FedBizOpps Filtering Made Easier

Posted in: Blog, Using Bidspeed, What's New on November 10, 2009 | No Comments

We’ve just released an update to the site that makes filtering the list of FedBizOpps opportunities even simpler. First, you’ll notice a handy welcome page when you first log in. Right in the center of the page is a link that says “Search for FedBizOpps Opportunities.”

Next, the list of opportunities has 3 links:

• All Opportunities – this is the default view of the list. You can narrow the list to appropriate items using the normal, filter-by-form capabilities described here: http://bit.ly/4x6DLU.
• My Account Opportunities – this list shows opportunities filtered by your company’s main classification code. If you haven’t set your classification code there is a link at the top of the page.
• Recently Added – this list shows opportunities created in the last 10 days. Again, you can add filter’s by using the normal filter-by-form capabilities.

As always, we’re doing everything we can to provide our users with an application that helps them find, manage, and win government deals. Let us know what you think – we’re always grateful to hear from our customers.

How to attach documents to an opportunity

Posted in: Blog, Help, Using Bidspeed on | No Comments

Part of the value of Bidspeed is that it keeps track of everything related to an opportunity. Most of the time, you’ll want to attach everything –email, proposals, designs, and any material you send to the contracting officer. This allows you to revisit the opportunity later for reference purposes and even reuse documents on another proposal.

Bidspeed allows you to attach any type of document and store it along with the opportunity. Documents stored in Bidspeed are secure, only available to authorized users of your account, and automatically indexed for searching purposes.

Attaching a document is easy. To attach a document, first navigate to the opportunity. Next, click on the “New” link on the upper right corner of the “Documents” panel.

Now, from the “New Document” form, click on the browse button, select the file from your file system, type a description and click save.

Bidspeed supports full text searching of documents. To search for a document, type the prefix “doc:” plus the text you want to search for in the search box at the top of the page and press enter.

What’s New – October

Posted in: Blog, Using Bidspeed, What's New on November 3, 2009 | No Comments

We’ve added several helpful features into the application in October. Here’s some highlights:

• Interested Vendors List – When you add an opportunity to your watchlist Bidspeed will read the interested vendors from FedBizOpps and put them in a list on the main opportunity (Watchlist Item) page.
  
  
• Calendar View – Items on your watchlist can now be viewed on a calendar. To get here, click on ‘Calendar’ on the Home page or ‘Calendar’ on the ‘Watchlist’ menu. The opportunities shown are Open Opportunities. You can click on an individual item and it will take you to the details.
  
  
• Attach Contacts – From the detail page of a watchlist item you can now click the ‘add contacts’ button. This adds contacts to your personal list of contacts and attaches them to the current opportunity. If you click directly on the contact you can send them email directly from within Bidspeed. The advantage to this is that Bidspeed will keep track of your last contact and even saves the email that you sent them.
  
  
• Create your own opportunities – so the deal you’re working on ISN’T in FedBizOpps? No problem. From the Home page click ‘Create a new Opportunity’ and fill out the information.
  
  

It’s a new product, and we’re dedicated to making it work the way you want it to, really, so you’ll have to keep those comments / requests coming.

DOD’s New Open Source Guidelines

Posted in: Blog, News on October 30, 2009 | No Comments

New Defense Department guidelines released October 16^th put open-source software on the same level as commercial software and urges DOD agencies to evaluate it on an equal basis with proprietary offerings. Read the memo here: http://bit.ly/3g8o1u.

“To effectively achieve its missions, the Department of Defense must develop and update its software-based capabilities faster than ever, to anticipate new threats and respond to continuously changing requirements,” wrote acting DOD Chief Information Officer David Wennergren, in a cover letter to the guidance, which was issued Oct. 16.

Military services procuring software should regard open-source as just another form of commercial software, the guidance states. When evaluating possible software choices, the agency should consider the benefits of open-source, such as how the code is peer-reviewed, the freedom from potential vendor-lock in, potential licensing issues about reusing the software and the potential cost-savings.

The guidance also states that the programming code of open-source software is “data” as defined by DOD Directive 8320.02. Because “open-source licenses authorize widespread dissemination of the licensed software,” the military can share open-source programs across the entire department.

The guidance also clarifies that any changes a service makes to an open-source program do not necessarily have to be shared with the public, though changes that do not compromise national security, such as code fixes and enhancements, should be shared wherever possible.

Schwarzenegger’s Puzzling Veto

Posted in: Blog on October 29, 2009 | No Comments

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger typically attaches a message to bills he signs or vetoes telling lawmakers why he took the action.

Democratic San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who had sponsored the bill, actually received two messages: the veto letter itself and a not-so-subtle rebuke creatively hidden within it.

Like a find-the-word puzzle, the second message was visible by stringing together the first letter of each line down the left-hand margin. It consisted of a common four-letter vulgarity followed by the letters “y-o-u.”

