Our experts have preached for years on end that companies should be exceptionally cautious about bidding on single award, public bids. The reasons for caution are: One or more companies have most likely pre-sold most public bids The bidding costs are usually high. Losing can have a negative impact on company morale. In our view, the opposite is Read the Rest…

More frequently each week Fedmarket receives call from prospective customers that their ongoing contract will be rebid through a GSA schedule contract. Most often the original contract was awarded to them through a public bid. The government realizes that incumbent contractors normally have a significant edge when their reoccurring contract is rebid. Realizing this inherent Read the Rest…

Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts generally run for terms from 3 to 10 years although recent research done at FedBizOpps indicates that 5 and 10 year periods of performance are becoming much more common. For the most part, competitors in the market covered by the IDIQ are shut out for the duration of the IDIQ. Read the Rest…

GSA Schedules are unique in that purchases are transacted directly between the federal agency requiring a product or service and the contractor. Any federal agency, anywhere in the world, can place an order using the prices, ordering procedures, and terms and conditions specified in the Schedule contract. Once a need is identified, the contracting officer Read the Rest…

Understanding the nuances of federal proposals is analogous to understanding a new language and culture. The world of writing federal proposals can only be fathomed by living in that world for a number of years. Even experienced federal contractors underestimate the amount of time and skill required to produce a compliant and competitive federal proposal. Inexperienced federal contractors Read the Rest…

Benefits of Holding a GSA Schedule You will have reduced the level of competition to only those contractors that also hold Schedule contracts. Your proposal-writing costs will decrease. By holding a GSA Schedule contract, your company will not have to bid on as many publicly posted opportunities. Your sales staff can close a deal within Read the Rest…

I wrote my first proposal in 1967 for Booz, Allen, and Hamilton; that’s 40 plus years of proposal writing. I have kept track, and I note the following: Almost every win was a project that I pre-sold or was the incumbent contract responding to a rebid of an ongoing project. I hated writing proposals. Everyone Read the Rest…

A recent Inspector General (IG) audit showed the General Services Administration (GSA) some stunning news; they were woefully shortchanged by GSA vendors.  In 2011 only 36% of fees due were collected by GSA contracting officers, the fault appears to be shared by GSA vendors many of whom lack adequate systems for reporting.  GSA was underpaid Read the Rest…