Solicitations

I often look at solicitations from SAMS.gov.  A large share uses “canned” evaluation factors like Mission Suitability, Past Performance, and Price/Costs.  Mission Suitability often has sub factors like technical approach, management plan, and key personnel.  Offerors must propose against a requirements statement such as a SOW, PWS, or SOO.  Often companies just pull up “canned” proposal responses for various factors and sub factors without really getting at the detailed need of the agency.  Sometimes the proposal is just a guess on what the agency needs but what counts is the evaluation outcome if one wants the award.

I just saw an interesting RFP.  It really departs from the normal process.  It starts with a brief statement of “this is what we want or need.”  Then it goes on with “if you want to respond, answer these questions.”  The questions are like “have you done this before?  If so, where?  Describe what you did and tell us who we can contact for verification and performance information. How did you do the work and how will you apply that to what we need?”

This certainly gets to the point.  In many cases why do we care how a company manages the work, who they have on staff, what is their approach, etc?