INTRODUCTION — Since this week is another week waiting anxiously for NITAAC to release CIO-SP4, I’m going to relate all the topics in this newsletter to this upcoming GWAC and how you can successfully bid and win; both the GWAC and Task Orders.
Get ready folks, it’s about to get real in this town. The $40B GWAC we’ve all been waiting for is around the corner.
CIO-SP4 FINAL RFP RELEASE DATE ANNOUNCED — If you haven’t already seen this update from NITAAC, you should download this page, print it and study it. This is the latest full-scope release of information from NITAAC and it covers dates, schedules, proposal phases, page limits and more.
This update from NITAAC says the Final RFP will be released on Friday April 16th with proposals due on or about May 7th, 2021. I personally expect the due to slip into early June when amendments and Q’s & A’s are taken into account. How long has it been since a large IDIQ or GWAC didn’t get extended several times? I can’t remember when.
NITAAC still views CIO-SP as a Healthcare vehicle. Note this section from the update.
Health IT Capabilities Most Important
Technical Proposal Most Important: While price is important, the technical proposal is more important.
Health IT is Paramount: Health IT capabilities take precedence over business.
Best Value Theorem: We want the best-of-the-best in health IT. We may award to an offeror who has a better technical score, even though their pricing might be higher.
NOTE that when NITAAC refers to Technical Proposal; they mostly mean Corporate Experience and scoring elements that will be evaluated in Phase 1. After you pass Phases 1 and 2 of the evaluation, they are assuming you can write a Management Plan and a Task Area 1 response.
Proposal Page Counts. Don’t let the small page counts fool you. This will be a serious proposal. Winning bids will include all of the 30 possible corporate experience references to support your scoring sheet. Each of these needs supporting documentation to validate requested points. Your proposal could have nearly 100 pieces of content to organize, edit and produce. Start gathering award documents, FPDS reports, SOWs, and other customer-supplied documents to substantiate your points on the scoring sheet. If you can’t prove you deserve the points, don’t ask NITAAC to take your word for it.
Proposal Accelerators and Templates. I also mentioned these items last week. If you need outlines, technical task area 1 ideas, management volume content or a rocking, multi-document Pricing, Narrative and Labor Rate build-up package, check out our CIO-SP4 Proposal Accelerators. These are great products that are built to accelerate your proposal efforts and save you time and money getting on the GWAC. We leveraged all our IDIQ and GWAC experience to build these accelerators to help you get the job done well and fast.
Teaming Help. As far as we know there will be few restrictions on teaming and the use of subcontractor past performance for points. What I laid out last week as a Hybrid JV/Subk teaming arrangement still plays. Consider Joint Ventures and Prime/Sub arrangements as a combined teaming strategy to help you win CIO-SP4.
If you’re still building your team for CIO-SP4, you don’t need me to tell you that time is running out. We can help in several areas.
1. Several weeks ago we stood up a Teaming Request Database to allow primes and subcontractors to submit their corporate information and teaming needs into a shared database. At last count, we have about 30 firms that have participated. Each vendor that enters information gets a free copy of the database in an Excel spreadsheet. Submit your information today and I’ll send out a new copy of the database Friday.
2. We’re building a new procurement database — FedPipeline — that will be bringing some innovative search features to the GovCon market. Because we’ve linked FPDS, SAM.gov and beta.sam.gov data, we have a database that tells us who the strong players are in each market by size and socio-economic status. We just need to ask the database the right questions!
In anticipation of our beta release, I’m happy to offer teaming reports as a free service just for asking. Just send me an email (info@rturner.net) with what you’re looking for and we’ll query our database for a list of partners to support your bid.
I need to know (a) SB or OTSB; (b) Socio-economic status; (c) Minimum contract size; and (d) Number of prime references by Department or Agency. We will take your inputs and query our database of 55 million records and give you a list of possible teammates with contact information and links to their registration page on beta.sam.gov. Just reply to this email and tell me what you’re looking for; happy to help!
NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT TRAINING. I’m partnering with some of my most trusted colleagues to launch several new series of training modules in BD, Capture, Proposal Development, Leadership and GovCon Operations.
The first series of training courses is recorded, edited, produced and ready for download on our new e-commerce site. Presented by my good friend Kathy Lentz at Federal Insights , this new series – Winning BD Strategies & Techniques – covers 9 topics that will improve your game in the GovCon market.
- Using LinkedIn to Increase PWin%
- Choosing Federal Agency Targets
- Building a Federal Account Plan
- Gathering Opportunity Intelligence
- Winning Pipelines
- Breaking Into a Federal Agency
- Teaming and Partnering
- Beating an Incumbent
- Effective Color Teams
These pre-recorded training webinars will help you create and improve your processes to win business in the federal government. These practitioner processes have been developed by Kathy Lentz, Federal Insights after selling to the federal government for over 40 years across most federal agencies including Defense.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn first-hand from one of our industry’s most successful Business Developers who has led the capture of hundreds of millions of dollars in new contract wins; with a focus on Healthcare and Healthcare IT! Kathy has been instrumental in shaping the market for many large procurements. In these sessions, she gives you the exact strategies she’s still using today to help client’s win business.
SUMMARY. If you’re planning to bid CIO-SP4, get organized now.
If you need a copy of the Draft Scoring sheet that auto-calculates, send me an email; happy to share my copy with you. Let your scoring sheet guide your bid and teaming decisions.
Start collecting your corporate experience and supporting documentation. 30 projects means you’ll have well over 100 pieces of content to catalog and organize.
Do you need proposal support that doesn’t come with a hefty price-tag; check out our accelerators; First-rate products that will save you time and money.
Still looking for teammates — explore the two options I mentioned above. We can help you make new friends in industry and fill out your teams.
GovCon INSIGHTs Issue 1 covered a host of topics relative to CIO-SP4.
Once the FInal RFP drops, we will have an update webinar that unpacks the details and discusses the ambiguities and problems with the solicitation. We hope to be able to turn this new webinar around quickly.
If you need Proposal Managers, Tech Writers, Compliance Checks, or other consulting support, send me an email now. Resources will be hard to find once we get past the drop of the final RFP.
CONCLUSION: I hope these newsletters help you grow your business. Send me your thoughts, feedback and ideas for future issues.
In the words of King Solomon, “whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
Wishing you all the best!
—
Robert Turner
(202) 480-9706 | robert@rturner.net
FedPipeline | www.fedpipeline.com
rTurner Consulting | www.rturner.net
GovCon Business Development, Proposals, and Accounting Services
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