(Preferably alive.)

CAUTION: Heavily Armed With Kindness…This Could Be Contagious!
PRIOR CONVICTION: Thoughtfulness and Generosity.
DESCRIPTION: Usually Wears a Smile (or a smirk).

Please Help Me!!!  I have been arrested and will be put in jail for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) Lock-Up.  Don’t bother asking what crime I have committed – it’s not really that important (and you probably already suspect).  I must raise my bail of $3,000 before the Lock-Up and they will go easy on me, but I need your assistance to post my bond.  Please lend your support during the:

St. Mary’s Lock-Up Event held at Outback Steakhouse in St. Mary’s County

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Your 100% tax-deductible donation will help MDA continue research into the cause and the possible cure of the 43 neuromuscular diseases they cover. Your support of the MDA Lock-Up will also help MDA provide medical equipment, clinic visits, support groups and a magical week of MDA Summer Camp for the families served by the Association in our local area.

Your donation of any amount will help MDA and help me meet my bail. 

$800 (Camp Sponsorship)
$100 (Support Group Sponsorship)
$74 (One Minute of Research Sponsorship)
Any other amount will help and will be appreciated!

Click here to make your donation to my bail online, or send me your mailing address to have MDA send you a pledge form.

   I MUST TURN IN ALL MY BAIL MONEY ON August 25th, 2010, SO PLEASE HELP NOW!!!

Thanks for all your support!

This was a huge year for rolling admissions, with 556 new prime contractors added. The complete list of awardees can be found here. The Iona Moon list with links will be published in an upcoming post.

Here are a few of the things clients had to say about their experience with Iona Moon.

“We got one! THANK YOU FOR ALL!!!!”

“We got ours!  Thanks for your guidance and help!”

“[Our company] was notified today that we were awarded a Navy Seaport-e Contract!!! Thank you so much for your assistance. We could not have done it without your company’s help because we started very late in the process and we didn’t get a chance to have telephone calls to you but we were able to use your templates. Thanks again.”

“We have been awarded our first prime contract. Thank you for your help.”

“Software Systems International, Inc. was awarded.  We greatly value the Iona Moon Seaport-e  Toolkit  for our ultimate award. Please include our name in your Toolkit success.”

“You can add [Us] to the rolls of 2010 Seaport-e contract winners.  With the aid of your tool kit, we were able to submit a winning proposal that required only one clarification point on the pricing.  Thank you very much for putting together a winning proposal toolkit.”

“Thank you for all your help and assistance.  [Our company] was on the award list for Seaport-e.  Without your support and templates it won’t have happened.”

“Thanks for everything and you were correct we had nothing to worry about.  I want to also thank you for your excellent RFP support.”

“Hi, Lee.  [Our company] won an award.  We are very happy.  The toolkit and your assistance were extremely valuable in the process.  Thank you!”

“Thank you very much for your outstanding guidance during this process.  I am pleased to announce that [Our company] received a Seaport Prime award.  Your kit made the process logical and your regular updates kept us right on track.”

“[We] received an award.  Your toolkit was a great help.  Feel free to use me as a reference for future potential customers.”

“We made the cut – and we could not have got this far without Iona Moon.  Now on to winning a contract!”

I am overwhelmed at the outcome this year, and very pleased Iona Moon could be a part of so many success stories. Thank you all for a great year and congratulations again. I look forward to helping many of you achieve your goals with this important contract.

Finally, if you used the Toolkit, submitted on time and didn’t win, make sure you request a debrief from the contracts office. With that in hand, get in touch with me and I will help you determine where you went wrong so you can prepare to win in the next round of rolling admissions. Remember, you are entitled to free lifetime updates until you win.

As always, best of luck!

If you haven’t heard from the contracting office – this is probably a good thing. The Dahlgren staff is very thorough and helpful. They will contact you if they want clarification on anything in your proposal. Any time prior to awards, “no news is good news.” I discourage you from calling them for updates on awards or the status of your own proposal. They are hard at work and they will let you know when they are done. Every distraction is a setback.

