In This Week's Newsletter:

• Opportunity Spotlight of the Week: Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability Next (JWCC Next)

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

• AI Corner: Screening a Proposal for Terms: Macros and Prompts

• Pricing Insights: Common Pricing Mistakes in Cost/Price Proposals (and How to Avoid Them)

• Capture Corner: Post Submission Capture Activities

Opportunity Alert: Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability Next (JWCC Next)

Contact Katie: [email protected]

DISA is rolling out a follow-on vehicle to the current $9B JWCC contract in March 2026 with a predicted award timeframe of December 2026. This multiple award, Full and Open IDIQ scope includes expanding the current DoD enterprise cloud contract, identifying gaps in the current strategy, and leveraging additional cloud capabilities, including Anything as a Service (XaaS) across the Department. Contact Hinz Consulting for Capture, Proposal, and Price to Win support.

Four to Follow:

1. Department of Justice, FBI, Intelligence Services: The FBI released a Request for Information (RFI) March 4, 2025, for contractors to deliver operational intelligence services by conducting bulk and targeted exploitation, intelligence, and data analyses, with responses due April 3, 2025, at 3:00 PM CT. The value and set-aside for this effort is currently unknown. A final RFP is anticipated to be released in June 2025. Continue to monitor SAM.gov for updates.

2. Department of Army, Initial Outfitting and Transition Facilities Support Services IV (I&OT)(FSS): The Contracting Office released a Draft RFP March 7, 2025, for this multiple award $371M IDIQ/MATOC. This MATOC is anticipated to be multiple award with both SB Set-Aside and Full and Open/Unrestricted competition lanes and is estimated to be released in Q2 FY2025. Continue to monitor SAM.gov for additional information.

3. Department of Defense (DoD), Decisive Action Follow on (DA): The Contracting Office issued a Sources Sought on March 5, 2025, with further modifications extending the response date from March 18 to March 27, 2025. Questions remain due by March 13, 2025, at 12:00 PM EST. This $338M opportunity is anticipated to be released in September 2025, with a predicted award time frame of June 2026. The competition type for this effort is currently unknown. Continue to monitor SAM.gov for further modifications and information.

4. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Evolving Launch Vehicle Integrated Support 4 (ELVIS 4): NASA issued a Sources Sought March 4, 2025, with responses to be due on March 18, 2025, by 5:00PM EST. NASA intends to host one-on-one meetings for contractors during the week of March 31, 2025, from 9:00AM – 5:00PM EST via teleconference. This $251M effort is estimated to be released September 2025, with a predicted award time frame of May 2026. The competition type is unknown at this time. Continue to monitor SAM.gov for updates.

Screening a Proposal for Terms: Macros and Prompts

Contact Josh: [email protected]

As leadership changes in Administrations and Agencies certain words will be in or out of vogue, and potentially be flagged in government proposals. To ensure your proposal matches the language of the client Agency, we recommend two methods for screening a proposal for select words: building a macro or using Generative AI (Gen AI).

A macro is a set of instructions that can automate repetitive tasks, saving you time and effort. If you want to create a macro to screen your documents for flagged words, you can find more information and a helpful guide here. Macros are an important part of personal efficiency now, and increasingly in the future

To utilize a prompt in a Generative AI platform for screening prohibited words in a government proposal, you can create a specific prompt that instructs the AI to identify and flag any words from your provided list. For example, you might use a prompt like, "Analyze the following text and highlight any words or phrases from the given list that are not suitable for a government proposal." The AI will then process the text, leveraging natural language processing (NLP) to understand the context and meaning, and provide feedback on any flagged words. This approach ensures that your proposals remain compliant with government standards and guidelines.

Common Pricing Mistakes in Cost/Price Proposals (and How to Avoid Them)

Contact Teo: [email protected]

Pricing can be critical to winning proposals and common mistakes can hurt your chances. Avoid these pitfalls:

1. Mispricing Without Justification
   Underpricing raises concerns about quality, while overpricing requires clear value and Return on Investment (ROI). Strike a balance and justify higher prices with unique benefits.

