The government RFP process is used by the federal agencies to solicit proposals from interested bidders. Companies use this web portal to download the agency’s needs and to understand the evaluation criteria.
The RFP Process in typically government by the Federal Acquisition Regulations and related U.S. Code or Code of Federal Regulations.
Understanding the process first requires contractors to have a deep understanding of government contracting rules and bidding regulations.
For bidders to be successful at bidding and winning government contracts, they should carefully plan their proposal writing skills around the evaluation criteria as stated in the Request for Proposal, and also focus on addressing best value approaches that is higher than the competition.
When the government receives a response to its Request for Proposal, the RFP process allows the agency to put together a source selection board that evaluates each proposal against the RFP criteria (for negotiated RFPs).
Projects under the lowest price technically acceptable criteria, the government simply evaluates each response against the evaluation criteria for technical acceptability. Once acceptable, then the government makes an award to the lowest priced bidder.
In the past 8 years, the government has dramatically change the way that it evaluates proposals. As a result, many companies across the country have a difficult time adjusting to the change. Not only are the less awards but the offerors that have invested the resources to develop better practices seem to be the ones that get more and more awards.
Even large DOD businesses are facing tough times. Their competitors are winning more and more contracts. This leads to more bid protests at the Government Accountability Office.
Due to the disappointments experienced by contractors, making new adjustments to the RFP process, and how they plan and write proposals for government contracts is a mandatory requirement for future success.
Business must learn how to develop their RFP response to get more technical strengths and less weaknesses. Statistics show that 11% percent o bidders, despite their higher prices, get the award simply because they understood the process of how the Agency evaluates technical proposals and assess strengths and weakness.
The source selection process requires the evaluation to team to document their award decisions. Once you give the agency a reason to pick your proposal, they generally have no problem making the award.