SD-5 Market ResearchThe purpose of this document is to provide DoD and other Federal personnel involved in the acquisition process with practical guidance on using market research to ensure the acquisition of products and services that will best serve the government??s needs. Specifically, this document is designed for personnel involved with establishing requirements for products or services, such as engineers, technical specialists, project officers, and customers; personnel involved with purchasing products or services, such as contracting officers, contract specialists, and cost analysts; and personnel who support the acquisition process, such as logisticians, testing and quality assurance specialists, and legal counsel.

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Other  Considerations

During your market research, you should keep several things in mind.

Amount of Information to Gather

The scope, extent, and documentation of a market investigation depend on such factors as the anticipated dollar value of the product or service, its complexity, its criticality, and the number of items needed or extent of the service required.The generic market research process de- scribed in this document is sufficiently detailed to apply to complex, high-value products or services. However, not all parts are necessary for all acquisitions; the process should be tailored to the specific market information needs of your acquisition and the potential for commercial products or services to meet requirements.

In general, you should stop collecting information when you have enough data to make in- formed decisions about the acquisition strategy. Commercial markets are dynamic, complex, and competitive. It is not reasonable to expect that you will learn everything about a market. Com- panies are interested in furthering their sales opportunities and will usually cooperate with your information request, but they may not reveal everything due to competitive reasons. Some indi- viduals are comfortable making decisions based on limited information, which poses a risk of making the wrong decision based on insufficient research. Others put off making decisions

while they await more data, which poses a risk of unnecessarily delaying the acquisition. At some point, you will reach diminishing returns during your market research. Sharing your re- sults with team members can help keep the market research effort on track and reasonable.

Procurement Integrity Act

During your discussions with potential sources, you should be aware of certain restrictions on what you may discuss.

The Procurement Integrity Act (41 U.S.C. 423) prohibits personnel "participating personally and substantially" in a Federal agency procurement from

•  soliciting or accepting jobs or business opportunities from competing contractors,

•  asking for or receiving things of value ($20 or more) from competing contractors,

•  disclosing bidder proposal information to competing contractors, and

•  disclosing to competing contractors any source selection information that has not already been made public.

Source:  https://assist.dla.mil  --  Downloaded: 

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