FEDCON Portal Help

POSITION • PURSUE • PROCURE

Welcome to the FEDCON Portal, your command center for finding, tracking, and winning federal, state, and local government work. This guide walks through every feature in the order you will find it in the left navigation. Start with Getting Started, then jump to whatever you need.

Stuck on anything this guide does not cover? Contact your FEDCON advisor. That is what we are here for.

Contents

1. Getting Started
2. Search All
3. Opportunities: Contracts and Grants
4. Pursuit Management: Pipelines, Pursuits, and Activities
5. Partner Finder
6. Government Buyers
7. Labor Pricing
8. Market Analysis
9. Awards and Awardees
10. Government: Agencies and People
11. Documents and Downloads
12. Favorites, Saved Searches, and Alerts
13. Reference

Getting Started

The FEDCON Portal gives you a single place to research the government market, find opportunities that fit your business, and manage every pursuit from first sighting to award.

Logging in

1. Go to portal.fedcon.com.
2. Enter the email address tied to your FEDCON account and your password.
3. Select Sign In.

Your dashboard opens first. It shows your calendar of upcoming pursuits and activities so you always land on what needs attention.

Resetting your password

1. On the sign-in screen, select Forgot password.
2. Enter your account email address.
3. Check your inbox for a reset link and follow it to set a new password. If the email does not arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder, then contact your FEDCON advisor.

Federal view vs. SLED view

The Portal covers two markets, and you switch between them with the view toggle at the top of the navigation:

• Federal view shows federal contracts, grants, awards, and the full research toolset.
• SLED view (state, local, education) shows state and local contract activity, buyers, and awards.

The left navigation adjusts to match the view you are in. If a feature you expect is missing, confirm which view you are in first.

Adding users to your account

Your account can hold multiple users so your whole team works from the same pursuits and research.

1. Select the gear icon in the upper right, then open Manage Users.
2. Select Add User.
3. Enter the new user's name and email address.
4. Select Add User to confirm. The new user receives a welcome email with setup instructions.

A few notes:

• Only account administrators can add or remove users. If you need administrator rights, or need a user removed, contact your FEDCON advisor.
• If a user has not finished setup, you can Resend their welcome email from the Manage Users screen.
• If you see a message that a user already exists, contact your FEDCON advisor and we will move that user onto your account.

Search All

Where to find it: left navigation, under Explore → Search All.

Search All is the fastest way into the Portal when you already know what you are looking for. It queries the entire database at once and sorts results into tabs by category.

The quick search bar

A search bar sits at the top of every page. Enter any of the following and press Enter:

• A contract, grant, or solicitation number
• A UEI or CAGE code
• An awardee, agency, or company name

Results open in Search All, grouped into tabs. Select See All Results inside any tab to open that category's full search page, where you can apply advanced filters.

Keyword search syntax

The keyword filter, available on every category search page, supports precise queries:

• Both terms: physical security returns records containing both words.
• Either term (OR): physical security or surveillance returns records with either phrase. You can chain unlimited OR conditions.
• Exact phrase: "physical security" in quotes matches the phrase as written.
• Exclude a term: physical security -training removes training-related results.
• Grouped logic: (physical security or surveillance) (school or college) -training combines all of the above.

Buttons you will see on every search page

• Add Filters applies advanced filters to narrow results.
• Export downloads records as .csv or .xlsx.
• Save stores the search so you can rerun it or get alerts (see Saved Searches).
• Share sends a search by link or email.
• Reset clears everything and starts fresh.
• Columns controls which columns show in the results table.
• Sort orders results by any available field.

Two kinds of filters are available: Quick Filters for one-click common views (like active opportunities or recompetes), and Search Filters for building custom, layered queries.

Opportunities: Contracts and Grants

Where to find it: left navigation, under Business Development → Opportunities, then Contracts or Grants.

