InsiderAdvantage, epipeline team up

InsiderAdvantage and epipeline Inc., two companies that offer online government contracting information for vendors, have formed a strategic alliance to market each other's products.

Herndon, Va.-based epipeline specializes in federal contracting opportunities, while Atlanta-based InsiderAdvantage targets state and local government. Both companies said their customers wanted access to all three levels.

Epipeline starts with opportunities posted on the official FedBizOpps Web site, said Tim Walsh, the company's president and chief executive officer. Then the company's researchers contact the contracting officers and ask questions about the specifics of the offering.

Contractors who compare the FedBizOpps listing to epipeline's "would see a significant increase [in information] about the scope of the project, specific details not in the FedBizOpps description," Walsh said. "FedBizOpps might have half a page or a page, where we might go up to seven or eight pages."

Epipeline also offers analysis of some opportunities. The company's expertise is strongest in information technology and command, control, communications, computers and intelligence, he said, along with architecture, engineering and construction, and operations and maintenance.

Companies pay subscription fees to epipeline for that additional information and analysis, he said. The company's database includes about 6,700 contract opportunities representing about $860 billion, he said.

InsiderAdvantage focuses on finding opportunities at the state and local levels and helping customers navigate the maze of different rules in each jurisdiction, said company chairman Matt Towery. The company also owns a political newsletter, but offers its contract information at GovernmentBids.com. Towery said his customers are looking for federal contracts too, and now through the partnership, "we can offer the best service there is" at all levels.

The two companies now are developing a joint project that will bring epipeline's research skills to bear on InsiderAdvantage's access to state and local contracts.