NEWS FROM THE GURU

FEDBID REVERSE AUCTION SITE

During the past few weeks, I’ve been keeping a watch on the FedBid website at the end of the newsletter. I’ve had some questions on what exactly this site was so decided this week’s topic would be on how to use this tool. Let me give you the first understanding of FedBid; you are not going to have high margins when bidding on procurements here. It is a fairly competitive site but there is a chance to make some money as the end of the fiscal year approaches simply because of the shorter turn time in the bid process. Last week there were 296 bids on FedBid and this week I see 316 so the numbers may be creeping up. I’ve seen close to a thousand near the end of the fiscal year so be ready.

The FedBid site – www.fedbid.com is a commercial venture that is under contract to the Federal government to provide a competitive reverse auction portal for procuring goods and some basic services. This method of procuring has gained popularity among government agencies. You are seeing all the bids on one site and can sometimes bid with just a few clicks of the mouse. If there are questions on a FedBid procurement, you can submit that to their Client Services department who will forward it to the government buyer.

The ‘reverse auction’ process is where bidders can initially place a bid for a commodity and then see if they are the lowest bid at the moment (in the Lead) or if there is some other company that has bid lower (in the Lag). You will not see who the other bidders are, you will only see if you are Leading or Lagging. In the reverse auction process, you have the option of then lowering your bid to attempt to become the lowest bidder. This process goes on until the bid closing time is past. At that time, the bidders’ information is passed to the government buyer who has the ultimate decision on who will be the winning bidder. While the primary criteria on winning a FedBid procurement is price, there are times

“It gets late early out there.” Yogi Berra

The end of the fiscal year is approaching – get it going now!

Gov Link Conference – Sacramento October 26th & 27th

VOLUME #1 ISSUE #15

Speakers at GovLink:

Assemblyman Roger Niello, California 5th Assembly District

Cindy Kim – newly appointed Director, California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS)

Ted Glum, Director, Defense Micro-electronics Activity (DMEA)

Jim O’Neal – District Director, US Small Business Administration

Ted Erlwein, the Government Guru, giving a keynote address

HIGH SIERRA CONSULTING, LLC 162 E. LINE STREET, SUITE E BISHOP, CA 93514 (800) 721-BIDS office • 760-872-9724 fax www.thegovguru.com

THE GOVERNMENT GURU

JULY 12, 2010

where you may be in a Lag position and still win the bid due to the Leading bidder not qualifying for some reason or if you offered the Government some better terms such as faster delivery. So just though your bid is in Lag, it’s not auto-matically the losing bid. Having to monitor FedBid on a constant basis could require a lot of time so FedBid(continued on page 2)

Sometimes, the smaller trade shows give you the best opportunities for networking. That is what we have found in our attendance of the GovLink conference over the years. This show will feature panel discussions by both Government staff as well as prime contractors looking to give you insights on how to be subs.

Registration is at a reasonable rate of $125 if done by September 10th and $150 after that. There will also be an expo where you can network to discuss business development.

A unique part of the Gov Link Conference is the opportunity to tour the Defense Micro-electronics Activity (DMEA) laboratory – a one-of-a-kind national high-tech lab that supports DoD weapons system. This tour is limited to the first 40 that attend and US Citizenship is required.

Gov Link is sponsored by The Federal Tech-nology Center, one of the better PTAC centers in the country. For more information:

http://theftc.org/govlinkconference

NEWS FROM THE GURU VOLUME #1 ISSUE #15

JULY 12, 2010

FEDBID REVERSE AUCTIONS (continued)has provided an option inside the bidding portal where you can start with an initial bid amount and then place a “Stop Auto Rebid At” amount. This is the lowest bid you want to place for this procurement. The FedBid system will then automatically rebid you lower if ever you are in a Lag position until either you once again reach a Lead position or until the system reaches your Stop Auto Rebid amount. This does not mean that you are done. One strategy that has been used is to wait until almost the last minute and then lower your Stop Auto Rebid amount.

FedBid charges a fee for using their service which is 3% but that is passed through to the government agency that is procuring the good or service so it is not something that comes out of your bottom line. Also, FedBid may restrict bids to only GSA Schedule holders if the buyer has given that direction so watch for that.

