IDIQ and Task Order Management Process - Federal Access

IDIQ and Task Order Management Process

Techniques and Strategies

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Introduction This document provides the basic process for how Primes manage task orders under Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts and other Multiple Award Contracts (MAC).

What is an IDIQ Contract? IDIQ stands for Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity. An IDIQ contract can have any number of task orders released for any number of products or services. An IDIQ provides the government with the flexibility to award a contract to one or more companies without knowing everything they will need over the next three, five, or even ten years. You don't make any money when you win an IDIQ. You become an awardee. You make money when you win a task order released under the IDIQ.

An IDIQ can be either a SATOC or a MATOC. These are Single Award Task Order Contracts or Multiple Award Task Order Contracts. Simply, both SATOCs and MATOCs are IDIQs. Depending on your industry, you may see one or all of these acronyms. Most IDIQs are MATOCs ? where multiple companies win the MATOC and then have the right to compete on all future task orders. In other words, twenty companies or teams compete to win the IDIQ or MATOC and only five proposals win. Recognize that it may not just be five companies that win. If each Prime has five subcontractors on their team, you're looking at 30 different companies having the right to compete on all the future task orders that are released. However, all proposals submitted on task orders must be submitted by the prime.

With a SATOC, only one company wins the contract. These are somewhat rare because over the next several years every task order for work is being provided to only one company. You may think this sounds like a sole-source but remember the company that won the SATOC competed against other companies.

Another quick reminder ? when you win an IDIQ contract, you don't make any money. You don't have the ability to generate revenue until after you compete for and win one of the future Task Order RFPs. These are often called Task Order Requests (TOR). To be clear, if you compete and win an IDIQ contract, you'll be creating multiple proposals over a period of years. For example, if an IDIQ has twelve TORs over a three year period and you want to compete on all twelve task orders, when it's all said and done, you will have written 13 proposals, one to win the IDIQ and then one for each of the twelve task orders.

IDIQs are so coveted and valuable because if you win the IDIQ, the level of competition decreases for all subsequent task orders. However, the level of competence for your competition increases as well. From the above example, instead of competing against several hundred companies for those twelve task orders, you may only be competing against the same five companies or teams for all of them. This is an outstanding situation to be in. It's also the future of government procurement.

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Accelerated Process ? Get Ready If you thought the timeline from RFP to proposal response is fast, task order requests often have shorter timelines. There's no set rule for timelines, but where you'll often see 30 to 60 days for responding to an RFP, task orders can require that you respond in as few as seven days with an average of between two weeks and a month.

Why is this important? Because responding to task orders can be more stressful. The companies that win task orders understand the importance of:

a) A Proposal Library. Every proposal ever submitted is in a single location that is easily found and easily searched. The proposal library also includes all task order responses. This way, you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you need to respond to a task order. Many companies will copy and paste the basic information from past responses and then, most importantly, tailor these sections specific to the task order. You always tailor.

b) Past Performance Competency Matrix and Corporate Past Performance Database. Both of these documents are critical to quickly responding to a task order. Federal Access provides examples and templates for both of these in the Proposal Module. Imagine for a moment, you have 7 days to respond to a task order. It often takes a day or two to figure out which past performances you want to use and just as long to figure out which past contracts cross-walk with the task order's requirements. But not just which contracts, but what are the quantifiable and qualifiable metrics from your past contracts that you need to include throughout your response to ensure the source selection committee comes away thinking you're mature, competent, and clearly capable of doing the work. Without these work products, it'll take days to find the information and you're likely not to have the right focus when writing your response. If you have these work products, you have what you need in 20 minutes.

c) Having a streamlined process that everyone understands. This ensures no wasted time and alleviates the stress of a shortened response period. A streamlined process ensures that everyone on the team understands their role. For example, responding to one or more requirements may require three different companies on the team to provide feedback. This feedback then needs to be consolidated and rewritten in order to successfully communicate the value, differentiate the response, and communicate competitive advantage. For more information on proposal process and timeline, review the Proposal section in The Government Sales Manual. The Manual can be downloaded in the Foundation Module of Federal Access.

Challenges You May Face Every company and team faces different challenges. Companies that have been competing on task orders for ten years will have different challenges than a company that has won their first IDIQ contract. However, here are several challenges that you should be aware of so you can take proactive measures to ensure you don't have to worry about them.

a) A strong contact list for your subcontractors. If you're the prime and you have seven companies on your team (subcontractors), each company should have a primary and secondary point of contact. Do you have their email, desk phone, and cell phone? Never just rely on one contact for each subcontractor. What happens when the primary contact is on vacation? You have 48 hours to get data-calls returned. If you don't have a secondary point of contact with every subcontractor, your entire proposal process could be in jeopardy before you even start the process. Yes, you probably have this information in their emails and perhaps your contacts, but instead of spending an hour tracking down all their information every time you need to alert the team to a task order request (TOR), have a spreadsheet created immediately following the IDIQ win.

