Acquisition Strategy | The Contracting Education Academy

November 19, 2018 By cs

How contracting officers want to use the new micropurchase threshold

Steve Kelman’s recent talk with feds reinforced his view that a $10,000 micropurchase limit opens up vast new acquisition possibilities.

Recently I did a webinar at the request of the General Services Administration’s Acquisition Gateway for professional services, as part of their Spotlight training series, on the new micropurchase threshold. As I have blogged before, the threshold has been raised to $10,000 for civilian agencies and, through a strange anomaly that hopefully will be corrected soon, to $6,000 for the Department of Defense.

This change will allow agencies to make procurements of up to $10,000 without (if they choose) competitively soliciting or evaluating proposals, though some of the agencies that have started using the authority have chosen to develop one-page requirements statements and solicit one-page competitive proposal. Regulations implementing this change are unfortunately not out yet, but a number of agencies — including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security and GSA itself — have received class deviations to introduce the change now. However, the GSA class deviation applies only to GSA’s own purchases, not more broadly for any purchases using GSA vehicles.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/blogs/lectern/2018/11/kelman-micropurchase-ideas.aspx

November 7, 2018 By cs

DoD says ‘OTA,’ industry says ‘Oy’

Just because apocryphal books live outside the Bible doesn’t mean you should never read them. And just because certain buying authorities live outside the Federal Acquisition Regulation doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them.

The FAR covers a lot, but not everything, including, say Other Transaction Authority (OTA). OTA spending by the Defense Department is growing by triple digit rates, although it’s still a relatively small number. But it worries contractors. It came up repeatedly at this week’s Professional Services Council Vision 2018 conference. Kevin Fahey, the assistant secretary of Defense for acquisition, reassured the mostly vendor audience that “OTA use is not a get-out-acquisition-free pass.”

OTA has a little sister spawned by Section 804 of the 2016 Defense authorization bill. It gives DoD temporary authority to buy rapid prototyping and rapid fielding technologies — rapid, in the latter case, means within five years. The authority expires next September.

So for certain acquisitions, DoD has a lot of leeway to not use the FAR. Not total leeway, though — the government can’t just buy anything using the perceived convenience of OTA. The instrument is intended for prototype technologies and capabilities from non-traditional companies. For sure, those definitions leave a lot of leeway.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2018/10/dod-says-ota-industry-says-oy/

October 11, 2018 By cs

2nd protest filed against Pentagon’s proposed single cloud acquisition

IBM filed a bid protest Wednesday against the Pentagon’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract.

The pre-award protest, filed with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Oct. 10, 2018, comes just two days before the Oct. 12 deadline for the Pentagon to accept bids from cloud service providers. IBM officials told Nextgov they still plan to submit a bid for JEDI, but the company’s protest takes issue with the Defense Department’s decision to award JEDI to a single cloud service provider.

“JEDI’s primary flaw lies in mandating a single cloud environment for up to 10 years,” said Sam Gordy, General Manager for IBM Federal, in a blog post announcing the protest. “Leading global enterprises want clouds that are flexible, provide access to the best applications from multiple vendors, and can smoothly transition legacy systems. JEDI is a complete departure from these best practices.”

Oracle, another JEDI competitor, protested the JEDI solicitation in August on similar grounds. Oracle has subsequently filed a series of amended protests in the months since under legal seal, with a final decision expected from GAO by mid-November.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2018/10/ibm-files-bid-protest-against-pentagons-jedi-contract/151908/

October 4, 2018 By cs

Agencies need in-house techies to know how to buy good tech, GAO reiterates

Spend enough time around personnel from tech-in-government organizations like 18F and the U.S. Digital Service, and you’ll hear them say something like this: Their teams save the taxpayers money not just by building things, but also by being in the room during large-scale tech acquisitions and knowing the right questions to ask or how to call a salesman’s bluff.

It’s a simple value proposition, leaders say, but a powerful one.

According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, the federal acquisitions workforce writ large needs more of that expertise.

Asked to survey how the acquisition landscape has changed in the past decade, GAO found various improvements in the form of workforce planning and training. But ultimately, it decided, “finding workers with the technical knowledge for complex IT purchases is still difficult.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.fedscoop.com/federal-agencies-tech-expertise-acquisition-gao-report/

July 23, 2018 By cs

The new structure for the Pentagon’s tech and acquisition offices

Pentagon leaders, already worried about the emerging technologies that will shape the next generation of war, have reorganized their leadership structure to emphasize quantum science, artificial intelligence and directed energy, Defense News has learned.

The new effort is a major restructuring for the two Pentagon offices that determine how the Department of Defense buys and develops weapon systems. Deputy Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan approved the changes in a July 13 memo, obtained by Defense News.

The 17-page document lays out the organizational charts for the offices of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment and the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, as well their responsibilities. The two offices were created Feb. 1, when Congress required the former Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (AT&L) office to be divided. A potential organization chart was published in August, but the new document features significant changes, particularly on the R&E side.

**The chart above shows the organization of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment. (click on image to enlarge)**

**The chart above shows the proposed organization of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Evaluation. (click to enlarge)**

Keep reading this article at: https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/07/17/revealed-the-new-structure-for-the-pentagons-tech-and-acquisition-offices

Steve Kelman’s recent talk with feds reinforced his view that a $10,000 micropurchase limit opens up vast new acquisition possibilities.

Just because apocryphal books live outside the Bible doesn’t mean you should never read them. And just because certain buying authorities live outside the Federal Acquisition Regulation doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use them.

IBM filed a bid protest Wednesday against the Pentagon’s $10 billion Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud contract.

Pentagon leaders, already worried about the emerging technologies that will shape the next generation of war, have reorganized their leadership structure to emphasize quantum science, artificial intelligence and directed energy, Defense News has learned.

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