IDIQ Contract Is The In Tool

The multiple award contract is becoming a way of life in the federal government. Many large, federal multiple award contracts have been awarded this year; several of them carrying ceilings of more than $1 billion. And that is only the tip of the iceberg. Federal contacting offices are severely understaffed so the government is necessarily awarding more multiple award contracts to make purchasing quicker and less staff intensive. Multiple award contracts are becoming so prevalent that it is almost a prerequisite to have one or more to do business with the federal government.
For companies new to the federal market, the concept of a multiple award contact can be confusing. This type of contact is called an Indefinite Duration Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract and the liberal use of the acronym "IDIQ" adds to the confusion. The following describes a typical scenario:
A large (often several billion dollar) multiple award contract opportunity is posted.  The result is a number of  "pricing only" awards to from 3 to 100 companies for periods ranging from 3 to 10 years. Meaning that the government agency agrees on each vendor's pricing but does not commit to future purchases.The contract with each individual contract holder is not funded until individual orders are competed among all or a select group of the companies holding the contract (a "mini competition"). The winner of the mini competition is then funded to perform the order in what could be called a "mini contract."
Multiple award contracts reduce competition. Free and open competition (a public bid) is inefficient and the government would grind to a halt without multiple award contracts. Public bids typically take an average of 270 days to award while purchasing under a multiple award contract can be achieved in a matter of weeks or days. In some cases, a subgroup of awards under a particular multiple award contract is set aside for small businesses while other opportunities are open to businesses of all sizes. As a practical matter, large businesses usually win the open, public bids, particularly the multiple billion dollar deals. This is not necessarily true with multiple award contracts.
Many types or flavors of multiple award contracts exist as a result of the following factors: the types of products or services being purchased, the number of vendors selected, the master contract's duration, the restrictions on which agencies can use them, the sizes of businesses that are eligible for award, and how competitions are held among the winners for individual orders. There are approximately 3,000 multiple award contracts currently active for the acquisition of everything from military material to professional services. They are particularly popular for the acquisition of information technology products and services. Such contracts may be available for use by a single agency, several selected agencies, or all federal agencies.

I have been very involved in the development of IDIQ Contracts   Most recently having secured a position for Textron Defense Systems on a large Army IDIQ with 6 partners. My team and I secured the addition of our sensor products for the application areas involved with Integrtaed Base Defense

New Word On Navy Carrier Groups

http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&srchtype=discussedNews&gid=2150975&item=65018568&type=member&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_pd-ttl-cn


See my resposne to an AOL non News Story regarding the Navy Carrier Groups
This group continues to run negative DOD themes.