FL GovCon Summit Archives - Solvability
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A Totally New Way of Teaming

FL GovCon Summit

TeamingPro offers the latest database tools enabling Government Contractors to find teaming partners quickly, efficiently and at less cost than typical research techniques. Watch & Listen as Jenny Clark of Solvability interviews Tim Hagerty, CEO, of TeamingPro on how to put this new technology to work for your company. Improve your company’s business development efforts with the new tool.

OTA’s | Learning Your Way Around Other Transaction Authority

FL GovCon Summit

What does OTA Mean and How Can I Take Advantage of it as a Government Contractor

OTAs or Other Transaction Authority have been around since the early days of the Space program, but are a hot topic in GovCon these days because of recent National Defense Authorization Acts of 2017 and 2018, which encouraged the use of “non-traditional defense contractors” and reduced usage of Cost-Type contracts for R&D.

The use of OTAs is complicated. DAU, Defense Acquisition University covers common myths and facts about OTAs.

Test Your Knowledge of the following statements |True or False

Myth 1: There is only one type of OT available to DoD.

Myth 2: The OT authorities are new and are rarely used.

Myth 3: Since an OT is termed an “agreement,” it is not a contract.

Myth 4: Since CICA does not apply to OTs, competition, and fairness are not a consideration.

Myth 5: OTs Cannot be Protested

Myth 6: None of the federal statutes or regulations apply to OTs.

Myth 7: OTs can only be awarded through a consortium.

Myth 8: The OT authorities can only use RDT&E appropriations.

Myth 9: Anyone in DoD can award an OT.

Myth 10: OTs will always be faster to award than other contractual instruments.

 

If you answered True to any of these myths or don’t know how you could access opportunities through OTAs join us for the

OTA panel at the 2019 Florida GovCon NextGen Summit.

 

Non-Traditional Defense Contractor

Small businesses, in general, are fit the definition of a “non-traditional defense contractor,” and the intent is to bring companies from outside the traditional defense community into the federal innovation market. This includes Ashton Carter’s outreach to Silicon Valley companies in an attempt to find the best and brightest in technology development and innovation. This outreach has not moved the needle forward significantly, for three reasons: 1) The commercial tech community recognized the low margins in defense contracting (from 3% to 7%) would not meet their ROI standards. 2) Defense innovation contracts unable to attract top talent from a compensation standpoint, and even more difficult to find workers with the necessary security clearances. 3) Although these were “agile acquisition” and “rapid prototyping” activities, it was still too slow for the commercial market.

Learning Your Way around OTAs

The OTA (Other Transaction Authority) contracting mechanisms have been around since the late ’50s, but recent NDAA updates have expanded their use so that prototypes can move faster to production.  This session includes subject matter experts from TARDEC, TReX, and NSTXL to discuss how OTAs work, and how they can help you solve advanced technology issues for federal customers.

Speakers: Iain Skeete NSTXL, Larry Ross and Almena Ryans from #AIRS OTA, and CarolAnn Dykes-Logue of USF-Business Incubator Program discuss what OTAs are, how they work, how to connect to a program of record, which consortia fit your targets, and how you can team and get your projects and revenue rolling.

If you’re a decision maker in federal contracting at a growing small business who is ready to take action and are #UNSTOPPABLE in achieving your vision, Florida GovCon Summit is for you. We’re bringing together small businesses who are beyond the startup level: Stage 2 Traction, Stage 3 Growth, and Stage 3 Acceleration.

Here is a quick video with an overview of this presentation

Sign up today at https://florida-govcon-summit-2019.eventbrite.com.

More Information on OTAs

Ground Vehicle Systems Center OTA Scope Coverage Is my firm a Nontraditional Defense Contractor CCDC Logo

Ground Vehicle Systems Center OTA Scope Coverage

Is my firm a Nontraditional Defense Contractor

DOD Consortium Model OTA Landscape – July 10th, 2018

I Want My Systems To Talk To Each Other

FL GovCon Summit

Do you have a web of systems?  Ed Haywood of Lukos shares the path that Lukos took to get on the right systems to support exponential growth. 

Speakers: Ed Haywood of Lukos, with Julie Gamble and Tom York of Unanet

Here is a quick preview of the session you will see at GOVCON19

Q&A

  1. How do I know when I need to upgrade my accounting system? What time obligation will I need to convert and implement? At what cost?
  2. Do I have as part of my growth strategy an accounting system and timekeeping system upgrade that is capable of handling my increased business?
  3. Does my current system give me the financial information I need to make decisions, plan and evaluate strategy?

