TABLE OF CONTENTS

The following opportunity summary has been provided by epipeline.com, a government contracts database subscription service. The opportunity is the best available public information and has been verified within the past few weeks.

1. If you want the free full summary of this opportunity go to www.epipeline.com.
2. If you want a detailed report on this opportunity request a free OSR Report in a report format ready to print for meetings and distribution to team members. To get this report follow the instructions on the bottom left side of the webpage.
3. If you want more information on this specific procurement, contact Jeff Zwitter of epipeline at 678-325-2671 or.
4. If you need help designing and executing your capture program to win this procurement contact either Doug Allston of Advantage Consulting at 703-642-5153, ext. 103.
5. If you need help writing this or any other proposal contact J. P. Richard of Advantage Consulting at 703-642-5153, ext. 102.

Joint Mobile Infrared Countermeasure (IRCM) Testing System (JMITS)-2 - 02-19-07
Department: Department of Defense
Agency: Department of the Army, White Sands Missile Range
Value: $10,000(in thousands)
Status: epipeline projects recompete activity could begin in February 2009
NAICS: 541330
SIC: 8711
Projected RFP: 02/15/2009
RFP #:
Period of Performance: 09/27/2009-09/26/2014

If you want the free full summary of this opportunity go to http://login.epipeline.com/limitedDisplay?ID=FITDUSA5162. This opportunity report is only available for a limited time.

New Director Appointed for Domestic Nuclear Detection - 02-19-07
Vayl Oxford has been appointed Director of the Office of Domestic Nuclear Detection at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security by President Bush. Oxford was previously the Director of Counterproliferation at the White House National Security Council.

Carroll Publishing provides the largest web-based directory of federal decision makers. Carroll's is the exclusive provider of federal organization charts. For a free phone demo or trial call Gordon Peil at 703-757-8228.

Small Business Matters 02-19-07
The House of Representatives has cleared a measure that would extend the authorization of the Small Business Administration (SBA) through July 31, giving Congress time to consider a longer-term reauthorization. A previous version of the measure would have extended reauthorization through December 2007, but the Senate cut that back to midyear. Congress has not made major changes to the SBA¹s authorization in six years.

Recently, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing on Assessing Federal Small Business Assistance Programs for Veterans and Reservists accepted testimony from representatives of service-connected small business owners. They have been pressuring GSA and their contracting officers to honor presidential Executive Order 13360 (October 2004) that requires all federal agencies to award at least 3% of all of their contracts to service disabled veteran owned businesses (SDVOB¹s). It was emphasized at the hearing that there are 3 million small businesses owned by veterans. In addition, 22% of veterans in the US are either purchasing or starting a new business or considering purchasing or starting one.

DHS General Council Resigns - 02-12-07
Phillip J. Perry plans to resign as General Council of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He has held the post since the spring of 2005. Perry was previously the Acting Associate Attorney General and the Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General at the Department of Justice. Perry is married to Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of Vice President Dick Cheney. Perry plans to rejoin the Washington office of his old law firm, Latham and Watkins, as a partner in its litigation department.

Carroll Publishing provides the largest web-based directory of federal decision makers. Carroll's is the exclusive provider of federal organization charts. For a free phone demo or trial call Gordon Peil at 703-757-8228.

DOD and VA Record Transition - 02-12-07
According to a January article on GOVEXEX.com, after nearly a decade of attempting to exchange information stored in separate systems, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have agreed to join together to establish an updated electronic health records system. While details remain sparse, DOD announced in January, that the two agencies would jointly acquire and use a new in-patient electronic health system. VA developed its current system, known as VistA, in 2001. Work began on the Pentagon’s Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, or AHLTA, in 1997. Both systems are in need of an upgrade. The agencies have agreed to study their clinical processes and requirements and assess the benefits and the potential effects on their timelines and costs before making a final decision on a joint acquisition strategy for the upgraded system.

Until now, VA and DOD have been working independently on enhancing and improving their existing systems. They have made various attempts to share health information. According to DOD, millions of records and data messages are regularly moved electronically between the agencies.