This is where you find work to bid. The Portal aggregates federal opportunity postings from SAM.gov, DLA DIBBS, SBIR.gov, grants.gov, and other federal and SLED sources, then tags each one with the codes and details you need to filter it down to what fits your business.

Finding contract opportunities

1. Open Business Development → Opportunities → Contracts.
2. Select Add Filters and narrow by the criteria that matter to you.
3. Select any opportunity title to open its detail page.

Each contract opportunity detail page gives you the description, posting and due dates, historical background, related solicitations, documents, similar opportunities, and an auto-generated list of potential bidders.

The Contracts area is organized into tabs:

• Opportunities shows posted solicitations from federal sources.
• Forecasts shows opportunities agencies expect to release, pulled from 40+ agency forecasting sources, often months before a formal posting.
• DIBBS shows DLA sustainment product procurements.

Finding grant opportunities

1. Open Business Development → Opportunities → Grants.
2. Select Add Filters to match opportunities to your profile.
3. Select a grant title to open its detail page, with description, history, eligible applicants, documents, and comparable opportunities.

All federal grant opportunity data comes from grants.gov.

Key filters

Quick Filters (available on both Contracts and Grants):

• Active Opportunity shows only opportunities with future due dates.
• Exclude No Bid hides opportunities you have marked No Bid.
• My Favorites shows opportunities you have favorited.
• My Pursuits shows opportunities linked to your pursuits (requires a pipeline).
• Only Civilian and Only Defense split results by agency type.
• Future Vehicle (Contracts) flags opportunities likely to become IDIQs, BPAs, or MATOCs.

Search Filters worth knowing:

• Keywords searches descriptions, document summaries, and metadata.
• Agency filters by the issuing agency.
• Due Date and Date Posted filter by timing.
• NAICS and PSC/FSC filter by classification code.
• Set Aside filters by socioeconomic category (Small Business, 8(a), SDVOSB, WOSB, and more).
• Place of Performance filters by country, state, county, or zip.
• Value Range filters by contract or funding value, using stated values or an estimate where the government has not published one.
• Person filters by the contracting or grant officer.

Sources Sought and forecasts

To find early-stage opportunities and shape them before a formal solicitation:

1. Open Opportunities → Contracts.
2. Under Add Filters, set Opportunity Type to Sources Sought and Presolicitation.
3. Add Active Opportunity if you want only current notices, then layer on Agency, NAICS, or Set Aside.

For grants, set Posting Type to Forecasted on the Grants search page.

SLED (state and local) contracts

In SLED view, open Business Development → Opportunities → Contracts. The Portal covers opportunities from tens of thousands of agencies across all 50 states, Washington D.C., and U.S. territories, spanning state, local, education, and public utilities markets.

SLED opportunities carry NAICS and PSC codes we assign based on the opportunity description, so you can filter them the same way you filter federal work. Filter by State, Agency, NAICS, PSC/FSC, Due Date, and Value Range. Each SLED opportunity links out to the source website for full details and application instructions.

Set-aside and small business opportunities

To focus on set-aside work, use the Has Set Aside quick filter, or select Set Aside under filters and choose the categories that match your certifications. Layer on Agency, NAICS, PSC, and Place of Performance to tighten results. Not sure whether you qualify as a small business for a given opportunity? Search its NAICS code in the top search bar to see the applicable SBA size standard.

SBIR and STTR: Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer opportunities appear under Opportunities → Grants. They run in three phases: proof of concept, prototype refinement, and commercialization or production.

Subcontracts and subgrants

Prime awards often carry subcontracting requirements, which means work for you as a sub:

• Subcontract opportunities: Open Market Intelligence → Awards → Contracts, apply the Subcontract Opps quick filter, then filter by Agency, NAICS, or Set Aside. Open any contract and check the Other Categorizations section for the subcontracting plan type.
• Subgrant opportunities: Open Market Intelligence → Awards → Grants and apply the Subcontract Opportunities quick filter.

