In This Week's Newsletter:

• Culture Corner: The Importance of Professional Relationships

• AI Corner: Evaluating a Generative AI Tool

• Competitive Intelligence & Pricing: Pricing's Post-Proposal Activities

• Opportunity Spotlight of the Week: GSA ASCEND BPA, Pool 1

• Four To Follow: Get the lowdown on four interesting pursuits!

The Importance of Professional Relationships

Contact Angela: [email protected]

How important is it to build professional relationships at work and network with others in the industry? According to the Harvard Business Review, “research shows that your ability to empathize with, connect with, and influence others is a pivotal skill for success.” Yet, lots of people lack these important connections. In the next couple of weeks, we will discuss this topic to help strengthen your skills. Today, let’s start with the “why?”:

• Career Development: Networking can lead to opportunities for career advancement, such as promotions or job offers.

• Personal Branding: It can increase your visibility within your organization and your industry, leading to more opportunities.

• Collaboration: Strong relationships can lead to collaborations on projects or initiatives that can benefit your career.

• Knowledge and Support: It allows for the exchange of ideas and knowledge and provide professional guidance during difficult situations.

Want to start building those bonds with others in the industry? Join volunteers from Hinz Consulting and the NCA Chapter of APMP to package 10,000+ meals for Rise Against Hunger.

Evaluating a Generative AI Tool

Contact Josh: [email protected]

Generative AI (Gen AI) is a groundbreaking technology that functions differently from traditional software applications, offering a probabilistic solution instead of a deterministic one. Understanding and evaluating the quality of AI-generated content can be a complex process. The evaluation criteria for this process can be broken down into several key factors:

• Quality of Input: The better the input, the superior the output. The quality of the content generated by Gen AI is directly related to the quality of the input provided.

• Human-like Text: The quality of Gen AI output can also be evaluated based on its ability to mimic human-like text. This can be tested by having people distinguish between machine-generated and human-generated content. A study by Elizabeth Clark and others (Clark et al., ACL-IJCNLP 2021) demonstrated this method of evaluation.

• Real-world Validation: The Gen AI output is often validated in real-world scenarios. For example, in the legal industry, generative AI is used to create summaries of terms extracted from a document, which are then reviewed by legal professionals for accuracy.

• Ethical Considerations: The ethical considerations in place while using AI also play a significant role in determining the quality of generated content.

In conclusion, the quality of content generated by Generative AI is determined by a combination of factors such as input quality, the system's ability to mimic human-like text, real-world validation, and ethical considerations. It is important to build these factors into the proposal process in order to produce sound and reliable content. Let Hinz Consulting help you with optimize your company’s use of Artificial Intelligence.

Pricing's Post-Proposal Activities

Contact Tom: [email protected]

Imagine a pricing analyst who has just completed a proposal. The sanitized and unsanitized price models are expertly crafted, subcontractor proposals and/or sealed packages are thoroughly prepared, and the cost volume is complete and compliant, thanks to the comprehensive understanding of your capabilities and unique selling points, as well as the application of Hinz's Compliance Pricing. You have done a commendable job, but the question arises, have you concluded your role in this project? The response may not always be "yes".

If the proposal results in a win, the pricing analyst's role extends beyond submission and includes a review of awarded amounts on draft contract award documents. This ensures the awarded contract costs align with the proposed prices. Moreover, the pricing analyst may even be responsible for preparing a “budget” to send to Project Control/Finance and Accounting for project setup.

However, during the post-contract award phase, the pricing analyst is not usually involved during the project or program execution. The exceptions to this general rule occur with task orders submitted on Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) contracts, and for profitability analysis attributable to staff labor direct or indirect labor rate changes.

GSA ASCEND BPA, Pool 1

Contact Len: [email protected]

The General Services Administration (GSA) released RFQ1694175 with Draft Background/Scope on 3 May and responses are due NLT 17 May. It is still estimated that the RFP will be released in July and awards made in November.

The Blanket Purchase Agreement is divided into three pools intended for specific cloud services:

• Pool 1 - Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS)

• Pool 2 - Software as a Service (SaaS)

• Pool 3 - Cloud Professional Services

Four to Follow:

1. Regional Multiple Award Construction Contracts III (RMACC III):

   This is one we have reported on several times.  This recompete of the DHS U.S. Coast Guard contract is expected in February 2025 with awards not until March 2026.  Remember, this is for Regions 1, 5, 7, 7.5, 8, 9, 11/13, 14 and 17.  However, it was just announced that there will be bridge contracts issued for Region 17.  Stay sharp and keep monitoring this effort for potential bridge contracts for the other regions.

2. Enterprise Development Application and Training (EDAT):

   During the May FEDSIM First Friday it was clear that the IPT is working with SOCOM to release an Advanced Notice by the end of May with Due-Diligence expected mid-June.  The RFP is currently expected in mid-July using OASIS (a) as the potential contract vehicle for this 8(a) set-aside recompete contract.  Contact Hinz if you need FEDSIM support. 

3. Dugway Proving Group West Desert Test Center Mission Support Services (WDTC):

   The government released a notice on 6 May that informed the industry that there has NOT been a set-aside established for this effort at the time of the Sources Sought notice. Still appears the recompete of this estimated $97M effort could see the RFP released in October 2024 and the award made in October 2025. 

4. ACCESS:

   The Army held an Advance Planning Briefing to Industry in late April. ACCESS is to be Successor to the RS3 Vehicle and may also merge with the ITES-3S contract. The Army wants and needs industry buy-in on the RS3 and ITES-3S merger and would like to have our feedback soon. They seek creative ideas around evaluation criteria with a focus on streamlining (speed), additional labor categories, and areas for improvement.  The ACCESS RFI was released in April.  An Industry Day is planned for later this Spring, the Draft RFP is expected in late Spring/mid-summer, and the final RFP is expected in September. Merging these contract vehicles could be a game changer so get your inputs in soon! Hinz has great experience with both RS3 and ITES task orders as well as the IDIQ contract proposals.... reach out when you need support on ACCESS.

About Hinz Consulting

Hinz Consulting provides services across the full business development cycle:

• Proposal Consulting

• AI Services

• Strategic Pricing

• Training

• Capture

• Competitive Intelligence

• BD Transformation Consulting

• Process/Methodology Consulting

• Tools and Templates

• Production Services

• Small Business