Recent GAO Report Reveals Need for More Market Research within Federal Agencies
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- As a leading provider of market research solutions to the Public Sector, MarketResearch.com is encouraged by a recent report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) validating its Profound and Knowledge Center solutions.
While the federal government spends more than $500 billion every year on procurements, GAO's October report revealed significant gaps in federal agencies' use of market research during the acquisition process.
In the report, GAO cited the need for market research during the following acquisition planning and contracting milestones: Presolicitation (before developing new required documents and before soliciting offers), Preaward (during the proposal evaluation process to determine price reasonableness) and Postaward (before awarding task).
In its investigation, GAO found that contracting officers did cite market research as playing an important role in determining price reasonableness. However, the report states that across the board federal agencies are failing to use an adequate amount of market research to evaluate contractor's prior history, capability to perform required services as well as price reasonableness.
An additional area in which the GAO report calls out inefficiencies revolves around poor documentation of market research as requested by the Federal Acquisition Requirements (FAR). GAO's investigation reviewed many contracts, half of which consistently failed to document one of more of the four basic market research elements required by the FAR. Any one of MarketResearch.com's Profound or Knowledge Center solutions allow federal agencies to abide by the FAR's standards by helping contracting officers substantiate their findings through documentation by industry experts.
The GAO report's findings validate the necessity for the integration of such market research solutions into federal agencies.
"After 15 years of building MarketResearch.com's secure information solutions, we were very encouraged by the recent GAO report requiring more defined market research in the acquisition process and contracting milestones," said Rob Granader, Founder and CEO of MarketResearch.com. "We are confident that our Profound and Knowledge Center solutions will be an excellent tool for helping government agencies provide better research, information and competitive analysis for future procurements and contracts, as it is already used by 89% of the Fortune 500 and dozens of federal agencies for these purposes."
MarketResearch.com offers two solutions for the Public Sector that specifically address the issues brought to light by the October GAO report. MarketResearch.com's Profound solution is currently used by project managers, government librarians, contracting officer's technical representatives (COTRs), policymakers and researchers within the Public Sector as the answer to approaching their research requirements. Profound allows agencies to purchase individual sections of reports, including chapters, tables or charts, from nearly 200 publishers in order to maximize research dollars. The collection is updated daily, currently containing more than 848,000 reports, and serves a very budget-conscious and discerning market through minimal required paperwork and competitive pricing.
To learn more about Profound, visit: http://content.marketresearch.com/marketresearch-profound.
In addition, MarketResearch.com's Knowledge Center solutions provide federal agencies with unlimited, direct access to extensive and comprehensive collections of industry-specific market research from a catalog of leading publishers via subscription pricing. Through this subscription model, agencies are able to save time and increase ROI through predictability of expenditure and reliability of coverage. In addition, the Knowledge Center platform and technology offer a range of search and reporting tools to help increase the efficiency of the market research process.
To learn more about MarketResearch.com's Knowledge Center solutions, visit: http://content.marketresearch.com/marketresearch-knowledge-center-solutions.
To access the full GAO report, visit: http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1312576-666447.html#document/p1.
About MarketResearch.com
MarketResearch.com is the leading provider of global market intelligence products and services. With research reports from more than 720 top consulting and advisory firms, MarketResearch.com offers instant online access to the world's most extensive database of expert insights on global industries, companies, products, and trends. Moreover, MarketResearch.com's Research Specialists have in-depth knowledge of the publishers and the various types of reports in their respective industries.
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