Subcontract and subgrant data is self-reported by prime awardees, so quality varies. We remove or adjust records we identify as duplicates or inaccurate, but treat these as leads to verify, not confirmed facts.

Saving what you find

Select the heart button on any opportunity to favorite it for quick access later under My Favorites. To get alerts on new matching opportunities, save the search (see Favorites, Saved Searches, and Alerts).

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Pursuit Management: Pipelines, Pursuits, and Activities

Where to find it: left navigation, under Business Development → Pursuit Management.

Pursuit Management is your capture CRM inside the Portal. Build a pipeline, add the opportunities you are chasing as pursuits, and track the work with activities. Everything you and your team do stays in one place.

Step 1: Create a pipeline

A pipeline organizes your pursuits by stage. Create one before you add pursuits.

1. Open Business Development → Pursuit Management → Pipelines, then select the [+].
2. Fill in:
   • Title for the pipeline.
   • Pipeline Owner to set responsibility.
   • Pipeline Stages: choose one of four preset stage templates, or select Customize Stage to set your own stage names, count, probability of win (p(win)), and probability of go (p(go)).
3. Select Save in the upper right.

If you set custom p(win) or p(go) values per stage, those values populate automatically when you move a pursuit into that stage, so your weighting stays consistent.

To edit a pipeline later, open Pipelines and select Edit Pipeline. Moving from another capture system? Contact your FEDCON advisor and we will help migrate your pursuits in bulk.

Step 2: Add pursuits

Once a pipeline exists, add the opportunities you are pursuing.

Fastest way, straight from an opportunity:

1. Open any contract opportunity, grant opportunity, forecast, or award page.
2. Select the Pipeline dropdown in the upper right.
3. Choose your pipeline. The Portal fills in what it already knows.

Build one manually:

1. Open Business Development → Pursuit Management → Pursuits, then select the [+].
2. Enter the basics, link to relevant Portal records, upload documents, and add team members.
3. Save.

Once saved, each pursuit's Bidders and Similar tabs fill in automatically. The more complete your pursuit details (Agency, Set Aside, NAICS, title, and description), the sharper those insights.

Step 3: Track activities

Activities are the tasks tied to a pursuit: calls, drafts, reviews, submissions.

Create one two ways:

• Business Development → Pursuit Management → Activities → [+], or
• From inside a pursuit, on the Activities tab, select [+ New].

Each activity holds a title, type, due date, owner, description, tags, and pursuit assignment. Your activities appear on your dashboard calendar and on the pipeline review calendar.

Managing pursuits in bulk

From Pipelines, open the Pursuit tab to edit many pursuits at once. Filter by pipeline, owner, or stage, or view pursuits flagged Past Due, Due Soon, or Stale. Update Proposal Date, Stage, p(win), p(go), and Estimated Value right in the table.

Reviewing pipeline and performance

Open Business Development → Pursuit Management → Pipelines and filter by pipeline and owner to see:

• Funnel: weighted and unweighted pipeline value by stage.
• Projections: pipeline value by year, quarter, or month.
• Analysis: funnel broken down by agency, contract or grant, vehicle, owner, pursuit type, NAICS, prime/sub, PSC, or set aside.
• Win/Loss: win and loss rates by dollar value or count.
• Calendar: every historical and upcoming pursuit and activity, the same calendar you see on your dashboard.

Partner Finder

Where to find it: left navigation, under Business Development → Partner Finder.

Partner Finder ranks contractors and grant recipients by federal obligations so you can quickly see who has the most relevant experience and certifications. Use it to find prime partners, subcontractors, likely competitors, or acquisition targets.

How to run it

1. Open Business Development → Partner Finder.
2. Choose Contracts or Grants.
3. Add filters, then read the ranked list.

Recommended filters for contracts:

• Agency (Awarding)
• NAICS or PSC
• Set Aside (choose "No Set Aside Used" for full and open competition)
• Place of Performance

Recommended filters for grants:

• Agency (Awarding)
• Assistance Type
• Place of Performance
• Amount Obligated (start with a wide range)

Below the experience filters, Registration Info filters let you limit results to companies with specific certifications or demographics. The experience-based Set Aside filter finds companies that win the most set-aside awards; the registration Certification filter limits to active program participants regardless of award history.