AFCEA Bethesda 3rd Annual Golf Tournament: Call for Sponsorships - 02-12-07
The Young AFCEAN Committee of the AFCEA Bethesda Chapter is hosting its Third Annual Bethesda AFCEA Golf Tournament to be held on Monday May 14th, at Reston National Golf Course in Reston, Virginia. Please save the date and plan to join us for what promises to be another well-attended event with plenty of government participation.

The Young AFCEANs have organized this event twice before and we hope to make this year another success. Through the generosity of last year’s corporate sponsors, we were able to raise over $23,000 for the Bethesda AFCEA Scholarship Fund! Proceeds from this year’s event will once again benefit students who want to pursue a career in Information Technology.

Just Announced! The Government Co-chairs for this year’s tournament will be Barry West of the Department of Commerce, Ed Meagher of the Department of Interior and Lisa Schlosser of the Department of Housing & Urban Development. Microsoft’s Kim Nelson and Dan Matthews of Lockheed Martin will also be joining us as the Industry Co-Chairs for this year’s tournament. B

y becoming a sponsor, you will gain visibility among prospective customers and partners from government, industry, the media, and other area professionals. Moreover, if you commit before March 23rd, all sponsorships are 15% off! Please let us know if you are interested in pursuing this sponsorship opportunity and we will be happy to walk you through our available packages.

For additional information, please be sure to visit the Tournament website at: BethesdaAFCEA.golfreg.com

The Agency Expert Business Developer - 02-26-07
In this series of articles I am looking at the use of “outsiders”, consultants, to help you grow your business. In my last article I wrote about the Agency Expert Business Developer – Harry. You hired him for six months. He got you some appointments. You got no business. The plan was if you engage “Harry, he will introduce you to the decision makers in your target organization and they will give you work because you are deserving of the work; the “silver bullet” answer to growing your business. So what went wrong and how can you make this work?

First, let us dispense with the time frame of six months. If your vision of this project, winning business with your targeted organization, is not 18 to 36 months maybe you should forget it altogether. “Stop a minute Doug, you have just changed everything, I don’t have 18 to 36 months.” This isn’t a project, it is business development. Well, if you are not going to treat this like a project then how are you going to handle the task? If you do not treat this like a project then you will not do the preparation, the study, the planning, and coordination necessary to be successful. If you do not allow sufficient time to do the project you are doomed to fail or succeed only because of luck. You can get lucky, of course, however, luck plays a rather small part in success.

Second, let us dispense with the attitude that the government will “…give you work because you are deserving of the work”. As far as the government is concerned you deserve nothing. You have to earn their business. Alright, so how do you use the Agency Expert Business Development Consultant?

Prepare your consultant. Give him a month to learn your company and test him each week. At the end of the month you should expect Harry know you as well as you do or better.

Plan your attack. Who are the decision makers you need to meet who are the most likely able to become your “champions”. Once you and your consultant identify those people then you have to figure out how to get to them. Your consultant probably can’t get many of those meetings. So who does he know that can pass you on to the people you need to meet? In some cases this may take two or three meeting before you get to the right person. Many of these people are gate keepers and influencers.

Plan the substance of your attack. Your consultant is going to make the appointment. What do you bring to that appointment? Study the government person and organization you are going to meet. What does he need? What are his important problems? What are your relevant solutions? I can’t over emphasis the importance of this preparation. You are going to get one shot at this person. If you can’t blow their socks off with your knowledge and understanding of them and their situation do not have the meeting. We have talked to hundreds of government officials over the years and this is their number one peeve with contractors, they aren’t well prepared.

Plan your initial meeting. You are going to have at most 30 minutes to make your case, to bring value, and to cause the person you are meeting to want to meet with you again or to pass you to the person you need to meet. You have at most 30 minutes even if they schedule the meeting for two hours. In this meeting you have to demonstrate you have done your homework and that you understand their important problems and challenges. Your consultant can be extremely helpful helping you develop this background. You then have to customize your company’s solutions to these specific problems and challenges. In this meeting you will not talk about anything in generic terms about your company. In fact anything you say about your company will only be in the context of the government’s problems and challenges. This meeting is not about you or your company. It is about the government employee and his organization. The only purpose of this meeting is to get the follow on meetings and you will get those only if the government employee views you as someone they can work with and that understands their needs.

