4 market trends and 20 federal contracts vendors should know about in 2017

The Lohfeld Consulting group ranked upcoming civilian and DoD contracts that meet three criteria: a likely 2017 request for proposal, likelihood of funding and ...

IT modernization and category management are the next big federal opportunities.

That’s according to Lisa Pafe, vice president of Lohfeld Consulting Group.

“The next administration will shape the future of IT,” she said during a Lohfeld business webinar on Nov. 2.

She said that 77.7 percent of agency IT budgets in fiscal 2017 are earmarked for modernization of legacy systems.  In addition, the President’s budget for 2017 included $3.1 billion for an IT modernization fund, and the Office of Management and Budget just released proposed guidance on IT modernization.

“Another big trend for 2017 that we’re continuing to see is category management,” she said.

OMB recently put out a draft circular proposing a centralized structure for procurement management and better purchasing power, which merges numerous previous rules regarding the purchase of $270 billion in products and services.

Bob Lohfeld, CEO and founder of Lohfeld Consulting Group, said that recompete bids should be on vendors’ radars, because many contractors have been chasing new contracts at the expense of protecting their bases. Hence, many recompete contracts have been unusually competitive.

“When we stand it up and look at companies in recompetitions, we find several shortcomings, generally around being inadequately prepared for the recompete,” Lohfeld said. “What we note particularly is that these recompeting contractors are failing to educate their customers on the importance of constructing a good proposal evaluation criteria set … incumbents are writing proposals that are largely a history lesson of their past five years of performance … they seem to be reluctant to start early and draft their proposal in advance of an RFP, and they fail to get outside reviews of their proposal and score it as the government would score it.”

Finally, Lohfeld said that the use of Least Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) bids are waning in favor of best value, especially in service bids. Lohfeld said the last large LPTA bids are the Defense  Information Systems Agency’s Encore II and the Navy’s Next Generation Enterprise Network-End User Hardware.

The Lohfeld Consulting group also identified 20 upcoming civilian and DoD contracts that meet three criteria: a likely 2017 request for proposal, likelihood of funding and awards next fiscal year, a significant pool of contenders.

20 Upcoming Contracts Vendors Should Know About
Contract Agency Est. Release Date Award Type Value (in millions of $) Competition Incumbents
Enterprise Training Services Army Dec. 2016 Multiple 2,400 Full/Open/Unrestricted Warfighter FOCUS, Raytheon
IACMAC – Information Analysis Centers Multiple Award Contract DoD Dec 2016 Agency Specific IDIQ 28,000 Full/open/unrestricted, Bio Level III requirement (CBRN) 25, with 10 overlapping across 3 MACs
CTRIC – Cooperative Threat Reduction Program Support Contract Defense Threat Reduction Agency Jan. 2017 Multiple 2,000 Full/Open/Unrestricted Raytheon + 3 others
GTACS – Global Tactical Advanced Communication Systems and Support Services Army Feb. 2017 Multiple (probably 12) 5,000 Small business set-aside, full/open/unrestricted numerous
GCSS-A – Global Combat Support System Army Increment II Army Feb. 2017 single 1,066 Full/Open/Unrestricted Northrop Grumman
ACT 2 – Agile Cyber Technology 2 Air Force Feb. 2017 Agency Specific IDIQ 950 Small Business Set-aside none
NGEN-R – Next Generation Enterprise Network Recompete Navy End User Hardware: Feb. 2017 (LPTA); Others: TBD Several 3,000 Free/Open/Unrestricted HP
JCD&E – Joint Concept Development and Experimentation Project Support Joint Forces Command March 2017 Multiple unknown Full/Open/Unrestricted General Dynamics, SAIC, Northrop Grumman
SETI – Systems Engineering Technology Innovation DISA April 2017 Multiple Award IDIQ 7,500 Small Business Set-Aside, Full/Open/Unrestricted, HUBZone none
MCLOGSS – Marine Corps Logistics Support Services Unrestricted Marine Corps July 2017 Multiple 855 Full/Open/Unrestricted 19 contracts, lots of competition
OASIS On Ramps – One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services On Ramps GSA Nov. 3 2016 (Pool 2 SB) Multiple (31 approximately in Pool 2 SB) 60,000 Small Business Several
Community Care Network VA Q1 2017 Agency Specific IDIQ 64 Free/Open/Unrestricted none
SDI-NGS2 – Software Development and Integration Next Generation Small Business 2 Commerce Department, USPTO March 2017 Multiple 1,000 Small Business few
ITSS-5 – Information Technology Support Services IDIQ DoJ March 2017 Multiple 1.4 Full/Open/Unrestricted few
RTLS – Real Time Location System VA April 2017 Single 543 Full/Open/Unrestricted HP
SSPEDI – Small Spacecraft Prototyping Engineering Development NASA Ames Research Center May 2017 Multiple 1,500 Full/Open/Unrestricted Northrop Grumman + 3 others
USA Contact – USA Contact Multichannel Contact Center Services GSA July 2017 Multiple 2,500 Full/Open/Unrestricted HP, Lockheed, General Dynamics + 6 others
ICITAP – International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program DoJ July 2017 Single 1,000 Full/Open/Unrestricted Engility
SGGS – Space Network Ground Systems Sustainment NASA Goddard Oct. 2017 Single 0.965 Full/Open/Unrestricted General Dynamics
PROTECH – Professional and Technical Support Services Contract NOAA Multiple Domain releases Multiple 3,000 Small and Large Business Predecessor contracts including NOAA SCITECH

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