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b) The Prime needs to ensure it is capturing intelligence provided by its team members. If you're a prime, a quicksure way to anger your subcontractors is to win a task order and then not give work to the companies that provided competitive intelligence. Now, if you're a subcontractor, never provide your intelligence verbally. ALWAYS send your intelligence via email so it's documented.

c) Tracking team member interest. Not every task order will have requirements that every team member can support. A given task order may only be truly viable for five of the ten team members. That's normal. The task order may simply not require your services. But the prime must have a sure-fire method for quickly identifying which team members are interested in supporting the task order and more importantly, will agree to spend the time helping respond to the task order. This process is often, "Are you interested? Do you want to be a lead for our team in a specific task area or task group? Quickly identify your past performance for the task order requirement and provide commercial and federal past performance ? just names of organizations." The prime needs this information in the first 24 hours. If you're the prime, send a copy of the "Team Capability Matrix To Select Teammate" to each company on the team. An example and template of this matrix can be found in the Teaming Module of Federal Access. If you're not the prime, you can expect to receive a similar matrix as a subcontractor.

d) Data Calls must be standardized using the same format. Remember, the prime will be sending data calls for every task order released by the government. After the first or second task order, every subcontractor should receive a data call and say, "I know exactly how I need to respond." Assume for a moment that the task order has a two week response. A standardized format will ensure you get responses from every company within twelve hours. If it's not standardized and subcontractors are trying to figure out what to do, then half a dozen subcontractors have to call the prime for clarification. Then instead of twelve hours, it takes thirty six. Now instead of 10 business days to complete the proposal, the team has 7 days! Yikes! That's the value of a standardized data call.

You Must Market To The Government For smaller companies, this is THE Achilles heel. If you're a subcontractor on a winning IDIQ team, you have to collect information and intelligence that makes the overall team more competitive. If you're on the winning team and you plan to simply provide your past performance to the prime when a task order is released, you're unlikely to receive a lot of work.

For example, you are one of ten subcontractors on the team. Your socio-economic status means little to nothing at this point. Imagine that two of your team members scheduled meetings with the federal agency that releases task orders under your IDIQ. These two team members fly to the federal agency's offices and talk with several government employees about their challenges. They collect some solid feedback and this intelligence provides insight to several future task orders that are expected to be released in the next several months.

Which subcontractors does the prime appreciate? Which subcontractors are most likely to receive work if the team wins a task order? I've seen it a thousand times. When the task order is awarded to the prime, the prime takes 50% to 60% of the work and profit and the remaining work is shared between the two subcontractors that provided intelligence to the team. The prime then tells the other eight companies, "Sorry folks, just not enough work on this task order but we'll try to get you on the next task order.

These other eight companies / subcontractors then say, "It's not fair! The prime won the overall IDIQ partially because of our past performance or our socio-economic status. Now the prime has won a task order but the prime won't give us

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any work!" Whether or not it's fair is situational dependent. But if you didn't market the IDIQ to the agency and you didn't bring any intelligence to the team, of course the other companies that did will win the work. If you don't fully understand how critical this point is, read this section again. . . and again. . . and again.

As a Subcontractor, Be Careful How You Communicate With Team Members If you're a subcontractor on a winning IDIQ team, pay heed to what I'm about to say. If there's any other company on the team that can do what you can do or the prime can do what you can do, do not assume you are going to win any work. Let me make this even more clear. If you are on the team because you are WOSB, an 8(a), VOSB or SDVOSB, you're socio-economic status and past performance helped the overall team win. But once the team has won the IDIQ, you have to start all over again in terms of marketing to the Prime and proving to them that you are worthy of winning work.

If you haven't reviewed The Government Sales Manual, in the Foundation Module of Federal Access, make sure that you do. In the chapter on teaming, there's a section on "Selling The Prime." For example, once your team wins the IDIQ, you need to be very careful about sharing information with other team members until AFTER you've discussed it with the prime. For example, you're marketing to and having discussions with the Government and you hear about challenges they're having and believe that a task order, to be released in two months, will be used to mitigate these challenges.

That's intelligence! The way many primes operate is that the subcontractor / team member that brings intelligence to the team often receives a percentage of the work.

Now, if you happen to be talking to another one of the subcontractors on the team, because you're good friends, and make the mistake of telling the other team member what you've learned, you're potentially throwing away your leverage with the prime. The fact that you're on a winning IDIQ team is nothing but a marketing message on your website and perhaps a press release. It's just marketing. It's not revenue. Task orders are where you make your money when it comes to IDIQs. So if that other team member takes your intelligence and gives it to the prime, they will be the one that gets the work when the task order is awarded. You're out in the cold. You've given away your leverage. No, it's not fair but you were silly enough to share intelligence with someone other than the Prime! So, always provide intelligence that makes the team competitive directly to the prime - first. Then you can share with your colleagues on the team.

A System For Data Management and Task Order Information If you're a small company and have worked with a larger prime on IDIQs and task orders, you've probably already seen and been given access to an online system specifically designed to manage teams and task order efforts. For example, if you operate in DLA's Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MRO) space, which constitutes billions of dollars annually, you are likely familiar with the online bidding systems / prime-portals used by the large Primes on those contracts. Same goes for larger million or billion dollar multiple award contracts for services.

When larger companies win an IDIQ, they often provide login and password to an online system where team members can track team member intent for each task order, provides the proposal schedule with deliverables and timeline, and a place to upload your content, information, and pricing in response to data calls. This makes it much easier for the prime and subcontractor project leads to streamline the process and more quickly get the draft proposal completed.

If you're a small business and also the prime for an IDIQ, you most likely don't have the money to develop or buy one of these systems. Make no mistake, these type of systems are critical to streamlining the process and ensuring that the

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