Don’t eliminate yourself from procurement awards by making these mistakes

December 6, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Kevin P. Young, Principal Market Intelligence Analyst

As I mentioned in my last blog, “Growing your FY23 pipeline,” the new fiscal year, which kicked off on October 1, offers a myriad of contacting opportunities for GovCons of all shapes, sizes and disciplines. From the standard federal budget programs to existing and new procurement vehicles, such as Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs), Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), and Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts, there is plenty of opportunity out there.

New programs earlier announced by the Administration provide substantial funding, including the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the $860 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

Here are a few key, albeit sobering, facts about – and recommendations for – effective federal government procurement:

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Commerciality: Establishing pricing to the federal government

October 20, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Skyler Handl, Corporate Counsel, Public Sector

Selling to public sector customers is different from selling to the commercial market. For example, how much do you know about the government acquisition concept of “commerciality”? To preserve margins in government sales, you need to know how to comply with this concept.

Public sector customers typically require vendors to disclose cost data and then negotiate a profit, or “fee.” This flows through the entire government acquisition supply chain.

Commerciality was introduced as an exception to the general rule of cost disclosure to streamline government acquisition of commercial technology through requirements aligned to commercial market practices. Commercial technology is vetted by the open market, which mitigates risk, and reduces the expense of government acquisitions as development costs are spread across the commercial market. You wouldn’t expect to pay a one-time non-recurring engineering fee for the latest cellphone; it is baked into the price.

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ESG contract stipulations are becoming common. Are you prepared?

June 23, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Skyler Handl, Corporate Counsel, Public Sector

How familiar are you with new Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policies in the U.S. and abroad? For public sector companies, staying current with these new requirements will be an important part of remaining competitive.

ESG has become popular recently in the commercial investor market, but it actually has been a long-time staple in government contracting. For decades the U.S. government promoted public policy aligned to ESG objectives through the inclusion of contract and subcontract requirements to combat human trafficking (FAR 52.222-50), promote small and diverse business (FAR 52.219-9) and to utilize energy efficient products (FAR 52.223-15). Social and Governance objectives have historically impacted contractor responsibility and qualification under FAR Part 9, and have been weighted factors in evaluation criteria during best value competitions with specific attention for exceptional small and diverse business plans.

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Vaccine requirements for federal contractors: The latest Task Force guidance basics

October 7, 2021 by Leave a comment

By Jeff Ellinport, Division Counsel

As anticipated in my last blog, on September 24, 2021, the White House’s Safer Federal Workforce Task Force issued its expected guidance implementing the vaccination requirements for federal prime contractors and subcontractors. This action was pursuant to Executive Order 14042 (Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors) that President Biden issued on September 9.

While the guidance directly answered some questions posed in my last blog, it also created others. Here are the basics.

Requirements

The guidance sets out three main requirements:

  1. COVID-19 vaccination of covered contractor employees, except in limited circumstances where an employee is legally entitled to an accommodation
  2. Compliance by individuals, including covered contractor employees and visitors, with the guidance related to masking and physical distancing while in covered contractor workplaces
  3. Designation by covered contractors of a person or persons to coordinate COVID-19 workplace safety efforts at covered contractor workplaces
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Make it easier for your Army customers: How the ITES-SW2 helps you sell into this market

August 25, 2021 by Leave a comment

By Tara Franzonello, GSA Programs Consultant

Are you selling or planning to sell to the Army? Then you need to add your company and its products to the Information Technology Enterprise Solutions – Software 2 contract.

Nearly 3% of DoD IT contract spending in FY 2020 flowed through an ITES contract – that’s $1.64 billion. The Army believes that number will increase over the next couple of years.  

The ITES-SW2 contract is part of the Army’s Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) program. It is a mandatory source for commercial IT hardware and software purchases. Here’s how the two connect:

The CHESS program’s mission is to be the primary source to “support the Warfighter’s Information Dominance Objectives” by developing, implementing and managing commercial IT contracts that provide “enterprise-wide net-centric hardware, software and supporting services to the Army.” 

CHESS contracts provide IT products and services that comply with U.S. Army Network Enterprise Technology Command, Army and DoD policy and standards. Army commercial hardware and software buyers must use CHESS contracts first, no matter the dollar value.

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Building your state contracting toolbox through OMNIA Partners, Public Sector

August 4, 2021 by Leave a comment

By Chauncey Kehoe, SLED Contracts Manager

State, local and education agencies have many paths to procurement and numerous contract vehicles to choose from. Some contracts, however, do not allow for reseller participation or post award modifications to add new product lines; they leave the customer with no way to purchase the technology they need from the vendor they want.