A key point of FedBid is that it is for any procurement over $3,000 on up. So you may see a notice on FedBizOps if a FedBid procurement is over $25,000 since all bids over that amount are required to be on FBO. The notice in FBO will then direct you to the FedBid site. But do not only look on FBO for the FedBid buys since some that are on FedBid are not on FBO.

One of the reasons for learning the FedBid system right now is that as it gets closer to the end of the year, the number of procurements on FedBid increases and the bid cycle times get lower. I’ve seen bids come out with only 24 hours between posting and closing. Also, in past years the FedBid system has gone up to having bids close seven days per week so watch for that as well.

From Tactical Shorts to UPS maintenance to Carabiners to Tires to a Dough Divider, FedBid is yet another way to identify opportunities, source products and services, and work to develop a revenue stream in your Government business development process.

HIGH SIERRA CONSULTING, LLC 162 E. LINE STREET, SUITE E BISHOP, CA 93514 (800) 721-BIDS office • 760-872-9724 fax www.thegovguru.com

THE GOVERNMENT GURU

SECTION L OF THE CLM BID METHOD - INSTRUCTIONS

During my onsite classes, I have a slide that says, “Follow the Instructions” and I repeat that about three times. The last thing you want to happen is to put a bid together and have the Contracting Officer return it as non-responsive.

The Section L of our CLM method will provide key steps in how to put your bid together, how to submit and how many copies, if there is a format for the types of submissions such as binders, tabs, page limits or other limitations, and other specific directions to the bidder to assure their submission is responsive and responsible.

But Section L provides some other key pieces of information that give you direction on all phases of the bid process.

One that we will be discussing in more depth in a future issue is if there is going to be a pre-bid meeting or site visit. If there is, it will provide the time, date and location for that meeting and any restrictions on number of attendees or access. This is something I look for immediately since travel planning may be involved. If facility access is required, there may be some pre-registration steps you must follow.

Section L may also give you the process for asking questions of the Contracting staff. If it says, no phone calls, then don’t call. If it says to submit questions via fax, then don’t email. And watch carefully for a cutoff date for questions to be asked. When you see the date, make sure you have all your clarifications in before the cutoff time.

So to summarize where we are – first we look for the Scope of Work (SOW) – Section C. If we can bid, we then look for the Instructions – Section L to see if we can comply with their directions for submission. Next week, the all important M – Evaluation Criteria.

BID BASICS

DO YOU NEED HELP ALONG THE WAY? There may come a time when you need some specific and

direct assistance from the Guru on:

Finding a key OSDBU staff member Reviewing a bid or proposal Help with a specific agency

The Government Guru offers subscribers direct mentoring by the hour at $100/hour – no long term

commitments – just email to guru@thegovguru.com and we’ll set it up…and at a deep discount off our normal

consulting rates of $150/hour. These sessions can be done via the phone and webinar. Don’t struggle – get direction!

NEWS FROM THE GURU VOLUME 1 ISSUE 15

JULY 12, 2010

NETWORKING CORNER – PassionThere is a saying I put on my desktop from time to time to remind me of one of my favorite words – “PASSION”. It states, “Passion is powerful… nothing was ever achieved without it, and nothing can take its place. No matter what you face in life, if your passion is great enough, you will find the strength to succeed. Without passion, life has no meaning. So put your heart, mind and soul into even your smallest acts… this is the essence of passion, this is the meaning of life.”

So what does this have to do with networking? Just everything. When you first meet a prospective buyer or contact, are you excited and motivated about what your product or service is and the problems it can solve? Or do you simply repeat from memory the canned pitch you have memorized and it sounds totally monotone? Buyers, partners, end users, and any other potential user of your offering pick up on your passion and enthusiasm – or lack thereof – quicker than anything else. Be contagious in a good way. Of course, be sincere but when you begin to explain what your widget does, make it sound like it’s the most amazing widget ever created (and I hope you feel it is since that widget provides for your career and your family) and explain it in a way where the prospect absolutely has to have it. Draw on the past few weeks of this column – paint pictures and then record yourself to listen to your explanation, your clarity, and the passion you put into your Unique Selling Proposition or Elevator Speech.

Your actions will convey one of two messages – “YOU NEED WHAT I HAVE!” or “I’m just trying to sell you so I can make a sale.” Which would you respond to?

