Government Contracting 101

Market intelligence, if you are not already familiar, is a tool that government contractors use to ensure they are finding all available government opportunities, including pre-forecasted RFPs and solicitations, as well as review previously awarded contracts. In addition, many of these tools offer unique methods to for government contractors to disseminate this vast array of data, making it useable and, most importantly, actionable. Market intelligence platforms are typically provided via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) package, where a user or team of users will purchase a set number of seats (user licenses) for a given period of time, often a year. You may be familiar with this model if you have used Salesforce CRM or Microsoft Office 365.

This review site will share an overview assessment of the currently available SaaS federal market intelligence platforms currently available for government contracting. The expressed opinions are of actual paid or trial users of the below mentioned services. We encourage you to share your own personal experiences with government market intelligence platforms as well. Submit your personal responses to [email protected] and future updates will be posted as community input. Federal-Contracting.com reserves the right to not publish user reviews that it determines to be overtly defamatory, so please keep the criticism constructive!

Listed below are overall ratings based on the following criteria:

• Longevity & market acceptance
• Platform pricing & overall value
• Features & functionality
• User Interface & Ease of Use

Bloomberg Gov

Bloomberg released the Bloomberg Gov Platform (sometimes referred to as BGov) in early 2010. Bloomberg Gov is focused on users interested in the federal policy environment and congressional direction to follow the projected funding. State and local information is not currently included. The current plan offerings start at $5,500 annually per user license. Note that this platform is the only one being reviewed which bases its pricing model entirely on user seats, so an average business development team of three users can expect to pay just under $17,000/year for this service.

BGov has added labor pricing as an additional cost offering in 2016, however does not currently have a proposal management platform as of this writing. It is a  It has been reported that Bloomberg has a number of former Input/GovWin personnel which has helped them quickly establish the platform as a viable market intelligence choice for government contractors. The unique advantage that Bloomberg offers is major reporting updates regarding any subject matter that a user may want to search that could impact their directed focus for upcoming contracts.

Bloomberg Gov Opportunity Search – click to enlarge

Current BGov Rating:

  3.5/5

Epipeline

Epipeline provides its users with federal, state and local contract opportunities. Like Fedmine, the Epipeline platform has had very few enhancements since its inception. Pricing starts at roughly $2,500 annually. Many features that are typically available in other services listed here are not present in Epipeline, including labor pricing, subcontract data, enhanced task order information, specific intel on programs, GWAC’s and Schedules, CRM and proposal management. Because of this, it is hard to recommend this platform over other, more viable options.

Epipeline Opportunity View – click to enlarge

Current Epipeline Rating:

 2.5/5

EZGovOpps

This Federal market intelligence tool is one of the newest entries in the space, released in 2009. It is apparent that EZGovOpps has recognized some of the strengths and weaknesses of the other available platforms and implemented some unique solutions for its users. Having the lowest price point of the platforms reviewed here gives EZGovOpps a distinct advantage. A single user license with EZGovOpps, albeit with limited functionality, is priced at roughly $1,500 annually. The higher level “Gold” plan ($4,000 annually for 5 users), which rivals the considerably more expensive GovWin platform in many aspects, actually possesses some additional functionality not found in other tools, such as an integrated proposal management and teaming platform.

Also found in the Gold plan, in addition to the basic contracts, re-competes, etc. is subcontract data, enhanced company profile information, behavior analysis of buyers so users can target buyers  in their NAICS/PSC codes, labor pricing, intel on programs, GWACs, Schedules ANC intel, and SBIR intel. State and local data is available at additional cost. In terms of the functionality for the dollar, EZGovOpps is hard to beat.

EZGovOpps Opportunity View – click to enlarge

Current EZGovOpps Rating:

 4.5/5

Fedmine

Fedmine was released over a decade ago and is considered one of the early pioneers of federal market intelligence. Users feel that Fedmine’s analysis could benefit from a refresh, as little has changed over the course of time and the platform is short on new functionality compared to other market intelligence tools in this list. In addition, users felt that the interface was not entirely intuitive.

