Enhancing Our Small Businesses’ Competitive Proposals May 27, 2009

1. Prepare, Propose, Prevail! Enhancing Our Small Businesses’ Competitive Proposals May 27, 2009

2. Safety and Administrative Information Restrooms can be found in the hallway outside this ballroom Fire exits are the front entrance and side exit doors. In the event of a fire, you must move at least 75ft. away from the building Please adjust all cell phones and pagers to the “Off” or “Vibrate” setting Fire Exits Fire Exit Fire Exit Restrooms

3. Welcome Message • Welcome Message • Jeffrey M. Cullen • Deputy Director JSC Procurement

4. Prepare, Propose, Prevail! Questions & Answers 4

5. Topics Covered • Pre-Solicitation – Monica Craft • RFP – Bradley Niese • Proposal • Common Issues with Proposals – Cody Corley • SBA Ostensible Contractor Information – Roberta Beckman • Key Personnel – Kelly Rubio • Past Performance Evaluations – Sheela Logan • Total Compensation – Jannette Bolden • Cost & Price – Jannette Bolden • Proposal Delivery – Rod Etchberger • SEB Process – Rod Etchberger • Safety & Health Requirements - Sergio Leal

6. Prepare, Propose, Prevail! “Pre - RFP” NASA – Johnson Space Center

7. Pre-RFP Activities • Obtain eligibility for federal government contracts • Position your company to compete • Identify potential opportunities • Help JSC create opportunities for small businesses! • Create a bid/no-bid strategy

8. Obtain Eligibility for Federal Contracts • Identify your product or service—your company’s core capabilities • Know the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes for your products/services • NAICS codes are used by government agencies to do their market research & identify firms that are capable of meeting their requirements • LESSON LEARNED: Some agencies rely on certain NAICS codes, in preference to others, for doing their market surveys. E.g., some Department of Defense & Veterans Administration procurement offices use the NAICS code for medical/hospital services, not the code for temporary services, for short-term medical personnel requirements. If you list the “wrong” NAICS code instead of the desired one, you won’t be identified as a potential source! Talk to the Small Business Offices of your potential customers to discover these “rules of thumb”!

9. Obtain Eligibility for Federal Contracts, cont’d. • Request a Data Universal Number System (DUNS) Number for your company • In order to do business with JSC, your company MUST have a DUNS number • It’s an important identifier, used for many purposes—including invoice payments—by government agencies • Contact Dun & Bradstreet (www.dnb.com) to obtain a DUNS number (free service)

10. Obtain Eligibility for Federal Contracts, cont’d. • Request a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) • In order to do business with JSC, your company MUST have a TIN • Used by companies to report income tax and for other related purposes • TIN is provided by the IRS (www.irs.gov)

11. Obtain Eligibility for Federal Contracts, cont’d. • Register your business in the Central Contractor Registry (CCR) • In order to do business with JSC, your company MUST be registered in CCR • Register at www.ccr.gov • LESSON LEARNED: Keep your profile current! Government agencies use CCR capability descriptions, references, etc. for their market research, to verify bonding capacity, and to identify potential sources!

12. Obtain Eligibility for Federal Contracts, cont’d. • Complete the On-Line Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) • In order to do business with JSC, your company MUST have completed its ORCA statements • This replaces the paper “reps & certs” that were required with the submission of bids and proposals • Access ORCA at https://orca.bpn.gov/

13. Position Your Company to Compete You should be doing a number of things now! • Develop a company Safety & Health Plan (details later in this training) • Consider pursuing certifications, such as ISO, LEED, CMMI, etc.—make your company eligible and/or stand out from the competition • Consider SBA certifications—WOSB, SDVOSB, 8(a), etc. • Develop a relationship with the local SBA and SBDC/PTAC offices (Small Business Development Center/Procurement Technical Assistance Center—the local office is a joint venture with the SBA and the University of Houston—it offers free, knowledgeable advice, low-cost or no-cost training, help with company business issues and procurement strategies, etc.)

14. Things to Be Doing Now, cont’d. • Know the customer’s priorities, needs, & decision making factors • Surf JSC’s websites, read our management policies and directives, review our contracts and Statements of Work, ask for and read our Source Selection Statements to see what we look for in successful proposals, examine our buying trends

15. Things to Be Doing Now, cont’d. • Become familiar with the JSC aerospace community • Get involved with professional organizations like NCMA, IEEE, AIAA, SCE, NMA, JSC Small Business Roundtable • MARKETING OPPORTUNITY: Offer to do a free lunchtime presentation or workshop on a hot topic or a technical subject. It shouldn’t be an “infomercial”, but it’s a chance to show yourself as a source of expertise.