Plan and leverage each follow on meeting. Alright, you had the meeting. You did your homework and in the 30 minutes you connected his requirements to specific solutions. You got their attention. The government employee wants to talk further. To continue this process you have to keep bringing understanding and insight into each meeting. You have to refrain from selling your specific solution and migrate to the “consultant” advisor role to the government employee. Why? If you try to sell your solution, unless they have fallen in love with it, and they decide your specific solution does not work for them you are “road kill”. Our object is to get the business. Do you care if it is one of your solutions or another? If you do not become the government’s advisor then they will not educate you on the details and specifics necessary to help them craft the solution that works best for them which you are prepared to provide. Through out all of this and the meetings that take place, your “agency expert” can be talking to his contacts, feeding you the information, understanding, and insight that allows you to bring value to your relationship with the government.

Revise your time table. The time table is the time table! It could be six months or it could be two years. It will depend on the size and complexity of the government’s problem, their ability to get funds, and the vehicles they choose to use in the contract. Again, your agency expert consultant can help. He can help you understand the agency’s funding process. He can help guide the government people if they are inexperienced in the funding process or contracting process. If you do not have patience, then you do not belong in this business. Of course this may require you to continue to pay your consultant. If he keeps bringing you value, so you can bring value to the government, keep him on the payroll.

Next time, I will look at the proposal manager consultant. Questions and comments to Doug Allston.

Brown Bag Session 8: - “Nibbling” to Grow Your Business - 02-26-07
There are several Business Development topics and exercises that make excellent “Brown Bag” topics during a working lunch with your team. What we call “organic growth” in the government Contracting business is typically the accumulation of added-value tasks over a period of time. Many small pieces of work, or “nibbles”, can add up to a significant growth in business over the duration of the contract. It is generally the technical staff people who are in the best position to create this growth. They have ready access to the client, hear about the problems and know the decision path. Organic growth, or Nibbling, needs to be a part of a manager’s performance review and a topic that is discussed with the technical staff in project meetings. The Business Development team can support Nibbling efforts, but the technical staff has to be prepared and encouraged to take the lead in growing contracts. Assemble the team and ask them to help identify Nibbling opportunities. For more information of BD training for your managers and technical staff contact Sid Jaffe at 703-642-5153.

Where do You Find Opportunities? - 02-26-07
When I meet with a potential client, one of the questions I ask is how or where does the firm find opportunities or targets? A Task Order Marketing Firm with a good understanding of the business development process will probably tell me they learn of opportunities from current customers, or are referred by a current customer to a potential customer. That’s the answer I’m hoping to hear.

On the other hand, on many occasions (too many) I’m told the firm “walks the halls” looking for work, or finds opportunities on FedBizOpps or other subscription services, or that it regularly attends agency “open-houses” to find out what’s going on. Those are, frankly, the wrong answers and suggest that the firm really doesn’t understand the BD process.

If you’ve been reading our “stuff” for a while you know that we are strong believers in the seven “magic” questions, and that you need to ask yourself those questions every time you wish to bid anything. If you can’t answer yes to every one, and back that up with solid evidence that will convince the most skeptical Bid Board, the next question better be, “why are you bidding?”

In the Federal marketplace success really doesn’t have all that much to do with what you do and how well you do it (don’t misunderstand me, you’ve got to be doing the right stuff and doing it very well to win), rather it has almost everything to do with who you know and who knows you, and the trust and confidence those Agency people have in you and your firm.

If you need to know more about successful business development and those seven magic questions, please give me a call. Mike Berger at 703-642-5153.

Business Development Spending Plans for Business Tools! - 02-26-07
We continue to see a significant shift toward buying packaged, Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) applications because the real cost of creating your own tools is becoming more apparent.

When was the last time you assessed how well your BD process was working? Now is the time to correct deficiencies. Have you invested in your business development process and tools so that you can remain (or become) competitive?

The best of intentions and even training won't help if you make BD too hard. Homegrown administrative systems often get in the way rather than assist the BD process. We have found COTS systems focused on helping a government contractor’s business development process become more effective in getting and growing new business! For details on what is available and what might work best for you, contact John Bender at 703-855-3163.

