Oh the things data can do! Government contracting. It’s the final frontier in many companies’ growth. It’s where they go to seek out new life for their business, and encounter new civilizations – assuming we all agree “discovering” the government contracting community is not unlike encountering an alien culture right here on earth. But few of those intrepid explorers undertaking their first expedition boldly go where many angels fear to tread, because (let’s face it) government contracting for the uninitiated is intimidating! Enter you, the map maker… “Who? Me?” Yes, you… Have you ever considered yourself a map maker? No, of course not. You’re a contracting professional, a procurement technical assistance wunderkind, a wizkid of acquisition, and you may even have several degrees above the 98.6 you were born with. But the fact remains: In reality you’re a map maker. You don’t say? We do say. Consider: Isn’t government procurement an alien landscape to many a budding and would be public sector tycoon? It’s Terra Incognita, a newly discovered planet on the other side of Jupiter, an undiscovered country of opportunity. And what do you need when you find yourself a stranger in a strange land? A map. So who better to provide that map than one of the natives, a local resident, someone who’s been there before and lived to tell the tale? And isn’t that you, dear P3? (“P3” = Ptac Procurement Professional.) Isn’t it you, who’s seen the lay of the land, who’s discovered the undiscovered country, who’s walked around in it, camped out for a few years and gotten to know its comings and goings, and – to whatever degree – taken its measure? Of course it is! So you’re a map maker, friend, and pretty good one at that! Why else would they give you that posh office and all that power? It’s because you’re a map maker that people come to you. They want you to show them around, to give them the Hollywood Map to the Stars so they can find out how the rich and famous live because they just might want to move in on that territory – given the chance, of course. And you’re their chance! You’re the one who can tell them who they need to see, where they need to go, you’re their tour guide to the procurement universe! The denouement… (aka, “the other shoe”) So what is this article all about? Research – and what you can do with it. It’s part of the map. You know, like the cool icons in the legend of a topo. This one represents a mountain, that one a swamp, that one a building or a railroad. And what do you need to produce a map with that level of detail? Data. And how do you get data? Research. We’ve come full circle, and can now introduce you to FPDS-NG: The Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation FPDS-NG is like the Vulcan database highlighted in another Next Generation spin-off. It charts all the awards that can be publicly disclosed (i.e., other than the ones DARPA is doing on the dark side of the moon) made by agencies high and low. And properly construed, that data can provide part of the road map for your clients. So our suggestion? Learn how to use FPDS-NG to your clients’ advantage and help them get a mental picture – a mental map – of what’s going on in their areas of interest, whether those be geographically, socio-economically, or industry based.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:50:08 +0000
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