Do you think it is proper for an agency to eliminate a proposal from consideration under the following circumstances: Nothing in the evaluation criteria of the Request for Proposals (“RFP”) stated that proposals would be eliminated because they contained “informational deficiencies” (i.e., the proposal did not comply strictly with the solicitation’s proposal preparation instructions). The agency intended to evaluate proposals taking into consideration technical (most important), past performance, cost/price, and small business participation (least important). The agency asserted that it was confused as to the identity of the offeror because it could not locate the firm’s representations and Certifications in the System for Award Management (“SAM”) database. However, the offeror’s profile was located in the SAM database by the use of its contractor and government … Continue reading
Category Archives: Proposals
The PCI Network – Three Keys to a Winning Proposal
The next episode of The PCI Network is all about putting together a winning proposal. Lou Chiarella, Director and Faculty at PCI, shares three tips to help you craft a winning proposal. Mr. Chiarella is an attorney in the Washington, D.C. area with 20 years of experience specializing in all aspects of Government contracting. In addition to his current position, his previous experiences include: Professor of Contract and Fiscal Law, U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School, Charlottesville, Virginia; Chief of Administrative and Civil Law, Fort Carson, Colorado; and Trial Attorney, U.S. Army Contract Appeals Division, Arlington, Virginia.
Federal News Radio: Government Contracting Myth No. 3: The Contracting Officer Really Isn’t Our Customer
Federal News Radio is republishing our Ten Myths of Government Contracting series, accompanied by an interview with the author, Tim Sullivan, Partner, Thompson Coburn, LLP. Below is the audio from the interview on Myth No. 3, “The Contracting Officer Really Isn’t Our Customer.” If you’d like to listen directly on the Federal News Radio website, visit here.
Federal News Radio: Ten Myths of Government Contracting: Myth No. 1
Federal News Radio is republishing our Ten Myths of Government Contracting series, accompanied by an interview with the author, Tim Sullivan, Partner, Thompson Coburn, LLP. Below is the audio from the interview on Myth No. 1, “We Should Never Protest”. If you’d like to listen directly on the Federal News Radio website, visit here.
Using Focused Interviews to Streamline the Proposal Development Process
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When it comes to collecting and building meaningful, on-target content for Federal Government proposal responses, focused interviews stand head and shoulders above traditional methods. Among small, mid-tier, and tier-one corporations, proposal development most frequently involves requesting various people from within your company and across your team to write sections or sub-sections of text. And that’s where problems often begin. In many business situations that I’ve experienced during the past 27 years, technical subject matter experts (SMEs), program and project managers or task leaders, and infrastructure support professionals are not comfortable with the process, or prepared to write narrative, much less conceptualize accompanying graphics. In addition, with technical SMEs and programmatic experts who are on direct charge on one or more Federal contracts, their #1 priority … Continue reading
