What is an ID/IQ contract?

I love when announcements go out about ID/IQ awards. Basically, it means that the lucky awardees are at the starting line for generating real revenue!

An Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract specifies a scope of services the government wishes to procure over a period of time, i.e. the term of the contract. By establishing an ID/IQ, the government streamlines the process for procuring the specified scope of services from across awardees—or a single awardee in some cases.

In competing for an ID/IQ contract, bidders normally have to provide past performance to substantiate that they can perform the scope of services required by the government. Bidders also have to provide pricing. Once awarded, the ID/IQ contract governs all subsequent Task Orders awarded underneath it.

In other words, winning an ID/IQ contract gets you the ability to compete on Task Orders released under the ID/IQ; it gets you to the starting line.

Getting ID/IQ contract awards is critical for Federal Systems Integrators—Leidos, SAIC, CACI, Booz Allen, etc.— because it gives them the opportunity to win contracts. If they aren’t an ID/IQ awardee, they cannot compete on the resulting Task Orders and must subcontract to do work with that customer.

The competitive aspect of Capture and Business Development gets interesting given this reality.

Let’s say ABC Integrator is competing with XYZ Integrator to do work for a government customer. If the government customer has access to multiple different ID/IQ contracts with somewhat similar scope, ABC Integrator may shape the procurement towards an ID/IQ where they are an awardee and XYZ Integrator is not.

Understanding what an ID/IQ contract is and the competitive dynamics Integrators use can help Commercial Technology companies elevate their positioning and partnering within the federal sector.