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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helpful in assessing the health of particular industries or even past performance of specific com- panies. Others specialize in one kind of information, such as announcements of new products

or services.

Government Contract Data

For contract actions over $3,000, the Federal Procurement Data System-Next Generation (FPDS-NG) has data on government-wide contract information databases.The FPDS-NG in- cludes the following information:

•  Contractor names, addresses, and DUNS codes

•  Identification of the awarding agency and office

•  Federal supply codes and names for the products and services purchased

•  Locations of contract performance

•  Identification of small or minority owned business awardees

•  Contract types, dollar values, and dates

•  Competition information.

The FPDS-NG allows searches on the basis of any data field or item of information. Al- though most of the FPDS-NG data come from the government, commercial suppliers of con- tract information databases usually add information or cross-references that expand the use of the FPDS-NG data.

Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) is the single government point of entry for Federal Government procurement opportunities over $25,000. In addition to being the portal through which government agencies publicize their business opportunities, FedBizOpps is use- ful for historical information. A search of archived documents yields solicitation and award in- formation, contracting agency points of contact, and supplier contact information.

Past performance information also is available on the Internet.The Past Performance Infor- mation Retrieval System (www.ppirs.gov) is a web-enabled, government-wide application that provides timely and pertinent information about the past performance of contractors.The Fed- eral acquisition community can use this information when making source selection decisions.

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