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What does ‘best-in-class’ really mean for federal contracts?

Forgive us for a minute while we play a little semantics. What does the term “best-in-class contracts” really mean?

If you are NASA and your SEWP contract is “best-in-class” does that mean the rest of your contracts are, say, “worst-in-class” or “meh-in-class?”

I bring this up now because the new category management memo from the Office of Management and Budget strongly encourages agencies to use “best-in-class” contracts to help meet the initiative’s goals.

Among the things OMB told agencies to do is: “Annually establish plans to reduce unaligned spend and increase the use of BIC solutions for common goods and services, consistent with small business and other statutory socioeconomic responsibilities.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2019/03/what-does-best-in-class-really-mean-for-federal-contracts/

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Trump to finally nominate OFPP administrator

After more than 25 months and at least two misfires, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy is a step closer to having a full-time, Senate-confirmed administrator.

President Donald Trump today announced his intent to nominate Michael Wooten, the senior advisor for acquisitions at the Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office.

If confirmed by the Senate, Wooten would replace Anne Rung, who resigned as OFPP administrator in October 2016.

Since the start of the Trump administration, at least two other candidates didn’t make it through the vetting process and Emily Murphy, who many thought was the perfect candidate to be OFPP administrator, ended up coming in as the administrator of the General Services Administration.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/people/2019/02/trump-to-finally-nominate-ofpp-administrator/

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Changes are coming to professional services thanks to contract management

Changes are coming in the way the General Services Administration purchases services.

In April, the Office of Federal Procurement Policy released a new strategy to use category management to reduce multiple award contracts, and contractors will begin seeing the results soon.

“Services are procured very differently than commodities. What I’m focused on, and what senior leaders across government are focused on, in particular senior procurement executives, are we really need to move how we’re buying services to a performance-based environment,” said Tiffany Hixson, assistant commissioner of the Office of Professional and Human Capital Services within the Federal Acquisition Services at GSA. “We’ve been on this journey for many years. It really needs to be rebooted, and we’re going to continue to push in terms of how we buy services to being performance based. Buying engineers by the pound is not an effective way to deliver mission capabilities.”

During Deltek’s Spending Spree event July 19, Hixson said procurement officials need to focus on the outcome they want from a particular contract action, not necessarily the price. While there are some subcategories of professional services where price can be a driver, more often than not, officials should be looking at the value of the capability delivered.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition/2018/07/changes-are-coming-to-professional-services-thanks-to-contract-management/

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New OFPP strategy targets 13 percent reduction of duplicative contracts by 2020

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) has been trying to solve contract duplication for almost a decade.

OFPP required agencies to justify new multiple award contracts by submitting business cases. That had limited success.

OFPP tried to create catalogs of existing contracts so agencies could see what was out there first before going down the path of a new contract. That had even less success.

Now OFPP is trying to use category management and its subcategory best-in-class contracts to shrink the number of technology, professional services, transportation and logistics and seven other categories where the number of MACs has grown and grown for decades.

Each category manager developed new strategies for 2018 with goals across four broad areas. Without a doubt, reducing contract duplication and ensuring small businesses aren’t left behind are going to be the hardest to achieve.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/reporters-notebook-jason-miller/2018/04/new-ofpp-strategy-targets-13-percent-reduction-of-duplicative-contracts-by-2020

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When Amazon meets government

Imagine simply flipping open your laptop, firing up your desktop computer or popping open an app on your mobile phone to order office supplies, equipment, or even contract services Amazon-style, two-day delivery included.

That day may not be too far off if a provision in the House version of the annual National Defense Authorization Act makes it into law.

The prospects for commercial online marketplaces in government got a lift in mid-July, when Alan Thomas, the Trump administration’s new chief of the General Services Administration’s Federal Acquisition Service, gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the proposal that his agency engage online marketplaces for all agencies to use.

The idea is ensconced in the House-passed version of the 2018 NDAA, which contains policy and suggested budget toplines for the Pentagon. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s version of the bill does not include the online marketplace provision, and it awaits a full Senate vote in September, after the August congressional recess.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2017/08/when-amazon-meets-government/140218/

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