Try this: pick up your smartphone or tablet, point it at your colleague or yourself, hit record, and speak for 20 minutes or less about your company\u2019s stellar experience. Upload to YouTube, send the link along to the federal contract officer, and you\u2019re done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congratulations \u2014 you\u2019ve officially submitted a bid proposal. Think of it as federal contracting for millennials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or think of it as one of the more recent efforts among government agencies to simplify the procurement process \u2014 one that ideally will offset the very real human resources problem facing many federal contracting shops, and in theory ease the burden placed upon companies bidding for work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a tactic,\u201d said Tom Howder, assistant commissioner of assisted acquisition services at the General Services Administration, during a panel on procurement trends held Oct. 30 at the Vision Forecast 2019 conference. \u201cThe goal is to reduce costs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But one attendee of the conference indicated that\u2019s easier said than done \u2014 calling the challenges associated with cost and approach for video proposals \u201cnot trivial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And a quick internet search would imply that video proposals are big business for those willing to pay: One company touts success in helping customers to win $6 billion in federal contracts to date, claiming that knowing what to expect from your videography team and studio \u201cis a must when responding to federal acquisition RFPs with video requirements.\u201d YouTube videos for DHS proposals and GSA FEDSIM proposals on Blu-ray are among the services the company provides. Other companies tout similar services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIronically, you can make these slick and spend a lot of money,\u201d Howder said. \u201cBut we don\u2019t want slick. We want the information,\u201d and to find a streamlined way of delivering that information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said that video proposals are not much different than oral proposals, but contracting officers can look at them over and over again. And the approach is not for all contract types \u2014 Howder pointed to services that are \u201cnot extra complex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In some cases, both approaches are used in conjunction with one another. A solicitation from the Department of Homeland Security a couple of years ago used a two-phased approach to acquire facilities and operations support services: first bidders provided video submissions, then they participated in oral presentations. Those that received low scores on the first phase were warned that their odds of winning the contract were low to none \u2014 but still given the opportunity to continue should they so choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were no paper proposals requirements, aside from price and past performance (a couple pages or so total). The reduction of time to award, as well as burden on both contracting officers and industry, translated to an \u201cevaluation that took days, rather than months,\u201d according to a summary of the approach posted to the GSA\u2019s Acquisition Gateway. The acquisition was conducted under the umbrella of the DHS Procurement Innovation Lab, or PIL, which experiments with new techniques for increasing efficiencies in procurement process and institutionalizing best practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is not for every innovative technology, or right for every situation,\u201d said Paul Courtney, deputy chief procurement officer at DHS during the panel, which was moderated by Federal Times. He added: \u201cIf it becomes burdensome, let us know.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Think of it as procurement for millennials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":45704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":60,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[60,106,12,31,33],"tags":[],"coauthors":[2503],"class_list":["post-14456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contracting","category-daily-brief","category-govcon","category-home","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"IJLK65FSAFBLZLX2VUZ7XHU2O4","arc_canonical_url":"\/govcon\/contracting\/2019\/10\/30\/want-to-win-a-government-contract-try-a-selfie\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n