Forecasts and projected re-competes

Why you should care about the forecast & re-competes

Forecast & re-compete opportunities are a long term investment, but because the government is one to two years away from an RFP, you have lots of time to:
1) Influence the government’s planning in your favor including:
a) How they are thinking about their need
b) How they are thinking about the solution space
c) How they are planning to run the procurement
2) Prepare your proposal and bid team
This is where the pros play, they are identifying opportunities that are a couple years out and massaging them in their favor to increase their chances or winning.

What is the forecast/What are re-competes

• The agency Forecast: From time to time agencies release a list of the contracts they anticipate releasing in the next 12-24 months.
  • The good: This is an excellent resource because it shows you what the government is considering buying early enough that you have tons of time to engage the government and try to influence their planning
  • The bad: The Forecast is wildly incomplete and covers a tiny portion of the contracts that actually come out over the next 12-24 months, and it doesn’t always provide enough information to be actionable
• Projected re-competes: The government’s needs don’t change much, they are creatures of habit, and they like to release five year contracts. So there is a very good chance that at the end of those five years that the government will release an RFP that is very similar to the one before
  • The good:
    • Looking at the re-compete landscape gives a much more complete perspective on the contracts that are likely to come out.
    • You can search for contracts that are likely to re-compete in one to five years in the future
    • You can talk to the government about things that are projected to re-compete and influence their plan
  • The bad:
    • Re-competes tell you what the government wanted in the past, not now, or a few years from now
    • Whoever won the current contract is very well positioned to win the re-compete

Backing into the acquisitions process

• We know potential re-competes ending dates, but the government doesn’t say when the RFI and RFP for the successor contract will be released:
  • The time varries based on the size and complexity of the contract
  • RFP: The RFP is likely to be released 6-12 months before the current contract expires
  • RFI: The RFI is likely to be released 12-24 months before the current contract expires

What this means for you

• Investing: If you are serious about the federal market then you need to identify re-competing items that are 2-3 years away from expiring and add them to your pipeline
• Include customer influencing in your work plan:
  • Create an influence strategy for any opportunity you are serious about
  • Add tasks to your work plan to ensure that you actually execute your influence strategy

How Fedscout can help you find Forecast & projected Re-competes

Rants and Reflections

My unscripted thoughts after coaching hundreds of small government contractors over the last 10 years

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Other resources

List of further reading