In This Week’s Newsletter:
- Opportunity Spotlight of the Week: DON AUTEC
- Four To Follow: Four Interesting Pursuits
- Capture Corner: Product Enablement and the Capture Methodology
- Pricing Insights: Price-To-Win, more like “Playing-To-Win”
Opportunity Alert – DON AUTEC
Contact Katie: katie.clatterbuck@hinzconsulting.com
Department of the Navy, Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC), Operations & Maintenance.
On August 28, 2026, the Navy released a Sources Sought Notice, with responses due September 11, 2026; controlled documents are available only to vendors with the required credentials. Work includes Base Operations, including public works, logistics, facilities and grounds, housing, food, emergency and firefighting, and waste services; Enterprise Operations, including program and business management, data and documentation, security, safety, environmental and resource management, communications security, and air-passenger support; and Test Operations, including planning and scheduling, range systems, post-mission analysis, marine and helicopter services, acoustic tracking equipment, and underwater targets. The final RFP for this approximately $1B effort is estimated for release in March 2027, according to the latest NUWC acquisition forecast, with a projected award in September 2028. The competition type is currently unknown. Reach out to Hinz Consulting for Capture Management, Competitive Analysis, Price to Win, or Proposal support, and continue to monitor SAM.gov and NUWC Newport acquisition forecasts for updates on this opportunity.
Four to Follow
- Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, Sentinel Utility Corridor at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana. On September 4, 2026, the Contracting Office released a modification attaching the Industry Day slides and attendance list, with responses due by 2:00 p.m. CT on September 24, 2026. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District, requires a Progressive Design-Build Other Transaction Agreement for new utility and communications infrastructure supporting the Sentinel Ground Based Strategic Deterrent system at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana. Work includes approximately 1,750 to 2,225 miles of utility corridors connecting missile field launch facilities, launch centers, the Wing Command Center, and associated mission infrastructure, including underground communications, obstacle crossings, civil work, site restoration, design and integration, environmental and cultural support, and real estate acquisition or licensing. This $2B opportunity will be released as an Other Transaction Agreement award (OTA), but the competition type remains unknown. A presolicitation notice is anticipated in fall or winter 2026, the RFQ is expected in winter 2026/2027, the solicitation is estimated for February 2027, and Phase 1 award is anticipated in spring or summer 2027, with an estimated award in August 2027.
- Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Office of Financial Services, Enterprise Financial Services II (EFS II). On September 1, 2026, the Contracting Office stated that it expects to release the solicitation sometime after January 2027. The FAA requires continued enterprise financial services supporting policy and standard operating procedure development, internal controls assessment and remediation, program and project management, budget, finance, accounting, human capital management, systems requirements, testing, user support, training, strategic planning, investment analysis, program evaluation, and risk management. This $481M IDIQ is expected to include a mix of Full and Open/Unrestricted and Small Business Set-Aside competition. The solicitation is currently estimated for release in March 2027, with an estimated award in August 2027.
- Department of War (DOW), Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization, Electrical, Mechanical, and General Infrastructure Projects. DISA requires professional services supporting upcoming electrical, mechanical, and general infrastructure need for the following electrical, mechanical, general infrastructure, and operation and maintenance projects across 15 locations. The work will be established through a Blanket Purchase Agreement and will address the agency’s technical infrastructure needs. This $170M BPA h is estimated for release in November 2026, with an estimated award in February 2027. The competition type is currently unknown.
- Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, High Performance Computing Modernization Program Integrated Technical Services Restricted 3 (HPCMP HITS-R 3). The USACE requires support for the High-Performance Computing Modernization Program Integrated Technical Services Restricted program serving Department of Defense science and technology, research and development, and test and evaluation communities. Work includes operating and supporting five DoD Supercomputing Resource Centers, associated classified and unclassified Defense Research and Engineering Networks, high-performance computing systems, networking, computational expertise, software applications, and support environments that accelerate technology development and transition to defense capabilities. This $785.56M Small Business Set-Aside IDIQ is estimated for release in September 2026 with a projected award in November 2026.
Product Enablement and the Capture Methodology
Contact John: john.amoriello@hinzconsulting.com
Applying a traditional Capture Methodology to product enablement requires treating your enablement roadmap as a capture plan and your internal stakeholders as the customers you must win over.
1. Opportunity Identification & Qualification
- Capture Approach:Evaluating contract opportunities against corporate strategy and operational capacity.
- Product Enablement:Assessing internal readiness for upcoming releases. This includes identifying target audiences, uncovering knowledge gaps, and establishing baseline “enablement readiness”—ensuring features, messaging, and roadmaps are finalized before content creation begins.
2. Pain Point Analysis & Intelligence Gathering
- Capture Approach:Gathering account intelligence to understand client pain points, decision-makers, and competitor threats.
- Product Enablement:Researching internal stakeholder needs and external demand signals through team interviews, feedback surveys, and performance data from previous product launches.
3. Strategy Development
- Capture Approach:Building a tailored value proposition and messaging strategy that outperforms competitors.
- Product Enablement:Crafting role-specific enablement programs. This involves delivering targeted assets (e.g., sales playbooks, support guides) and structured learning tracks (e.g., workshops, e-learning) through the most effective internal channels.
Price-To-Win, More Like “Playing-To-Win”
Contact Dr. Tom: thomas.hudgins@hinzconsulting.com
On occasion, everyone gets caught up in thinking that Price-To-Win means lowest price. Price to Win (PTW) is not a race to the absolute bottom; it is the strategic calculation of the optimal price required to win a contract while preserving target profit margins and delivering required value.
In competitive bidding; especially government and enterprise contracting—source selection panels evaluate offers using criteria like Best Value Tradeoff or Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA). In best-value procurements, the cheapest bid often loses because evaluators suspect poor execution capability, unrealistic staffing, or imminent cost overruns. PTW targets the precise sweet spot where technical capability, perceived risk, and proposed cost converge to beat the competition’s positioning, not just their price tag.
Core Elements of Price-to-Win
A robust PTW analysis integrates four foundational elements:
- Customer Analysis & Budget Intelligence: Uncovers what the buyer can actually afford and how they make procurement decisions. It examines past buying history, budget line items, programmatic constraints, and evaluation weighting (e.g., technical merit vs. cost).
- Competitor Assessment: Predicts who will bid, their likely technical solutions, past pricing patterns, indirect rate structures, and strategic posture (e.g., whether an incumbent is defending territory or a disruptor is buying market share).
- Design-to-Cost (DTC) & Solution Modeling: Translates competitive targets into internal technical realities. Instead of estimating a solution and adding margin (cost-plus), the team designs a technical and operational approach specifically engineered to hit the target price.
- Risk & Tradeoff Analysis: Evaluates the balance between award probability (Pwin) and program execution risk. It maps out price-versus-score trade-offs to determine whether added technical features justify a higher price point in evaluation algorithms.
Winning bids balance credibility with affordability. By treating PTW as a strategic framework rather than an aggressive discounting exercise, organizations construct compelling, low-risk solutions that satisfy procurement evaluators while safeguarding delivery margins.
In all bids, competitive or not, will be enhanced by a good PTW analysis, even contracts which require product (building or reselling), because even though non-labor “cost what they cost”, they do usually get other fees added (materials handling, General and Administrative (G&A), profit/fee) and those elements are also researched.
- September 8-10th: Billington Cyber Summitin Washington D.C.
- September 9-10th: Geogov 2026 in Herndon, VA
- September 14-16th: Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, MD
- September 24th: 2026 Intel Summit in Falls Church, VA