Vendor Selection Process

Core Competencies – that provide complementary skills “Differentiators” that makes your company stand out from the crowd. Offerings such as innovative and cutting edge technology that sets you apart. It is critical that small businesses interested in teaming have capabilities related to a specific statement of work contained in a procurement. Two great discriminators are knowledge of the customer and strong past performance qualifications.

Past Performance – Demonstrated performance at the prime or subcontract level in the federal or commercial sector. Second tier subcontracting will also be considered as applicable performance.

Financial Stability – Sound financial structure is imperative. You must possess a well established small business demonstrating sustainability.

Customer Knowledge – Demonstrated knowledge of the opportunity you wish to be considered as a team member. It is very important to Salient that you can state your knowledge of both the customer and also state your knowledge of the Hot Buttons the customer has with respect to the specific tasks outlined in the Statement of Work.

Salient has numerous pre-qualifiers for small businesses seeking a teaming or subcontract relationship with Salient. The following are a list of questions you should be able to answer as part of your qualification process:

• Have you visited the Salient website?
• Are you familiar with Salient areas of capabilities and core competencies?
• Are you familiar with our organizational structure and office locations?
• Does your product or service provide value that Salient’s customer requires and willing to procure?
• What discriminators does your company possess that would be of interest to Salient?
• Have you read the procurement documents (Draft RFP/RFP) relating to the project for which you wish to be selected as a subcontractor?
• Does your product or service address specific requirements or problems described in those documents?
• Do you have an existing relationship with the customer that can help the systems integrator understand the customer’s culture and needs – assist Salient in winning the contract?
• Does your company possess solid past performance with Salient, the customer or another government agency or prime contractor? Can you past performance contribute to the past performance requirements of business opportunities Salient is pursing?
• If you are a small disadvantaged business or HUBZone business are you certified through the Small business Administration?
• Do you have viable long-term strategic plan and necessary financial strength to support a long-term partnership?

Selection Process

To be considered for future teaming opportunities with Salient, the first step is to submit or update your company profile to our small business database. You will receive notification of receipt of your form. Your profile form will be reviewed for your qualifications, review the CCR and Small Business (SBA) site for detailed content. You will receive notification once you have been selected and entered into our database. If you have not received either/both of these notifications please contact the SBLO immediately to ensure we have captured your companies information. Follow-up phone calls may be necessary to add additional information to the Small Business database.

As outlined above, the following criteria will be used to determine which businesses will be asked to participate in our business development and procurement process:

• Capabilities
• Past Performance
• Financial Stability
• Customer Knowledge

All subcontracting activity is accomplished through upfront teaming on specific procurements. It is imperative that small businesses interested in teaming have capabilities relating to a specific statement of work contained in a procurement. Two great discriminators or differentiators are customer knowledge and strong past performance.

When Salient is pursuing an opportunity, teammates will be selected early (6 months out) before the solicitation is released. It is very important that small businesses interested in a specific opportunity contact Salient early for teaming consideration.

Our concept of teaming works both ways. When priming, Salient will work with select qualified small businesses in pursuing set-asides where Salient can bring strength to the team. Either way, we seek companies that are financially stable, cost competitive, and have access to a deep resource pool.