The solution is for resellers and manufacturers to build out a contracts toolbox for when these situations arise. Your toolbox should include a variety of mandatory statewide and cooperative contracts for you to suggest to your customers. This multi-part series will introduce you to a few key statewide contracts and cooperatives for your toolbox.

To start, we will explore OMNIA Partners, Public Sector, who I featured in a recent webinar. OMNIA Partners, Public Sector is one of the largest and most experienced cooperative purchasing organizations dedicated to public sector procurement.

immixGroup is fortunate to have an award for Software Solutions and Services under the OMNIA Partners’ portfolio. Why should this cooperative be in your toolbox? Let’s dive into the benefits of the Software Solutions and Services contract:

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DOD ESI BPAs: What CETA Is and Why It Is Important

May 1, 2020 by Leave a comment

By Derek Giarratana, Supplier Manager

Many of you are familiar with DOD ESI BPAs, but you’re probably not as familiar with the CETA designation and what it means.

Only one vendor has received the CETA designation thus far. Recently, the Navy PEO-EIS designated the Tanium DOD ESI BPA, held by immixGroup, as the first DOD Core Enterprise Technology Agreement (CETA). The CETA designation means that this purchasing vehicle is mandatory for all DOD customers who want to procure Tanium products and services.

DOD Enterprise Software Initiative

Before we dive into CETA and what it means for DOD procurement, let’s briefly talk about the DOD ESI program, managed by the PMW 290 Project Office. Read more of this post

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If You Sell to DOD, Pay Attention to CMMC

February 6, 2020 by Leave a comment

By Troy Fortune, Vice President & General Manager

You’ve probably heard that the Department of Defense (DOD) recently released the official version 1.0 of its new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC 1.0).

This is one of the hottest topics in government contracting right now and immixGroup is following developments very closely. And, it will affect everyone in our industry who sells to DOD – resellers, distributors and OEMs. 

As a quick refresher, this is a cybersecurity standard that all contractors must meet if they want to do business with DOD. As we’ve discussed before in a previous blog, the standards themselves are taken from existing ones. With CMMC 1.0, we now have more clarity on what the 5 levels of CMMC entail: Read more of this post

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FedRAMP Authorization: The Ins and Outs of DIY vs. Outsourcing

December 17, 2019 by Leave a comment

By Ryan Gilhooley, Enterprise Cloud Solutions Manager

Software vendors and federal systems integrators continually wrestle with authorization for their cloud services through the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP). It’s fair to ask whether your company really needs FedRAMP authorization at all?

The short answer is yes: Applications have to be FedRAMP compliant before they can be sold to federal government agencies as software as a service (SaaS). FedRAMP authorized applications also are advertised on the FedRAMP Marketplace, which is where government agencies go to determine the types of solutions available to meet their requirements.

The real question is how to handle the cost and complexity of the technical, compliance and documentation challenges of FedRAMP authorization. Should it be handled in-house or should some or all of the process be outsourced? Read more of this post

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GSA Making Headlines: Why You Need to Pay Attention

June 11, 2019 by 1 Comment

By Adam Hyman, Director, Government Programs

If you haven’t noticed by now, you may have been too focused on the final season of Game of Thrones. However, it’s definitely time to turn your attention to what’s going on at the General Services Administration (GSA).

Over the course of the last year, GSA has been making headlines across the federal procurement marketspace by reaching agreement with various agencies to pull into the Schedule 70 program (via BPAs), former agency-specific requirements and IDIQs. While some may argue this is simply a grab for additional contract fees, it makes holding a schedule contract a critical prerequisite for even more federal opportunities. Recent and major opportunities have included:

  • 2nd Generation Information Technology (2GIT) BPA, formerly NETCENTS (valued at $5.5B)
  • Defense Enterprise Office Solutions (DEOS) BPA (valued at $8.2B)
  • Information Technology Supplies and Support Services (ITSSS) BPA (valued at $5B)
  • NOAA Mission Information Technology Services (NMITS) BPA (valued at $2.1B)

Approximately $20 billion in estimated business is expected to funnel through the Schedule 70 program. This doesn’t even include GSA’s plans for a DEOS sister BPA or the Civilian Enterprise Office Solutions (CEOS) BPA! Read more of this post

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