Need For Agility Drives Large And Small Business New Technology Partnerships

" WASHINGTON TECHNOLOGY" By Scott Lee

"Smaller players and the larger contractors work together in a new model of agile programs. With successful mentorship and partnership programs, larger contractors gain access to contracts for which they would otherwise be ineligible."

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"Conversely, smaller contractors that lack the resources for federal procurements can break into this competitive marketplace by teaming with larger providers.

In today’s post-sequestration business climate, government contractors are continually challenged with shrinking margins, strong price competition and flat or decreased agency spending.

At the same time, new acquisition reform efforts aimed at streamlining and improving technology procurements are helping to ensure that agency CIOs are more involved in the process, and are responsible for the success or failure of all IT projects at their agency.

For the agency, the combination of these developments creates greater demand for technology collaboration and agile solution development.  With increased CIO involvement and improved agency coordination, programs should benefit by sharing common capabilities through inter-program collaboration.  At the same time, with a shift towards smaller, agile application solutions, as opposed to traditional grand-scale programs, agencies can lower the risk of cost overruns and schedule slippage.

For the large contractors supporting the agency, increased collaboration and more agile development increases the need to team with smaller innovative tech firms in emerging IT areas and then share those capabilities across programs.

For example, with the increasing need for sharing geospatial data across not only the Defense Department but also civilian agencies, contractors can help CIOs leverage their existing geographic software and imagery with available commercial-off-the-shelf solutions from smaller software companies, as opposed to developing custom applications.

When customization is required for success, the same small software companies can help large contractors fill highly specialized capability gaps without the need to directly acquire the innovation. Ultimately, with the right teaming arrangement, program outcomes are optimized which benefits all industry partners.

However, there are always challenges when it comes to developing the right teaming relationship. There is often a lack of transparency and mistrust in the majority of teaming relationships.

Many of these challenges come down to a lack of communication, and a misunderstanding of what each side brings to the table. For smaller specialized companies, it is easier to show their value propositions to both the government customer and the larger primes.

In today’s rapidly evolving government IT arena, these unique value propositions can be anything from spatial data management to mobility to the Internet of Things (IoT) to specialized cybersecurity offerings. These are the new innovation areas that are moving away from being “talked about” to actually being implemented.

In particular, spatial data collection and visualization is fundamental to decision support for all federal agencies.  There will never be a shortage in the need for insightful, actionable data for helping government become more responsive and effective. Government will always need on-demand decision support data about a wide-range of subjects – including disaster recovery, income levels, air quality, disease patterns, environmental incidents or population trends.

For larger contractors, it may be difficult to build out or acquire these types of capabilities in a rapid fashion.  Furthermore, with acquisition reform efforts like FITARA giving agency CIOs more input in the procurement process, it’s even more important for larger contractors to demonstrate greater value with the right teaming arrangements.

Ultimately, we all want successful business outcomes produced by the unmitigated success of our customer agencies. This can be achieved through nimble teaming relationships where the smaller players and the larger contractors work together in a new model of agile programs."

https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2016/04/08/insights-lee-teaming-arrangements.aspx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Scott Lee is VP Defense & Intelligence TerraGo

A native of the Birmingham, AL area, Scott Lee joined the US Navy in 1993 as an all-source and imagery analyst serving aboard the USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) in Norfolk, VA and USSTRATCOM in Omaha, NE. Following service and education in Omaha, he joined the ERDAS IMAGINE team in Atlanta, GA where he worked in several capacities to include training, project management and business development.

Five Winning Strategies For Small Business Federal Government Contractors

    Illustrations by istock

Acquisition officials are speeding up the acquisition process, issuing necessary requests for proposals to companies and executing contract awards quicker.  Marketing must be focused and fine-tuned. 

The sooner the government can receive the feedback from the draft RFP, the more likely it is that the service acquisition teams can adapt the programs to industry and economic realities.

Consider these strategic planning tips for the small enterprise in planning for the future.

STRATEGIES

1. Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Funds Are a Solid Bet for Service Contractors

Operation and Maintenance (O&M) appropriations are used to finance expenses not related to military personnel or Research, Development Test and Engineering (RDT&E). Types of expenses funded by O&M appropriations include: DoD civilian salaries, supplies and materials, maintenance of equipment, certain equipment items, real property maintenance, rental of equipment and facilities, food, clothing, and fuel. 

