Change Is In The Wind: Part Two
By Dan Safford

You may not write proposals to Federal agencies, but if you write proposals to any level of government, or even to private companies, what the feds do when they change their procurement process will sooner or later affect you.

The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 and the subsequent Federal Acquisition Reform Act call for some major changes in how the government goes about its procurement process.

In general, acquisition reform will allow agency line managers to be innovative, take prudent business risks, reduce government unique requirements, and markedly streamline the process.

As a result, you can expect to see federal government RFPs reflecting these changes.

Emphasis on solutions that offer "Best Value". For a long time now, lowest cost has often been the key driver in selecting federal contractors. The emphasis has shifted. In the revised Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR; the guidelines agencies use to prepare their procurement activities), the notion of "best value" pops up time and again:

"The objective of source selection is to select the offer which represents the best value. . . . Best value means an offer or quote which is most advantageous to the Government, cost or price and other factors considered." (From the revised Part 15 of the FAR. Part 15 tells agencies how to prepare solicitation documents.)

This best value decision reflects the Government’s willingness to accept other than the lowest priced acceptable offer if the perceived benefits of the higher priced offer merit the additional cost. This means that the agency will structure its procurement—and the RFP—in order to see how your approach will provide "best value."

What this means to you. You need to pay attention to all the elements of your proposal that show how you provide the best value to the client. If you know your approach is going to be more expensive than others, show how your proposal pays off in other ways that the client deems important.

Caution:It’s easy to take a cynical view of "best value" and think, What they really mean is low cost. Chances are they don’t mean that. While cost will remain a chief factor in selecting a vendor, the pressure is on agencies to demonstrate they have selected the solution that shows the greatest return over the long run.

Performance-based Statements of Work. Performance based SOWs are a key principle in the government’s efforts at achieving acquisition reform objectives. A performance-based statement of work is tied directly to the client’s program objectives—what results she wants the program to achieve. It doesn’t tell you how to do the work, just what the result of the work you do should be. In other words, the client is saying "This is what I want my system/product/program/design to be able to do; what will you do to help me get what I want?" Your job then is to convince her that 1) you can give her what she wants and 2) that your approach provides the best value.

Innovation is one of the main drivers behind performance-based Statements of Work. The more the work scope is tied to program objectives, and less to specific tasks, the more creative a vendor can be in coming up with a solution. This gives you a lot more leeway in coming up with an innovative approach. This can often be a win-win situation.

What this means to you: You need to fashion a technical approach geared to the client’s project objectives. You need to know what these objectives are. With any luck, the solicitation will explicitly call them out; if it does not, you need to rely on what you have learned about the client before the solicitation is released.

This emphasis on program objectives makes it harder than ever to write a winning proposal without some pre-solicitation client contact.

Caution: Performance-based work statements can look like the client is on a fishing expedition, and doesn’t know what she wants. Don’t make this assumption! She very probably knows exactly what she wants in terms of results, and has prepared an open-ended SOW to get the widest possible array of solutions she can.