Federal Market Research: A hands-on Manual Anna Urman Director, Virginia PTAP aurman@gmu.edu
Overview: Why Research? Buyer insight What do they buy? How much are they spending? Who are their vendors? Competitive analysis What vendors are selling to which agencies? Who s the 600lb gorilla? Any surprises? Partner / prime / subcontractor identification Follow known competitors to ID additional targets Preparation before a meeting know where they are strong, how you can help 52
What are we looking for? Customers (Government) Location Department / Agency Contact Names Small Business Use NAICS Codes PSC Codes $ Spent Competition Types Vendors / Contractors Contract Numbers Competitors / Teammates Their customers Breadth & depth Location(s) DUNS # Revenue Size / set-asides 53
Why? Determining addressable market Determine fit (do they buy what we sell?) Size up against potential competitors Evaluate strength of partners Ballpark guidance on prices FIND WORK 54
Research Tools 55
Look in the Mirror Find and optimize your profile www.sam.gov Accurate, updated Small Business Profile at the very end of sam.gov feeds dsbs.sba.gov search engine optimization for your listing Use the same tools to identify teammates, competitors What NAICS are they using? Any good keywords? Who are they citing as references? 56
1. Back-casting What has been bought in the past (by whom, where, from whom) indicative of what s to come Tools: USA Spending www.usaspending.gov Federal Procurement Data Service www.fpds.gov GSA Schedules Sales Query https://ssq.gsa.gov/ Labor Rate Calculator https://calc.gsa.gov/ Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Purpose: predict what government agencies buy what codes they use what vendors are doing work how much $ is being spent on what programs 57
2. Forecasting Live opportunities upcoming RFPs and bids Tools: Federal Business Opportunities www.fbo.gov Agency-specific procurement sites Army: www.asfi.mil Navy: www.neco.mil Air Force: http://ww3.safaq.hq.af.mil/ Reverse Auctions FedBid FedConnect GSA Reverse Auctions www.reverseauctions.gsa.gov 58
3. Extra Credit Not necessarily tied to specific opportunities but a great big picture view of customer Internal: Procurement Forecasts www.acquisition.gov DOD Quadrennial Defense Report (QDR) Departmental Strategic Plans External Open Data www.data.gov Washington Post Business Journal General Accountability Office - www.gao.gov 59
USASpending.gov 60
Overview Steps to get data 1. Advanced Search 2. Select Criteria 3. Click Download 4. Follow Link 5. Result = spreadsheet 61
Results 62
Result Details (225 columns of data) Prioritize: $ Amount Obligated Base & Exercised Options Value / Base & All Options Value Dept / Agency / Office = FUNDING Dept / Agency / Office = CONTRACTING Vendor Contract Types Small Biz Use? NAICS Codes Expiration Date what else? 63
Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) 64
Most comprehensive data set 1. E-Z Search 1. No password required 2. Quick way to get detailed information for specific queries 3. drill-down can be a challenge 2. Standard Reports 1. Password 2. Extensive set of popular reports Who, What, When, How 3. Ad-Hoc Reports 1. Password 2. Complicated but user controls great extent of detail 65
FPDS Reports (Login required) 66
Standard Reports Who Awards By Contractor Type - $ /actions by Contractor Type. Drills down to PIID (Contract #) Contractor Search -Shows Total Actions and Dollars for a given Contractor What Contract Detail Report - Complete contractual data for specified PIID (contract #) Federal Contract Actions & Dollars - contract actions and dollars for the specified date range Procurement History for Market - total dollars awarded to all vendors for a specific PSC Code Total Actions by NAICS Report - Displays actions and dollars for general NAICS Categories Total Actions by PSC Report - Displays actions and dollars for general PSC Categories Where When How Geographical by Place of Performance Geographical by Vendor Location See What above Bundled and Consolidated Contracts that exceed the threshold Buying Through Government Acquisition Vehicles Report Competition - a summary level report and detailed drilldowns based on statutory exceptions. Competitive Procedures, but one Offer - displays Competed data that has only one offer. Contract Termination for Default-Cause Funding - totals agency has awarded on behalf of another agency, or using their own funds. Potential Vendor Anomaly Small Biz contracts where the vendor is a Top 100 Contractor Purchase Card as Payment Method Small Business Goaling - $, actions, and percentages for small business contracts. Subcontracting Plan Unique Vendors - number of Unique Vendors in a given Fiscal Year. 67
