What is FPDS and 3 Ways It Can Help You Get Government Contracts?

What is FPDS?

The Federal Procurement Data System – Next Generation or FPDS is a government website that provides unprecedented real-time access to government spending patterns. The system is free to access and only requires you to create an account. The beauty of a system like this is that it allows contractors to look at past contractual actions to determine the propensity and feasibility of doing business with the government. A quick search can tell you if the government is spending money on what it sells, how much it is spending on it, who are the main agencies that buy what it sells, and who are your competition and the best teamwork partners.

What is reported to FPDS?

Government contracts, BPA’s, IDIQ’s, etc. that have an estimated value of $ 3,000 or more, as well as all contract modifications. Keep this in mind when searching the system, as you will often find multiple “shares” on a particular contract. This does not mean that a new contract has been issued. It simply means that some type of contractual “action” has occurred. Recruitment actions are updated daily to FPDS.

FPDS does not track or have reporting data available for the following: grants, FEDSTRIP, MILSTRIP, GSA shares and GSA consolidated purchase programs, and government purchase card purchases below the micro-purchase threshold.

3 Ways FPDS Can Help You Get Government Contracts.

1. Determine if public procurement is a viable option for your business. If you are already in government contracting, this point is not for you. But if you are thinking of getting government contracts, this is the most important point for you. Before spending months looking for government programs, certifications, or getting a GSA program, you should do a little research. The first thing to investigate is the viability of the market to sell what you offer to the government. Many times people simply assume that the government does or does not want what it has to sell. The only way to know is to extract the FPDS reports. You will need the NAICS codes first. The NAICS codes are the North American Industry Classification System codes for each industry and service. These are standard codes that the government uses to find vendors that sell what you sell. If you don’t know your NAICS code, you can Google the NAICS code word and the term you want a code for. Once you get the report in FPDS, you can quickly identify whether the government is buying what you sell and how much you spend on it annually. This will give you a lot of information on whether to look for government contracts or not.

2. Use FPDS to identify all the agencies that are buying what you sell. One of the easiest ways to find data in the system is by using the NAICS code. This allows you to target your specific product or service and generate detailed reports for what you sell. Once you search your NAICS code, you can download this data into an Excel spreadsheet and sort the data. Once you have the data, you will want to look at the “Contracting Agency” field. This is the list of agencies that are buying what you sell. Once you identify who is buying what you sell, you can now develop a strategy on how to address them and start targeting them on sites like Fed Biz Ops and other government purchasing websites.

3. Formulate your strategy. Once you have all the information in items 1-4, you can begin to build your strategy. At RSM Federal, we recommend that you have a general strategy on how you will approach the government in general and then micro strategies on how you will approach different agencies. Understand that not all agencies shop in the same way and that there are many opportunities that you should be aware of. For example, the Defense Logistics Agency, or DLA, has a system called DIBBS that they use for many purchases under 100K. These opportunities are only displayed in the DIBBS system and are very important to anyone who is servicing logistics type items such as fasteners, wiring, tools, etc. They also have MRO contracts. These are maintenance, repair, and operations contracts that are awarded by region on a regular basis and something to keep an eye on if DLA is your target customer. Keeping an eye out for specific contracts and bidding opportunities like this would be included in your microstrategy.

Whether you are working on your core strategy or micro strategies, the FPDS system can be a valuable tool that you can use to gather market information. We recommend checking FPDS every 3-6 months depending on your industry. This will allow you to stay on top of trends and allow you to make changes to your strategy on an ongoing basis.

A word of caution. Various government watchdog groups and consulting firms have suggested that FPDS can be as low as $ 1 billion at any one time. What you really need to know is that humans are entering the data and from time to time they make mistakes. The reports you extract are only as good as the data that was entered, so please understand that the data can be turned off at any time. That is one of the main reasons why we suggest that you visit the site frequently.

Also note that many government systems and bi-matching services extract their data from FPDS. In many cases, consultants charge thousands of dollars for the same data that you can access for free through FPDS. So buyer beware …

To create an account or learn more about FPDS, visit https://www.fpds.gov.

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