The Government Contracting environment continues its dichotomic existence of being both massively challenging yet hugely rewarding. Navigating its ever-changing landscape requires world class employees to be enabled with the right tools to guide them into higher pWins on higher margin business, and then running the program more productively.

Navigating its ever-changing landscape requires efficiency.

Always a heavily regulated industry, the most recent challenge facing Government Contractors is the Government’s use of the “Lowest-Price/Technically Acceptable (LPTA)” acquisition strategy, replacing the long-standing “Best-Value” approach. This is layered on top of an increasingly competitive market where Federal System Integrators (FSI’s), Government Resellers, Weapon System Manufacturers, and Operations/Support Contractors seemingly bid (and protest) everything. The competitive nature of the market is made even more difficult by a continued fog of budget uncertainty as Congress and the President roil over Sequestration and Appropriations. This further obfuscates the market whereby doing the “same old thing” expecting different results epitomizes the definition of insanity.

Many contractors, especially incumbents winning recompetes, are experiencing painful hangovers after winning contracts — and not from the customary “win parties” celebrating long-fought victories. This is because LPTA makes winning feel more like losing as margins shrink and CDRLs grow with fewer resources to complete them. LPTA’s losing sentiment is strong enough to drive industry stalwarts to fundamentally shift their business model, and to look elsewhere for new markets. Lockheed, CSC, and Engility headline the recent acquisition and divestiture news as actions directly related to the impact of LPTA and Federal budget challenges.

Business leaders across this industry are all grappling with the same questions.

• Are they ready and able to execute when opportunity strikes?
• Can they stay ahead of their competitors and win more profitable business more often?
• How can they maximize the full talent of their Business Development organizations, and hold their reps accountable?
• How can they turn every consultant, technician, and project/program manager into “sensors” on their business network?
• How do their organizations seamlessly and efficiently move through the ebb and flow of Shipley gate reviews and complex approvals to produce and deliver the right quotes and proposals?
• Are they assembling the right teams, applying the brightest luminaries, and accelerating in the right direction all facets of their capture efforts for maximum force and impact?
• Are they connecting with their customers differently to turn LPTA into a tactical advantage?

Government contractors running on the Salesforce Government Cloud have found a way to disrupt this stressful spiral. They recognize that Salesforce and its market leading CRM will help them not just win the deal at hand, but also keep that customer successful and profitable for the program lifecycle. The Salesforce Government Cloud is the first FedRAMP moderate PaaS and SaaS offering capable of supporting the full needs of the Government Contractor community, securely and efficiently. From being part of an ITAR-compliant environment to managing Controlled but Unclassified Information (CUI) anywhere, on any device, the Salesforce Government Cloud empowers our Nation’s Contractors with the complete CRM and Platform capabilities they need to be successful.

To learn more about how the Salesforce Government Cloud can help Government Contractors disrupt the daily burden of a highly regulated, highly competitive industry, visit salesforce.com.