 

GOVCON Growth Model Relevance Score

  • Stage 2 – 40%
  • Stage 3 – 50%
  • Stage 4 – 10%

SBA’s All Small Mentor Protégé Program (ASMPP) Can Help Grow Your Business

FL GovCon Summit

Leveraging SBA’s All Small Mentor Protégé Program (ASMPP) to Grow Your Business

Based on the 8A Mentor-Protégé Program, with different benefits from the DOD Mentor Protégé Program, the SBA ASMPP allows a JV formed under the program to inherit the socio-economic status and NAICS size of the Protégé and bid on prime and subcontracts as a small business.  Applying for the ASMPP is automated through the SBA website, takes about 30 to 60 days to get approved, and can provide immediate, tangible benefits to Protégés.  This session will describe how the program works, tips for JV formation, and why you might consider it for your company.

Speaker:  Todd R. Overman, Chair, Government Contracts Practice, Bass, Berry & Sims PLC

Here is a quick preview of the session you will see at GOVCON19

Q&A

1.)     How do I know if a company is the right fit for us?

2.)     What are the requirements and steps for forming a JV for ASMPP?

3.)     How do I hold each party accountable for their performance and reporting?

4.)     What compliance do we have to submit to at all phases of performing on a contract as an ASMPP JV?

 

GOVCON Growth Model Relevance Score

●        Stage 2 – 20%

●        Stage 3 – 30%

●        Stage 4 – 50%

Where do you fit in the GOVCON Network?

Business Resources, Federal GovCon, FL GovCon Summit, General Business, GovCon Business

Stage 1: STARTUP.  Getting registered in SAMS, setting up websites, creating marketing materials, deciding strategy and meeting as many people as possible and signing up for EVERY networking event. Learning the ropes.

Stage 2: EARLY GROWTH.  You’re beyond the startup stage, with 10 to 100 employees and $1 Million to $10 Million in Federal Revenue.  You’re a successful subcontractor and want to expand into prime contracting.  You’re starting to kill deals that don’t fit your mission or that don’t have the PWIN or ROI you need.  You’re keeping overhead to a minimum, and using part-time support services and outsourcing to run the company.

Stage 3:  RAPID GROWTH.  You’ve developed a niche and executed it well and you have a reputation as the “go to” team in that space.  With solid relationships, you expand by getting more projects with your core capabilities within your current customer base.  You’re starting to build a corporate back office with systems and you have a line of credit.

Stage 4: PERFORMANCE.  You’re leaning on relationships and past performance to expand your core competencies with new customers.  You’re watching for projects that match your NAICs and PSC codes and creating teams that leverage the contract vehicles and relationships you have.

Stage 5:  SUSTAINABILITY.  You’re stretching to create sustainable revenue that retains your core portfolio while expanding to new capabilities and new customers.  Now it’s really getting expensive and there are trade-offs to make, and not everyone on your team agrees with the direction.

Stage 6: MID-TIER.  You’re outside the small but not ready to compete with the Bigs.  You’re supposed to be Mid-Tier but you don’t have the cash to spend on more business developers.  You have to become more efficient to compete.

Stage 7: LARGE PRIME. ROI drives everything your company does and you don’t get to vote.  Your goal is to keep the pipeline moving and your boss happy.

You know how you’ve won and successfully executed contracts but it takes so much work to get ahead of the opportunities and teaming with a pipeline tracking 12 to 18 months out!

We all know that you need efficient, automated processes from the pipeline to CRM to execution and follow-ons that your team truly understands and buys into.

The problem is you can’t afford to lose the tracking in your spreadsheets while you’re moving to next platform, but you can’t scale your current system.  You dread the process but can’t wait any longer.  You don’t have the cash flow to both upgrades and spend on the critical business development activities.  It’s like building the runway while trying to take off!

Imagine if you could have a business intelligence process that instantly identifies opportunities and teammates to create a sustainable revenue stream, and also shows the performance of your current portfolio and backlog.

Each year during the Florida GovCon Summit, we’re bringing together top industry experts that show you how your entire business development, capture, proposal, and execution processes can come together to grow your revenue faster.

