Sealed Bids - Government Bid Opportunities

What is a Sealed Bid?

One major way to bid on government jobs is through sealed bids. The sealed bid is a purchase method typically used to procure high-dollar items ($100,000 or more) that have easily definable characteristics. The government’s chief concern in the sealed bid process is finding the lowest price for said items. In this article you’ll find some tips and tricks on the sealed bid process for government bid opportunities.

Sources for Sealed Bid Opportunities

An invitation for bids (IFB) is advertised through sources such as the Commerce Business Daily and FedBizOpps.gov, among others. One of the most comprehensive sources of sealed bid opportunities government sales information from Onvia. Each month, we track more than 80,000 government bid opportunities, RFPs, and actionable government sales leads across 73,000 federal, state, local and education purchasing offices. We then send you information relevant to your business in a daily e-mail report. This comprehensive resource helps you:

• Identify new opportunities to bid on government jobs from government purchasing offices each day
• Save time and money by accessing all relevant government bid opportunities through a single source
• Access more markets and expand your business by helping you identify more opportunities to bid on government jobs

Government Bid Writing and Submission

Companies prepare and submit competitive government bids, hoping to undercut the competition and win the government contract. Did you know that you can view the companies on the planholders list for a particular government bid? Through Onvia, you can also see which other companies submitted their bids on thousands of past government bid opportunities.

Onvia provides you with four key areas of information that are central to all government bid opportunities:

Owner Research — Acess our complete government procurement archive and learn from previous purchases and patterns.

Buyer Research — Get the inside scoop with key information on every buyer, so you can identify significant buying patterns and contracting opportunities.

Vendor Research — Scope out the competition and find out where they have succeeded and failed in selling to the public sector — and why.

Project History — Go for the big picture - view the entire lifecycle of a project with all the important details.

Having this government business intelligence resource at hand when you bid on government jobs can help you gain a competitive advantage by having crucial information on your competitors.

Sealed Bid Opening

A contracting official will open all sealed bids at an appointed time, read them aloud, and then record them. Interested parties can view all the bids at this time, although they don’t have access to bidders’ financial data and other proprietary information. The sealed bid opening is an opportunity to view the structure and strategy of competitors' sealed bids.

Awarded Government Contracts

The contract award usually goes to the company with the lowest bid. Contracting officials must make sure that the lowest bidder is both “responsive” and “responsible” (possessing the facilities, quality control, financial backing, etc., to satisfy the contract). In a nutshell, officials assess responsiveness by how timely the government bid submission was and according to the IFB’s instructions and requirements. Officials gauge a bidder’s level of responsibility by whether the company has the means to fulfill all the contract requirements. Small companies deemed not responsible are referred to the Small Business Administration for further assessment. If the SBA judges the business able to fulfill the contract, the agency will issue a Certificate of Competency, requiring the contracting officer to award the contract to the business.