Kevin Plexico, senior vice president of Information Solutions at Deltek and a 2022 Wash100 Award recipient, published his latest article as a part of Executive Mosaic’s GovCon Expert program on Thursday.
In the latest feature, GovCon Expert Kevin Plexico discussed the key factors that are shaping the government contracting (GovCon) market today, how contractors should understand their growth in the next fiscal year as well as how to leverage the top opportunities available in our industry.
You can read Kevin Plexico’s latest GovCon Expert article below:
Boost Your FY 2023 Government Business with the Top Federal Opportunities
By GovCon Expert Kevin Plexico
As the 2022 federal fiscal year comes to a close and businesses prepare for FY 2023, federal government contractors are doing everything they can to win their share of government spending in the year ahead. That makes it a perfect time to examine GovWin’s Top Federal Opportunities for FY 2023.
In this article, we will examine some of the key factors that are shaping the government contracting market today, and how leveraging these Top Opportunities can benefit your business.
Factors Shaping the Government Contracting Market
Federal government contracting market conditions have been relatively steady over the course of the last 12 months. In the 2022 edition of Deltek’s Clarity Government Contracting Industry Report, we heard from many businesses that although 2021 was not necessarily a stellar year overall, business development (BD) results moving into 2022 were surprisingly positive with increased win rates expected and a favorable outlook for increased growth.
With that sentiment from Clarity, it’s been interesting to note the broader market has experienced some turbulence in recent months, but an influx of federal funding in different programs (such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) has helped to make the public sector market a great market for businesses to pursue. As we have seen many times before, government businesses can be a steady source of sales revenue in times when the broader market is more volatile.
Another pattern worth noting from the past four months is that of increased contract consolidation. Our Clarity report noted that consolidation continued to be a major factor in the federal market, particularly as it pertained to government-wide contracts managed by the General Services Administration (GSA).
True in 2022 as well, businesses are feeling the need to update their capture planning strategies to increase their odds of serving as a prime contractor on their target opportunities. The most common responses businesses are taking to counteract this are focusing on strategic teaming initiatives and investing more in business development.
What does this functionally mean for businesses selling to the government? Spending should remain high, but the number of major opportunities available may continue to decrease. This makes it all the more valuable to spend time researching and properly identifying those best-fit opportunities and to ensure your place on the contract vehicles of the future. The level of government spending may be increasing, but so is the amount of competition to win those dollars.
The Top Federal Opportunities for Federal Fiscal Year 2023
With all this in mind, and with the 2023 federal fiscal year rapidly arriving, businesses are seeking out new ways to broaden their sales pipelines for the next 12 months – even while the market is consolidating. It is a perfect time for contractors to examine the largest federal government procurements. These contracts and vehicles are a great starting point for businesses to explore as they look to develop their public sector pipeline.
At the beginning of FY 2023, Deltek will be releasing its top contract vehicles in four specific sectors that offer government contractors a chance to win more business in 2023. This is part of an annual series we host to highlight the bellwether contract vehicles and opportunities from the federal government. This year, my team of expert government market researchers is excited to share its Top Federal Opportunities for FY 2023 series in four webinars, to be followed by four corresponding reports.
Beginning on October 4, Deltek’s GovWin IQ Top Federal Opportunities webinars will be hosted over four weeks in October with the Top 20 Unrestricted Federal Opportunities for FY 2023 leading things off. Following that will be a discussion of the top 10 opportunities in the Federal set-aside, professional services and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) sectors. A report aligning with each topic will be released later in October.
GovWin has a long history of providing detailed analysis of these valuable contract opportunities, and our best-in-class research analysts have spent countless hours vetting these opportunities to provide the broadest and deepest opportunity research in the government contracting marketplace.
Understand How to Grow Your Business in FY 2023
While the top opportunities for FY 2023 will cover multiple industry categories, and represent both military and civilian agencies, not every business will find these to be in their wheelhouse to compete for one of these major contract vehicles. Even so, it is worth knowing which types of contracts are included in the lists of top opportunities.
As I have written previously, the highest-profile federal procurements often go a long way toward shaping the broader federal government contracting market. They can also serve as a barometer for the areas in which the federal government is leaning toward increasing its spending. For example, last year’s Top 20 Unrestricted Federal Opportunities for FY 2022 report featured 10 opportunities from either the Air Force or Army – fully half of the most valuable unrestricted contract vehicles came from those two agencies, a clear sign that those agencies may be good ones to target.
And if one of these unrestricted, small business set-aside, AEC or professional services opportunities is a good fit for your business, it’s more important than ever to take the time to understand these contract vehicles and whether your company is a fit either as a prime or a sub on them.
As proactive federal government contractors know, having up-to-date knowledge about their target opportunities is a must in order to get ahead of the competition and win their share of federal government business. Leveraging business development tools like GovWin IQ from Deltek can be a great way to easily capture that valuable information all in one place.
To find more information on the top federal opportunities expected to be released by the federal government in the next 12 months and hear, register for the webinar series here to listen live or on-demand. You’ll hear first-hand from our expert analyst team and capture the knowledge you need to boost your government business in FY 2023.
