Techniques and News: How to dominate IDIQ’s competition and Minority contracts threats

Before the article… (A couple of announcements you might find useful)

• Workshop in 1.5 weeks: Foundations of Federal Business Development. September 11, 2012, 9.00am-5:00pm, Rockville, MD. Gain understanding of the Federal Business Development (BD) lifecycle, and learn how to navigate the U.S. Government marketplace, perform strategic BD planning, market analysis, federal marketing, pipeline development, opportunity qualification, and maximize your Pwin. Only 4 seats left: www.ostglobalsolutions.com/federal-business-development-training.php

• Seminar that same week: Preparing Winning Multiple Award and Task Order Proposals. September 12-13, 2012, 9.00am-5.00pm, Rockville, MD. Everything you need to know to prepare winning multiple award contracts (IDIQs/MACs) and the short-turnaround, page-limited task order proposals that follow. This class will show you how to dominate task order competition and become the number one winner to maximize earnings from your IDIQs. Learn more or register at www.ostglobalsolutions.com/multiple-award-proposals.php

Article 1

Dominate Your Competition And Win More Task Orders

Despite IDIQs being a way for the government to reduce open competition and for contractors to maximize win probability, many companies fail to benefit from IDIQs. Do any of these scenarios sound like you?

• A prime spends a pretty penny to win the IDIQ vehicle, and then either doesn’t win anything or wins too little to justify all the effort and expense… all the while watching its competitors’ exponential growth.
• A sub on an IDIQ is excited to be part of a team, but later finds themselves in a reactive mode. They receive from the prime a trickle of task order requests they can respond to, but their success rate is low because they are way too late to prepare a winning proposal. Sometimes they don’t hear from the prime for months at a time.

Are you prepared to do what it takes to not only win a Task Order or two, but to become a number one contractor on each IDIQ you hold? Would you like to get all the business that you possibly could, to dominate the competition, regardless of whether you are a sub or a prime? If so, it might be highly beneficial for you and/or your colleagues to attend our upcoming class that shows you the roadmap to master IDIQs and task orders – with all the details including process charts and tools. Preparing Winning Multiple Award and Task Order Proposals course will take place on September 12-13, or November 14-15, 2012 (Rockville, MD). Olessia Smotrova-Taylor will teach this master class herself. Her track record of building a IDIQ/task order shop for a top 10 federal contract cumulated with her team winning 100% of task orders released on a $500 Million IDIQ. Don’t miss early bird discount registration (expires 3 weeks before a class date). This workshop has limited seating creating an intimate class allowing you to focus on obtaining the answers specific to your situation, so claim your spot early. Learn more or register at www.ostglobalsolutions.com/multiple-award-proposals.php.

Article 2

Minority Contracts Threatened as U.S. Court Limits Preferences

By Alex Brown at OST Global Solutions, Inc.

Today, my inbox had an article that I simply did not expect. Bloomberg analysts (Nick Taborek, Kathleen Miller and Danielle Ivory) wrote an article about a court case filed in 1995 involving DynaLantic Corporation, a company that makes flight simulators and other military training equipment. DynaLantic contested a Navy plan to award a contract for a flight simulator through the preference program. Seventeen years later, on August 15^th of this year, a ruling barred the Pentagon from favoring a disadvantaged company for work on military simulators. This clearly sets an important precedent. Joe Hornyak of Holland & Knight LLP stated, “For the first time, a federal court is declaring an important program unconstitutional as applied to certain types of procurements.”

How does this affect small disadvantaged businesses? Essentially, companies ineligible for a program may seek to overturn awards by filing lawsuits. The Pentagon is on record saying that it is too early to say whether this will affect its policies. While it is true that this was a specific case for specific products and services, there is nothing in this case that limits the decision from moving to other lines of business and federal agencies. As in the old fable, you cannot close Pandora’s box once it is open.

P.S.: If you need Business Development, Capture Management, Proposal Management and Writing, Proposal Training Support, or rent a Proposal Office Space, please call us 301-384-3350 or email [email protected]. We have more than 900 fully vetted capture and proposal managers, technical writers, graphic artists, orals coaches, editors, subject matter experts, and other proposal support. We have supported 18 out of the top 20 Federal Contractors and have won $18 Billion since 2005.

Best,

OST Global Solutions, Inc. www.ostglobalsolutions.com.

Workshops and Seminars

Don’t miss early bird registration pricing – it ends 3 weeks before each class. Register at www.ostglobalsolutions.com/training/schedule

If you don’t find a class that suits your schedule, consider us for on-site corporate training at your company or for a webinar for your dispersed workforce if you have multiple locations.

Professional Proposal Tools and Self-Study Training

Order at www.ostglobalsolutions.com/training/self-study-courses

• Blueprint for Winning Government Contracts – Explains how to find opportunities, write winning proposals, and win multimillion dollar contracts to grow your small business in the federal market.
• Task Order Manual Template – Reusable professional toolset (electronic Word template) – instant download.
• Executive Summary Secrets – Self-study course (workbook and audio CD) to persuade evaluators to award the contract to you.
• How to Succeed as a Proposal Consultant – Tips to get more work, higher pay, and better clients – instant download.
• A Proposal Manager’s Essential Checklists – Reusable toolset for consistently successful proposal management and coordination.
• Proposal Resources Estimating Guide – Guide for determining required manpower and hours to calculate how much a proposal should cost.
• Six Strategies to Grow Aggressively in the Federal Market – Video course explaining how to succeed and grow in the highly competitive federal contracting market.

P.P.S.: Feel free to forward this newsletter to others who may find it useful. If you have received this from a colleague and would like to sign up yourself, here is where you can do it: www.ostglobalsolutions.com/eZine-signup.