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Market Research

• What is Market Research?
• Why Peform Market Research?
• How can I Peform Market Research?
• Documenting your Market Research

What is Market Research?

Market research is the process of collecting, organizing, maintaining, analyzing, and presenting data that enables Reclamation to achieve the best value acquisition of products, services and technology. It is a continuous process designed to gather data on products and services, market capabilities, and the business practices associated with them. You utilize this data to evaluate trade-offs among the various ways of meeting your organization's requirements.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) also specifically requires Federal agencies to conduct market research prior to developing new specifications for procurement, and before soliciting bids or proposals for contracts that exceed $100,000.

Finally, market research involves the documentation of the data collected and its presentation in a way that facilitates acquisition decisions.

Market research is essential for optimizing the potential use of commercial items, commercial services, and non-developmental items to meet Reclamation's needs. One of the cornerstones of acquisition reform is to reduce Government-unique requirements that result in unique processes, products, and support systems. The benefits are three- fold:

• Reduced Acquisition Costs: By tapping a world-class commercial industrial base, you can procure products, services and technologies at commercially competitive costs,
• Reduced Cycle Times: You will be able to deliver products and services within commercially available cycle times that are shorter than the average procurement cycle for Government-unique items, and
• Access to Advanced Technology: Government research and development no longer leads the commercial market in areas such as electronics. In the global marketplace, everyone has access to the same commercial technology base.

Why Peform Market Research?

As we prepare for the future, we must continually acquire and maintain goods and services better, faster and cheaper. Market research is essential for achieving these objectives. The purpose of market research is threefold: (i) obtain data that provides information to support the development of acquisition requirements and strategies, (ii) facilitate acquisition documentation leading to acquisition decisions; and (iii) satisfy Federal mandates for assessing the commercial marketplace. The bottom line is that market research is the key to leveraging commercial and noncommercial products and services in solving complex challenges in Reclamation.

So, market research is performed:

1. ...to help define requirements and strategies

   Use of effective market research is good business practice in the acquisition process. We must assess the potential of the marketplace to meet Reclamation's needs and mission. The data collected will enable us to determine...

   • availability - whether items are available in the marketplace to support Reclamation's requirements;
   • technology - whether advanced technology can be applied to, planned, or inserted into existing projects;
   • cost - the lowest cost alternatives available to meet customer requirements;
   • cycle time - the most expedient means of developing new requirements;
   • adaptation - whether commercial practices regarding customizing, modifying, or tailoring products and services are suitable for Reclamation's needs;
   • integration - the level at which commercial or non-developmental items can be integrated;
   • terms and conditions - the customary terms and conditions, including warranty, buyer financing, and discounts under which sales are made;
   • competition - how competitive the marketplace is;
   • impact - the impact of the commercial or non-developmental items on the environmental, safety, security, and energy conservation considerations;
   • supportability - the life cycle support problems of commercial items, components, processes and technologies. Support problems include availability, obsolescence, cycle time for introduction of new items, average support time of old systems, parts availability, and type and duration of warranties, the distribution and logistics support capabilities of potential suppliers to meet the needs of Reclamation. Market research helps target viable solutions and identifies alternatives and options to these support problems. This support strategy will aid in reducing total cost of ownership and assist in the program planning and budgeting process throughout the life of the project; and
   • sustainability - once a project containing commercial or non-developmental items has been completed, market research is used to identify long-term support problems. These problems include continued equipment and parts availability and obsolescence (diminishing manufacturing sources), cycle time, and the impact of introduction of improved or replacement items.
   
   
2. ...to support acquisition documentation and decisions.

   Market research information can be used to define and document mission and operational requirements, system and design specifications, support strategies and plans, milestone decision documents, type and content of the project descriptions or statements of work, to develop contract terms and conditions, and for evaluation factors used during source selection.

3. ...because it is mandated.

