Change Is In The Wind: Part Three
By Dan Safford

In a recent article we talked about how changes in the federal procurement process under the new Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act (FASA) can affect your proposal efforts, even if you don’t write proposals to the feds. We pointed out that agencies will place more emphasis on performance-based Statements of Work, and basing awards on whether the proposer offers “Best Value.” This issue we’ll talk about the changes in how evaluators will view the past performance of an offeror in making award decisions.

In the past, firms writing outstanding proposals have continued to win contracts, despite the fact that they may have a history of performing poorly once they have won. That’s because the evaluation process has emphasized two key elements: 1) the quality of the proposed technical approach and 2) price.

That’s about to change. In the new acquisition environment, federal agencies are laying more emphasis on the track record of each firm. How well they have performed on past contracts will become a significant factor for award.

Past performance has always been a part of the proposal process; most federal RFPs have sections requiring details of similar projects you have performed. That information, however, has not been weighted as heavily as other parts of the proposal during evaluation. The new rules allow agencies to make past performance a major factor. Look at the following examples:

• In test contracts, the Department of Labor rated past performance at 40-50 percent of the total evaluation score.
• The Bureau of Prisons intends for some future contracts to rate past performance as 50 percent of the total score with technical at 25 percent and cost at 25 percent.
• The Air Force intends to make past performance equal to scores in price, technical and management.

This is a big change. It means that agencies will lay more
emphasis on how well you have done similar work than on your ability to offer a solution that meets their needs. This is partly based on the the client’s understanding that you are probably just as capable of doing the work they want as everyone else who will take the time and effort to submit a proposal.

In this new environment, evaluators will look at the following elements of your past performance:

The quality of products or services. How well have you complied with contract requirements? If you delivered a product, did it conform to standards of good workmanship?

Timeliness of performance. How well did you stick to contract schedules? How responsive were you to technical direction?

Cost control. Did you stay at or below budget? Did you submit reasonably priced change proposals and provide current, accurate, and complete billings?

Business practices. How well did you work with the client, including the contracting officer and technical
representative(s)? Did you maintain good client relations
during the contract?

Client satisfaction. Were your clients satisfied with the work you conducted? Was the ultimate end user (the client’s client) satisfied? This is an important factor in past performance evaluation; the evaluators will make determined efforts to find this out.

Key personnel past performance. How good are the track records of principal individuals selected to manage and perform key aspects of the work? Have they performed work similar to this? And how successful were they?

Evaluators will check your references more closely than they have in the past. They will ask more probing questions, and look for more details.

What This Means To You

Most firms will like this change. It means that your good work on past projects plays a bigger role in getting more work. But like everything, it comes with a price.

It means that you will not be able to simply dust off your
standard past performance sections and stick them into the proposal. You will have to tailor those sections so they match each individual project you propose on. And this takes time and effort.

It also means that you may have to work harder on your client services skills. The more attention you pay to the client as you work on a current project, the better references you will get for future proposals. But, you should be paying attention to client services anyway, right?