H.11 Web-page requirement

If you haven’t already, you should be preparing your SeaPort-e Web-page to comply with the H.11 clause requirements of the contract. Your web-page must be live within 10 days of award.

The web-page does not need to be complex or elaborate. I will be publishing a guide to creating your web-page and complying with H.11 by the end of the week. Subscribe to this feed or follow me on Twitter to be alerted when that guide is available for purchase and download.

More guides and tutorials coming soon

Over the next few months, Iona Moon will be publishing more guides and tutorials for optimizing your SeaPort-e contract, evaluating bid announcements, teaming issues, educating your current Navy customers about SeaPort-e, and how SeaPort-e fits into your overall business development strategy and execution. If there are specific questions or issues you would like to see addressed in this series, now is the time to submit them.

While you wait, I encourage you to read through the archives of this blog, for more tips, success stories, and historical news items of interest. Again, please subscribe to make sure you get all the latest posts.

I am looking forward to watching the changing landscape of SeaPort-e after this year’s awards, and to helping all of you achieve your goals for this exciting contract vehicle.

As always, best of luck!

Huge thanks to Frank Griffo for lending his expertise and skill to producing the Toolkit, and for keeping me fed during some very long days.  

Happy hunting!

Iona Moon congratulates Solution Engineering Associates, Inc. on their first SeaPort-e task order win, announced today. Iona Moon helped SEAI win a SeaPort-e prime contract in the Spring 2008 rolling admissions. Iona Moon also assisted in the preparation of the task order proposal that resulted in this awesome $5.5M win.

Lexington Park, MD, April 05, 2010. Solution Engineering Associates, Inc. (SEAI) announced today it has won a SeaPort-e task order to support the Naval Air Warfare Center-Aircraft Division’s (NAWC-AD) Air 4.3.2.4 & Air 4.3.2.6, Flight Controls and Flight Dynamics Branches.

The 5-year task order has a value $5.5M, and includes a wide range of program management, engineering and technical services, software and hardware development, prototype development, flight test and analysis across a wide variety of aircraft platforms.

SEAI personnel have been and are key contributors alongside Navy personnel on Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) for the following platforms: the F/A-18A-F Hornet, E/A-18G Growler, F-14, X-29 (Forward Swept Wing) technology demonstrator, Super Hornet and Growler, the V-22 Osprey, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the A6-E, EA-6B Increase Capacity (ICAP) II and III Prowler, C-2A, E-2, H-1, C-2A, VSTOL, Tilt Wing, ASW, the CH-53K helicopter, the E-2 Advanced Hawkeye Programs, X-31 EFM and VECTOR programs. SEAI growth plans include applying this expertise and to providing the same level and quality of support in the ever-emerging technology of Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs) such as, Navy-Unmanned Combat Air System (NUCAS), Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) and Vertical Takeoff Unmanned Air Vehicle (VTUAV). Work will be performed at Patuxent River Naval Air Station.

SEAI’s President, Susan Smith, said of the win: “We are very excited. SEAI personnel are some of the best minds and top performers in the field, and provide the best technical solution to requirements. We look forward to many more years of supporting these precision systems for the fleet.”

SEAI is a Woman-Owned Small Business headquartered in Lexington Park, Maryland, and has provided highly-skilled and experienced engineering services to NAVAIR for six years. For more information, contact Lee Moon at 240-298-3334, or visit SEAI on the web at: www.seaincusa.com.

The anticipated release date for the RFP is 05 April. Awards are expected in July.

Please don’t wait to contact us if you anticipate needing full-service support. We are already close to capacity.

I am getting a lot of calls on the upcoming SeaPort-e rolling admissions period, slated for April 2010. Here, I address some of the questions I answer most frequently, and provide some resources to enable your understanding.