O&M funds are more easily justified in appropriations for "Keeping the Lights On" functions and often do not expire at the end of the government fiscal year.  If you are a service contractor target programs with (O&M) funding.  Look for service contracts being considered as set asides for small business on an O&M basis, sharpen your pencil and your best value marketing approach and chase them as a prime contractor or with a highly competitive industry team that needs your contribution to succeed.

2. Sharpen your Marketing Activities in Targeted Agencies and with Industry Teams to Get In Early on Agency Requirements.

Pre-solicitations are alerts to industry, attempts to gauge industry interest or a way of "Kicking the Can Down the Road" until funding becomes available.  These notices are an indirect way of saying, "Come Visit Me and tell me about your company", or “Send Me your capabilities statement (CAPE)”. The full formal notification will come out at a time to be determined by when the agency gets the funding and how much interest there is in the contractor community. A schedule for when the formal bid notice will occur is rarely posted.

Please read the following article carefully for further guidance:

Contract Opportunities

3.  If Your Firm has Small Business Designations, Focus Agency Personnel on Making Their Programs Set asides for Your Designation (Small, Veteran-Owned, Woman-Owned, Minority Owned, Etc.)

Pay particular attention to System for Award Management (SAM) Contract Opportunities "Sources Sought" or “Requests for draft RFP Comment” on programs that have yet to be formally solicited. Obtain an appointment to present your capabilities to the decision makers (not the gate keepers). 

Your Capability Statement

Be courteous to contracting officers but understand they are not the individuals who make source selections. Understand that once the requirement is formally published on SAM the gate closes on informal visits to the customer and the competition begins in the form of proposals by competitors.  It is too late at that point to set the program aside for a sole source or a small business designation if it has not occurred by the publication stage.

4.  Fine Tune Your Marketing Sensitivities to WHAT Agencies are Buying and HOW they are Buying Supplies and Services

You must determine what those needs are through market research, trade magazines, research on what they are buying on SAM as well as postings on their web site that are future-program oriented.

Subscribe to periodicals like "Washington Technology" and other trade magazines.  Observe agency trends and analysis that impact your market segment.  There have been set aside programs marketed by small companies through acquainting agency management and technical personnel with capabilities they were not aware existed in the small business community or fulfillment of needs they in fact did not know they had.

5. Teaming Is Critical 

Federal agencies will continue their natural penchant to bundle requirements to get the most out of their management dollar.  However, the bundles will become fewer and more competitive. Position your company with the best possible industry partners in view of the changing budget scene.

Synergism is paramount in teaming with any size company, whether in a lead or subcontracting role. There should be technical, management and market segment similarities between you and any company with whom you are considering teaming. Your prospective team member ideally will not be a direct competitor; rather a business in a related field with whom you share a mutual need for each other's contributions in pursuing large-scale projects.

Relationships must be developed with primes and other small businesses that can help you, team with you and keep you in mind as they search for success. That takes time, patience and open-minded, out of the box thinking. It also takes more than a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), a teaming agreement (TA) and a proposal to succeed. It takes dynamic marketing and communication with strong partners and hard, innovative work. Nice buzz words you say - but it is the truth and you have to find what that truth means to you.

Teaming In Federal Government Contracting

SUMMARY:

Success in the current small business government contracting environment will come through careful market research, focus on funding types that are sustainable appropriations, zeroing in on decision makers early with set-aside marketing techniques and teaming with strong industry partners. 

Managing Teaming Relationship Risk in Small Business Federal Government Contracting

Most small businesses, particularly those selling services, will encounter the need to team with industry partners in small business federal government contracting. 

As a prime contractor, a supplier or a subcontractor, the need to carefully develop stable relationships is a prime driver for success in the government contracting venue. 

Small Business Teaming

Managing Subcontractors And Independents As A Small Business Prime Contractor

HARD FACTS ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT

Be prepared to encounter challenges in the areas discussed below. They are presented because they occur enough that you should be aware of them.  It is astute to manage the associated risks.

Initial challenges for the small business in government contracting are not so much in the areas of barriers as they are in lack knowledge (which I concede is a form of barrier but one that can be dealt with). In short, be aware of what you do not know you do not know.

Lack of knowledge goes all the way from local and state employment law to federal  contracting rules. Enough small businesses have succeeded in the venue that it has proven small enterprise education, with trained personnel in government and prime contractors to do so, greatly enhances success.

Contracting officer's, either government or corporate, and their staffs are often not equipped in the skills necessary to guide the small business. 

Large business and government agencies often inadvertently take advantage of the small enterprise lack of knowledge or make poor assumptions regarding what a small business knows. This can lead directly to abusive practices.

