section L. This review may be performed by the CO and if the proposal is not rigorously compliant, … Continue reading L versus M – Where do I start? →