Read the Huffington Post Article: http://bit.ly/4ypiqd

SAIC Announces Record Level of Small Business Sub-contracts

Posted in: Blog, Government Contracting, News on October 26, 2009 | No Comments

Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced today (October 26) that its small business strategy has yielded a record level of small business utilization for Government Fiscal Year 2009 (GFY 09), which ended in September. During GFY 09, SAIC awarded approximately $2 billion in subcontracts to small businesses, reflecting a 21 percent increase from last year. This included approximately $727 million awarded to women- and minority-owned firms, and more than $335 million awarded to veteran-owned businesses. (Read More: http://bit.ly/2L2RIy)

SAIC is a prime government contractor (Fortune 500) with about $10 billion a year in revenue. If you are a small business, working as subcontractor for a prime like SAIC is one of the better ways to land a federal contract. However, they aren’t out there actively looking for you. If you find a federal opportunity that makes sense for your company’s products or services it may make sense to approach some of the larger primes and establish a contact in their small business or mentor program.

Regardless, you need to be looking for the opportunities all the time, especially for solicitations that have a small business set-aside element. Sometimes a small-business set-aside can be an opportunity for a relationship with a prime contractor. If you’ve found an opportunity that’s perfect for your company but could see needing help to deliver, a relationship with a prime contractor as your sub-contractor could be a creative way to make your first federal deal.

Good News for Small Businesses From the US Senate

Posted in: Blog on October 12, 2009 | 1 Comment

There was some good news coming out of a Senate hearing last week, especially if you are a small business – As of Oct. 2, nearly 26 percent of all federal stimulus contracting dollars, or more than $4 billion, was awarded to small businesses.

Joe Jordan, associate administrator for government contracting business development at the Small Business Administration, testified last week before the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. The transcript can be found here: http://bit.ly/2eWQDm.

The Recovery Act does not set a specific goal for small business contracting, but in most cases, agencies have been instructed to follow the government’s annual goal of awarding 23 percent of all prime contract dollars to small firms.

“Put simply, this is a win-win situation,” Jordan said. “Small businesses get increased volume, sales and hires. They get a lift to be competitive in the global marketplace and help lead the nation toward economic recovery. In addition, federal agencies get to work with the most innovative, nimble and responsive companies.”

The Recovery Act spending totals for the various socioeconomic and disadvantaged categories also have been encouraging, Jordan testified. For example, small disadvantaged businesses have received 11 percent of stimulus contracts, exceeding the goal of 5 percent, he said.

The only subcategory in which agencies have failed to meet the overall goal is women-owned small businesses, which have received 4 percent of all Recovery contracts as opposed to the goal of 5 percent, Jordan said. To increase that figure, SBA developed its first online training module specifically geared toward women in contracting. Read more about the course here: http://bit.ly/3zd5NQ.

Jordan testified further that “agencies are working to make procurement information available and accessible through http://www.recovery.gov, and promote http://www.fedbizopps.gov as a database where small businesses can access contracting opportunities.”

This Year Is Looking Very Stimulating

Posted in: Blog, Government Contracting on October 8, 2009 | No Comments

The federal fiscal year started on Oct. 1. This means that the fourth-quarter (July-Sept) was a spending spree for federal buyers. If you’ve been following the trends on FedBizOpps you’ll notice that the number of new early stage solicitations (Pre-solicitation and Sources Sought) is starting to rise. The fourth-quarter saw mostly notifications of money that was being spent – e.g. Sole Source, Special Notice, and Re-awards of one type or another.

When the dust settles and the final numbers are reported for the 2009 federal fiscal year, spending will have topped $550 billion. Fiscal year 2010 is likely to look much the same. On top of that, the Obama Administration has set a goal of spending 70% of the stimulus money by this time next year. That’s $592 billion. So far, only 47% has been allocated for specific purposes; of that only 16% has been spent. That leaves over $314 billion of new money that has yet to be allocated.

This year is looking very stimulating.

Remember, the stimulus money is actually small compared to the everyday purchases that federal, state, and local governments make. What’s more important – the government buys everything. The question is whether you’re willing to do what it takes to win the business.

So, the money is out there – you just have to do your research, choose the correct opportunities to pursue, and start responding. Our suggestion – start with a simple process.

• Do your research – follow the deals on FedBizOpps, read about government spending, talk to potential partners. Get involved early – you have almost nothing to lose by responding to a Sources Sought solicitation – if nothing else, it will help you tailor your message to government buyers.
• Choose wisely – First, if you are small business, look first at small business set asides, your chances of winning these are higher. Second, stay centered – there isn’t a need to stretch in most cases, look for the deals that fit your company.
• Respond – read the RFP, follow the rules, and above all, respond on time. For RFPs, if you don’t have time to prepare a reasonable response (quote) you probably are better off moving on to the next deal. If you’re involved early (and you WILL be, right?) ask questions before you respond. There isn’t any need to guess – if it’s unclear, ask.

