To do business with the Navy or any organization in the federal market, companies will often need to work with a variety of prime contractors and other small businesses to fulfill the needs of contract.
Prime Government Contractors
The competitive landscape among Large Prime Contracts is constantly changing. So far in FY 2023, Leidos is leading with the most value in contracts, followed by Lockheed Martin and Booz Allen Hamilton.
Teaming, even amongst Large Contractors, seems to be a new normal, especially when the value of some of these very large Enterprise Contracts such as NGEN-R and others continue to exceed $1 Billion.
When doing a Navy Pipeline search, look at and include Opportunities that fall under any of these leading Navy Prime Contractors. These companies can be teammates on any opportunities that a company may not have a full set of quals or the past performance to win an Award.
Small Business Prime and Sub Contractors
Small businesses are another important part to have established teaming arrangements with. The Department of Defense (and each department) has annual small business goals that they need to achieve. The Small Business Association (SBA) releases an annual scorecard that assesses how well federal agencies reach their small business contracting goals.
In 2022, The Department of Defense as a whole exceeded its Prime Contracting 2022 Small Business goals. However, in individual categories, it failed to meet its Women Owned Small Business and HUBZone Small business goals.
Most, if not all, Navy procurements require a Small Business Contracting Plan to ensure that the Navy meets the established small business goals. While most Small Business are chosen as prospective teammates based on capabilities, it is important to select/have a bench of Small Businesses that are representative of each of the Socioeconomic categories below. Additionally, in 2022, the Department of Defense achieved its overall small business subcontracting goal, but failed to meet its goals for Women Owned Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, Service Disabled Veteran Owned, and HUBZone Small Business.
While you may be teammates with a company on one contract and competitors on another bid, it’s important to establish good relationships with large and small companies with a variety of past performance in the industry.
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