Federal Contract Opportunities

An explanation of Federal Contract Opportunities on GovTribe, and annotated description of related pages

A Federal Contract is an agreement between the federal government and a prime recipient (contractor/vendor) to provide goods and services for a fee, including all types of commitments that obligate the government to an expenditure of appropriated funds and that, except as otherwise authorized, are in writing. In addition to bilateral instruments, contracts include (but are not limited to) awards and notices of awards; job orders or task letters issued under basic ordering agreements; letter contracts; orders, such as purchase orders, under which the contract becomes effective by written acceptance or performance; and bilateral contract modifications. Contracts do not include grants and cooperative agreements covered by 31 U.S.C. 6301, et seq.

About Federal Contract Opportunities on GovTribe

Federal Contract Opportunities on GovTribe are mined in near real time from the authoritative website for federal contracting opportunities, sam.gov. (Any data prior to November 2019 came from FBO.gov.)

Procurement Data Exceptions

There are some types of Federal Contract Opportunities that GovTribe is not able to post. These are generally any opportunities that are being bid on limited competition multiple award vehicles. For example, GSA Schedule opportunities cannot be found on GovTribe. This is because the GSA has a private portal available only to GSA Schedule contract holders (GSA eBuy) and specifically disallows companies like GovTribe to mine and re-post that information.

Many GWACs (Governmentwide Acquisition vehicles) or large IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity) contracts also have private portals with similar restrictions. Procurements under the GWACs Alliant II and 8a STARS II are also run through eBuy. The Navy's Seaport-e IDIQ has its own private acquisition portal with similar restrictions on reposting solicitation information.

It is also important to understand that a large number of smaller multiple award IDIQ contracts do not post public solicitations at all. Procurements under IDIQs like Homeland Security's Eagle II are executed by government contracting personnel emailing solicitation documents directly to contract-holders. So it is not possible for GovTribe to acquire and repost those.

We also do not have any classified opportunities, you will need to access ARC to see any of those.

Federal Contract Opportunities Search Page

To access the Main Federal Contract Opportunities Search Page:

Step 1. Go to: Main Menu >> Opportunities >> Federal Contract Opportunities. (Take me there)

The Federal Contract Opportunities Search Page will be displayed, which allows you to access and view Federal Contract Opportunities sourced by GovTribe.

Please refer to the following for details on how to use this page to search for opportunities:

• Search 101

• Find Contract or Grant Opportunities

• Step2: Find and Add Pursuits to Your Pipeline

Federal Contract Opportunity Detail Page

To access a Federal Contract Opportunity’s Detail Page:

Step 1. Go to: Main Menu >> Opportunities >> Federal Contract Opportunities (take me there), then click on the Title of any Contract Opportunity listed. For example: https://govtribe.com/opportunity/federal-contract-opportunity/office-of-small-business-programs-support-services-ht001125re003

Overview

The Federal Contract Opportunities overview Page will be the first item displayed when you click the title of a contract opportunity.

The left-hand side of this page will display data about the opportunity, such as the agency who had posted it, NAICS codes it is assigned under, or if any set asides are used.

The center, where you see the tabs AI summary, and Updates, will display both the original description of the contract, what GovTribe AI is able to summarize about that contract, and recently updated descriptions.

The very top of the page will have information such as the contracts due date, solicitation number, when it was posted, etc

Now moving on from the overview section let's cover some of the other modules on a Federal Contract Opportunity Page:

Analyze This:

Utilize GovTribe's built in AI tools to ask questions and help with tasks related to this opportunity. For more details on what is possible with GovTribe AI on solicitations please view the following article:

AI Powered Record Analyst

Contacts

Contacts will show all associated contacts tied to the opportunity you are viewing. To read more about beacon contacts please view the following article:

Beacon

Files Section

This section displays a list of Files associated with the contract opportunity. Click the File name to view. Click More to view all files and the Cloud icon to export.

Government Files

Activity Section

You can view updates made to the contract opportunity you are viewing via the Activity tab. Some examples of information presented in this section are newly uploaded external files, amendment revisions, and changed due dates.

Similar Opportunities:

You can access a list of contracts similar to the one you are currently viewing under the Similar Opportunities tab. Just click on the title of one of the listed records to view it's overview page.

OnFrontiers:

You can directly access Onfrontiers when viewing a Federal Contract Opportunity allowing you to link with experts who can assist with a variety of specialties. Click the following to read more about how to use OnFrontiers:

OnFrontiers