Fed Sources tool analyzes task orders

Federal Sources officials have updated and enhanced a task order analysis tool that allows analysts to research the task orders that agencies issue under governmentwide acquisition contracts.

Part of the company's Web-based information services line, the tool is designed to give users insight into which companies are winning task orders, who the big winners are on information technology GWACs, which agencies are issuing task orders and what they are buying through them.

The market research information is useful for analysts doing academic research on the federal market and for company officials trying to decide how to allocate their employees, said Ruth Zein, a market analyst at Federal Sources client Perot Systems Government Services.

"We're always looking for good information so that we can make better decisions," she said. The task order data is "an integral part of our strategic planning."

The task order tool is only one of many information sources that analysts such as Zein rely on, she said.

"We use tools like this to help us determine who are partners should be, what kind of work the agency is doing," she said. "Until this product was released, it was very hard to get task order information."

Input, a competitor to Fed Sources, offers a similar tool, according to officials there.