Reading and refining results

Results rank every company by total dollar obligations over the selected period. Select Explore next to any row to see that company's relevant contracts. By default the tool shows prime awards for the prior government fiscal year. Use the Include and Range dropdowns to add subcontracts and extend the lookback to three to five years. If results come back thin, broaden or remove filters.

Going deeper on a partner

• Awardee profile: open any company's Awardee page to review experience, existing partners, and competitive position (see Awards and Awardees).
• Offerings and pricing: find a company's GSA Schedule on its Awardee page, or in Documents by setting the Source filter to Federal Schedule and searching the company name.
• Contract vehicles: a vehicle detail page shows current awardees and award share, which tells you how strong a potential partner is under that vehicle.

Government Buyers

Where to find it: left navigation, under Business Development → Government Buyers.

This tool ranks the most active procurement officers in your target market, sorted by their opportunity and award activity. Use it to know whom to monitor and whom to send your capability statement to.

How to run it

1. Open Business Development → Government Buyers.
2. Add filters for your target market. The tool ranks buyers by relevance to what you select.
3. Use the Awards and Opps buttons next to each buyer to see their associated awards or open opportunities.

Recommended filters:

• Federal contracts: Agency (Awarding), NAICS or PSC, Set Aside, Place of Performance.
• Federal grants: Agency (Awarding), Assistance Type.
• SLED contracts: State, NAICS or PSC, Agency Type.

If results are thin, remove or broaden filters.

Other ways to reach the right officer

• People search (Market Intelligence → Government → People) finds a specific officer or recently active officers within an agency.
• Sources Sought notices are the government asking industry for input; respond to them to get on an agency's radar.
• Forecasts are required agency publications of planned solicitations, often released six months to two years out, which gives you time for outreach and teaming.

Labor Pricing

Where to find it: left navigation, under Business Development → Labor Pricing.

Labor Pricing lets you research the labor rates contractors offer the government, so you can price competitively for RFPs, GSA Schedules, and contract vehicles, or size up a new market.

Read this first: All rates in the tool are not-to-exceed (ceiling), fully burdened labor rates. Actual rates typically run 10 to 20 percent below the not-to-exceed rate. Data is drawn from major government schedules and vehicles, and the tool holds more than 470,000 active prices across more than 10,000 job titles.

Finding rates

1. Open Business Development → Labor Pricing.
2. Search by keyword for a quick look, or select Title from the filters to pick specific job titles. Choose several related titles to widen your pricing sample and improve accuracy.
3. Refine with filters:
   • Education: minimum education requirement.
   • Min. Years Experience: experience threshold.
   • Small / Large Businesses Only: filter by contractor size.
   • Worksite: contractor-site vs. customer-site rates.
4. Remove any price that does not fit by selecting the delete icon next to it.

If a title or competitor is not in the system, use the Research button to request the data, or contact your FEDCON advisor.

Other pricing sources in the Portal

• Competitor GSA Schedules: search a competitor under Market Intelligence → Awardees; schedule pricing appears in the Schedules section of their profile.
• Contract-level rates: federal labor contracts over $500,000 and older than 18 months show blended labor rates in the Labor Services Billing section of the contract award page.
• Schedules for niche categories: open Market Intelligence → Documents, set Source to Federal Schedule, and search a quoted keyword like "Janitorial Services".

Market Analysis

Where to find it: left navigation, under Market Intelligence → Analysis.

The Analysis tool shows you where the money is and where you can compete. Use it to find the best agencies, codes, and vehicles for expansion, and the incumbents who own the work today.

