Web Watch: Agencies Forecast More Than the Weather A good source of intelligence about future agency purchases is the annual forecast of contract opportunities that each agency is required to publish on October 1. The forecasts are sometimes called procurement forecasts or annual acquisition plans, so you may need to dig to find them. The forecasts should cover all major requirements, regardless of the product or service planned for purchase. Historically, we’ve noted that many of these planned purchases fall off the schedule, or disappear, because of budget constraints, legislative changes, new priorities. Still, it’s a good resource for prospecting. An especially notable example is the Department of Transportation. Denise Rodriguez-Lopez, DOT OSDBU director, pointed this out in her presentation at Set-Aside Alert’s Contracting Forum on April 11. Check it out yourself at http://osdbu.dot.gov/Procurement/index.cfm. The index can be searched by bureau (operating administration), procurement category or “suit yourself” from a variety of Advanced Search factors. Of special value is the ability to download the complete FY 2008 Forecast in Excel, so you can sort and select records by procuring office, date, category, dollar amount or type of competition. After you’ve reviewed the DoT site specified above, search Google on “procurement forecast” and on “forecast of contract opportunities” to find intelligence on other federal agencies.