With national, regional and local subject matter experts in federal contracting, Florida GovCon Summit brings you a unique business experience for teaming, tools, process with capability-focused matchmaking sessions led by super-connectors from across the industry.

Take the GOVCON Business Readiness Level Self Evaluation 

  • DCAA Compliance means you could pass a DCAA Pre-Award Survey, form SF1408. Here's the quick fail test - if you can't calculate indirect rates based on your income statement detail, then you'll fail.
  • Can you print reports from your accounting system that show your labor hours and costs broken out by contract, overhead, G&A and leave? How do you show that the overhead and G&A percentages you are using to bid are based on your actuals and projected costs.
  • You've been bidding a wrap rate of 1.7, but could your actual costs be higher? How often do you update your bid rates?
  • If you don't bid, you can't win, but where do you draw the line? Do you set a B&P budget of 2% - 3% of sales? Do you have a pipeline that is realistic about PWIN? Does your comp plan make everyone just chase deals?
  • You know how to find opportunities and respond to proposals. You're a successful subcontractor and want to go after your own prime contracts. You have a pipeline and have planned your track for the next 18-36 months. You've found affordable online tools to find opportunities and teammates faster, and your PWIN continues to improve.
  • You've got a professional looking Capabilities Brochure with your CAGE code, NAICs, D&B, all contact information, and you're using your domain e-mail. You've strong LinkedIn profiles for everyone, and they are all connected to your LinkedIn Company Page and Showcase Pages. Your company Facebook page is all about employees and community service. Your website includes everything on your capability brochure plus more about your products, past performance and clients. It's clear to any Contracting Officer that you are a Federal Contractor. Your GSA schedule and other contract vehicles show up in online searches.
  • Do you have Pricing strategies that show how the direct labor added from a contract win will drive down your overhead rates and make you more competitive? When you complete the spreadsheets for the cost volume, are you sure that the math is right? Do you know what the competitive range is for your fully burdened labor rates? Can you show your projected indirect rates for 5 years with confidence? When you are going after more complex contracts, do you know how to come up with onsite/offsite overhead rates and material/subcontracts handling?
  • Billing would be easy if you didn't have so many charge numbers, billing rates, contract values and end rates to track. Are you able to get billings out within 5 days of the end of the billing period? Are you billing in spreadsheets or do you have an automated process? Can you tie your billings back to your timesheets, payroll and accounting system? Do your billings show the current amount billed and the cumulative? Do you have any Cost Plus contracts and have you prepared an Incurred Cost Submission?
  • Do you have Financial Statement and Project Management reports with reporting available within 7-10 days after the end of the month? Do the hours on timesheets flow into your payroll systems or does someone have to re-key them? Are your program managers keeping their own set of books? Do you understand your Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss well enough to explain to your banker? Do you review budgets vs actually monthly and make sure your indirect rates for fringe, overhead and G&A track to your bid rates?
  • Do you have an Onboarding Process that makes new employees feel like a part of the team and the customer feel like their needs are being met? Is there a hand-off from proposal to Program Manager that ensures you deliver what you stated in the Technical and Management approach?
  • Are you using in-house recruiter or outsourcing? Do you have a flat rate or percentage agreement with a placement firm? Do your primes poach your employees once the clearance comes through? Can you present your candidate faster than your competitors? How are you using LinkedIn and Facebook for recruiting? Have you created an intern program to develop your team and qualify for hubzone, etc.?
  • Are you confident that your handbooks and policies cover all the communications and legal requirements you need? Does your unique company personality show up in all the relationships you have with your team and your community involvement?
  • Do you have professional contract management staff? Do you have sharepoint or other portals for contract documents, scope of work, contract values and funding and modifications. Do you have your own teaming agreements, consulting agreements and subcontracts? Do you have advisors you can turn to about contracting issues before you involve your attorneys?
  • Do you have regular Program Management updates? How do you control employee assignments and availability for your contracts? Do your program managers keep their own set of books? Do your Program Managers receive reports of time at least weekly? Who prepares and send CDRLs and Status Reports. Are there review processes for billings and collections?
  • Do you have written documentation of your DFARs Cyber compliance, a reporting system and testing going on? Do you have Cyber insurance coverage?
  • Do you have a designated FSO that stays current with rules and administrative changes? Are you concerned about passing any audits of your security clearance processes?
  • Are you on any of the Best in Class Contracts or do you need to be? Do you know how to market your GSA schedule? Have you considered what it would cost to get onto one of the larger vehicles, and how your investment would pay off? Do you understand the on-ramp and contract rules?
  • Do you have a Line of Credit or are you still using a factoring company? Have you ever lost a proposal because the KO determined that you didn't have the history to support your indirect rates? If you won an IDIQ but everything is LPTA, how will you make up for the risks on those task orders? Do you understand how risk averse banker can be about financing a company that has no collateral, and a very high Debt to Equity and a pitifully low Current Ratio? How do you explain anomalies like negative Retained Earnings and the low profit margins? Do you know the bankers that truly understand and advocate for federal contractors?
  • Risk Management in federal contracting ranges from compliance risk, insurance coverage and options and legal counsel. Do you work with specialists in the federal market that are proactive in meeting you needs.
  • Are there advanced certifications like CMMI, ISO that you need or have? Do you have technical products in R&D stage and what would it take to hit the Technical Readiness Level that you could use to get into innovation programs or be able to access Other Transaction Authority (OTAs) through one of the OTA Consortia (Like NSXTL, TReX.)
Save and Continue Later

