Contract Phase Data Collection Tasks

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Until a time where we have a program that automates each of these data collection phases, this workflow will articulate how to collect the data for each phase manually.

Phase 1: Solicitation Types

Phase 1 mostly involves just determining the Solicitation Type for each contract. Solicitation Type refers to both the phase and the strategy that the government is using for pursuing contractors. Here's a rundown of each type in roughly chronological order:

  1. Forecast: A projection or prediction of future contracts or opportunities that may become available.
  2. Presolicitation: An announcement of an upcoming solicitation, allowing vendors to prepare for the formal request.
  3. Sources Sought: A request for information from potential suppliers to assess market capabilities before issuing a formal solicitation.
  4. Request for Information (RFI): A formal process to gather information from potential vendors about their capabilities or a specific product/service.
  5. Request for Proposal (RFP): A formal solicitation for proposals from vendors to provide specific products or services.
  6. Invitation for Bid (IFB): A formal request for sealed bids, typically used when the requirements are clearly defined and price is the primary factor.
  7. Request for Quote (RFQ): A formal invitation for suppliers to submit price quotes for specific items or services.
  8. Award: The final selection and contract agreement with a chosen vendor for a specific procurement.
  9. Notice: A general announcement or information about a procurement-related matter. This can also be thought of as an 'Other' category and is generally uninformative. It should be avoided as a category when possible.

Acquisition Methods

The following terms are commonly listed as Solicitation Types in some systems (e.g., Higher Gov) but are actually acquisition methods or contract types:

  1. Small Purchase: A simplified acquisition procedure for relatively low-value purchases.
  2. Commercial: Relating to standard commercial products or services available in the marketplace.
  3. Blanket: A type of contract that provides for a variety of items or services over a period of time, often with pre-established pricing.
  4. Open Market: Refers to purchases made from commercial sources using simplified acquisition procedures when items are not available from preferred sources. This method allows agencies to procure goods and services directly from the commercial marketplace, often for smaller purchases or when other contract vehicles are not suitable.

Our goal is to search for and record the Solicitation Type for each contract. This will be the same for both SLED and Federal contracts. To find the Solicitation Type of a contract:

  1. First click the higher gov link associated with it.
  2. Check the Opportunity Type and record that in the Solicitation Type column of the Airtable for Phase I.
  3. Then click on the original link and look at the Purchase Method. In the demo link below, we can see that while the Purchase Method is Open Market.
  4. However, if we look below that we see that the Bulletin Desc plainly states that "This is an announcement only". This means it is definitely a Notice.
  5. If there is some reason to suspect that there may be more nuance to its Solicitation Type, then search the proposal documentation.

Then we are done, the Solicitation Type in this case is Notice. Of note, there is some subjective judgement involved in this decision, and different sites hosting the original contract may be formatted differently. The robustly applicable workflow is to check higher gov and then the original post site. If it is still unclear and you need to further investigate then read some of the documentation associated with the proposal. If at any point you can find something in clear English that declares the Solicitation Type in no uncertain terms, then end your search. Otherwise, I usually stop once I scan through the original post site for Solicitation Type.

Several of the contracts will be something of a process like that.

Phase 2

For phase two, we need to collect several more things to evaluate the contract:

  • Budget — Higher Gov AI estimated contract worth.
  • Required Experience --- RFP. important to get as much as needed to gauge if we will go to the next stage
    • Writing a proposal without the riht certs is important to avoid
  • Market / set aside --- either on. higher gov or (in bid buy for Illinois) upper third or quarter of the page: will say sheltered market (BEP), small business,
    • BEP lookalikes could be named other things than sheltered market
  • Pre-bid conference info — higher gov
  • Contract type

The first and most reliable approach is to go to the documents tab on Higher Gov then click 'download all'. Then submit those documents to GPT 4o and the custom nerevu chatbot. The submit the following text to have AI help me collect this information:

Analyze the submitted documents and provide a structured breakdown of the following elements:

1. Set-Aside Qualities:
Identify the required percentage of equity the bidder company must meet for the following set-aside categories. If there is no set aside mentioned for a specific set aside type then simply return 0% for that set aside option.
• Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)
• Other
• BEP (Business Enterprise Program)
• SBA (Small Business Association)
• Supplier Diversity Program (SDP)

2. Required Experience and Certifications:
- List all mandatory qualifications and certifications for the bidder to have. Don't list the solution requirements here! Just required experience for the bidder.

3. Pre-Bid Conference Details:
- Date of Pre-Bid Conference
- Link to pre-bid conference
- Is the pre-bid conference mandatory?
- Last day for application submission

4. Billing Structure:
Identify the applicable billing structure(s) from the following options:
• Cost Plus Award Fee
• Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF)
• Firm Fixed Price (FFP)
• Retainer
• Time & Materials
• Other (provide description)
- Also please list the Estimate value of the Contract with the given billing structure

5. Key Questions for Contract Proposer:
- Formulate insightful questions that will help assess the contract's suitability for Nerevu
- Ensure questions demonstrate competence and leave a positive impression

6. Determine the Solicitation Type, Acquisition Method, and Opportunity Type:
Identify the solicitation type from the following options:
• Forecast
• Sources Sought
• Request for Information (RFI)
• Presolicitation
• Small Purchase
• Request for Proposal (RFP)
• Invitation for Bid (IFB)
• Blanket
• Request for Quote (RFQ)
• Commercial
• Notice
• Award
To determine the solicitation type, search the proposal documentation for explicit statements. Use judgment if the type is not clearly stated, based on available information

Identify the Acquisition Method from the following options:
- 8(a) STARS
- Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA)
- GSA/MAS
- NASA SEWP
- Open Market
- Sheltered Market
- Small Purchase
- Sole Source
- Other

Identify the Opportunity Type from the following options:
- Contract
- Solution
- Pro-bono
- Grant
- Initiative

7. Subjective Review:
Nerevu Group empowers organizations to secure their real-time data and unlock the insights hidden within. Our comprehensive offerings cover all things data: development, intelligence, strategy, and security. By automating manual tasks, streamlining business analytics, unifying data silos, and enhancing API security, we propel our clients into the data-driven future. We have 2 employees, the founder and a data analyst. We have access to subcontractors proficient in change management, project management, and outreach.

Please integrate some of the information you have found above to perform a concise analysis of the proposal's fit for Nerevu addressing:
• Summary: One-sentence overview of the proposal
• Deliverables: Key work to be completed
• Vendor Requirements: Any necessary vendor experience or past performance.
• Fitness: State whether this contract would be a good fit for our company. Be direct and don't bullshit. Be blunt. State exactly what content in the document indicates that Nerevu would be a good fit. Also state what makes us a bad fit.
• Teaming Needs: Identify the degree to which Nerevu can complete this work alone, if we should prime and seek subcontractors, or if we pursue potential prime contractors and act as a subcontractor ourselves.

8. Sources:
- List the page numbers or sections where information was sourced from the available documents
- Name the single most important reference document to save locally as a reference
Please provide this analysis based on the available information in the submitted documents. If certain details are not available, indicate that the information is not provided in the source material.

This prompt and the text returns should output the results you are looking for with citations. Then Copy and paste the information into the airtable. Also place at least one of the cited documents in the documents column in airtable so that it is easy to traceback the information to its source.