Common Search Gotchas

Common "Gotchas" when trying to search/ navigate Government Data

Place of Performance (Location)

Place of Performance (POP), also called Location by some, is a manually entered field by the Contracting Officer/Specialist which is prone to inconsistencies and error.

What this means is sometimes when you us a place of performance filter you might not capture the entire market.

So what does GovTribe recommend?

Due to the inconsistencies in the data, you should create two separate searches, one with the POP as a filter and the other using the location as keywords to be sure you do not miss any solicitations/opportunities you may be interested in.

NAICS & PSC vs. Keywords

NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) and PSC (Professional Service Codes) are both ways the Government classifies their spend. If you're experienced in the private space, think UNSPSC. The Government uses these values quite a bit; however not always and even when they are used, Keywords are typically still needed to filter amongst the categories to ensure you find what you are looking for.

In other words, you are going to have to use a combination of NAICS & PSC Filters as well as keywords to ensure you have a holistic view of Government records applicable to you.

So what does GovTribe recommend?

To ensure you capture every potential record you may want to see, you will have to have a few Saved Searches. One for NAICS, one for PSC, and one for Keywords.

The idea being you would have one search that would include all of the NAICS which matter to you, another for all the PSC's that matter to you and another for Keywords and phrases.

If you are unsure of how often/ how many records you may miss, you can use the "Exists" or "Does not exist" option for NAICS or PSC to see how many records are missing one of these values.

For example: On the NAICS Search: NAICS any of XXXXX PSC not any of XXXXX (list of the PSCs you want from the other search)

This would ensure you wouldn't get any of the records you see on the PSC search also in your NAICS search.