It occurs to me that OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) are in an interesting position regarding U.S. government contract vehicles. Companies in this category often sit squarely in the middle between general goods (e.g., toilet paper, cement, medical supplies) and technology (e.g., cybersecurity, IT, software). Existing in this middle ground brings a lot of contract opportunities but also presents several challenges—restricted access, fierce competition, tedious manual work, etc.
While there really isn’t a “mom-and-pop-shop type” OEM, there is a wide range of company sizes within the OEM space, ranging from scrappy startups to industry giants like HP and Microsoft. However, no matter the size of the company or the type of hardware/software (or related service) being sold, Govly can help any OEM win more government bids. Govly accomplishes this by connecting OEMs with their existing prime partners and networking them with new primes that can dramatically expand their visibility and reach in the federal space.
Here are five ways that Govly helps OEMs find and win more government business.
#1 Access to contract information
For OEMs who aren’t prime contractors, access can be a major issue. There are hundreds, possibly thousands of opportunities and contract vehicles on offer. After all, the U.S. government is enormous and includes federal, state, and local municipalities incorporating educators, police, medical workers, civic staff—anything that sits beneath the umbrella of government spending.
Everyone has access to publicly available opportunities via Sam.gov, but that is only a piece of the very large government contracting pie. OEMs, who are not prime contract holders themselves, don’t have direct visibility into what the government is buying and must depend on their channel, which may or may not share all of the applicable information. You can’t bid on an opportunity that you can’t see. Through our platform, OEMs of any size have complete, unrestricted access to view government opportunities from any vehicle available to the Govly network (once that partnership approval has been granted, and the Govly team helps facilitate this).
#2 Networking
Fostering relationships between prime contractors and their supply chain benefits all parties. The strengthening of these relationships can be especially beneficial for OEMs. Govly allows OEMs to utilize the access that their channel partners (primes) already possess. Govly’s Vendor Search tool goes a step further by providing OEMs with a method for finding new partners who can provide them with access to more opportunities via additional contracts.
#3 Competitive analysis / market intelligence
This is a use case for Govly’s platform that has recently started to emerge, and that came as a surprise to me. As mentioned above, one of the primary uses of our platform is searching for government opportunities. However, that doesn’t just mean opportunities that are currently open for bids. It also means past RFQs and years of them.
We have an entire archive of historical data for every government opportunity recorded in the system. That means OEMs can enter our platform and search based on historical data to gather information for market intelligence to know how to focus their sales efforts. For instance, if an OEM were to search for opportunities that requested their competitors, they’ll know exactly which government groups have purchased competitors’ products along with all the contract details—quantity, product(s), purchase date, etc. They can then use this information as a way to start courting these government groups to pry them away from their competitors in preparation of the contracts being up for renewal. The government procurement of IT goods and services is very regular, with most purchases including annually renewable maintenance contracts and technology refreshes on a 1, 2, or 3-year cycle.
#4 Information gathering
This is similar to the one above, but instead of using Govly for competitive analysis, some OEMs use it to keep tabs on evolving technology. There is no unified source or person within the U.S. government that dictates exactly what every agency should be using in terms of technology. However, there are trends that can be uncovered regarding how technologies are progressing from contract to contract.
OEMs can use our platform to monitor these trends and understand which government entities are most commonly buying their product categories. This insight will help OEM sales teams know who they should be targeting and which products and features of those products their prospects will find most appealing. As a concrete example, if one were to search “Identity Management”, one would find hundreds of opportunities over the past year. When this data is analyzed in Govly, one is able to see what OEMs are generally associated with this type of RFQ. Furthermore, Govly’s OEM slicer will show you what OEMs are trending upward in recent RFQs.
#5 Contract automation
This is something the bigger OEMs use a lot in our platform. One of the “worst kept secrets” of government contract vehicles is that there’s a lot of maintenance to them. Monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting requirements vary by contract vehicle. Some of these contracts require multiple touches of EVERY single opportunity that comes through them. For many, this has meant hiring scores of people who just sit at computers and check boxes all day. Nor very efficient or effective.
We’ve built a number of automated systems that handle many of these manual tasks. We retrieve data directly from the source and allow you to set the parameters of what you’re looking for, and the system does the rest. Our platform can handle the entire process, ensuring you don’t lose sleep worrying about losing contracts due to non-compliance.
About Govly
Suppose you are a technology company that’s interested in selling to the U.S. Government, or a technology company that’s already selling to the government. In either case, the Govly application and leadership team are prepared to help you accelerate your business. We help businesses that want to sell to the U.S. Government by providing the insights and access to partnerships needed to do so, and assist businesses that already sell to the government by centralizing and filtering public and private opportunities into a single location that fosters B2B collaboration across the supply chain.
We’d love to talk to you.
About the author
Mike Weiland is CEO and Co-founder of Govly. Prior to Govly, Mike held multiple leadership positions within the government contracting space including roles at Sierra Nevada Corporation, Alvarez, and Blazar Technology Solutions (founder).