Running a custom analysis

1. Open Market Intelligence → Analysis.
2. Filter by Agency (Awarding), NAICS, PSC, Set Aside, or Assistance Type.
3. Read across the analysis tabs:

A typical workflow: view the largest NAICS codes at a target agency, drill into one code to see its trend, use Vehicle Rankings to find the multi-award vehicles carrying the work, then use Awardee Rankings to spot market leaders and teaming targets.

Finding your entrance point

• Vehicles: a seat on the right contract vehicle, or a partnership with a seat-holder, expands your agency access. Use vehicle rankings and award share to find key vehicles and vulnerable incumbents.
• Teaming: partner with experienced awardees to build past performance. Find them with Awardee Rankings at your target agency, program, or NAICS.
• Officers: build relationships through industry days and direct outreach. Agency pages list key personnel, and Documents holds industry day presentations.

Two data points worth checking as you plan: agencies set different small business funding targets, and agencies differ in how often they award to contractors they have not worked with before. Both are surfaced in the analysis views.

Awards and Awardees

Where to find it: left navigation, under Market Intelligence → Awards (Vehicles, Contracts, Grants) and Market Intelligence → Awardees.

Awards data is your window into who has won what. Use it to research competitors, find teaming partners, size a market, and spot recompetes before they hit the street.

Researching a company (Awardee profiles)

Find any company three ways: the top search bar (by name, UEI, or CAGE code), Awardees search (to filter by NAICS, headquarters, ownership type, and obligations), or Partner Finder.

An Awardee profile pulls together:

• Overview with quick stats: estimated set-aside percentage, largest agencies, top NAICS and PSC codes, and grant programs from the past three years.
• Hierarchy showing whether the company is a parent (with aggregated subsidiaries) or a child of a larger parent. Reviewing the parent gives you the full organizational picture.
• Funding Analysis with Trends, Shares, Categories, Maps, and Vehicle Rankings.
• Registration with legal and DBA names, UEI, CAGE code, registered NAICS and PSC codes, entity types, points of contact, and set-aside classifications.
• Schedules and Vehicles: GSA Schedules and master vehicles (IDIQ, BPA, GWAC) the company holds.
• Contract and Grant Awards: prime and sub awards, each clickable for detail.
• Partners: teaming relationships, SBA Mentor-Protégé memberships, and joint ventures.

A note on the data: prime awards come from government reporting, usually within 30 days of award (Department of Defense data runs about 90 days behind). Subawards are self-reported by primes and vary in quality. Registration statuses are self-reported and may be incomplete or outdated, so confirm eligibility rather than assuming it.

Analyzing contracts

Open Market Intelligence → Awards → Contracts, or enter a contract ID in the top search bar. Search by keyword and 35+ filters (Agency, NAICS, PSC, Start Date, End Date, Place of Performance, Set Aside, and more). A contract detail page can include:

• Overview: awardee, description, awarding and funding agency, codes, place of performance, pricing type, set aside, and competition level.
• Funding Status and Funding Timeline: total value, dates, and a graphical obligation history.
• Award Hierarchy: parent and child award relationships.
• History: modification details, if any exist.

When the government description is thin, check the related opportunity and its documents, open the parent award for scope, or file a FOIA request to the awarding agency for the statement of work.

Analyzing grants

Open Market Intelligence → Awards → Grants, or enter a grant ID in the top search bar. Search by keyword and 18+ filters (Agency, Grant Program, dates, Place of Performance, and more). Grant detail pages carry an overview, funding status, timeline, and history. For deeper program context, open the linked CFDA program, or file a FOIA request.

Analyzing contract vehicles

Find a vehicle through the top search bar, Market Intelligence → Awards → Vehicles, or the Vehicle Rankings tab in Analysis. A vehicle detail page shows the description, shared ceiling amount, sponsoring agency, related opportunity, predecessor and successor vehicles, dates, and total obligations.

