Engineering & Professional Services Webinar Training Series

Engineering & Professional Services Webinar Training Series

CDOT spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year with outside professional services firms to provide landscape architecture, civil and bridge engineering, environmental, geotechnical, surveying, construction management, and more. The Denver Metro SBDC and Connect2DOT are hosting a special series of free webinars this month for professional services firms interested in doing business with CDOT. Join us for one or all four workshops in the series to maximize your knowledge and results. To register for individual classes, click on the titles below.

Marketing Do's and Don'ts for Professional Services Firms

Date: June 9, 2020

Time: 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker: Brad Doyle, Project Director, Atkins

Do you want to know what makes prime consultants want to work with you? It’s the secret sauce for getting on teams and building long-term relationships. This webinar will provide insider tips on successful strategies, as well as common mistakes, for marketing your small professional services firm to larger firms vying for CDOT and other government engineering-related work.

What You'll Learn:

• The best ways (and how often) to reach out to prime consultants
• How to make a great first impression and stand out from the competition
• Best practices for networking, including how to make it work now with social distancing
• Getting on team and in proposals
• Why and why not go exclusive

Maximizing Your Indirect Cost Rates

Date: June 16, 2020

Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM

Speakers:

• Dan Markham, CPA, Markham & Associates, PC
• Jennifer Clippinger, CPA, Markham & Associates, PC

One of the most important elements of pricing professional services for government contracting is Indirect Cost (IDC) rates. This workshop will cover the types of IDC bases and rates, components and calculation of an IDC rate, how to determine the appropriate rate that should be used on a project, allowable and unallowable costs, and how a firm's business and accounting policies affect their rate.

What You'll Learn:

• How to calculate FAR compliant indirect cost rates for government contracting
• How to create business and accounting policies that maximize your IDC
• The difference between allowable and unallowable costs
• The effect that tax planning has on the indirect rate
• Examples about how your policies can affect your indirect rate

Teaming & Submitting Engineering Proposals to CDOT

Date: June 23, 2020

Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Speakers:

• Pehle Colletta, CDOT Professional Services Contracts Manager
• Cathy Kramer, Connect2DOT Program Manager

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year with outside professional services firms to provide landscape architecture, civil and bridge engineering, environmental, geotechnical, surveying, construction management, and more. Highway design and engineering contracts are awarded using a "most qualified" selection process. This webinar will give you "insider" knowledge of what makes a winning CDOT proposal and how to put your best foot forward in a highly competitive environment.

What You'll Learn

• How and who to team with to get work with larger prime consultants
• The process for submitting a Statement of Interest proposal to CDOT
• What CDOT reviewers are looking for and how they evaluate and score proposals
• Common mistakes that take proposals out of the running
• Best practices of winning proposers

CDOT Consultant Prequalification & Master Price Agreements

Date: June 30, 2020

Time: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM

Speakers:

• Darrell Wells, CDOT Prequalification Specialist
• Louis Wynn, CDOT SuSS Portal Specialist
• Josh Gosenca, CDOT Auditor

CDOT requires all licensed professional service providers to be prequalified and have a Master Price Agreement (MPA) to work on CDOT contracts as a prime or sub consultant. This webinar will walk you through the process of technical prequalification in CDOT’s Supplier Self-Service (Suss) portal, as well as establishing an MPA to work on CDOT projects.

What You'll Learn:

• How to correctly complete the CDOT technical prequalification application
• What additional documentation is required and suggested
• How to navigate the CDOT Supplier Self-Service Portal to submit your application
• What is required for the financial prequalification application package
• What CDOT Audit Division is looking for to establish your MPA