Guides / Capture Intelligence
Most contracts are won before the solicitation. We start there.
Capture is the work on an opportunity before it is posted: knowing the buyer, the incumbent, the dollars and the set-aside, and shaping the pursuit around them. Large contractors staff it with a team. GovSmith does it for small ones, with a vCM, a Search that reads every public record, and GovSmith AI reading the client's own Library. Here is what we watch and what we do with it.
Figures on this page: FY2025 federal contract obligations from USAspending.gov, read 2026-11-05. The notices, awards and forecasts GovSmith reads for clients are current to the night before.
Explore by agency or NAICS code
Every agency guide carries the codes its money goes to; every code page carries the agencies buying under it. Start from either side.
- Department of War15 codes listed
- Department of Health and Human Services14 codes listed
- Department of Veterans Affairs13 codes listed
- Department of Homeland Security14 codes listed
- Department of Energy11 codes listed
- Department of State15 codes listed
- Department of Agriculture15 codes listed
- Department of Justice14 codes listed
- Department of Transportation14 codes listed
- Department of the Interior15 codes listed
- Department of the Treasury12 codes listed
- Department of Commerce13 codes listed
- Department of Labor14 codes listed
- Department of Education13 codes listed
- Department of Housing and Urban Development14 codes listed
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration12 codes listed
- General Services Administration12 codes listed
- Environmental Protection Agency14 codes listed
- Small Business Administration14 codes listed
- National Science Foundation15 codes listed
- Social Security Administration12 codes listed
- Office of Personnel Management13 codes listed
- Nuclear Regulatory Commission13 codes listed
- National Archives and Records Administration13 codes listed
Agency spotlight
Where one agency’s contract dollars went in FY2025, by code, and how much of its spending the top codes cover.
FY2025 contract obligations
$527B
Covered by the codes below
$346B
Share of its spending
65.6%
Source: USAspending.gov, FY2025 contract obligations, read 2026-11-05.
| NAICS code | FY2025 | Share |
|---|---|---|
| $62.6B | 11.9% | |
| $41.7B | 7.9% | |
| $36.2B | 6.9% | |
| $34.6B | 6.6% | |
| $32B | 6.1% | |
| $20.7B | 3.9% | |
| $19.9B | 3.8% | |
| $17.2B | 3.3% | |
| $14.1B | 2.7% | |
| $13.5B | 2.6% | |
| $11.5B | 2.2% | |
| $11.4B | 2.2% | |
| $11.3B | 2.1% | |
| $9.5B | 1.8% | |
| $9.5B | 1.8% |
Source: USAspending.gov, FY2025 contract obligations by NAICS code, read 2026-11-05.
The whole picture for this agency, with its vehicles and the way GovSmith wins there, is on its guide.
The capture cycle, and who does what
Six stages from a buyer’s first plan to the day the work comes back to the market. At each one there is a public signal, and at each one GovSmith has a job.
Stage 1: Forecast
The signal. An agency lists a buy it plans to make, often a year or more out, with its estimated value, set-aside and quarter.
GovSmith. GovSmith reads the agency forecasts every night and marks each row as a forecast, never a solicitation. The vCM calls the small-business specialist the row names.
Stage 2: Sources sought
The signal. The buyer asks which companies could do the work, to decide whether to set the competition aside.
GovSmith. GovSmith AI drafts the capability response from the client's Library; the vCM reviews it with the client and sends it. This is the answer that shapes the set-aside.
Stage 3: Presolicitation
The signal. The requirement, the NAICS code, the set-aside decision and the release date are public.
GovSmith. The client's pipeline gets the row with its dates and its odds, the vCM books the industry day, and the teaming posture is decided: prime, subcontract or partner.
Stage 4: Solicitation
The signal. The RFQ, RFP or IFB is out, with its amendments and its question period.
GovSmith. GovSmith tracks every amendment and deadline, the writer drafts against the evaluation criteria from the client's own facts, and the vCM runs the compliance check before anything is submitted.
Stage 5: Award
The signal. The award notice names the winner, the value and the contract's dates.
GovSmith. Win or lose, the vCM requests the debriefing and records what the evaluators weighed. A win starts the performance record; a loss starts the next capture.
Stage 6: Recompete
The signal. The contract's final option ends and the work returns to the market.
GovSmith. GovSmith reads the award records and raises the recompete signal eighteen months out, with the incumbent, the value and the expected date, so the client starts where the incumbent already is.
The signals we watch
Recompete timing
The periods of performance and options on the award records say when each contract comes back. GovSmith turns them into dates on the client's calendar.
Incumbent facts
Who holds the work, at what value, under what set-aside, and whether they are still small for the code. The posture against each incumbent follows from that.
Set-aside history
What share of an agency's dollars under a code went out as small-business set-asides last year, from USAspending. A code with a high set-aside share is where a small client competes against fewer firms.
Spend by agency and code
The dollars each agency obligated under each NAICS code in FY2025, so a client sees which buyers spend the most on what it sells.
Prime subcontracting
The large contractors with subcontracting goals to meet and the orders they are staffing. A subcontract is often the first award.
Forecast rows
The planned buys the agencies publish, read nightly, with the specialist to call on each.
Your posture on each pursuit
Prime, subcontract or partner: the choice is made per opportunity, from the eligibility, the size and the incumbent, and it is yours. GovSmith lays out the case for each.
Prime
When. The client is eligible for the set-aside and sized for the work, and its past performance matches.
What we do. GovSmith runs the capture and the writing; the client decides.
Subcontract
When. The work is bigger than the client or the set-aside is not theirs, and a prime needs what they do.
What we do. GovSmith finds the primes staffing the order and makes the introduction with a capability statement built from the Library.
Partner
When. Two small firms together cover the requirement, or a mentor-protege joint venture keeps the small-business eligibility.
What we do. GovSmith identifies the partner from the award records and the vCM helps set the terms before the proposal.
The vehicles the orders move through
Holding a seat on a vehicle means a company may compete for its orders; it does not mean the company is the incumbent on any of them or performs the work today. GovSmith tracks the on-ramps for the vehicles a client should hold and the orders on the ones it does.
OASIS+
GSA's professional-services vehicle, with small-business and socioeconomic domains.
SEWP VI
NASA's governmentwide IT products and solutions contract.
Alliant 3
GSA's unrestricted enterprise IT services GWAC.
Polaris
GSA's small-business IT services GWAC, with HUBZone, WOSB and SDVOSB pools.
8(a) STARS III
GSA's IT services vehicle for 8(a) firms, with directed orders.
VA T4NG2
The Department of Veterans Affairs' IT services IDIQ, veteran-owned first.
Multiple Award Schedule
The Schedule, and the eBuy orders only holders see.
What GovSmith does with this
Fifteen minutes from you, then we fish
The discovery form asks what you sell, who buys it and what you have done before. It asks for no codes and no registrations. From it, your vCM qualifies the first openings, sets the posture on each and brings you the shortlist with the dates. You make the calls.