2. Lack of Transparency or Request For Proposal (RFP) Alignment
   Ambiguous pricing erodes trust, and failure to align with RFP requirements risks disqualification. Provide clear cost breakdowns and follow RFP instructions closely.

3. Ignoring Total Costs and Risks
   Overlooking lifecycle costs (e.g., maintenance) or failing to address risks can weaken your bid. Account for all costs and include contingency plans.

4. Regulatory Non-Compliance or Market Oversight
   Non-compliance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)/Cost Accounting Standards (CAS) or lack of market research can derail proposals. Ensure regulatory adherence and benchmark against competitors.

5. Errors in Calculations or Incumbent Bias
   Mistakes in figures or relying on outdated rates can hurt competitiveness. Audit calculations thoroughly and adapt to current market conditions.

Best Practices

• Review RFPs carefully and ensure compliance.

• Use detailed, transparent pricing models.

• Conduct market research and risk assessments.

• Engage experts for pricing strategy insights.

By avoiding these mistakes, you can improve your proposal success while maintaining profitability and client trust.

Post Submission Capture Activities

Contact Nick: [email protected]

After a year-long capture effort has progressed through the proposal phase, as discussed in our last article, many organizations may enter a holding pattern or even believe the capture process is complete. However, the capture process must continue beyond submission. In this article, we will discuss seven actions that should be taken post-submission.

1. After Action Review: It is crucial that the Capture Manager and Proposal Manager work together to conduct a thorough After-Action review with the bid team, while it is fresh on the team’s mind. After Action Review feedback should be documented and used for process improvement as well as to compare with government feedback (discussed below).

2. Monitor Source Selection News: Ensure you subscribe to alerts for whichever portal(s) you will receive updates on ( GSA Interact pages, SAM.gov, GovWin, HigherGov, etc.) This will help keep you and your organization informed and aware of any post submission amendments, protests, evaluation notices, or miscellaneous updates.

3. Maintain Customer Engagement: Ensuring you maintain compliance with FAR/DFAR and other procurement regulations, maintain your relationship with key stakeholders through permissible channels ie. Industry events or discussions about their overall mission objectives. If a Best and Final Offer (BAFO) round is expected maintaining this engagement enables you to softly reinforce your organization’s value proposition.

4. Prepare for Award Decisions: While source selection is occurring, the Capture Manager should coordinate with the Program Manager, Transition Manager, and any other key stakeholders to ensure you’re able to begin execution as soon as your organization is awarded. If you believe that your organization may lose for a reason that can be protested. work with your contracts and legal team to determine the most likely Courses of Action (COA) the government will take if they do not award your company and determine your ability to protest based on the likely COAs,

5. Customer Debrief: Awarded or not, you should request a formal customer debrief from the awarding agency. Compare this debrief to your own internal After-Action Review and use the customer debrief to improve future Capture and Proposal efforts. If your organization was not awarded, circle back with your contracts and legal teams to determine if you have substantial grounds for a protest.

6. Post Award Market Analysis: Once the award has been made, reassess your pipeline. Obtaining an award will empower your organization to double down on similar efforts and a loss may let you know that you’ll need to no bid or lower  your PWIN on certain opportunities in your pipeline. 

7. Team Recognition: Win or lose, submitting a compliant and compelling response to an RFP requires significant effort. The efforts and contributions from the bid team should be recognized. Further, most successful government contractors maintain robust incentive programs for their bid teams. If all the efforts turn into a win, and an incentive program is in place, the capture manager should ensure that the rewards for a win are shared with all who provided value to your pursuit.

With these steps completed post submission / post award you can confidentially rest assured that you’ve completed the capture process for that opportunity… Until the recompete comes around!

• March 25-26: IDGA National Homeland Security Week in Arlington, VA

• March 27: Small Business Expo in Washington, DC

• April 1-2: AFCEA 2025 Spring Intelligence Symposium in Springfield, VA

• May 13-16: VETS25 Conference in Orlando, FL

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