What Consultants Can and Cannot Do Well - 02-19-07
In this series of articles I am looking at the use of “outsiders”, consultants, to help you grow your business. In today’s article I will take on one of the great myths of consulting in the business of Federal Government contracting. If I engage “Harry”, the government agency expert business developer, he will introduce me to the decision makers in my target organization and they will give us work because we are deserving of the work. I like to refer to this scenario as the “silver bullet” answer to growing your business. Of course we all know what silver bullets are good for, killing werewolves.

The fact is that your target organization does buy what you provide. You have been trying to get into this organization for some time but you cannot get the appointments with decision makers. Harry does have an impressive resume related to this organization. He worked there. He knows people and people know him and actually like him. Surely he can get the appointments. So you hire him at $4K to $8K per month on a six month retainer contract. Although Harry tells you, you do not pay attention that he works for two or three other companies doing the same thing; however, these other companies do not compete with you.

The first thing Harry has to do is learn about you. This makes perfect sense. So the first month is his time for studying you, learning your capabilities. In fact, if he does not want to do this you should immediately fire him and if you will not let him do this he should fire you because you are both setting an unrealistic expectation. Who would allow a blind man wonder around a crystal glassware store? That is exactly what you are doing with your company’s reputation by having someone represent you who does not know you and know you extremely well.

Over the next few months Harry gets you some meetings. Most of the meetings are polite, short, and with “almost” decision makers. You get no business. This goes on for the duration of Harry’s contract and you both part company. Now you decide to hire, as a fulltime employee, your next BD person because you will own that person and not share them with other companies and are confident that a fulltime BD person will bring you business because a consultant was not effective.

This scenario plays out in the federal marketplace every week with very few exceptions. Is it possible to hire someone who will introduce you to decision makers in a government organization and they will give you business? Yes, but getting the business is up to you. Harry did, to the best of his ability, what he promised. He never promised you business because that part is up to you and he has little or no control over what you will do with the opportunities he presents. We know many “Harry’s” in this business and their first compliant is that their client’s do not know what to do when presented an opportunity. Next time I will write about how to make this scenario work for you and Harry.

Questions and comments to Doug Allston.

Brown Bag Session 7: Delivering a Quality Solution - 02-19-07
There are several Business Development topics and exercises that make excellent "Brown Bag" topics during a working lunch with your team. Focusing on “Quality” is an excellent topic. I once heard business guru Tom Peters say of quality, "I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” Others have said that the hallmark of a quality company is not that they do one thing 100% better than the competition, but that they do 100 things 1% better than their competition." The professional services market, be it in Government or the commercial market is one where it is extremely difficult to differentiate one company’s quality solution from another. It would be difficult to meet and exceed a client’s threshold for quality without establishing their priorities and setting reasonable expectations at the outset of a project. To have the ability to agree on reasonable expectations can only happen after a trusted relationship is established. If your goal is to deliver a quality product, start with a quality relationship. Discuss with your team what they feel are the components of a quality relationship and how they as individuals will contribute to building the relationship. For more information of BD training for your managers and technical staff contact Sid Jaffe sjaffe@acibiz.com at 703-642-5153.

Know When to Hold ‘Em - 02-19-07
Advantage Consulting, Inc. stresses the importance of a robust and sophisticated opportunity tracking process and a scientifically based methodology for making both pursue/no pursue and bid/no bid decisions.

Anything short of an organized procedure is essentially the equivalent of scratching notes on the back of an envelope, and playing “Russian roulette” with your corporate future.

This being said, some firms continue to rely on “feelings,” “intuition,” or “collective wisdom” when it comes to making those decisions. That¹s OK if it works, but the odds are you aren¹t really sure of your decisions, you can¹t share information very effectively, and it is probably difficult or impossible to track results or go back and use the same knowledge base for a future similar opportunity.

If you are a senior manager, you need to be concerned about allocating your B&P dollars effectively, being able to view all the opportunities your firm or unit is pursuing, determining if those opportunities are “real”, and, most importantly, being sure you know why you are bidding ¬ or, should you unfortunately lose, why you bid in the first place. Line and capture managers and members of the business development group need information as well. If it isn¹t there, or easily recaptured, you really can¹t calculate the probability of a successful pursuit or win or determine what you can do to improve your win probability.

If your Task Order Marketing firm is continuing to struggle with your business development processes, isn¹t it time for a change? Give me a call. Mike Berger at 703-642-5153.

