Finding Your Competitive Edge in Government Contracting

Government funding opportunities can present robust and sustainable revenue streams for organizations in a multitude of sectors. Whether it’s the Inflation Reduction Act, the White House Council on Supply Chain Resilience, or local economic development efforts, the availability of funds is significant.

With trillions of dollars of government spending each year, there are always new funding initiatives to be found. That means there is always room to improve your organization’s position in the market. Helping secure revenue is one way to prove your function’s value and show your ROI. But it’s often a long, confusing, and time-consuming process, and some opportunities only come around every few years.

When it comes to securing government funding, a small number of opportunities can be key to helping your organization and proving your ROI, so you can’t afford to miss anything. Some of those opportunities can be very valuable and have long-term effects. Many larger opportunities are only competed for every few years, so preparing for those is key to your business’ success.

Read on to learn how to use technology to help your organization secure government funding and ensure you don’t miss out on opportunities.

Automate Manual Processes to Seize Opportunities

Securing government funding starts with knowing what is immediately available. But weeding through all those opportunities can take up precious time most teams don’t have. It’s inefficient to be checking individual government agency websites to search for opportunities. This is where technology becomes your strategic ally. It’s essential to have a solution that aggregates funding opportunities and helps you find them efficiently.

Even with a funding opportunity aggregating tool, the process is often far from easy. There’s a lot of noise in the data and a litany of opportunities presented that aren’t relevant to your organization or market. That’s why finding the right tool is crucial.

For MJ Keatts, business development manager for McGuireWoods Consulting (MWC), FiscalNote’s procurement dashboard is essential for streamlining and automating processes. Through the dashboard, MWC can gain insights into existing and upcoming contract opportunities and information on state and federal spending patterns in one central platform.

“Before FiscalNote, our lobbyists had to manually dig through government agency websites to understand their procurement process,” says Keatts. Her team at MWC can see where their clients are positioned in the government contracting landscape, how much competitors’ contracts are worth and when they end, and what types of services or products state agencies are seeking.

“FiscalNote helps us determine how far out we are from the next RFP opportunity for our client,” says Keatts. “By the time an RFP is issued, it’s too late. With FiscalNote, we know how long we have to get our client in front of key decision-makers. By helping our clients raise their brand awareness, they gain the upper hand.”

What to Look for in a Procurement Tool

Here are the important features to have in your procurement tool.

Relevant opportunities. You should be able to identify your highest potential opportunities and eliminate irrelevant results not tailored to your specific business needs. Using a tool like FiscalNote’s government procurement dashboard, you can get more tailored insights to quickly find the most pertinent funding opportunities. The dashboard is customized to your organization and uses machine learning and human insights and support to deliver only the most relevant information.

Timely alerts. FiscalNote’s procurement dashboard shows a heat map of the U.S., where you can quickly see open government contracting opportunities across the country, including RFPs, RFIs, and grant opportunities at the federal, state, and local levels. “We aim to create a very customized, targeted feed so our clients don’t have to sift through lots of open opportunities that don’t apply to them,” explains Whitney Swance, a FiscalNote consultant. Then, teams receive prompt email notifications about relevant opportunities so they don’t miss a beat.

Ease of collaboration. Ensure your tool makes collaboration simple within your team and across departments. Look for a tool that sends timely notifications to the right team members so business development teams can be proactive.

Tailored results. Look for a solution that is customized to your industry and even your team. “We deliver clients something that fits into their process,” says FiscalNote’s procurement specialist. “We understand how they view the market and the intricacies of their industry, and build a sustainable product and ongoing service tailored to their needs.”

Gain the Upper Hand With Market Analysis

Even with an automated monitoring process, you'll still want to focus on the premiere opportunities you are in the strongest position to win. An expert guide who can assist in navigating the sea of government procurement opportunities can prove invaluable.

The ability to look at awarded contract data in your market and analyze it is also a key component of government procurement. Look at the contracts your competitors have been awarded to see who is excelling in your industry, what the contracts look like, and when they expire, so you can position yourself to win the contract next time it’s available.

“By combining data sources, FiscalNote’s market analysis gives companies a sense of the key competitors or potential partners in their market and provides business development leads that are otherwise hard to unearth,” explains FiscalNote’s procurement specialist.

You should also look at a historical analysis of government spending in your industry to see where government money has gone in the past several years. Being able to report on this for the last five years can provide a glimpse into where you might be able to seize opportunities — or where you’re already doing well.

Get Access to the Insights Your Team Needs

With the right approach and resources, you can help your organization get a share and prove the value of your function. FiscalNote’s solutions offer an effective way to monitor and act on procurement opportunities across all levels of government.

The government procurement dashboard is a visual representation of where government contracts exist across the country. Users can gain insights into existing and upcoming contract opportunities and information on state and federal spending patterns in one central platform.

FiscalNote’s holistic approach to procurement monitoring follows opportunities through their entire lifecycle, beginning with federal appropriations bills and following the opportunities through to state RFP release and bid awards.