Visit GOVCONCONFERENCE.COM to claim your invitation to the next annual conference.

Want to attend other GOVCON events and be kept up to date on the latest information?

 

This is how we live: Florida GovCon Summit

FL GovCon Summit

Another long week ahead? You can still join us at the Florida GovCon Summit in Orlando – Wed & Thur Feb 28-Mar 1 for Targeting, Teaming and Tactics.

While the DC Beltway is where so much of the federal agency meeting occur, the Florida Beltway stretching from Tampa Bay through Orlando/Central Florida and across to the Space Coast is where you could meet teaming partners, get out of the cold and into the sunshine, and choose from boating, biking, baseball or whatever you need to make your business trip last into the weekend.

This event is all about making connections to the future in Florida. If you have to travel for work, make it be somewhere you actually enjoy!

Florida GovCon Summit is the place to find out WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW ABOUT CODES AND CONTRACTS THAT CAN HURT YOU. As Donald Rumsfeld said:

“..there are known knowns; there are things we know we know.  We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know. ”

Does that sound like the world of federal contracting to you? How do you know you’ve covered everything you need to know? You learn something new every day, and you learn it mostly from others who are willing to share – because they’ve made the mistake and want to help anyone they can avoid making the same mistake.

That’s what we’ll be doing at the Florida GovCon Summit – sharing small business advice on Targeting, Teaming and Tactics.

Targeting Speakers include Guy Timberlake, Stephanie Zink, Bill Harris, Tony Gray, Bernice Glenn, Lt Gen Thomas Baptiste (USAF Ret), Kelly Stratton-Feix, Tambrein Bates. Maximizing Your Value speakers include Cynthia Davis, Edward Spenceley and Marc Marlin. Teaming speakers include Barbara Stankowski, Todd Overman, Richard Arnholt, Bill “Roto” Reuter, Karen Gregory, Kizzy Dominguez, Carol Craig, Ed Haywood and Brett Ulander, and Jeff Piersall. Tactics speakers include Barbara Kinosky and Maureen Jamieson, Rick Roman, Steve Berlin, Matt Baxter, John Fay, Kathleen Wolf, Milt Johns, Valerie Ellis, Wendy Romeu, Traci Shepps, Rich Wilkinson, Wayne Leland, Sanjay Bhaskar and Jenny Clark.

We’re also having speed networking with PEO-STRI, SOCOM, NAWCTSD, PMTRASYS, NASA-KSC, SBA and Florida SBDC.

Veteran Connections track is concurrent – for transitioning veterans who are job-seekers or startup entrepreneurs. Hosted by Dorothy Patrick with Barron Mills, the lineup includes Mark Green, Karen Gregory, Kristy Nevils, Shane Johnson, Eric Wright, Bernie Currie, Adam Sheffield, Enrique Acosta Gonzalez, Thomas Gil, Rich Carey, Benjamin Brown, Brook Borup, Pernell Bush, Russ Barnes, Bryan Jacobs, Chip Ellis and Paul Huszar.

It’s not too late to join us – register at: https://solvability.com/govcon-summit/

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/florida-govcon-summit-2018-registration-36042637499