Need To Reduce Costs? - 02-19-07
To increase profitability and remain competitive, most of our clients are examining their internal processes for cost-efficiency. If you haven’t automated your timesheets yet, you could be paying too much to process them manually. Faxing, FedExing, phoning, correcting, keying and rekeying, hand delivering, are all outdated and expensive ways to process timesheets and expense reports.

Manual processes invite inaccuracies that affect the bottom line. The cost is more than you need to pay. Newer time/expense systems offer terrific solutions. For details, contact John Bender at 703-855-3163.

Win Your Share Follow Up - 02-12-07
In our January 29th Newsletter, I questioned the use of “outsiders” or consultants to help you win business from the federal government. But what are we here at Advantage Consulting? Aren’t we one of those outside consultants? Don’t we profess to help companies win more business from the federal government? The answer to these questions is “yes.” So my article was against using someone like us? Umm, the answer to that is obviously “no!”

When Sid Jaffe and I started Advantage Consulting 15 years ago we carefully defined what we felt we could or could not do based on what was reality in the government marketplace and our own skills. Marketplace reality as defined by the average government employee correlates closely with what winning contractors told us they did to win. That list of actions emerged as our Seven Golden Rules.

As a government employee/ Project Manager/COTR, I came to Advantage Consulting with a pretty good perception of why contractors win. When we started out Sid and I met with and interviewed many company executives and asked for their perceptions on what they did to win their “jewel” contracts (the one that paid the bills or that started a particular business unit in a large company). Most of what they told us tracked with our draft Golden Rules. Over the years we have continue to validate the rules via the feedback we get from our clients and the students who attend our Business Development Workshops.

If we ever had a doubt that our Rules are the way to win; those doubts were answered one morning in Huntsville, Alabama when I was teaching the BD workshop. The company had invited their government client to attend, which was a bit unusual. Until that time we had never taught a mixed class of government and corporate employees. The class included a government Senior Executive and a Contracting Officer, as well as three Project Managers and twelve employees from the client company. About an hour into the workshop the contracting officer, who obviously did not agree with some of the things I was saying, stood up, slammed her hand on the table, and said that what I was telling the class was not true. (Over the years the only government people who have ever disagreed with our approach have been serving contracting officers.) She said that in her command all procurements were fair and open and that winners were determined by the content of their proposals, not on the basis of relationships and other information developed by the bidders. I was standing there trying to figure out how to respond when the Senior Executive turned to the lady and said, “Margaret, shut up! This is exactly how we award contracts so pay attention.” With the exception of the lady’s name that is an exact quote. So, in about two seconds I went from being a clown in front of the class who did not know what he was talking about to the Senior Executive’s endorsed expert. A

dvantage Consulting has a “fairly good” idea why some companies win and others do not. That being said, we are the first to admit that knowing the “rules” does not give us the ability to sprinkle “pixie dust” on our clients and make them winners. Instead, we provide the guidance, focus, support, services and training that help them effectively and efficiently achieve the ideals postulated in the Seven Golden Rules. To really be successful they have to work very hard and devote the time and energy needed to win. We don’t literally “win” for them because no one in the government wants to hire Doug or Sid to fix their networks or write their code. What we do best is to teach our clients how to win without us.

In future Newsletters, I will write more about how to use consultants and what they are good at and not good at. I will also talk about what consultants cost and how to leverage those costs. Questions and comments to Doug Allston

Brown Bag Session 6: Expanding the Work and Client Solutions - 02-12-07
There are several Business Development topics and exercises that make excellent "Brown Bag" topics during a working lunch with your team. A worthwhile discussion for your team is to review the contract you are working and consider the possibility of providing additional solutions beyond your current scope of work. Necessarily you will want to consider other resources from within your firm, other contracting vehicles that can be used to contract the work and how you can assist the client in finding the funds to pay for your solution. When the Government has problems or challenges to be solved, it is the creative company with a strong relationship that can often get the work. For more information of BD training for your managers and technical staff contact Sid Jaffe at 703-642-5153.

What, Me Worry? - 02-12-07
Alfred E. Neumann first said it in MAD Comics decades ago, but, oddly, a similar phrase pops up occasionally among senior staff at some of the most successful Task Order Marketing firms. The problem isn’t that there are problems, the problem is “success.” Winning a bunch of contracts and task orders creates a sense of complacency (defined as: “A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger, trouble, or controversy”). The firms tend to forget how much work was involved to get where they are and start thinking that their new (soon to be “legacy”) customers will be there “for ever.”