A prime example of an abusive practice is large corporations signing teaming agreements during proposal efforts and then not awarding subcontracts to the small enterprise as agreed, keeping the majority of work for themselves.  They then recruit the help away the small enterprise.

Agencies often take extended time frames to put in place prime contracts after source selection and award to a small business. They do not realize that a small enterprise does not have deep pockets and must have cash flow to sustain a new program with new employees.

Funding levels on programs are often insufficiently committed and the small enterprise is not adequately informed about limitation of funds and funding exposure

Managing Government Contract Limitation of Funds and Funding Exposure

One of the most common traumatic situations is newly established enterprises having no job cost government compliant business system in place. The industry partner(s) or the government have assumed that capability will materialize and when it does not the government audits the bills, finds no backup and shuts down the cash flow until the system is fixed. At that point the business can fail. The company should have become educated much earlier in the process about these requirements.

What Small Business Should Know About FAR and CAS

The number of poorly performing SETA contractors in roles not suited to them in government contracting officer support is increasing in federal agencies. These firms need to be vetted and better managed for the omissions and commissions they contribute to the above. 

Not every small enterprise can get into a class on government contracting at George Washington University, The Defense Acquisition University or send their personnel to lengthy and costly seminars conducted by organizations like the National Contract Management Association. These are all great education sources but do not come close to filling the complete requirement and cost time and money.

PROTECT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, RATES AND PERSONNEL

The nature of the government contracting venue is that you may very well find yourself teaming with a company on a major, long term project and competing against them on another project where the team makeup is different. It is therefore essential to protect your intellectual property, your rates and your personnel.

Practical Intellectual Property Management for Small Business Federal Government Contractors

VET PROSPECTIVE INDUSTRY PARTNERS CAREFULLY

Not every company that approaches you with a suggested teaming arrangement will be ethical, straight forward and honest. Vet them carefully through the Better Business Bureau, a Dunn and Bradstreet Report, references and searches on their prior business arrangements, contract awards, business activities, subsidiaries and history. 

How Crazy Subcontractors Can Kill Your Bid

ACQUIRE ADVISERS AND SPECIALIZED HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT

There are free or very low cost resources through local government organizations who can assist the small business in understanding the government contracting venue.

Small Business Administration (SBA)

SCORE - Free Small Business Advice

REMEMBER:

Be straight-forward and honest with your industry teaming partners.

Do not violate share arrangements, teaming agreements or non-disclosure agreements. Such violations are a death knell for your reputation in the business.

Do not become known as a resource raider by hiring away from other firms with whom you have teamed.

Give it your best shot as a prime or a sub but involve the government contracting officer if you must resolve industry teaming disputes that may damage your past performance record.

Exclusivity is the practical way to go on any given program. Team early and exclusively then give it your all and be a winner. Your reputation is key, ethics count and your customers as well as your industry are observing you.

10 Misconceptions About Small Business Federal Government Contracting

1. It is easy to become established in the federal marketplace by founding a start up in small business contracting to the federal government

Very few do so. The principle reason for this is lack of past performance records either commercially or as a registered government contractor.  Past performance is a major factor in awarding government contracts:

The Small Business Federal Government Contracting Past Performance Challenge

Small enterprises who succeed in federal government contracting usually have a sustaining commercial business as ongoing support while they learn federal contracting bid, proposal, and pricing, industry teaming and marketing techniques.

Your Entry Points Into Small Business Federal Government Contracting

2. Federal government contracting is just like local and state contracting

It is not.  Every local and state government agency has their own set of rules and contracting techniques.  Although states must meet federal law with regard to interstate trade, EEO and similar matters, they are given wide latitude by the federal government. Most state and local or municipal agencies are very dissimilar in the specifics of how they conduct procurements and are strongly influenced by community ordinances and state law. 

Federal government contracting has its own set of specific rules (The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and  Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) which cross all agencies.  Small business must understand how these rules affect their doing business at the federal level.

What Small Business Should Know About FAR and CAS

3. Business can be conducted at the federal level without significant process changes from commercial practices

To succeed in federal contracting the small enterprise must implement processes such as GSA pricing, job cost accounting, forward pricing rates and related matters that are not common in the commercial venue. This takes research, time and process/business systems implementation that many firms overlook until they realize, through hard experience, that they must develop them on the fly to succeed.  Federal government contracting is not rocket science but it is different than commercial contracting.

