Commercial Solutions Opening | The Contracting Education Academy

January 17, 2020 By cs

Space Force sets first Pitch Day using alternative acquisition authority

As the Space Force begins to stand up operations, the newest military branch wants to get in on the latest wave of acquisition options to match its space-age mission.

Space Force officially became the sixth branch of the military in December with passage of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act. As the newly-minted branch gets up and running, the 45th Space Wing, based out of Patrick Air Force Base in Brevard County, Florida, is holding a pitch day on March 4 to hear about “innovative solutions” to several problem areas around installation support and space operations.

For the pitch day, Space Force is leaning on its Commercial Solutions Opening, or CSO, authority, which allows certain government agencies — such as the Defense Department — to move quickly on acquisitions involving innovative ideas, especially those from nontraditional vendors that could use government funding to move from idea to prototype to production. The CSO contracting method uses iterative funding to move a project through four phases of development—the same structure used for Other Transaction Authority, or OTA, contracts.

“The Space Force intends to obtain ‘innovative’ solutions or potential new capabilities that fulfill requirements, close capability gaps or provide potential technology advancements,” according to a notice posted to the Contracting Opportunities website.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2020/01/space-force-sets-first-pitch-day-using-alternative-acquisition-authority/162244/

January 16, 2019 By AMK

Air Force turns to GSA pilot for DevOps platform

The Air Force is looking for an innovative DevOps platform to seamlessly integrate into its current environment and is tapping a General Services Administration pilot program to avoid having to go through the arduous processes set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

The Air Force — through a joint program between AFWERX, the Air Force Research Lab and Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center — is using GSA FEDSIM’s Commercial Solutions Opening, or CSO, pilot program to solicit bids from startups and private sector innovators who haven’t worked with the government in the past.

Rather than abiding by the FAR, which can often take months or years to get through the step-by-step solicitation process, the CSO process allows the contracting agency to issue a request for innovative solutions and fund multiple lines of research and development at the same time. This “opportunistic model,” as described by the Pentagon’s Defense Acquisition University, is used for non-FAR-based contracts, like those issued using other transaction authorities.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2019/01/air-force-turns-gsa-pilot-devops-platform/154024/

April 20, 2017 By AMK

The future of DoD’s DIUx in limbo under Trump

Founded in August 2015 by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, the Defense Department’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, or DIUx, has been working to bring technology innovations from commercial developers to the armed services—quickly.

DIUx seems to be exactly the type of government entity that should appeal to the Trump administration; it is leanly staffed, is focused in locations (Boston and Silicon Valley) that are centers for the innovations the Department of Defense (DoD) is looking for, avoids the contractual burdens of traditional government procurement, and has streamlined procedures designed to appeal to commercial companies while avoiding red tape.

From the administration’s perspective, DIUx has something else going for it: it has been criticized by Congress.

Yet, it is hard to say whether DIUx will survive the change in administrations.

So, if your company has innovative technologies that might be interesting to the DoD, but you wish to avoid the headaches of traditional government procurement, now might be the time to weigh in with the DoD or Congress about the importance of DIUx. Here is a perspective on how DIUx works that might assist you.

To help the DoD access cutting-edge technology from nontraditional contractors, DIUx introduced a new acquisition mechanism, known as the Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), through which DIUx solicits solutions to problems the military faces. If a company’s solution is accepted, the company is awarded a special agreement — an “Other Transaction” — for prototype projects (OT), which is not governed by the Federal Acquisition Regulation’s (FAR) burdensome contracting obligations.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=585664

As the Space Force begins to stand up operations, the newest military branch wants to get in on the latest wave of acquisition options to match its space-age mission.

The Air Force is looking for an innovative DevOps platform to seamlessly integrate into its current environment and is tapping a General Services Administration pilot program to avoid having to go through the arduous processes set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regulation.

Founded in August 2015 by Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, the Defense Department’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, or DIUx, has been working to bring technology innovations from commercial developers to the armed services—quickly.

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