Develop a high-level understanding of your customer’s budget to inform decision-making, either before committing resources on a pursuit or bid decision, or on critical solution or strategy decisions.
Richter & Company provides a high-level funding analysis service that analyzes your customer’s budget to project likely program budget – both total budget and addressable budget – as well as any potential historical trends. These trends often provide useful insights into your customer’s perception of likely program constraints, which have a strong influence on customer award decisions.
- What is the overarching budget for your customer organization, and how has it changed?
- Within the overarching customer budget, how much will be likely be allocated to the specific program or opportunity you are pursuing?
- In other words, how much money does the customer have to spend on the contract to be awarded?
- Within the budget allocated to the program, how much can be considered contractor addressable?
- Typically program budgets have a certain amount that must be held back for various reasons:
- Potential for unexpected acquisition delays
- Potential for program cost overruns
- Other required government program management or operational expenses
- Defining this holdback enables a better understanding of the likely contract award amount.
- Typically program budgets have a certain amount that must be held back for various reasons:
- Other important considerations:
- How has your customer’s budget request changed year to year?
- Tracking these changes between budgetary requests from previous years and how the Government’s projections have changed over time can provide insights into shifting customer priorities that may have an impact on award decisions
- How much has the customer’s or the program’s obligated budget increased/decreased over time?
- Has your customer slowly increased funds to the specific program line item or was there a drastic decrease in another? Analyzing those fluctuations are helpful in seeing how a program has changed throughout time.
- What is this customer’s history with regard to actual spending?
- Is there of exceeding the budget request? If so, what are the primary causes?
- Seeing when and why a program went over or under budget helps you understand the potential affect it may have on future obligations.
- What impact has there been or is there likely to be from political dynamics, such as administration changes or other political shifts?
- Was there an increase/decrease in funds to a particular department, agency, or program? If so, why? Understanding the shifts and changes in priorities of an ever-changing political climate provides insights not only into likely future budget for a program, but also whether that program will continue to be profitable.
- How has your customer’s budget request changed year to year?
Whether or not this is a familiar or new customer or a current market or new one, following the money will help you get a leading edge on deciding whether or not a pursuit will prove lucrative.