FOCUS AGENCY OF THE WEEK

Unites States Secret Service - http://www.secretservice.gov/index.shtml

Founded in 1865 to suppress counterfeit currency, the USSS now provides key protective services to Federal officials, visiting foreign dignitaries and other protectees. The USSS now has more than 150 offices throughout the United States and abroad. On the above site, there is a link to their Procurement Division but that provides a limited amount of information and directs many of the procurement processes back to the Homeland Security page. But knowing that the USSS employs approximately 3,200 special agents, 1,300 Uniformed Division Officers and more than 2,000 other technical, professional and administrative support personnel, you know they have to buy quite the variety of goods and services.

The Procurement Forecast for USSS lists everything from uniforms to lighting to foreign language training to sign language interpreting services. And a question to ask is how many of the staff in the field offices have purchase cards?

Small Business point of contact is Stephan Ochs – steve.ochs@usss.dhs.gov. Telephone is (202) 406-6784. Develop the relationship!

HIGH SIERRA CONSULTING, LLC 162 E. LINE STREET, SUITE E BISHOP, CA 93514 (800) 721-BIDS office • 760-872-9724 fax www.thegovguru.com

THE GOVERNMENT GURU

IN THE NEWS – FEDERALTIMES.COM

Contracting Reform taking hold, OMB reports – by Sean Reilly

The Obama administration is claiming modest but tangible headway in taming the federal government's use of contractors.

The Office of Management and Budget released figures showing an overall slowdown in new contracts, increased use of competitively awarded contracts and fixed-price contracts, decreased use of sole-source contracts, as well as more use of innovative procurement techniques such as reverse auctions.

In the first six months of fiscal 2010, for example, the percentage of dollars awarded in new contracts without competition fell 10 percent, compared with the same period in the preceding year, according to the OMB report titled, "Cutting Waste and Saving Money Through Contracting Reform."

In fiscal 2009, overall contract spending grew 4 percent, compared with an annual average of 12 percent between fiscal 2000 and fiscal 2008, says the posting, which singles out cost-cutting efforts by individual agencies. Also in fiscal 2009, the Department of Homeland Security ran more than 2,500 reverse auctions — aimed at prodding vendors to bid down their prices — with a total savings of more than $40 million on some $340 million in purchases. At one Superfund site, the Environmental Protection Agency saved $5.2 million on cleanup services by opting for a fixed-price contract instead of the cost-reimbursement approach it has used for years, according to another example.

President Obama took aim at the growth in non-competitive and cost-reimbursement contracts last year, telling Orszag and other top officials in a March 2009 memo to come up with guidelines to "maximize the use of full and open competition."

"I think the numbers are impressive if they keep it up," said Gary Therkildsen, a federal fiscal policy analyst at OMB Watch, a nonpartisan watchdog group. The next chance to see how the administration's changes are panning out will likely be early next year when its fiscal 2012 budget is released, he said.

At the Professional Services Council, a contractors trade group, President and CEO Stan Soloway said he's supportive of the administration's push for smarter contracting.

"I think what we have to guard against is pushing people to make contract-type decisions based on some overarching policy rather than what's right in the circumstance," he said. Soloway said his organization has heard from government procurement officials who feel that they're being pushed to use fixed-price contracts "even where they're not sure it's the right answer."

High Sierra Consulting, LLC 162 E. Line Street, Suite E Bishop, CA 93514 (800) 721-BIDS Office • 760-872-9724 Facsimile guru@thegovguru.com www.thegovguru.com

TED ERLWEIN The Government Guru

END OF THE YEAR WATCH – 80 DAYS TO GONOTICES ON FEDBID – 316; 233 OPEN MARKET; 77 GSA (previous – 296/227/65) NOTICE POSTED THE LAST 7 DAYS ON FBO: 6,417 (previous – 6,792) Sources Sought Notices currently on FBO (314 Sources Sought notices on FBO in the last 7 days):

7/6 – DTFAWP-11-R-00094 – Transportation – Janitorial Services at Las Vegas Air Traffic Control Tower 7/7 – NNJ10ZBH003L – NASA – Upgrade Sanitary Sewer System 7/8 – 103105050533 – State Department – Reading Proficiency Exam 7/9 – FA4855-10-Q-0039 – Air Force – 9 hole golf course 7/11 – SS-0331094 – Department of Justice – Lease of Real Property These buyers are looking for feedback from you to do their setasides. Make sure you contact them asap!