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Executive Summary: A DHS contractor successfully defended its largest flagship contract against an aggressive former incumbent. By utilizing Mirror Image Analysis and Rapid CI, the client secured a recompete win that doubled the original contract value despite complex GSA AAS evaluation criteria.
- Objective: Recompete Defense & Expansion
- Customer: U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- Services: Acquisition Support, Program Management
- Contracting Agency: U.S. General Services Administration, Assisted Acquisition Services (GSA AAS)…uses FEDSIM model
The Challenge: Protecting the Crown Jewel
- The Stakes: The client’s largest contract was up for recompete—a “must-win” for financial stability and long-term growth.
- The Threat: A former incumbent with adjacent contracts at the agency was pursuing an aggressive “take-back” strategy.
- The Evaluation: Run by GSA AAS, requiring a highly complex staffing matrix and a sophisticated management plan.
The Strategy: Objective Competitive Benchmarking
- Eliminating Incumbent Bias: Identified the need for an external, objective assessment to counter internal “incumbent overconfidence.”
- Focus Areas: Prioritized Staffing, Retention, and Training as the primary battlegrounds for management differentiation.
- Tooling: Deployed Rapid CI to feed intelligence into the competitive strategy by focusing on unique subject matter experts and management strategies. Shape approach by using a GSA AAS adapted Black Hat and objective “Mirror Image” analysis to challenge the client’s solution using Black Hat inputs to find true differentiation.
The Execution: Mirror Image & AAS-Adapted Black Hat
- AAS-Specific Black Hat: Facilitated a session focused on management-heavy evaluation criteria rather than just technical performance.
- Rapid CI: Our Rapid CI analysis was executed against all challengers – especially the former incumbent – to identify personnel of interest and management practices / tools certain to act as the building blocks of the competitor’s solution.
- Mirror Image Analysis: A proprietary methodology comparing the client’s proposed solution against each competitor to identify “True Differentiators.”
- Total Integrated Solution: We executed a true Outside In / Inside Out approach by understanding what competitors could and would do, and then superimposing that on the client’s solution to find the true differentiation score well, and to win.
The Impact
- Win Result: Recompete won; Contract value increased by 100%+ compared to the original award.
- Portfolio Stability: Secured the client’s flagship DHS presence for the next cycle.
Growth Accelerator: Expanded the scope of services, solidifying the client as a Tier-1 provider of DHS Acquisition and Program Management support.
