In This Week’s Newsletter: 02/16/2024
AI Corner: Five Central Points for AI in the Proposal Process
Culture Corner: How to be Human in a Technology-Driven World: Part III
Opportunity Spotlight of the Week: DHS Program Management Administrative Clerical and Technical Services (PACTS III)
Competitive Intelligence & Pricing: Incorporating Risk Management in Your Strategic Pricing
Four To Follow: Get the lowdown on four interesting pursuits!
Five Central Points for AI In the Proposal Process
Contact Josh: josh.thiel@hinzconsulting.com
Generative AI can create content for a proposal quickly to save time and enable higher quality. However, content generation for pink team drafts is just the start of AI’s full potential! Companies should reconsider their entire proposal process to fully unlock the power of their AI investment. Hinz AI Center of Excellence has identified five central points to use AI in the proposal process, resulting in streamlined processes for time savings and higher quality.
Process Automation – streamline the proposal development process as AI automates repetitive steps and generates consistent formatting.
Quality Check – use the power of AI to reduce errors and enhance the overall writing quality of proposals.
Content Generation – AI technology can personalize content based on previous proposals, making them more compelling and competitive.
Research Assistant – Generative AI tools do the research to find appropriate documents and generative content tailored to the specific bid and audience.
Past Performance – Allows AI to automate the creation of proposals by generating content based on structured templates and previous successful proposals.
How to be Human in a Technology-Driven World: Part III
Contact Angela: angela.marsh@hinzconsulting.com
Compassion is a fundamental aspect of human understanding and is essential in our technological world. It is defined as the ability to recognize the distress of others and acting to alleviate or lessen that suffering. Compassion takes empathy to another level and fosters positive relationships, social harmony, and collective well-being, all of which are critical to success in the workplace.
How to be more compassionate at work:
- Practice self-compassion – When we are kind and forgiving to ourselves over challenges or mistakes, we become better able to do so with others.
- Communicate effectively – Strive for clear outcomes and true understanding so that your messages are fully received.
- Offer support – Freely give assistance to those who are struggling with assignments.
- Express gratitude – Show sincere appreciation for the contributions of others.
- Take accountability – A proper apology when you are wrong allows others to feel safe coming to you with mistakes sooner.
DHS Program Management Administrative Clerical and Technical Services (PACTS III)
Contact Len: len.miller@hinzconsulting.com
The final RFPs (one for each of the 3 Functional Categories (FC)) were released on 5 Feb. The 3 FCs are:
FC1: Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services: NACIS Code 541611, size standard $24.5M
FC2: Office Administrative Services: NAICS Code 561110, size standard $12.5M
FC3: Engineering Services: NAICS Code 541330, size standard $25.5M
PACTS III is estimated at $8.4B program value across potential awards to 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, and WOSB companies. Contracts are expected to have a 10-year POP. Proposals are to be evaluated using the Self-Scoring Sheet methodology that is similar to many other GWAC IDIQ procurements to which the industry has responded. For PACTS III, the best value basis for awards will be determined by the Highest Technically Rated Offerors with a Fair and Reasonable Price (HTRO-FRP). DHS intends to award approximately eight (8) contracts for each of the four (4) socioeconomic tracks within each Functional Category as described in FAR Provision 52.216-27 of this solicitation. Of the eight (8) awards, the DHS intends on awarding two (2) contracts to Prime Contractors and two (2) to each of the different types of SBTAs: JVs, Prime/Subcontractor(s), and Mentor Protégé. To be considered as an HTRO-FRP Offeror, the proposal must score amongst the highest-rated offers received from the same offeror type for the track within the Functional Category.
Questions are due NLT 5pm ET on 14 Feb and proposals are due NLT 5 pm ET on 29 Mar.
Reach out to Hinz Consulting for support in putting together your PACTS III proposal and having independent/objective experts to help validate your self-scoring and also perform an objective review.
Incorporating Risk Management in Your Strategic Pricing
Contact Chris: chris.placzek@hinzconsulting.com
Integrating risk management into a company’s strategic pricing program is critical. It ensures pricing strategies are resilient, adaptable, and transparent, safeguarding profitability against the sector’s unique risks such as regulatory changes and budget fluctuations, thereby enhancing the company’s competitiveness and value proposition to clients.
Three Key Takeaways
1. Systematic Risk Identification and Assessment: Companies must systematically identify and assess potential risks specific to public sector engagements, including regulatory, budgetary, and competitive risks, to inform their strategic pricing decisions.
2. Development and Implementation of Mitigation Strategies: Effective risk management involves developing and implementing targeted mitigation strategies, such as cost contingency planning and flexible pricing models, to ensure pricing strategies remain robust in the face of uncertainties.
3. Continuous Monitoring and Integration into Decision-Making: Ongoing monitoring of the risk landscape and the integration of risk management into the strategic decision-making process are essential for maintaining competitive and resilient pricing strategies in the dynamic public sector market.
Four to Follow:
- Chemicals, Packaged Petroleum, Oil & Lubricants (CHEMPOL): This re-compete is the current contract held by SAIC and is estimated to have the final RFP released in late Feb or Mar. The draft RFP was released in Nov 2023 and the DLA Aviation released Q&A on 2 Feb. This estimated $1.7B IDIQ contract is currently shown as a potential SBSA competition. With the current contract expiring Oct 2026, DLA Aviation still has some time to finalize the final RFP, giving small businesses plenty of time to work on their proposals and time to run through the evaluations of proposals, and award the new contract before the current contract explanation and provide a good transition-in period.
- Consequence Management Support Center (CoMSupCen):The National Guard Bureau (NGB) released a revised draft RFP in Nov 2023 also with an initial Q&A. This re-compete contract has two incumbents: Global Asset Technologies and Arcticom. This is an 8(a) Set-aside, Agency-IDIQ with a 10-year ordering period, with a program value of $919M. The current contracts are scheduled to end in Sept and Dec 2024, so it is estimated the final RFP could be released in late Feb to Mar 2024 with awards being made in late Aug 2024.
- IT Enterprise Engineering Operations and Hosting Support Services:This NAVAIR SBSA contract has two incumbents: Resource Management Concepts and SMX (Smartronix) with total combined values greater than $258M. The new contract program value is estimated to be >$500M. Draft RFP was released in Dec 2023 and the final RFP is estimated to be released in Mar 2024. Expect bridge contracts to occur given the current expiration of SMX’s contract is Mar 2024.
- IT Infrastructure Operations and Maintenance Services:HUD has an ongoing requirement for IT infrastructure operations and maintenance and this new effort is supposedly going to be a consolidation of the existing 8 incumbent contracts (Leidos – 2 contracts, Artic Information Technology – 2 contracts, Peraton – 2 contracts, Pyramid Systems, and Koniag Management Solutions). The re-compete for this effort is still in the planning stages and it is not yet clear what HUD intends to do. An RFI was released back in Jul 2023 and responses were collected in Aug 2023. Stay tuned for future updates…
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- Proposal Consulting
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