The Award Share spider chart ranks the largest awardees by dollars obligated, which points to the likely winners of future task orders and successor seats. Use the Funding Analysis section for Trends, Shares, Categories, Maps, and full Awardee Rankings.

Finding recompetes and vulnerable incumbents

Recompetes are one of the strongest lead sources, because incumbents win them only 50 to 75 percent of the time, and a smaller share when the incumbent has outgrown the set-aside.

1. Open Market Intelligence → Awards → Contracts.
2. Apply the Potential Recompete filter, or use Date Potential End to build a custom window.
3. Layer on NAICS, PSC, Agency, and Set Aside.

To target incumbents who may no longer qualify:

• Vulnerable Small Business flags contractors who have grown past their NAICS size threshold.
• Vulnerable 8(a) flags contracts held by companies nearing 8(a) graduation.

For grant recompetes, open Market Intelligence → Awards → Grants and use the Recompete Opportunities filter.

Finding federal incumbents

On any federal contract opportunity, the Incumbents section automatically surfaces the likely incumbent and similar awards, scored by similarity. Hover the similarity bar to see the matching features, and select an award ID for detail. Classifications range from Incumbent (substantially the same work) to Closely Related, Similar Work, and Limited Similarity.

To search manually, use the Contract or Grant award search with these filters: Date Potential End (a window around the expected award date), Agency (set broadly, since agencies shift between iterations), Place of Performance (broad, at country or state level), and a keyword or two. Note that NAICS codes often change between iterations, so add several codes or omit the filter.

Finding competing bidders

Most contract opportunity pages carry an auto-generated list of likely bidders, based on companies that bid and won similar solicitations. For historical opportunities, the list shows who would likely bid if the work were competed today. Inside a pursuit, the Bidders tab does the same, and gets sharper the more completely you fill out the pursuit.

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Government: Agencies and People

Where to find it: left navigation, under Market Intelligence → Government (Agencies, People).

Agencies

Agency pages give you pre-built analysis of an agency's spending, recent awards, active opportunities, and key personnel. Use them to understand how an agency buys and whom to talk to before you invest in a pursuit.

People

The People search finds procurement officers by name or agency. Use it to identify a specific contracting or grant officer, or to see who has been recently active at an agency you are targeting. Detail pages let you set a Notify alert so you hear about new activity from that officer. For a ranked view of the most active buyers, use Government Buyers instead.

Documents and Downloads

Where to find it: Market Intelligence → Documents and Tools → Downloads.

Documents

The Documents search is a library of government-sourced files: solicitation documents, statements of work, GSA Schedules, and industry day presentations. Search by keyword and narrow with the Source filter. To pull a company's GSA Schedule, set Source to Federal Schedule and search the company name as a keyword.

Downloads

Any time you export search results (the Export button on a search page), the file is prepared for you and collected under Tools → Downloads. Go there to retrieve your .csv and .xlsx exports.

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Favorites, Saved Searches, and Alerts

Where to find it: Tools → Favorites and Tools → Saved Searches.

These tools keep the opportunities and searches you care about within reach, and bring new matches to you by email.

Favoriting, tracking, and no-bidding

Most pages carry three marker buttons in the upper right:

• Favorite (heart): save an item for quick access. Find your saved items with the My Favorites filter on the matching search page. A red heart shows an item is favorited.
• Track (bell): get an email whenever a tracked opportunity or award is amended or updated. Available on federal contract and grant opportunities and prime awards. A red bell shows tracking is on.
• No Bid (circle-X): mark work you have decided to pass on. Available on opportunities, forecasts, and existing awards. Use the Exclude No Bid filter to hide these from future results.

If you share an account, your teammates' favorites and no-bid marks show beneath the navigation bar, so the team stays aligned.

Saving a search

1. Run a search on any category page and select Save.
2. Enter a Search Name.
3. Optionally set Email Notification Updates: Real Time, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. (Real Time is available for opportunity searches.)
4. Select Save.

