If you work in the Government acquisition world, this podcast is for you. (not just for Contracting Officers!)

Kevin and Paul discuss FedBizOps.gov. (FBO) FBO is Federal Business Opportunities. It’s where nearly every opportunity to do business with the Federal Government is posted online. (as required by FAR 5.102)

Learn why industry should not be too excited to hear about an opportunity for the first time on FBO and why Government acquisition teams should consider posting more draft and imperfect documents on FBO.

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This episode is brought to you by Skyway Acquisition. To get help with the Government market, become a Skyway Community member. The Skyway Community ensures you are better positioned to take advantage of opportunities and better equipped to manage the challenges of government contracts. Members have access to one-on-one insights, time-saving tools, and training resources from our team of former COs, including the ability to get the perspective of our whole team in Ask A Contracting Officer Forum, get specialized training from our on-demand webinars and articles, targeting support through our RFP Score™ assessment tool, as well as our consulting from our team of former COs who help solve your unique puzzles. Personal memberships start at $50 with no contract. To learn more, visit skywaymember.com.

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Kevin Jans and Paul Schauer created the Contracting Officer Podcast to help Government and Industry acquisition professionals understand more about how the other side thinks. Admittedly, the podcast’s name sounds very limiting. It is not just for contracting officers or even just for those in the contracting profession. Anyone with an interest in the Federal acquisition world can benefit from the insight and down-to-earth explanations of complicated topics provided by the hosts.

If you work in the Government acquisition world, this podcast is for you. (not just for Contracting Officers!)

Kevin welcomes special guest Shaun So to the podcast to discuss Shaun’s experience in gaining 8a certification for The So Company.

Learn how the 8a Program can help small businesses win Government business and why certification alone is not enough. We introduced the 8a program way back in Episode 95. This episode provides context on how it works in the real world.

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This episode is brought to you by Skyway Acquisition. To get help with the Government market, become a Skyway Community member. The Skyway Community ensures you are better positioned to take advantage of opportunities and better equipped to manage the challenges of government contracts. Members have access to one-on-one insights, time-saving tools, and training resources from our team of former COs, including the ability to get the perspective of our whole team in Ask A Contracting Officer Forum, get specialized training from our on-demand webinars and articles, targeting support through our RFP Score™ assessment tool, as well as our consulting from our team of former COs who help solve your unique puzzles. Visit AskSkyway.com to learn more.

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Kevin Jans and Paul Schauer created the Contracting Officer Podcast to help Government and Industry acquisition professionals understand more about how the other side thinks. Admittedly, the podcast’s name sounds very limiting. It is not just for contracting officers or even just for those in the contracting profession. Anyone with an interest in the Federal acquisition world can benefit from the insight and down-to-earth explanations of complicated topics provided by the hosts.

If you work in the Government acquisition world, this podcast is for you. (not just for Contracting Officers!)

Kevin and Paul discuss how Industry can “provisionally” bill their costs on cost-type contracts per FAR 42.701, which defines “billing rate”. Learn how provisional billing rates are established and how they are managed in order to “meet at the end”.

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This episode is brought to you by Skyway Acquisition. To get help with the Government market, become a Skyway Community member. The Skyway Community ensures you are better positioned to take advantage of opportunities and better equipped to manage the challenges of government contracts. Members have access to one-on-one insights, time-saving tools, and training resources from our team of former COs, including the ability to get the perspective of our whole team in Ask A Contracting Officer Forum, get specialized training from our on-demand webinars and articles, targeting support through our RFP Score™ assessment tool, as well as our consulting from our team of former COs who help solve your unique puzzles. Personal memberships start at $50 with no contract. To learn more, visit skywaymember.com.

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Kevin Jans and Paul Schauer created the Contracting Officer Podcast to help Government and Industry acquisition professionals understand more about how the other side thinks. Admittedly, the podcast’s name sounds very limiting. It is not just for contracting officers or even just for those in the contracting profession. Anyone with an interest in the Federal acquisition world can benefit from the insight and down-to-earth explanations of complicated topics provided by the hosts.

If you work in the Government acquisition world, this podcast is for you. (not just for Contracting Officers!)

Overwhelmed by the number of solicitations on FBO.gov? (That’s where the Federal Government posts solicitations and provides information to industry) Kevin and Paul discuss the process of qualifying opportunities. Learn how to make sure you’re spending your time bidding on the right solicitations for you. And Government folks, learn why it is important to provide enough information to allow Industry to properly qualify opportunities. (hint: less wasted effort for all)

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This episode is brought to you by Skyway Acquisition. To get help with the Government market, become a Skyway Community member. The Skyway Community ensures you are better positioned to take advantage of opportunities and better equipped to manage the challenges of government contracts. Members have access to one-on-one insights, time-saving tools, and training resources from our team of former COs, including the ability to get the perspective of our whole team in Ask A Contracting Officer Forum, get specialized training from our on-demand webinars and articles, targeting support through our RFP Score™ assessment tool, as well as our consulting from our team of former COs who help solve your unique puzzles. Personal memberships start at $50 with no contract. To learn more, visit skywaymember.com.

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Kevin Jans and Paul Schauer created the Contracting Officer Podcast to help Government and Industry acquisition professionals understand more about how the other side thinks. Admittedly, the podcast’s name sounds very limiting. It is not just for contracting officers or even just for those in the contracting profession. Anyone with an interest in the Federal acquisition world can benefit from the insight and down-to-earth explanations of complicated topics provided by the hosts.