Agencies to spend more on IT in 2010

Posted in: Blog, Business of Government, Government Contracting on October 6, 2009 | 1 Comment

The government research company INPUT announced at a webinar on Tuesday that information technology spending at civilian agencies should climb significantly next year, but much of the money will be spent renewing or replacing existing contracts.

The total value of the 20 largest federal IT projects in 2010 is 50 percent higher than the previous year, increasing from about $120 billion to $180 billion.

The majority (all but two) of the projects are contracts that will be re-competed (which is good if you are new to government contracting, especially if you are a small business) or are consolidations of existing pacts (which is good for you if you are a potential sub-contractor).

The best and largest example is the Homeland Security Department’s EAGLE II contract which will replace the EAGLE contract as DHS’ preferred vehicle for procuring IT services. This is a huge contract – INPUT expects DHS to award EAGLE II during the second quarter of fiscal 2010 with a ceiling of $45 billion. The original contract had about $2.8 billion in business during fiscal 2007 and $3.3 billion during fiscal 2008.

DHS is choosing to re-compete EAGLE II rather than exercising the original contract’s two option periods because many of the small business vendors originally awarded under EAGLE have outgrown their small business and disadvantaged designations.

Here’s the really good news if you are a small business that provides IT services: DHS is looking for a new set of small business vendors for EAGLE II. The contract will include separate tracks for different classes of vendors, including small businesses, service-disabled owned companies, 8(a) certified organizations, and firms located in HubZones.

If you want to know more about EAGLE II, you might read the recently posted (September 22^nd) copy of the vendor day questions – (https://www.fbo.gov/utils/view?id=6a0edab4eb0b1e83a3f46ff0cced4b7d). In Bidspeed, search for DHSEAGLE2-UNRESTRICTED in the global search.

Why A Well-Defined Process Is Essential To Government Contracting Success

Posted in: Blog, Government Contracting on October 2, 2009 | 1 Comment

The dramatic downturn in the global economy and a change in government administration have created an unprecedented business environment for today’s government contractors. Whether you are just getting started or preparing for an increasingly competitive marketplace, it is critical for government contractors to have well-structured processes and technologies in place, especially when it comes to business development – that is, new business development.

Government contracting opportunities can seem so plentiful that the prospect can quickly become overwhelming. The federal government alone spends hundreds of billions a year in a normal year. After the stimulus plan passed, those numbers just got boosted by several hundred billion more.

Of course, to be successful in your government contracting effort, you are going to need to follow some sort of well-defined process. You still have to target the correct prospects (agencies) and qualify the correct leads.

We’re not saying that your process has to be a complex process, we’re just saying that you need one. It isn’t just us that’s saying this either, according to an article in Harvard Business Review (Understanding What Your Sales Manager is Up Against), using a standardized, well-defined, business development process increases a company’s ability to accurately target prospects by 20% and properly qualify leads 30%.

Truthfully, only the largest (and most successful) government contractors have invested in a “well-defined” process and a technology solution that helps their business development people follow the process. That doesn’t mean you have to be a large company or even a successful government contractor to have this magic of a “well-defined process.” Even small companies CAN be successful if they follow a few basic rules:

• Start now. Last month there were over 15,000 new federal opportunities submitted. These are real leads with a value greater than $25,000. The opportunity is there but you need to get started.
• Choose wisely. Easy to say, we know. You will not win using a shotgun approach. Read the RFP and decide if it makes sense. Keep track of who the contracting officer is and ask them questions. Keep track of the questions. Keep track of the answers.
• The “Hail Mary” approach does not work. You cannot paste together a bunch of company boilerplate, pick a price based on what you’d LIKE to be paid, and expect that the contracting officer will pick you because you know that you can do the job. You’ll have to invest a little time, simple as that.
• Find out why you didn’t win. So you didn’t get the contract? Ask why. Every. Single. Time. In fact, contracting officers are required to “de-brief” you on their selection. You’ll have to ask nicely but most of them are humans and are willing to fill you in. So ask. And, keep track of the answers.
• Write it down. That response document you just spent a week working on is valuable intellectual property. Keep it around – somewhere safe and where it’s easily shared. You should also keep exactly one copy – the FINAL one.
• Expand your thinking. Federal opportunities aren’t the only government contracting available. Every government entity – state, local, city, county, even local civic centers and libraries, have some sort of procurement process. Sure, it can be a little overwhelming to find this data, but it’s out there and once you have it, the process is exactly the same.
• Get some help. If you run your own small business then you are probably already smart, capable, and really, really busy. So take the help where you can. Our suggestion – start by using Bidspeed. Four reasons: One: it’s super simple. Two: it’s part of a “well-defined” process. Three: it’s cheap. Four: it works.