April 1 opens the third quarter of the federal fiscal year, and from the outside it can look like a quiet stretch. Solicitations trickle out, awards are modest and the frenzy of September is still months away. Inside agencies, though, the third quarter is when the fourth quarter is built. Understanding what contracting and program offices are doing between April and June tells you where to spend your own effort.
Budgets become real
By spring, agencies usually know what they have to spend. Full-year appropriations have typically been enacted by this point, or a continuing resolution has settled into a predictable pattern, and the funds have been apportioned and allotted down to the offices that will obligate them. Program managers now hold a number, and they begin converting plans into funded requirements. Projects that were conditional in the winter become firm.
This is also when offices take stock of what they will not be able to spend as planned, and begin thinking about where that money could go instead. Requirements that are ready to award quickly become attractive.
Acquisition packages take shape
A requirement cannot be solicited until its package is complete: a statement of work or performance work statement, an independent government cost estimate, market research documentation, a determination about small business set-asides, funding certification and any justifications the strategy requires. Much of this work is done in the third quarter so that solicitations can be released in late spring and early summer and awards can be made before September 30. Contracting offices also forecast their fourth-quarter workload now and decide which requirements will go through existing vehicles, which will be competed openly and which can be handled under simplified procedures.
Market research intensifies
Because packages are being written, this is a peak season for sources sought notices, requests for information and industry days. Program and contracting staff want to know whether small businesses can perform the work, what commercial solutions exist and what a realistic price looks like. A thoughtful response in April can influence whether a requirement is set aside, which NAICS code is used and how the evaluation is structured. The same response in August arrives after the decisions are made.
What contractors should be doing
- Answer every relevant sources sought notice with a focused, specific capability response
- Check agency procurement forecasts for requirements listed with third- and fourth-quarter dates
- Confirm that contract vehicles you hold are current and that ordering officers know your offerings
- Prepare quote templates, pricing and standard proposal content so quick-turn requests can be answered in days
- Meet with small business specialists while they still have time to talk
- Line up teaming partners and sign agreements before the solicitations arrive
- Review staffing capacity for the summer, when several responses may be due in the same week
The pattern of the third quarter
Quarter three is a planning season on both sides. Agencies plan the awards they intend to make; contractors who understand that plan the pursuits they intend to win. The firms that find September frantic are often the ones that treated April as quiet. The ones that find it productive used the spring to be known, ready and already in the conversation when the requirements they wanted were still being written. Forecasts and notices are posted on sam.gov and on individual agency sites; a weekly review from now through June is time well spent.