16. Things to Be Doing Now - cont’d. • Participate in JSC procurement events—attend the Industry Day, Pre-Proposal Conferences, and One-on-One Meetings, even for procurements you don’t plan to bid on • Learn the rules and the players • Chance to give feedback to us on how helpful these events are, so we can improve them for the procurements you are interested in! • LESSON LEARNED: Send the right people to represent your company at JSC procurement events—to ask & answer the right questions, recognize teaming opportunities • LESSON LEARNED: Submit questions! Use the specified format (written or oral), but don’t be afraid to ask!

17. Sources of Information The JSC Procurement website NAIS/NENS JSC Acquisition Forecast GSA’s Federal Supply Schedules Other Sources Identify Potential Opportunities

18. Identify Potential Opportunities, cont’d. • JSC’s Procurement Website direct link is at http://procurement.jsc.nasa.gov/ • Also accessible via the main NASA website, select “JSC”, then select “Doing Business with JSC” • Extensive information on how to do business with JSC, small business information, information and status regarding on-going competitive procurements, and links to helpful websites

19. Access JSC Procurement from the NASA Website

20. Direct Link to JSC Procurement

21. Identify Potential Opportunities, cont’d • The NASA Acquisition Internet Service (NAIS) • Delivers acquisition documents over the Internet to slash lead-times, paperwork, and to save money • Provides competitive RFPs over $25,000 and a host of other procurement-related information • In addition to synopses and RFPs, NAIS provides award notices, acquisition forecasts, regulations, small business assistance and links to other Federal procurement sites on the Internet • Other federal agencies use the VetBiz.gov and FedBizOpps (https://www.fbo.gov/index?cck=1andau=andck) systems to post procurement information

22. Identify Potential Opportunities, cont’d NAIS (cont’d) • Browsing on-line, companies can quickly identify acquisitions of interest. For fast and easy access place a bookmark on your favorite pages.

23. Identify Potential Opportunities, cont’d. NAIS E-Mail Notification System • The NAIS E-mail Notification System (NENS) allows you to receive notifications on NASA acquisition opportunities of interest to you • Register to receive E-mail notifications of new acquisitions and updates • Track acquisition postings by product / service class / NAICS Code, NASA center, a combination of the two, by specific acquisition number, or by Recovery Act designation

24. Sign up for NENS

25. Identify Potential Opportunities, cont’d JSC’s Acquisition Forecast • Lists procurement opportunities over $100,000 that we anticipate releasing during the current fiscal year • For planning purposes only; the procurements are subject to revision or cancellation • Published twice a year (October & April) • For planned procurements your company might be interested in, you can call the listed point of contact for more information

26. Acquisition Forecast – cont’d

27. Identify Potential Opportunities, cont’d. • Investigate Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) Contracts • Contact the General Services Administration (GSA) for information on how to obtain a Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contract. Many NASA purchases are orders on FSS contracts. • http://www.gsa.gov/

28. Identify Potential Opportunities, cont’d There are costs to holding a FSS contract— • Preparing & submitting an offer • Managing the contract • Producing GSA Advantage files, & updating them with each modification • Tracking “Most Favored Customer” discounts • Submitting an EEO plan, complying with various labor laws • Accepting credit card payments • Participating in E-Buy Despite these costs—an FSS contract can be worthwhile

29. More Potential Opportunities • Other possibilities: • Large Business Prime Contractors and Major Sub-contractors • For lots of small businesses, the fastest & easiest route to joining the JSC Team is as a subcontractor under one of our ongoing or new contracts • Teaming Arrangements with other small business • Investigate what JSC buys on an ongoing basis

30. How to Find Out What JSC Buys • All federal contracts over $25,000 are listed in the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG) • Access them at www.fpds-ng.gov • NASA contracts are also listed in the NASA Procurement Data View (see the NAICS website, the NPDV tab) • OR—ask the JSC Industry Assistance Office for a download in an Excel spreadsheet. Free, of course!

31. Find Out What JSC Buys HOW-TO TIP: JSC has on-going needs for supplies & services. Typically our contracts are let for 3-5 year periods of time. • Take our list of contracts, do a keyword search on the contract description for work you’re interested in, & sort by contract completion date. • Focus on the contracts that will come to an end 12-18 months from now—those are your targets of opportunity! • Request copies of the contract, source selection information from the contract award, what companies submitted proposals the last time, the JSC technical organization that manages the contract & what its mission and goals are, etc. • Position your company to plan for the follow-on procurement before we even start our acquisition planning!

32. Help JSC Create Small Business Opportunities • Respond to RFI’s—supply the information requested—even if you can’t perform the entire contract Lesson Learned: We use the industry responses to decide 2 important things: whether or not we can set aside a contract for small business, and if not, what the small business subcontracting goals should be. If there’s significant small business interest/capability, based on the RFI responses, we can insist on high small business participation goals. Help us help you! • Review & comment on Draft RFP’s—tell us if the technical specs or the terms are too restrictive • Market your company (judiciously!) to the technical points of contact in the Acquisition Forecast—especially for the procurements that list “TBD” on a small business set-aside decision.