What is SeaPort-e?

SeaPort-e is a multiple-award contract (MAC), an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) vehicle with a scope of 22 functional areas. Currently, over 1,500 prime contractors, large and small, and their team members, compete for task orders across seven geographical zones and multiple contracting agencies.

Read the Navy’s FAQ on Seaport-e here.

What is Rolling Admissions?

Rolling admissions is the process by which the Navy qualifies new vendors as prime contractors on SeaPort-e. The 2010 rolling admission is the first open rolling admission since 2008.

Why haven’t I heard about this from other sources?

I have no idea. The contract has been in place since 2005, and rolling admissions have been conducted in every year since, except 2009. The Navy provides briefs on SeaPort-e at most small business events I have attended, but I am sad to say I have not yet seen the announcement on FBO.GOV, or any public opportunities resource. It has appeared on some subscription services.

How do I know if I should bid?

If you provide services in any of the 22 functional areas, and your pipeline includes selling to any of the authorized agencies as a prime, you should consider submitting during this rolling admissions period.

Will my company qualify for an award?

If you have past performance and/or can demonstrate expertise through your workforce qualifications in at least three of the 22 functional areas, you will likely qualify for award. The evaluation process is not competitive, but based on objective evaluation criteria in the solicitation. Of course, the contracting office may limit the number of awards, but historically that has not occurred.

How does SeaPort-e work for small/disadvantaged businesses?

About 85% of the current primes on SeaPort-e are small businesses, across all categories. The NAICS code is 541330 and the size standard is $25M. Task order set-aside decisions are made by the local commands, based on market research.

Should I team up with a large business?

The reasons to team are myriad, and dependant on your situation. You may want to team with a larger company if your firm is new to expand your breadth of capabilities. Teaming can also help you establish Zone coverage so you can compete in other geographical markets.

Teaming has become more challenging over the last few years, as more large businesses lose contracts to small business set-asides. A large business may be reluctant to bolster your competitive advantage in a market they are targeting.

A better strategy may be to reach out to similar small businesses in other Zones to build your team.

I don’t have any government past performance, only commercial. Will I qualify for an award?

You may. I have seen companies with only commercial experience win. However, you will have to tell a good story in your proposal and correlate your experience to the Navy’s mission areas and objectives.

I don’t know where to start. Can you help me?

Yes. Yes I can.

I have tried to address the questions I receive most often, but I am sure you have issues I didn’t touch on. Please use the comment field to post your issue. I will answer in this forum if I can. If you have more specific questions, please get in touch using the contact link above.

Don’t forget to subscribe to receive updates.

Best of luck!

Iona Moon is planning capacity for assisting firms during this round. We highly recommend you purchase the previous proposal toolkit and begin collecting your data.

We cannot urge strongly enough how important it is to get started NOW on your submission. Issues such as teaming and developing your cost-savings approach should not be done at the last minute.

Best of luck.

Lexington Park, MD, September 21, 2009. Precise Systems, Inc. (Precise) announced today it has won a Seaport-e task order to support the Naval Air Warfare Center-Aircraft Division’s (NAWC-AD) PMA-234. The 5-year task order is valued at $8.7M, and includes acquisition management, information assurance, and administrative support for the EA-6B, (Prowler), EA-18G (Growler), and Next Generation Jammer programs. The Precise Team includes Atkinson Aeronautics & Technology, Inc. (AtAero) and Camber Corporation. 

Vice President, Pete Williams (RDML, USN, Ret.), said of the win:  “Team Precise looks forward to our role in helping shape the future of Naval Electronic Warfare and to another opportunity to serve our Sailors and Marines.”

Precise is a Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business headquartered in Lexington Park, Maryland. Precise has provided high quality Program Management, Engineering, Information Technology, and Logistics solutions to Federal Government agencies since its founding in 1990.

Visit Precise Systems at www.goprecise.com.