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Clear and thorough requirements documents, which describe the user's needs, are essential to a successful tactical market investigation. Only by understanding the requirement can you focus the tactical market research appropriately. Requirements documents may vary in format de- pending on the size and complexity of the requirement, but must clearly list or describe the user's requirements in a structured or formal manner. Once you have reviewed the require- ments documents and have an understanding of the requirement, you can orient your tactical research to target specific types of information. Appendix C contains examples of the types of information you may need to collect.
Identify Sources of Information
If you've been conducting strategic market research regularly, you probably know many of the sources for the product or service you're interested in. If not, you may have to conduct addi- tional research to identify the firms that are potential suppliers. Some markets may have only a few or even just one source for the product or service. Other markets are highly competitive, so many sources may be available.The amount of time and effort you put into identifying sources
is a judgment call. Consider the value of the acquisition and the potential benefits of locating a new source.
Adding new potential sources to a list of suppliers increases competition, which can lead to better products at lower costs for DoD. If this is the first attempt to meet the requirement with a commercial item, more effort may be required to identify as many potential sources as possi-
ble.You may need new techniques to reach sources that have not previously dealt with the Fed- eral Government.
The list of sources starts with information obtained during market surveillance. Known sup- pliers and those who have bid on contracts in the past constitute a basic list.You can identify such suppliers by searching the contract award data in the Federal Procurement Data System- Next Generation or by using a commercial subscription service that packages FPDS-NG data into easily searchable databases. For some products and services, the General Services Adminis- tration schedules will identify sources. Announcements of "Sources Sought" or "Request for In- formation" in FedBizOpps often produce a good response; however, the announcement might be seen only by firms that have done business with the government in the past.To reach suppli- ers that have not previously bid on government contracts, try advertising on electronic bulletin boards, on the Internet, through trade associations, or in trade publications, which are used by commercial firms seeking new business. Almost every industry has some established structure
for helping buyers and sellers find one another. Advertise where the commercial buyers do.
Commercial databases can also help generate a list of potential suppliers. Databases covering commercial products and suppliers may specialize in one industry or may include products from many industries. Dun and Bradstreet offers subscriptions to a web-based resource called Global Reference Solution, a database of more than 100 million businesses throughout the
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