To be successful in a government bid, you must not only offer the products or services that are sought by an agency, but you must also gain access to the appropriate contract vehicle. Agencies seek to streamline procurement by pre-competing contracts to limit the number of proposals they will receive for a given solicitation. They also have targets for set-aside contracts for special groups such as minority-, veteran-, and woman-owned companies. Agencies may choose one or more large system integrators to simplify shopping for tasks later and use them as the clearinghouse for project labor.
The disconnect between contract vehicles and capabilities means that contract holders need to find companies whose skills match the needs of the agency, and companies offering products and services need to form alliances with companies that hold the contract vehicles.
With just a few small Dynamics CRM customizations, you can track subcontracting opportunities along with your sales opportunities as a prime contractor. For instance:
- Add a contract type field to the Opportunity, indicating whether it is a prime or subcontract.
- Add a team members entity to CRM, linking between Opportunities and Accounts. In this entity, show each team member along with their role on the team.
- Modify reports if you would like to differentiate between prime and subcontracts.
For more posts on government contracting, see: