One thing most acquisition professionals can agree on is they don’t have moments to spare on unnecessary tasks. Between customers needing their requirement yesterday and the administrative needs of contracts today, time is truly of the essence.
That’s why we’re always on the lookout for opportunities to make government contracting more efficient, both for contracting professionals and their industry counterparts. So when we see opportunities to highlight efficiencies, we take the time to do it. Not to blame or shame, because we certainly recognize that market research techniques like requests for information and sources sought notices are a staple of government procurement. Quite the opposite: Our goal is to reduce the number of these exercises and replace the hours spent on paperwork with more constructive techniques that streamline the acquisition process and improve contracting outcomes.
Replace with what exactly? Why, GovShop of course!
We’ve built this free, browser-based market research platform specifically for government contracting. Want to know how many sources exist in a particular market segment, product service code, or NAICs? We’ve got a user-friendly database for that! Want to put a shortlist of qualified suppliers together based on filters like socioeconomic designation, number of employees, or annual revenue? Create a free account and build as many lists as you want, then export a PDF summary of the companies you find to supplement your contract file.
All things that the Department of State could have done to save time on a recent Sources Sought Notice they issued to identify 8(a) companies to provide managed services for cloud environments under NAICS code 541512. We reviewed the notice and appreciate the State Department is looking for solutions from our small and disadvantaged business community, but wonder if they could have shortened their procurement acquisition lead time if they chose to “GovShop it” first.
Read More: The Rule of Two & Small Business Set Aside Program
As we’ve written before, private sector companies spend countless hours replying to RFIs, which are often issued by overworked government contracting professionals who (prior to GovShop) didn’t have an easy tool to search for government contractors. So we thought we’d take the time to prove how quickly GovShop can create a shortlist of qualified concerns using our built-in keyword and filters, all free for use.
How to Use GovShop for Faster Government Market Research
Instead of spending time writing and issuing the source sought notice, and in place of having companies spend their own time and resources to respond, we were able to find relevant company profiles matching the State’s criteria using GovShop’s Supplier Database. For this exercise, our research team focused on basic filters that will reduce the time and effort it takes to understand relevant companies.
Now in any search engine, you typically start with a relevant keyword – in this case, “cloud services”. This keyword returned over 39,000 government contractors, a great starting population but too many for viable market research. That’s where our filters come in; we built them specifically with government market research in mind, and they allowed us to quickly reduce that large population into a shortlist of qualified suppliers, as follows:
- “Cloud services” – 39,000+ results
- Filtered by the required Gov. Set-aside Program: SBA 8(a) – population narrowed to 420 results
- Filtered by the required Commodity Codes: NAICS code 541512 – population narrowed to 375 results
- Added Annual Revenue: Less than $1M to $5M-$50M – population narrowed to 166 results
- Narrowed down to the type of company: Software and services – population narrowed to 25 results
From here, contracting professionals can create a free summary report for a composite view of the entire market, with only 45 minutes of effort. Based on our shortlist of viable suppliers, we identified 20 companies below with capabilities pertaining to the Department of State’s SSN. Quick and effective market research is only a few minutes away with the tools of GovShop.
Interested in learning what a free GovShop account can do for your company or contracting team? Sign up for a demo from our team at Public Spend Forum and we’ll teach you how to make market research your superpower.