If you work in the Government acquisition world, this podcast is for you. (not just for Contracting Officers!)

Kevin and Paul continue the conversation from Episode 175 (Technical Leveling) to answer the question “Can the Government discuss price with offerors during discussions?”. Learn how FAR 15.306(e) “Limits on Exchanges” gives wide latitude to the Government to include context on an offeror’s price without crossing the line into Technical Leveling and why it can play an important role in source selection outcomes.

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This episode is brought to you by Skyway Acquisition. To get help with the Government market, become a Skyway Community member. The Skyway Community ensures you are better positioned to take advantage of opportunities and better equipped to manage the challenges of government contracts. Members have access to one-on-one insights, time-saving tools, and training resources from our team of former COs, including the ability to get the perspective of our whole team in Ask A Contracting Officer Forum, get specialized training from our on-demand webinars and articles, targeting support through our RFP Score™ assessment tool, as well as our consulting from our team of former COs who help solve your unique puzzles. Personal memberships start at $50 with no contract. To learn more, visit skywaymember.com.

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Kevin Jans and Paul Schauer created the Contracting Officer Podcast to help Government and Industry acquisition professionals understand more about how the other side thinks. Admittedly, the podcast’s name sounds very limiting. It is not just for contracting officers or even just for those in the contracting profession. Anyone with an interest in the Federal acquisition world can benefit from the insight and down-to-earth explanations of complicated topics provided by the hosts.

That's where we come in. To get help from our team of former CO's go to http://Skywaymember.com, or schedule a time to talk with me at http://AskSkyway.com

If you work in the Government acquisition world, this podcast is for you. (not just for Contracting Officers!)

Writing a Request for Proposals (RFP) without understanding industry’s capabilities and the state of the market is like writing a novel for a stranger. The same goes for writing and submitting a proposal to a customer you don’t understand. (What does that even mean? Listen and Learn!)

In this encore presentation Kevin and Paul take a different route through a couple foundational Contracting Officer Podcast topics: communication and targeting. Learn how communication between Government and Industry during the acquisition directly impacts the quality of RFPs and proposals and why targeting is important to each side.

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Kevin Jans and Paul Schauer created the Contracting Officer Podcast to help Government and Industry acquisition professionals understand more about how the other side thinks. Admittedly, the podcast’s name sounds very limiting. It is not just for contracting officers or even just for those in the contracting profession. Anyone with an interest in the Federal acquisition world can benefit from the insight and down-to-earth explanations of complicated topics provided by the hosts.

GET HELP FROM OUR TEAM OF FORMER CONTRACING OFFICERS AT http://askskyway.com

If you work in the Government acquisition world, this podcast is for you. (not just for Contracting Officers!)

Kevin welcomes special guest Stacey Coolican (a former Government Contracting Officer with over 20 years experience) to discuss the reasons why Government acquisition teams may use a formal Request for Information (RFI), what they expect to learn from RFI responses, and things that Industry should consider when contemplating a response to an RFI.

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This episode is brought to you by Skyway Acquisition. To get help with the Government market, become a Skyway Community member. The Skyway Community ensures you are better positioned to take advantage of opportunities and better equipped to manage the challenges of government contracts. Members have access to one-on-one insights, time-saving tools, and training resources from our team of former COs, including the ability to get the perspective of our whole team in Ask A Contracting Officer Forum, get specialized training from our on-demand webinars and articles, targeting support through our RFP Score™ assessment tool, as well as our consulting from our team of former COs who help solve your unique puzzles.

___________

Kevin Jans and Paul Schauer created the Contracting Officer Podcast to help Government and Industry acquisition professionals understand more about how the other side thinks. Admittedly, the podcast’s name sounds very limiting. It is not just for contracting officers or even just for those in the contracting profession. Anyone with an interest in the Federal acquisition world can benefit from the insight and down-to-earth explanations of complicated topics provided by the hosts.

If you work in the Government acquisition world, this podcast is for you. (not just for Contracting Officers!)

Kevin and Paul discuss a special kind of small business: the HUBZone small business concern. A HUBZone is a historically underutilized business zone designated by the Small Business Administration. If your small business is located in a HUBZone, you may qualify as a certified HUBZone Small Business Concern.

Learn how this designation is a powerful competitive advantage and why Government Contracting Officers are incentivized to award contracts to HUBZone Small Business Concerns. (also an amazing way to leverage the FAR to streamline the acquisition process!)

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This episode is brought to you by Skyway Acquisition. To get help with the Government market, become a Skyway Community member. The Skyway Community ensures you are better positioned to take advantage of opportunities and better equipped to manage the challenges of government contracts. Members have access to one-on-one insights, time-saving tools, and training resources from our team of former COs, including the ability to get the perspective of our whole team in Ask A Contracting Officer Forum, get specialized training from our on-demand webinars and articles, targeting support through our RFP Score™ assessment tool, as well as our consulting from our team of former COs who help solve your unique puzzles. Personal memberships start at $50 with no contract. To learn more, visit skywaymember.com.

___________

Kevin Jans and Paul Schauer created the Contracting Officer Podcast to help Government and Industry acquisition professionals understand more about how the other side thinks. Admittedly, the podcast’s name sounds very limiting. It is not just for contracting officers or even just for those in the contracting profession. Anyone with an interest in the Federal acquisition world can benefit from the insight and down-to-earth explanations of complicated topics provided by the hosts