TArticles tagged with: category management

Q&A Part 2 | Top 20 bids for 2017—and the market trends that will affect how you build your pipeline

Lohfeld Business Winning Webinars [webinar replay]

We received a lot of audience questions during our recent Top 20 bids for 2017 webinar. Here is part 2 of our Q&A. Question: What is the state of mergers and acquisitions and what does this mean for the competitive environment? Bob Lohfeld’s Answer: Companies go through this merger and acquisition ritual basically for two purposes. One is to realign their business strategy, and the other is to buy backlog. I think over the last several years we’ve really seen a significant realignment in the market based on strategy. The first one to do it was SAIC splitting off part of their business for organizational conflict of interest reasons. The neatest deal this year I thought was Lockheed Martin’s deal to spin off IS&GS. Everybody says it was because Lockheed Martin wanted to get out of the low-price business, but my take on it was they really wanted to buy … Continue reading Q&A Part 2 | Top 20 bids for 2017—and the market trends that will affect how you build your pipeline →

Procurement innovation

Responding rapidly and effectively to changing market conditions

Innovation is not simply about new ideas. It is also about responding rapidly and effectively to changing market conditions. The Federal Government is gradually emulating successful commercial market innovations such as category management, Agile procurement, and performance-based acquisition. Capture and proposal professionals must understand these trends and respond effectively with new and/or improved strategies and processes. Category management Category management is a purchasing concept whereby like supplies and/or services are grouped into similar categories. The purpose is to achieve more-effective competition while reducing costs and risks as well as gaining access to greater innovation from suppliers. Department of Defense (DoD) Better Buying Power initiatives as well as Office of Management and Budget (OMB) category management policy related to laptops and desktops, software licensing, and mobile devices and services are all aimed at allowing the Federal Government to act as a single efficient enterprise by sharing best practices and information. Innovative … Continue reading Procurement innovation →

Q&A Part 1 | Top 20 bids for 2017—and the market trends that will affect how you build your pipeline

Lohfeld Business Winning Webinars [webinar replay]

We received a lot of audience questions during our recent Top 20 bids for 2017 webinar. Here is part 1 of our Q&A. Question: Although a number of government procurement leads are stating their acquisition strategy will be based on “best value,” they list both LPTA and technology/price trade-off as viable decision tools. When technical proposal evaluators are not able to “significantly” differentiate offers, contracting officers almost always default to LPTA. So, when do you think real best value awards will be “here to stay”? Bob Lohfeld’s Answer: In my opinion, best value tradeoff procurements need two things to occur before they will be “here to stay”. First, we have to have a rising federal budget. In times of sequestration and budget reductions, agencies simply don’t have enough money to buy what they need and instead default to buying what is cheap. Second, agencies have to realize that buying on … Continue reading Q&A Part 1 | Top 20 bids for 2017—and the market trends that will affect how you build your pipeline →

[Webinar replay] Top 20 bids for 2017—and the market trends that will affect how you build your pipeline

Lohfeld Business Winning Webinar

Federal contractors have a lot of questions about procurements in 2017: How can you build a successful 2017 pipeline and align capture and proposal staff early given the prevailing market trends? Which procurements will continue on schedule and which will slow during the upcoming presidential transition? Are Category Management and IT Modernization bipartisan in nature, or will the change in administration stall these initiatives? Will we continue to see the trend towards greater use of Multiple Award Contract (MAC) vehicles and a greater percentage of small business set-asides? Will mid-tier companies find any relief, or will they continue to struggle in the new market? Listen to our government procurement experts’ insights on the Top 20 bids for 2017 and the market trends that will affect how you build your pipeline. Get help prioritizing and focusing on upcoming opportunities likely to stay on track, while understanding the impacts on initiatives that … Continue reading [Webinar replay] Top 20 bids for 2017—and the market trends that will affect how you build your pipeline →