Like many of the other Federal-centric services listed, state and local contract opportunities are not included. Several attributes such as; subcontracts, task order level data, labor pricing, a proposal management platform, CRM and specific intel on programs, GWAC’s and Schedules etc. are not present in this platform. Pricing starts at approximately $2,500 annually which does not include enhanced options.

FedMine Opportunity View – click to enlarge

Current Fedmine Rating:

 2/5

GovWin

Deltek GovWin is recognized as the current industry leader of government market intelligence. With over 30 years in the space and the acquisition of several competing companies (FedSources and Centurion Research) over the past several years, dominance of the federal market intelligence space has been their strategic focus. With the Deltek CostPoint accounting platforms being a major player for the initial majority of government contractors, it paved the way for Input, and now GovWin, to rapidly co-brand its position as the platform of choice for successful contractors. With GovWin offering many plans involving federal, state and local contract opportunities, it quickly became recognized as the leader in the government market intelligence arena.

Some of the unique attributes of the GovWin market intelligence platform involve the ability to utilize not only prime contract data and the historical analysis of pre-forecasted RFPs, but the ability to incorporate subcontract data as part of the analysis. Intelligence on programs and labor pricing are available, however are not included in base pricing. In addition, GovWin offers CRM connectivity for data extract. Third party state and local data is also provided within Govwin at an additional cost.

The largest hurdle for many users of GovWin is the cost of entry. At the time of this writing, the base pricing excludes subcontract data, task order level intelligence, labor pricing, CRM, connectivity to your existing CRM tool, and proposal management modules. The price point of roughly $6,000 – $7,500 for a bare bones deployment for lower revenue contractors to get started with GovWin (and $25,000-45,000 for mid-sized businesses) can present a significant cost barrier. If many of the options noted above are needed for a team of 5 users, pricing can reach over $20,000 annually. The GovWin platform is the only service being reviewed that appears to price its product based on the revenue of the contractor, as GovWin users with similar plans but significantly different revenue reported varying differences in their purchase price.

Deltek GovWin Opportunity View – click to enlarge 

Current Govwin Rating:

 5/5

Onvia

The Onvia platform provides data coverage for federal as well as state and local. Although considered not as strong of a provider of federal market intelligence when compared to other services in this review, Onvia provides excellent coverage of state and local data opportunities. Full market intelligence analysis is truly not possible for state and local data (the data is not presented in a universal framework across states), however Onvia provides more depth than any of the other services for these opportunities. Federal market intelligence plan offerings from Onvia, excluding state and local data, run approximately $6,400 – 8,000 annually, however labor pricing, subcontract data, etc. costs additional. Many users felt that Onvia was more expensive than the current GovWin model when comparing the common attributes of each plan.

Onvia Search Results View – click to enlarge

Current Onvia Rating:

 3.5/5

We’ve had several readers request that Federal Contracting review additional lower-cost services. These include government bid and RFP aggregators, mobile applications, and other related services. While these platforms can represent a good value, they may not be the best choice for business developers and/or BD teams that need more extensive functionality to be competitive, including human intelligence, pre-forecasting RFPS, robust pipeline management, and extensive tracking/alerts of opportunity updates. Currently we recommend concentrating your evaluation on the services listed above. Federal Market Intelligence will continue to monitor services including BidSpeed, FedBidSpeed, National Bid Network, GovPurchase, GovTribe, GovernmentBids, FindRFP, GovDirections, BidOcean, BidPrime, Proxity, BidContract, and BidMatch and may choose to include in this write-up at a later time.

The ratings presented above are solely the opinion of Federal-Contracting.com based on surveyed feedback of current marketing intelligence users. Federal-Contracting.com reserves the right to update these ratings as it receives additional feedback from users of the above platforms. Last update: 8-22-2017.