Researching Federal Business Opportunities Best Practices

1

Researching Federal Business Opportunities Best Practices

Presenter

Patrick Dalton

Research Director, Winvale

22

About the Presenter

Patrick DaltonResearch Director, [email protected]

Patrick Dalton serves as Research Director at The Winvale Group. In this role Patrick provides market intelligence, sales and marketing best practices, and training to Winvale’s clients.

Prior to joining Winvale, Patrick was a Legislative Assistant for Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Maryland General Assembly. He also worked with Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems, where he helped with government audits and cost savings measures. Patrick graduated from Flagler College with a B.A. in Business Administration and Economics.

3

Agenda

• Never pay for bid boards

• How to uncover viable opportunities

• Why you should (almost) never chase opportunities on bid boards

• How to turn agency documents into business development gold

• Which Government Procurement Databases to use

4

Never pay for bid boards

• Why pay for FREE information?

• Expensive $$$

• Bottlenecking the information

• Don’t try and keep up with the Lockheed’s

5

How to uncover viable opportunities

Uncovering Government

Business

Develop a Strategy

Educate yourself on the targeted

Agency

Review Agency Documents

Network

Current/Expiring Contracts

Utilize Bid Boards Properly

6

Why you should (almost) never chase opportunities on bid boards

• Low win %

• Reactive instead of Proactive

• Lack of influence over the opportunity

7

How to turn agency documents into business development gold

• AGENCY BUDGETS - Agency budgets provide insight into how the agencies plan to utilize the approvedbudget for the fiscal year.

• AGENCY STRATEGIC PLANS - The Strategic Plan will define the agency mission, long-term goals,strategies planned, and the approaches it will use to monitor its progress in addressing specific nationalproblems, needs, challenges, and opportunities related to its mission.

• AGENCY OMB 300S AND EXHIBIT 53S (INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOCUSED) - All major and non-major IT investments must be reported in OMB 300 and Exhibit 53, which represent the agency’scomplete IT portfolio. Exhibit 300 describes the justification, planning, and implementation of an individualcapital asset included in the agency IT investment portfolio (as reported in Exhibit 53)

• AGENCY PROCUREMENT FORECAST - Each agency provides a procurement forecast for the currentgovernment fiscal year. This can provide additional insight into opportunities within an agency.

• AGENCY OFFICE OF SMALL AND DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS UTILIZATION (OSDBU) - Internally, theOSDBU advocates for small business and provide executive direction and implementation of programs tofurther an agency’s use,

8

Which government procurement databases should you use?

• Federal Business Opportunities (FBO)

• GSA e-Buy

• Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS)

• USASpending

• Navy Electronic Commerce Online (NECO)

• Army Single Face to Industry (ASFI)

9

Federal Business Opportunities (FBO)

FedBizOpps.gov is for Federal government procurement opportunities over $25,000. Government buyers are able to publicize their business opportunities by posting information directly to FedBizOpps. Through one portal FBO commercial vendors seeking Federal markets for their products and services can search, monitor, and retrieve opportunities solicited by the entire Federal contracting community.

10

GSA e-Buy

e-Buy is an electronic Request for Quote (RFQ) / Request for Proposal (RFP) system designed to allow federal buyers to request information, find sources, and prepare RFQs / RFPs online for all of the services and products offered through GSA’s MAS program. Federal buyers can use e-Buy to obtain quotes or proposals for services, large quantity purchases, big ticket items, and purchases with complex requirements. RFQ notices can be sent directly to schedule partners, who have the opportunity to offer quotes for products and services provided under their contracts. Contractors must be on GSA Advantage! to use e-Buy.

11

Federal Procurement Data System(FPDS)

The Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG), successor to the original FPDS website, is a searchable database of information about Federal contract sales. The database provides contract details, such as purchasing agency, contractor, amount, date, and location. Of the $200 billion that federal agencies and executive departments are spending on goods and services annually, the FPDS-NG can provide information on transactions for over $3,000.

12

USASpending.gov

USASpending is a government resource meant to make US Federal Agency spend more accessible. Users can search by contractor, Federal Agency, or location to find information about government contracts within these categories. The contracts section provides detailed information about each federal contract award, including awardee, signed date, amount, agency, and brief description. Purchase card transactions by federal agencies can be tracked in the purchase section. USASpendinggets this transaction data from a report published quarterly on the GSA SmartPay website, which receives the information from the banks that issue the purchase cards.

13

Navy Electronic Commerce Online (NECO)

NECO supports Navy and Marine Corps worldwide by providing seamless service to buyers for posting Solicitations, Directed Solicitations, Synopses and Receipt of Offers.

14

Army Single Face to Industry (ASFI)

Army Single Face to Industry (ASFI) is the designated Army portal for communicating contracting opportunities and notices to industry partners and the general public. ASFI provides industry partners with a single Army entry point and a simplified method for conducting new business opportunities searches.

1515

Thank you for attending!

Questions?

Next Webinar – April 1 at 1 p.m.

GSA Schedule Audit Issues& Top 10 Compliance Risks

Register at winvale.com