   Finally, the use of market research to assess capabilities in the marketplace makes sense because it is required by statute! Part 10 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires all Federal agencies conduct market research to:

   • determine if sources capable of satisfying Reclamation's requirements exist;
   • determine if commercial items or, to the extent commercial items suitable to meet Reclamation's needs are not available, nondevelopmental items are available that-
     • meet the Reclamation's requirements;
     • could be modified to meet Reclamation's requirements; or
     • could meet Reclamation's requirements if those requirements were modified to a reasonable extent;
   • determine the extent to which commercial items or nondevelopmental items could be incorporated at the component level;
   • determine the practices of firms engaged in producing, distributing, and supporting commercial items, such as terms for warranties, buyer financing, maintenance and packaging, and marking;
   • ensure maximum practicable use of recovered materials and promote energy conservation and efficiency; and
   • determine whether bundling is necessary and justified.
   • assess the availability of electronic and information technology that meets all or part of applicable accessibility standards.

How can I Peform Market Research?

The World Wide Web is an essential source of data for market research. There are many powerful search engines (Google and Yahoo are a few) that provide many results based on the search terms that you input. Sites on the Web may contain tables of product information and summaries of lengthy documentation, either as text alone or as a combination of text and multimedia. Many times web pages of commercial organizations provide direct links to other useful web pages, such as supplier web sites or discussion boards that you can participate in to gather market research information. These sources can be useful for locating even more sources for products and for narrowing your market investigation to products that come closest to meeting your requirements.

The following list of commercial, technical, and professional association web sites is provided to facilitate your search for information on technology developments, acquisition functions, products, and vendors. These examples are not comprehensive-there are many more web sites that can assist you in your market research. You need to use the capabilities of web search engines to locate other resources that can assist you.

The following resources are basic and essential for locating sources:

• The Central Contractor Registration (CCR) is the premiere database for suppliers who are actively seeking to do business with the Federal Government. Both current and potential Government vendors are required to register in CCR in order to do be awarded contracts. You can use the Dynamic Small Business Research tool to locate small businesses by defined criteria, including to search for small businesses by various geographic, product, and socioeconomic category criteria. CCR can be accessed at www.ccr.gov.
• GSA schedule contracts are a good place to conduct market research. GSA schedules and other GSA programs list multitude of reliable contractors with a comprehensive selection of approved products and services. GSA schedule contract pricing is predetermined by GSA to be fair and reasonable.
• The FedBizOps website is the premiere method to broadcast your requirement and solicit interested vendors and can be accessed at www.fbo.gov. The Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOps) website.
• Thomas Register "The most comprehensive online resource for finding companies and products manufactured in North America."
• Yellow Pages Your office has a hard copy for your area or you can access the online version. These worldwide Yellow Pages permit you to browse by type of product/service offered by suppliers, business name, and business location. The site provides examples of search formats, e.g., business name: 'Apple computer', or '*Apple*', etc. The "pick from a list" function allows a search of headings or locations by alphabetical selections from "a" through "z".
• Business.com A search engine designed to help you find companies, products, services, and information needed to make better business decisions. It separates requirements into 25 categories, with additional subcategories within each larger category.

You can also identify sources through FedBizOps "Sources Sought" or "Request for Information" announcements, professional and industry trade shows, and by advertising in professional and trade publications. The FedBizOps website is the premiere method to broadcast your requirement and solicit interested vendors. Industry associations also offer an established structure for connecting buyers and sellers.

Documenting your Market Research

Documentation is an essential part of the market research process. FAR Part 10 requires that you document your market research results in a manner appropriate to both the size and complexity of the acquisition. Your results should be thoroughly documented so that you can have a ready source of information for follow-on and related procurements. Just as importantly, you owe it to the acquisition professionals who may follow in your footsteps to provide a trail of documentation that will assist them with their own market research efforts. Moreover, market researchers from other Government organizations may contact you for information if they are working in a similar area for their agencies.

What should your documentation include? Be sure to record companies and professional organizations that you contacted, the questions you asked, a summary of the information passed on to you, and the actions you/your team took as a result of the contact and evaluation of the information gathered. The information that you documents may be used to help with development of requirements, statement of work/objectives, the acquisition plan, solicitation terms and conditions, and the evaluation criteria for source selection.