One of the first things to “go” is any worry about business development and finding new winnable opportunities. I sometimes equate this to the college fraternity that thinks it is so “hot” that it can skip taking pledges for a year. Before the members know it, everyone is a Junior or Senior and no new people to carry on the traditions.

Business development is the lifeblood of any Task Order Marketing firm. It can’t be forgotten, abandoned, put off till the future, or made low priority until it becomes a “critical” issue. We teach that business development is ‘important” and remains important forever. It only becomes critical when it is too late!

So, the good news is that you are a successful firm that is winning a good share of what it bids. The “bad news” is that if you are a successful firm that is winning a good share of what it bids, and if you wish to keep doing that, you need to maintain an active focus on the business development and never get complacent about your future. Have you slipped a bit? Need help getting back on track? Give me a call. Mike Berger at 703-642-5153.

Make vs. Buy Business Tool Decisions - 02-12-07
The first quarter of each year we see companies looking at packaged Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) applications to help solve business problems.

Many business processes (business development and proposals, for instance) have changed quite a bit over the years. If you created any automated tools to help – from WP lists and spreadsheets to older database applications – they are probably not working as well as they once did. This happens for a lot of reasons: organizational changes, people movements, older technology, etc. The tools may have been added to; changed and rewritten so many times that nobody wants to keep them up. If you have not been using automated tools, you are probably having a difficult time keeping up with your competitors who do use them. Is it time to start looking at what your real business tool needs are and at your alternatives?

It is very difficult to justify further development of internal tools when COTS applications are available. The applications often perform 80-90% of your needs at a fraction of the cost of internal development, testing, documentation and maintenance. The “Buy COTS” decision is usually your best choice if you evaluate realistically. We are always reviewing COTS tools to find “Best of Breed” solutions for companies like yours. There are new business tools literally coming out every day. For details, contact John Bender at 703-855-3163.

Do You Really Need That Contract - 02-05-07
OK, the “XYZ” GWAC RFP is coming out, or the “ABC” Agency Omnibus RFP is coming out, or the “1, 2, 3” GSA Schedule is now available, should you bid on them? Do you need the contract? Unfortunately most companies approach these “no-work guarantee” contract vehicles as the basis of their business development approach.

Let me explain my terms. First, “no-work guarantee” contracts are those that when you get the contract vehicle there is no work associated with the vehicle. They are hunting licenses only. Almost everyone of our client companies with revenue over $10M have at least one of these vehicles that are not performing. They spent the money to bid them and they have gotten no business. The last time I heard, over half of the GSA Schedule 70 holders do not meet the minimum requirements ($25K per year) of the schedule. After spending all that time and money to get the schedule they have gotten little or no business on the schedule.

When I say they use the vehicle as the basis of their business development, I mean their plan is to win the contract vehicle and then go look for business to put on it. It is what we like to call “selling” the vehicle. I received a call not more then a week ago from a small set-aside company who said they had a specific contract vehicle and they wanted us to help them sell it. I had to break the bad news to them. First, the set-aside category they are in has several thousand companies qualified. Second, the contract vehicle they referenced has over hundred companies qualified. In other words, neither their set-aside status nor contract vehicle is “sellable”.

Spending time and money to win a contract vehicle without some idea of who might want to use it (as in “Customer”) is a foolish waste of your time and money. If you work in a specific government agency and they are competing their omnibus contract of course you need to win that. If your people have contacts in a specific government organization, and your strategic plan is to develop business in that agency, then of course you should bid. If the GWAC is coming out or is being re-competed and your customer uses that vehicle of course you should bid. You need a plan and the plan has to be about putting specific work and customers on the contract vehicle.

Be careful what you wish for! A few years ago we worked with a good small business whose owner decided they should prime several GWAC contracts. They won every one they bid. They had subcontractors on every one. They do not use any of these contract vehicles for their customer base. However, they do have a contractual obligation to every one of their subcontractors who wants to bid on task orders on these vehicles. They are spending money and time every year supporting their subcontractors on these vehicles and they make almost nothing from this effort. Have a plan and the plan has to be about which customer(s) are going to use the vehicle. Only when you can identify the customer for the vehicle should you bid.

