Growing your FY23 pipeline: Five sources of actionable market knowledge

October 5, 2022 by Leave a comment

By Kevin P. Young, Principal Marketing Intelligence Analyst

I have been fortunate to have a “first career” in print journalism–New York Daily News, Gannett Newspapers / USA TODAY and The Associated Press–where we learned immediately that no one source of information, whether “primary” or “secondary,” is acceptable; that confirmations and validations are critical.

The same dynamic holds true in our federal government industry, where news, notes and rumors run like unabated streams–and information must be confirmed and validated to call it true and “actionable” market knowledge.

In federal fiscal year 2023, which just kicked off on October 1, there are myriad contacting opportunities for GovCons of all shapes, sizes and disciplines–from the normal federal budget programs and cycles–to existing and new procurement vehicles, such as Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPA), Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), and Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts; to the significant programs recently announced by the current administration: The five-year, $1.2 trillion Critical Infrastructure agreement and the $860 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) commitment.

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Here’s what to expect at the end of the fiscal year. (Hint: It’s going to be more chaotic)

August 1, 2017 by 1 Comment

Chris Wiedemannfederal budget, fiscal year, procurementBy Chris Wiedemann, consultant

The end of the federal fiscal year is just around the corner and it always brings its share of chaos as agencies scramble to make the most out of their “use it or lose it” money. This year will be no different.

In fact, given the truncated nature of this year’s omnibus funding bill, the situation on the buy-side has become even more chaotic, as customers try to move through FY17 appropriations and secure FY18 budget requests at the same time.

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What is a contract vehicle?

February 23, 2017 by 1 Comment

what-isChris Wiedemann_65 x 85By Chris Wiedemann, consultant

Last month, I began our “What is…?” series by looking at the very basics of government contracting. However, that information can only get you so far – knowing the size of the market doesn’t tell you how to capture any of it.

To that end, today’s post is going to look at one of the building blocks of selling technology – or anything else – to the federal government: contract vehicles.

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Why GWACs Are A Good Bet

March 15, 2016 by Leave a comment

US Flag, Capitol Building and MoneyBob Laclede 100x135by Bob Laclede, Vice President, Channels

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has dusted off a 2011 policy for stamping out “unnecessary” government-wide acquisition contracts. With so much time left to do business in FY 2016, it’s time to review the fundamentals of a good GWAC strategy. And a few of the techniques manufacturers can use to maintain or even boost their federal sales even if they don’t have a prime contract on one of the main GWACs.

What I’m suggesting may sound obvious, yet I’ve heard so many manufacturers over the years complain that they’re blocked out of this or that agency or requirement because they miscalculated their GWAC strategy. Read more of this post

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Contract Consolidation: All You Need to Know, but Were Afraid to Ask

November 19, 2014 by Leave a comment

Christopher Wiedemann_headshot-65 x 85by Chris Wiedemann, Senior Analyst

SomethingContract that we’ve all heard about over the last few years, and particularly in the last year or so, is a trend toward contract consolidation. Consolidation efforts aren’t targeted at IT only, but are being put into practice across the entire government. Acquisition personnel and business owners are pointing to duplicative contracts and inadequate procurement methods as a major driver of unnecessary government spending and inefficiency. The solution, we’ve been told, is consolidation of common requirements into larger contract vehicles, like multi-agency contracts (MACs) or government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs); this would enable the government to buy smarter
and focus more on achieving mission needs. There are some data points that seem to indicate consolidation is in the works – more and more bids are being received for each MAC task order, for example, and we’re also seeing much more competition for small business set-asides.

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