You might think that incumbents who will be bidding on a re-competed contract have advance knowledge of the ways in which the new RFP will be different from the old RFP. After all, they are currently performing the contract and hopefully have good relationships with government technical and contracting officers who might just give them a little advance information about the new RFP. But this is not always the case.
It's definitely not the case in the three re-competed bids that I am working on. For the food services contract I mentioned the other day, the government has split the current contract into two separate contracts to be bid: one contract for each of the two government facilities where the food services will be provided. Currently, my client is providing these services to the two facilities under one contract. The government has also substantially changed their menu requirements. So what does that mean for my client and me? More work on the proposal than we anticipated. In addition to addressing the changes in technical requirements, we have to prepare and submit two separate proposals.
The RFP for the second re-compete that I'm working on also has some substantial changes from the previous RFP, none of which were known in advance by my client. Fortunately, they have already begun preparations to deal with these new requirements. My third client is also anticipating major changes in the RFP when it is released (we not sure when this will be). But they don't know what those changes will be or how much more work it will take to address them.
Changes from one RFP to the next can occur because the government believes that improvements can be made in the way that work is currently being performed, or because they are not getting the outcomes and results they had anticipated. Other times, they make changes to an RFP because they have less (or more) money to spend. And sometimes, my clients and I think that they make the changes just to make life more difficult for us.
So non-incombents take heart. You're not always the only ones who aren't in the know about what's coming down the pike.
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