Data Analysis You ve got a big spreadsheet. Now what? 68
A. Clean Up Step 1: Run all similar searches Example: landscaping, lawn mowing, grass cutting Step 2: Combine into single spreadsheet Step 3: Remove Duplicates Because there may be multiple transactions with a single vendor and even a contract number, usually the only duplicate is a double entry that is caused by combining several similar searches. Note, you want to do this BEFORE analyzing data, else you will be re-reading the same thing 69
B. Refine Description of Requirement Delete irrelevant data. Mercilessly. Use Excel tools to find / filter / sort Hint: If you re wary of deleting too much, keep all original data in a separate worksheet Note other potentially useful keywords Look to PSC and NAICS codes for clarification / guidance If something could possibly fit, but NAICS is completely off, that s a clue. 70
C. Analyze Pivot tables will help you visualize data, draw conclusions, ask good questions Exercise 1: Create a pivot table that shows spending by department, per year 71
C. Analyze additional suggestions Useful pivot table examples 1. Spending by vendor by department (by year) A. Note: when sorting by vendor, beware of double-counting; may have to clean up vendor column in dataset B. HINT: Don t forget to refresh the table after altering source worksheet data 2. Spending by extent competed by department 3. Spending by set-aside type by department 72
FBO ( FedBizOpps ) what is it good for? 73
FBO Features & Benefits Upcoming Opportunities Search (not forecasting) Short-term Limited searching Search Agents upon registration Contact Information Documents RFPs Attendee lists Q&A and if you re very lucky, contracts 74
FBO: Tour Use keyword box to search for contracting offices, contract numbers 75
FBO: Search Results 1. Name of requirement 2. RFP # 3. PSC Code first letter / number Contracting Office: who is buying What s the purpose of this notice? Date 76
FBO: Search Results: useful information Description of requirement what are they buying PSC Code mission that the buy is connected to Contracting Office who is doing the buying Notice Type / Set-aside (in chronological order) Sources Sought (SSN) government is doing market research. Are there interested vendors? Small businesses? Good ideas? Request for Information (RFI) a more fleshed out market research, possibly with specific needs identified Pre-solicitation (Pre-RFP) RFP is coming soon; industry day, preliminary documents Combined Synopsis / Solicitation (RFP) solicitation is out; responses due Award Notice award amount, vendor announced Special Notice usually, sole source (non competitive) award justification 77
FBO Notice Buyer agency information Chronology of changes (if any) Hint: if you look at enough notices from the same office / agency, you will get all the contracting officers contact info Description of requirement.. Or sometimes, agency mission CONTACT INFO! 78
GSA Schedule Sales Query (SSQ) 79
GSA Schedule Sales Query Report Type Type of output 1. All Schedules by Fiscal Year General 2. All Schedules by all Available General Included info Totals for the whole schedule Totals for the schedule, by year 3. SIN & Schedule Totals General Schedule and Single Item Number (sub-category) totals 4. All Contract Sales by Schedule Specific Schedule name, Contract #, Vendor, Total 5. Schedule Sales Grand Total by Quarter General Quarterly totals 6. Total for All Quarters by Contractor General Contractor s total sales (on all schedules combined) 7. Total by Quarter & SIN by Contract # Specific Totals by schedule, SIN #, and contract # - vendor specific 8. Total for Each Quarter for a Specific SIN General Schedule totals by SIN # 9. Total by Quarter & Contract for a Specific Contractor Specific Quarterly Totals by schedule, SIN #, and contract # 10. Total by Contractor for a Specific Schedule General Vendor s totals 11. All Sales by Fiscal Year for a Specific SIN Specific Vendor-based annual totals 12. All Contractors by Schedule by Business Size by NAICS Code General No $. Spreadsheet - Listing of all vendors by NAICS and Schedule 80
GSA CALC (Labor Rates) 81
Keyword search Education/experience Small or Large Biz Which contract 82