Federal contract bids, read the day they post and scored against you
Federal government bids move fast and they do not wait for your reading list. Every new solicitation is read on the day it publishes, scored against your company profile and delivered ranked, with the reason attached.
| Match | Solicitation and agency | NAICS | Set-aside | Place of performance | Response due |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | Enterprise Cloud Support Services | 518210 | Total small business | Virginia | 13 Oct |
| 73 | Tactical Data Link (TDL) Interoperability Software | 541511 | Full and open | Langley Afb, Virginia | 10 Oct |
| 64 | B--SHAKEALERT PRODUCTION CODE REVIEW | 541519 | Full and open | Not stated | 16 Oct |
| 63 | ARTS-V3 Third-Party Software Initiative | 541511 | Full and open | Not stated | 6 Oct |
| 63 | JWCC UCM Core Solicitation | 518210 | Full and open | Arlington, Virginia | 6 Oct |
What the federal record actually contains
Federal contract opportunities are published as a stream of notices, and the stream includes far more than the solicitations themselves. Knowing which notice type you are looking at is half the skill of using it.
- Sources sought and requests for information, where a requirement is still being shaped and your input can shape it
- Presolicitations, which tell you what is coming and when
- Solicitations, the actual requests for proposal, quotation or bid
- Amendments, which move deadlines and change requirements after the fact
- Award notices, which tell you who won and for how much
A team watching only for solicitations arrives late to every requirement. A team watching sources sought notices gets to influence requirements before they are written into a scope of work.
Federal bid opportunities scored against your company
- NAICS overlap, exact and family, because federal notices are coded and that coding is the strongest single signal
- Your capability line read against the full notice text, weighted by field
- Set-aside eligibility: small business, 8(a), SDVOSB, WOSB and HUBZone flags carried from the notice
- Place of performance against the states you staff
- Value band fit against what your company can carry
- Days remaining, with the question deadline included on Capture and Enterprise
Each federal bid arrives with a score out of 100 and a plain sentence on the fit.
The two dates that decide federal bids
The response deadline is the one everybody watches. The question deadline is the one that decides whether you could have shaped the requirement at all, and it closes much earlier.
- Response deadlines tracked on every saved bid with reminders, question deadlines on Capture and Enterprise
- Amendments and extensions update the board the day they post
- A single view of everything in flight, ordered by what closes first
Who has been winning this federal work
Before you commit a week of proposal effort, look at the last three years of awards for the same NAICS code and agency. The incumbent, the values and the dates sit next to the bid, so a recompete you cannot realistically win gets a no-bid in minutes rather than in a week. More on the method: federal contracts database.
Search federal contract opportunities against your own profile
Type your capability line, state and NAICS codes. Bid Match ranks a dated snapshot of public federal solicitation records against them and shows the full result without a signup.
Related reading: sam gov opportunities search, fed biz opps, how to read a federal solicitation.