33. Bid You’ve pre-sold the customer You know the procurement history & have a good feel for your chances of success, based on what you know about how prior selections were decided You’ve got the people, skills, management to handle the work—or a solid plan on getting them You’ve got the budget and time to prepare a high-quality proposal The contract would give you important experience and an edge in winning future work No-Bid It’s a blind bid—you don’t know anything but what’s in the RFP You have to stretch your capabilities & qualification to meet the requirements A strongly-positioned low cost bidder is competing for the work The contract terms aren’t acceptable to your company You don’t think your company would make a reasonable profit on the contract Propose or Not Lots of factors go into a bid/no-bid decision

34. Propose or Not, cont’d. • The amount of lead-time, information gathering, and prep work you put in to a procurement can push the win probability from a low of ~5% for a blind bid on a new market for your company, to 75% (according to some proposal advisors) on a re-competition with a satisfied client • See NCMA’s Contract Management Magazine, “Bid/No-Bid Decision-Making: Tools & Techniques”, April 2007, for an opportunity/risk assessment grid that can help you make the decision

35. Prepare, Propose, Prevail! “Request for Proposal”(RFP) NASA – Johnson Space Center

36. RFP • CCR • Draft Request for Proposal (DRFP) • Final RFP or Request for Proposal (RFP) • Compliance matrix

37. Central Contractor Registry (CCR) • http://www.ccr.gov/ • CCR is the primary registrant database of businesses that desire to obtain government contracts for the U.S. Federal Government • CCR collects, validates, stores and disseminates contractor data in support of agency acquisition missions 37

38. Draft Request for Proposal (DRFP) • The purpose of the DRFP is to solicit your input and questions • This is your opportunity to: • Raise questions on the requirement • Raise questions on terms and conditions • Clarify proposal instructions • Suggest improvement to the RFP • Start outlining your initial proposal • Use all available resources

39. Technical Reference Library Take advantage of all resources that are made available to Industry by the government In addition to the interchanges listed above, often times a “Technical Reference Library (TRL)” is available that provides a wealth of pertinent information related to the procurement, such as technical specifications, historical procurement plans and processes, etc. Lesson Learned NASA has looked at why some offerors fail to understand our requirements and found that offerors who submit poor proposals often fail to access the “TRL” 39

40. When in Doubt - Ask Questions! I’d love to ask a question - but I’m afraid it would sink our chances! Glug.. Cost Form Instructions? Page Limits? Conflicting Requirements? Draft RFP? Ambiguous Requirements? 40

41. DRFP vs. RFP • Changes will be made between the DRFP and the RFP • Thoroughly read the entire RFP to ensure all requirements are understood • If any part of the RFP is not understood, ambiguous, conflicts with another section of the RFP, etc., ask questions • Questions may also be asked anonymously

42. Compliance Matrix • Create a “compliance matrix” to ensure all RFP requirements are adequately addressed in your proposal • A compliance matrix is a cross-reference table that traces all RFP requirements to the offeror’s proposal section that addresses the requirement • Can include the compliance matrix with your proposal submission to provide the government evaluators with insight where to quickly find your responses to specific RFP requirements • An example is provided on the following page

43. Compliance Matrix

44. RFP • Lesson Learned Continued • Offerors should not allow communication outside of the SEB/C to influence their proposal strategy • Strictly adhere to the RFP in development of their proposal

45. Section L - Instructions Instructs offerors how to respond to the RFP Structures information requested of offerors and thereby expedites the evaluation Establishes proposal page limits Provides a proposal outline • Correlates with Section M (Evaluation Factors) 45

46. Section M - Evaluation Factors Sets forth evaluation factors/subfactors Describes how evaluation factors/subfactors will be used Establishes: Relative importance of Mission Suitability, Cost/Price and Past Performance Identifies the importance of Cost/Price as specifically related to the other two factors Provides “point weightings” for each of the Mission Suitability subfactors 46

47. Follow the Proposal Preparation Instructions! Count the Pages Correctly! Don’t Put Technical Information in the Cost Volume! 14 + 7 = 20 We Count the Pages - Anything over the limit, we send it BACK! 47

48. Common Issues with Proposals Prepare, Propose, Prevail!

49. Writing the Proposal... Clear The Five C’s Concise Consistent Conforming to RFP Comprehensive 49

50. Common Issues with Proposals • Ensuring your offer is complete • Statement of Work (SOW) • Basis of Estimate (BOE) • Associate Contractor Agreements (ACAs) • Management Plans • Staffing Plans • Representations and Certifications