A few months after we published our introduction to DOD’s new Other Transaction Authority (OTA), DOD announced a huge $950 million OTA award to REAN for streamlined cloud solutions, after the company’s success transitioning TRANSCOM systems to the cloud. The next month, after a GAO protest and public scrutiny, DOD announced to the press on March 5th that they would be scaling back the deal both in payment and scope: limiting the ceiling to $65 million, and narrowing performance to...

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) recently announced the award of an almost-$140 million contract for “commercial trucks and trailers,” to California-based Certified Stainless Service Inc. (doing business as West-Mark). While awarded through DLA, the agency expects the customer-base to span all of the U.S. Military branches and will even include other Federal agencies. West-Mark will build the equipment for use “within the Contiguous United States, Alaska, Hawaii, the outlying areas and throughout Europe, Africa and the Pacific.” The globe-spanning equipment...

While DISA continues to work on awards for the Systems Engineering, Technology and Engineering (SETI) contract vehicle, the agency took an opportunity to ask interested parties to contribute ideas to a new “Innovative Contracting Playbook” which it is putting together. Inspired by the successful (and well publicized) NASA Space Poop Challenge, DISA is asking for input (in any format) on non-traditional contracting strategies it could utilize in the future. Mainly, it wants to know if contractors would participate in a...

Solely for “business planning purposes only,” the General Services Administration released a Request for Information (RFI) for Entity Validation Services, services currently fulfilled with the use of the Data Universal Number System (DUNS). While in an early stage, this could indicate the Federal government’s interest in moving away from the proprietary Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) identification system. The RFI specifically mentions the necessity for open access to the data by the public and the Federal government, which illustrates a key...

With a rule first proposed in 2016 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and more DOD contracting regulations in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2018, contractors filing bid protests may soon have to pay processing fees to the agencies. While the GAO fees will apply as an administrative necessity to every protest, the proposed DOD protest fees will have a number of limiting factors that may have less of an impact on small businesses. EZGovOpps describes...

With Fiscal Year 2017 closed out, EZGovOpps decided to put together a small report which could illustrate the spending push that many Federal agencies enact in the fourth quarter, particularly in the final month of September. Using the EZGovOpps Awards software module, available in all EZGovOpps subscription plans, our analysts compared the number of contracts awarded during an early part of the fiscal year, in this case April, with the final contracts awarded in September for years 2015 through 2017. This...

UPDATE 3/16/2018: A DIUx-sponsored contract for cloud services took a major hit this week, with DOD shrinking the value from almost-$1 billion to only $65 million. Get the full scoop here.  After our primer on contract action types, EZGovOpps will provide a look at the “Other Transaction Authority” (OTA) that DOD holds. This authority allows for DOD to enter into transactions other than contracts, grants or cooperative agreements. Growing in use, these types of OTA transactions can reach up to...

After major acquisitions that have consolidated certain portions of the Federal market-share, including the Leidos acquisition of the Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions (IS&GS) subsidiary last year, and the announcement this year of UTC’s purchase of Rockwell Collins for $30 billion, creators of Federal procurement tools utilized by both agencies and contractors alike are now undergoing a similar phase of consolidation. On the market intelligence side, Onvia announced on October 5th that it agreed to be purchased by Project Diamond...

After discussing the power of the National Defense Authorization Act, from spurring small business procurement to elevating Cyber Command to a Unified Combatant Command status, EZGovOpps is now covering another major change in the DOD structure that could be implemented in the FY18 NDAA: the creation of a brand-new military branch known as the Space Corps. After using the FY17 NDAA to elevate Cyber Command, the House Armed Services Committee moved in June 2017 to move control of space missions...

Publicly traded corporations involved in Federal contracting present a unique understanding of the environment through mandated public reporting requirements. With data compiled by CNBC, EZGovOpps can analyze the contracting success of the Top 10 publicly traded companies in Federal contracting, their overall investment in the Federal sector, and predictions for future rankings. Pulled from 2015, which was also a big year for WOSBs, the data carries both expected and unexpected patterns for publicly-traded companies involved in the Federal space. Most...