To update an existing saved search, run the new search, select Save, and pick the existing name from the dropdown. To reopen one, select the dropdown arrow next to Save.

On detail pages for an awardee, agency, or officer, the Notify button in the upper right creates a saved search with daily alerts in one click.

Managing saved searches and alerts

Open Tools → Saved Searches to view results, change notification frequency, or delete a search. If you share an account, the Team Searches tab shows your teammates' saved searches. To stop a notification, use the Unsubscribe link in the email or on this page.

Daily opportunity emails

Separate from saved searches, you can turn on daily opportunity emails for whole categories:

1. Select the gear icon in the upper right and open Profile.
2. Toggle on the emails you want: Federal Contract Opportunities, SLED Opportunities, or Federal Grant Opportunities.
3. Select the blue preferences link next to each to describe what you want to see, then Save. No specific format is required.

You receive an email only on days when new matching opportunities appear. If you do not set preferences, we configure them from your company's award history and registration data. Contact your FEDCON advisor any time you want help dialing these in.

Reference

Where to find it: left navigation, under Market Intelligence → Reference.

The Reference section holds the classifications, programs, and background that make the rest of the Portal make sense. Its sub-items include Programs (Defense, IT, Grant, SEWP), Classifications (NAICS, NIA, NSN, PSC), DoD Budget, and Protests.

NAICS and PSC codes

• NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) codes are six digits and classify a business by economic activity. In federal contracting they do double duty: they classify opportunities, and they set the size standard that determines small business eligibility for a given award.
• PSC (Product and Service Codes, also called Federal Supply Codes) are four characters and classify what the government is buying. Where NAICS answers "who," PSC answers "what." PSC matters most in specialized markets, especially DLA, where PSC codes are embedded in product identifiers (NSNs).

To find your codes, use the Portal's NAICS and PSC pages, which show historical awards and opportunities plus a Crosswalk of commonly paired codes. You can also study a competitor's registered codes on their Awardee profile, or their actual wins through the Shares tab in Analysis.

Federal contract hierarchies

Federal awards run from broad vehicles down to individual subawards. Understanding the levels helps you read any award correctly:

• Vehicles (Multiple Award or Master Vehicles) are mechanisms awarded to multiple companies through IDVs. Roughly 30 to 40 percent of all federal dollars flow through task orders on these. Access to the right vehicle is a real competitive advantage.
• IDVs (Indefinite Delivery Vehicles) are awarded to a single company and act as a "hunting license": they rarely carry funds directly but let the holder pursue task orders. Types include Federal Supply Schedule (FSS), Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), Indefinite Delivery Contract (IDC/IDIQ), Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), and Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA).
• Prime Awards are where the government usually obligates funding. They are either task orders (issued through an IDV) or direct awards (definitive contracts or purchase orders).
• Sub Awards are anything a prime awardee issues under a prime award. Primes generally must disclose any subaward over $30,000.

The Award Hierarchy section on vehicle, IDV, prime, and subaward pages shows how each award connects to the rest of the structure.

Contract protests

A GAO bid protest lets a company challenge a federal award before or after it is made. Protests can delay a contract, force a rebid, or change the winner. GAO resolves them in about 45 days on average, with a 100-day legal deadline. The Portal maintains a protests list and flags opportunity pages when a protest is filed. Protest statuses are:

• Open: GAO has not yet decided.
• Withdrawn: the protester pulled the protest, often after the agency took corrective action.
• Dismissed: GAO found a procedural flaw, or the agency corrected the issue before withdrawal.
• Denied: GAO found no merit.
• Sustained: GAO agreed and recommended corrective action.

Programs and DoD Budget

Programs pages (Defense, IT, Grant, SEWP) and the DoD Budget view give you pre-built analysis of specific program areas and defense spending, so you can size a market and trace where funding is headed before you commit to a pursuit.

Need something this guide does not answer? Your FEDCON advisor is your fastest path to a real answer. POSITION • PURSUE • PROCURE.