Questions and comments to Doug Allston.

Brown Bag Session 5: Client Decision Factors - 02-05-07
There are several Business Development topics and exercises that make excellent "Brown Bag" topics during a working lunch with your team. One of the exercises is for people to discuss the client’s "likes/dislikes, priorities and the pressures under which they are working." These are factors in decision making that are never presented in an RFP or request for services. As an incumbent your people are exposed to the client regularly and should have a solid understanding of these factors. This insight gives you the ability to deliver your proposals and presentations in a manner that addresses all of the clients concerns and issues. For more information on Relationship, Customer Service and BD training for your managers and technical staff contact Sid Jaffe at 703-642-5153.

Do You Network? If Not Why Not? - 02-05-07
About ten days ago I attended the National Guard Bureau Alumni Association monthly breakfast held at the Athens Restaurant in Falls Church. In addition to seeing many old friends, most of whom have a common background (service in the National Guard) and similar business experiences (almost all work for government contractors). I was also introduced to a couple of new people with whom I will follow up as sources of potential work for Advantage Consulting, Inc. But the most valuable part of the morning was the presentation by Major General (Retired) The Honorable William Navas, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (Manpower and Reserve Affairs). General Navas spoke eloquently about manpower issues related to the modern American armed forces and offered his views about current and future challenges facing the forces.

For those of you who network regularly, this is pretty common fare – meeting friends and new people, and listing to really intelligent people speak on topics of interest to the vendor community. Those of you who don’t get out there to “press the flesh” once in a while are really missing great business development opportunities.

Networking is so important that we devote an entire chapter of our Business Development Workshop to the topic. Networking is where you establish sources, the people who have needs and requirements, the people who know your customers or potential customers, the people who influence your customers, and the people who can help you provide top notch solutions to the problems faced by your customers.

It virtually goes without saying that there are networking “events” occurring every day, ranging from the narrowly focused Ft. Detrick Defense Technology & Intelligence Career Day on March 27, to the AFCEA DC Luncheon on February 16, to the National Defense Industrial Association Conference from February 9-12, to the Renaissance Top Executive Forum scheduled for March 8.

Looking for the “right” sponsor or topic of an event to attend is not nearly as important as getting out there, making contacts, following up, and establishing and maintaining relationships. From our perspective networking is the “engine” that drives corporate business development. If you need ideas check out the Calendar at our webpage, www.acibiz.com/calender.html. There’s no “bad” place to network. Pick an event, sign up, go, meet some people, do your “elevator” speech, and LISTEN for needs, wants and requirements. Mike Berger at 703-642-5153.

One Road to Profits – Better Time & Expense Collection! - 02-05-07
Time and expense processing is where payroll processing was years ago. Would you consider doing your payroll manually again? You don’t want to do time and expense manually either. Replacing labor intensive, inefficient manual processes for time & expense reporting with web-based time and expense software can dramatically reduce administrative expenses associated with these functions and add to your bottom line.

Companies who automate enjoy more accurate billings (far fewer errors and suspense items), improved cash flow, improved customer satisfaction, and -- more profitability. The real price tag for not automating is more than most companies are willing to bear. For details, contact John Bender at 703-855-3163.

• Carroll Publishing www.carrollpub.com, Gordon Peil at 703-757-8228, or fax 703-759-6383.
  
• Epipeline.com www.epipeline.com, Jeff Zwitter at 678-325-2671.
  
• Set A-side Alert www.setasidealert.com, Warren Corbett at 301-229-5561.
  
• Federal Business Council www.fbcinc.com, Dave Powell at +1 (800) 878-2940 x210
  

Sid Jaffe, CEO, (sjaffe@acibiz.com)
Doug Allston, President, (dallston@acibiz.com)
John Bender, Vice President, (jbender@acibiz.com)
Mike Berger, Vice President, (mberger@acibiz.com)
J.P. Richard, Vice President, (jprichard@acibiz.com)
Debra Giles, Office Manager, (dgiles@acibiz.com)
Anita Allen, Administrative Assistant, (aallen@acibiz.com)
Joan Dineen, Administrative Assistant, (jdineen@acibiz.com)