Developing Business Strategies - Case Study Example

? Assignment 3: RFP Response RFP Response Introduction The Motion Investments Limited is a small business falling under the HUBZone Category. The Company seeks to provide services in maintenance, repair and rebuilding of equipment for the federal government. The Motion Investments Limited is currently seeking opportunities under the Federal Business Opportunities Department, i.e. provision of maintenance of the Department of the Army’s fire protection system in New Jersey and provision of dock side repair services for the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter among many others. Motion Investment is currently on the process of seeking contracting opportunities offered by the federal government. An extensive research is underway in order to asses options to see which social economic small business category will best fit our small business status. Our ideal contracting opportunity would be on any small business firm, fixed price type contract. For us to gain a competitive advantage within the small business category, the most important strategy will be to establish an excellent business plan and a well-experienced capture team. Capture team A capturing team consists of a leader and a core group of mangers to oversee the program proposal and ensure the company at least gets an opportunity to be established within the competitive range. In order to do that, the managers must ensure that all tasks and duties are carried out according to plan. Organizations that normally have a well-defined plan that guided how the business activities will be carried out and the roles of each of the managers will have an upper hand over its competitors. Therefore, Motion Investments Limited must ensure its proposal is in line with set policies, regulations and procedures in order to ensure the company has an opportunity to win the contract. When structuring the bid/proposal, the contracting team must consider the type of small business set-aside, if applicable, and the company will qualify under (Osborne, 2002, p.113). A well-organized capture team and environment is very crucial since it will provide an upper hand for the company against competitors. All purchases by the government and other institutions are most times required to favor business owned by a particular segment of the population e.g. the HUBZone. The purpose of the HUBZone Program is to provide Federal contracting assistance for qualified small business concerns located in business zones that are historically underutilized. This is the quest; empower these underutilized zones in terms of investment, employment opportunities and economic development (Osborne, 2002, p.114). Using Ambiguity as a Competitive Advantage According to the RFP Section B, the government defines what it is buying and what the bidder must deliver. Section C provides a description of the technical requirements of the contract. Section provides a more detailed statement of work and product specification. Section L provides the basic proposal format instructions, the number and types of proposal volumes, the specific instruction on how to prepare each volume or section alongside the specific technical specifications to be addressed. Section M lists and describes the evaluation criteria that will be used to select the winner. Therefore, sections L and M indicates to the bidder what must be included in the bid proposal and how the response will be scored. Sections D and E identify the specifications for marking, shipping and inspection whereas section F lets the bidder know the program schedule of the government and when the items must be delivered to the government. It contains the exact dates for the contract options and the period of performance for individual contact line item numbers (CLINs). Other sections like H, G, I and K will be only of interest to the contracts manager assigned to the proposal (Aaker, 2001, p.167).  Therefore, a firm can take the advantage of unclear clauses in the RFP response in order to gain competitive advantage. For example, we can consider a case where the proposal team is bidding a contract that includes both the development and production phases and the development costs are on a cost-plus basis but the production bid is a firm fixed price. If part of the contract requires design and installation of certain components, then specific drawings of the design need to be made available. In any case, these drawing are not provided in the RFP responses, these provide a loophole for ambiguity and the bidder will have an advantage of using this loophole to his or her own advantage (Roth, 2002, p.156) Also, in a case the RFP response in unclear whether the contract is a development or a production task, these also provide an opportunity for ambiguity. This is because the proposal team members may have different interpretations of the response. The first impression will be to increase the bid price, but that will make us less competitive. Alternatively, we could limit our risks by defining the task as provide for in the bid contract so that if turns out to be more extensive, we would be at liberty to increase the costs under the cost-plus terms of the contract development. Another option is to ask for clarification in regard to the ambiguity, but there are chances of getting a response that is not understandable and also it may alert other competitors, hence we may lose the opportunity of using the ambiguity to our advantage. Therefore, the final solution is to settle on an area of concentration, list any ambiguity as an assumptions and then make it part of the cost basis estimate. This will be the best way to use ambiguities in RFP responses and will be instrumental in winning many government contracts without worrying an issue of unresponsive to RFP requirements (Franklin, 2006, p.341) Program Requirements Document Program Requirements Document for the Maintenance and provision of Peculiar Support Equipment to the Navy Department Program Description The supply of five distinct types of Peculiar Support Equipment (PSE) for the Aircraft, i.e. Hub and Blade Stand, MLG Test Cycling Fixture, Blade Trailer Adapter, Conversion Actuator Trailer Adapter, PRGB Restraint Tool at the Organizational & Intermediate (O&I) Level of Peculiar Support Equipment (PSE) end items for the Aircraft. Notice Type: Solicitation Program Schedule This will be a three year firm fixed price Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) type contract for the supply of distinct types of Peculiar Support Equipment (PSE) for the V-22 Aircraft. The program will be implemented in three phases, each taking 12 months. Twelve months will be required for system design, assembly and development of the equipment of the peculiar equipment for the V-22 Aircraft. The second phase will involve the inspection and testing of all the five types of equipment to ensure they conform to the standards and are compatible and are working correctly with the V-22 Aircraft. The last phase will involve the delivery and installation of the Peculiar Support Equipment (PSE) at the office of Naval Supply Systems Command. Each of the phases will be carried out in 12 months each for a total period of 36 months. The contract will be awarded on 25 Jan 2014 The preview of the design 25 Jan 2014 Preview of the final design 25 Dec 2014 Running final tests 25 Dec 2015 Installation and Deployment 25 Dec 2016 Special Requirements MV-22 Fixture Cycling, MGL Test Knowledge of aircraft legacy systems Performance-based logistics systems Must be a government approved value management system Extra The solicitation will be posted on the NAVAIR website under "Opportunities." All the relevant and useful information will be released on the NAVAIR website and no request made by either telephone, written or mailed hard copies will be accepted. It relies upon the vendors to ensure they have access to all the amendments after solicitation release. Registration in the Department of Defense (DoD) System for Award Management (SAM) database will be a prerequisite for receiving an award. Conclusion This paper has reviewed the Motion Investments Limited organizational structure and then developed a matrix of five roles for each member and ensure its proposal is prepared in accordance to all regulation, policies and procedures in order to gain the competitive advantage that is critical to having an opportunity to win the contract. In addition, this paper highlights the methods used by the company to respond to the RFP’s ambiguity in order to gain a competitive advantage approach. Lastly, the proposal requirement document is also discussed in detail and a sample provided. References Aaker, D. A. (2001). Developing business strategies, sixth edition (6th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Franklin, M. (2006). Performance Gap Analysis Tips, Tools, and Intelligence for Trainers. Alexandria: American Society for Training & Development. Osborne, S. R. (2011). Winning government business gaining the competitive advantage with effective proposals (2nd ed.). Vienna, VA: Management Concepts. Parvey, M., & Alston, D. (2010). The definitive guide to government contracts everything you need to apply for and win federal and GSA schedule contracts. Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press. Roth, B. (2002). Request for proposal: a guide to effective RFP development. Boston, MA: Addison-Wesley. Read More