A Framework For Federal Government Service Contracting Small Business Systems

4. Federal government contracting can begin immediately after registration

This is a hypothetical possibility but not realistic.  Registration simply self-certifies a small business to compete, establishes a Registration Number and a Federal CAGE Code for the firm.  Agencies do not go looking for registered firms to do business with them.  A niche must be located by the prospective contractor in the form of an agency requirement that fits the company. Or the company must locate industry team member (s) that can use capabilities available from the newcomer.  Very small enterprises achieve these objectives to a large scale degree within their first year of pursuing contracts with the federal government.

Marketing to Achieve a Small Business Set-aside Government Contract

5.  All federal government contracting agencies are the same

Not so. Department of Defense (DOD)  contracting, for instance is very different than contracting with  civil agencies like the FAA.  The technical requirements, environment and security factors vary dramatically even though they use the same contracting rule book. The seller must market to the agency that has the greatest need for the product or service offered and team with industry partners who can enhance the potential of the small business in collaborative efforts. 

6. Small Business set aside designations will yield immediate business

Self-certifying as a minority-owned,  woman-owned, veteran-owned or disabled, veteran- owned business allows a firm to compete with other companies who have the same designation. At times this involves substantial competition.   Achieving a government certification as a small-disadvantaged 8(a) or HUB Zone enterprise may allow set-aside contracts without competition, but such awards are becoming rare, harder to justify by the government and are monitored closely for competitive possibility by oversight functionaries.

Federal Government Contracting Small Business Set-aside Designations 

7. Federal government contracting can be undertaken by a company on a stand-alone basis

This is only true for companies with very unique, off the shelf products involving small buys.  Even then, knowledge of the industry and networking with other firms dramatically increases the possibility of expanding sales.  Relationships must be developed with primes and other small businesses that can help the small firm, team by teaming with it and keeping it in mind as they search for success. That takes time, patience and open-minded, out of the box thinking.

Synergism is paramount in teaming with any size company, whether in a lead or subcontracting role. There should be technical, management and market segment similarities between the small business and any company with whom it  is considering teaming. A prospective team member ideally will not be a direct competitor; rather a business in a related field with whom the small enterprise shares a mutual need for each others contributions in pursuing large-scale projects.

Small Business Teaming in Government Contracting

8. Small Businesses receiving set aside contract awards from the federal government can subcontract all the work to other, larger and established enterprises

Companies obtaining small business set aside awards must be capable under the law of performing a minimum of 51% of the required effort internal to their organization.The quantitative measurements the government uses to gauge this rule are the work scope, hours and dollars content of the prospective contract.

9. Obtaining a GSA schedule guarantees new business

A GSA schedule permits a quick ordering process for  federal and state clients. In dealings with prime contractors to which the small firm aspires to subcontract a GSA schedule is valid pricing which can be readily included in proposals to government agencies. A GSA schedule facilitates teaming with other synergistic small companies in proposing large scale efforts.

However, a GSA schedule does not guarantee new business will come. Very few companies await government agencies to find them by searching the GSA data base. To succeed, small businesses must actively market their schedule to targeted agencies as an expedient way to contract with them or as a qualification criterion for new business awards.

Achieving and Utilizing a GSA Schedle

10.  FEDBIZOPPS (Now SAM Opportunities)  is the best way to identify, bid and obtain federal government business 

Often misunderstood, is that much has occurred in the way of marketing activities by companies in advance of notices formally published by the government on SAM.  By the time the formal, solicitation is published it is too late to market for setting a procurement aside for a small business designation if it has not already been established as such. In addition, formal solicitation publication closes the window on self-marketing by HUB Zone and 8(a) firms for set asides to them individually without competition. In short, businesses have been marketing for a requirement long before it became formally announced.

Finding a solicitation that is ideal for a company for the first time on SAM  is excellent market research insight into what the agency publishing the requirement is buying. However, a careful bid/no bid analysis should be conducted as to whether it is prudent to go through the expense of a proposal if the opportunity has not been a new business target for the firm earlier in the game.

What Small Business Should Know About FEDBIZOPPS (Now SAM Opportunies)

SUMMARY:

Federal government contracting is not a quick process; but for many it can provide a steady cash flow and potential growth.  

To succeed, a carefully constructed, relationship-driven, marketing and business operations program must be developed, tailored to the federal environment. The program must include adequate research and preparation with respect to bid decisions, teaming, proposal preparation pricing and business system requirements. 

Multiple Front Marketing In Small Business Federal Government Contracting