To Bid or Not to Bid on the Latest IDIQ?

To Bid or Not to Bid on the Latest IDIQ?

Are you experiencing the infamous Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) affect when it comes to bids such as CIO-SP4? As soon as one of these Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQs) are released, government contractors jump on the bandwagon. Qualified or not, contractors feel like they might miss out on a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to score the big-ticket contract. We don’t blame you – look at that ceiling value on CIO-SP4 – 50 BILLION DOLLARS – wow! that’s no small change there! So, it’s no surprise when every company that has remotely touched government contracting feels they must pull out all stop signs and rush to get this contract.

Not so fast, caution experts at ProposalHelper – and these experts know a thing or two about IDIQs. In the past 24 months, ProposalHelper has helped multiple companies win contracts ranging from $10M to as large as $2.5B each. So, when our experts throw caution to the wind, companies should take stalk.

Here are top five questions to ask before chasing after an IDIQ:

1. Do the requirements of the bid align with your company’s strategic goals? IDIQs are expensive to obtain and harder still to monetize, especially if the requirements of the contract vehicle do not align with your company’s strategic growth plans. Having a contract canceled for lack of activity or worse, showing zero dollars over ten years will not help the reputation and credibility of your company on the next IDIQ that you decide to bid on. Bid on IDIQs – absolutely but bid on contracts that will propel your strategic growth goals.
2. Do you understand the scope of work? Teaming with other companies to close any capability gaps is the most common technique used in government contracting. As a Prime, do you have sufficient qualifications to understand the scope of work, even if portions will be performed by a subcontractor? If your subcontractor doesn’t perform, will you, as the Prime, be able to mitigate any concerns or is the technical expertise your subcontractors bring so specialized that you are now stuck? Using subcontractors is encouraged but you should have sufficient in-house capability to understand the entire scope of the effort. 
3. Do you have the financial resources to monetize your win? Money begets money. In order to win a seat at the IDIQ table, you invest. Now to get some return on that investment, you will need to invest some more on the Task Orders. Companies look great on paper with a roster full of IDIQ wins but they never monetize their wins because they had no financial plan to capture and respond to the actual funded task orders. Huge mistake. If you are going to bid on IDIQs, set-aside a healthy budget to focus on task orders. There is such a thing as chasing ‘too-many’ IDIQs.
4. Do you have corporate resources to work on IDIQs without impacting other bids? Government contractors make significant investments to qualify and capture contracts. Remember, IDIQs don’t generate revenue by themselves and there are opportunities outside of just IDIQ vehicles. If a single IDIQ is going to distract your corporate staff from other priority opportunities in the pipeline, think twice about bidding on the IDIQ.
5. What is your Why? After you have gone through all the reasoning and justifications on why you should bid on a particular IDIQ, stop and answer your why – why is this particular IDIQ important to your company? are you planning on selling? Will this vehicle be your company’s primary IDIQ? Whatever your ‘why’ – keep it real and follow through. 

ProposalHelper is the largest employee-only bid and proposal management company supporting government contractors in the United States and the only bid and proposal company to be ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 9001:2015 certified. Recently ProposalHelper has begun expanding its operations through franchise operators under the brand name of BidExecs. ProposalHelper helps companies within the United States and foreign-owned companies enter, expand, and grow their business in the public and commercial sectors across almost every industry vertical. Visit us at www.proposalhelper.com or www.bidexecsfranchising.com today.