cost and price analysis | The Contracting Education Academy

August 12, 2019 By AMK

Act now to enroll in September’s CON 170 cost and price analysis course

Georgia Tech’s course on the Fundamentals of Cost and Price Analysis (CON 170) provides expert instruction on fundamental quantitative pricing skills — skills so necessary to understand how the government makes contract pricing decisions.

The popular 10-day course is being offered September 16-27, 2019 on the Tech campus in the world-class Global Learning Center in Midtown Atlanta. Registration details can be found here.

Attendees will learn how to accomplish Cost-Volume-Profit Analysis, calculate Contribution Margin Estimates, and develop Cost Estimating Relationships to achieve effective price analysis pursuant to FAR Subpart 15.4. These are the skills needed to negotiate pricing of government contracts, subcontracts, and contract modifications.

Georgia Tech’s course includes an examination of the regulations and processes governing the use of cost analysis and requiring certified cost and pricing data. The CON 170 course was originally developed by the Defense Acquisition University for aspiring Defense Department acquisition professionals.

After learning the basic elements of price and cost analysis, students receive instruction on how to build and defend a Pre-Negotiation Objective, including a minimum and maximum pricing objective with a Weighted Guidelines Assessment. Students also learn how to defend pricing objectives by practicing face-to-face negotiations.

By attending, you’ll learn how to:

Identify the Government’s Pricing Objective
Review an Independent Government Cost Estimate
Apply Price-Related Factors
Review General Cost Principles on Allowability
Evaluate Direct and Indirect Costs
Determine the Applicability of Cost and Price Analysis
Practice Cost and Price Analysis Techniques
Conduct Cost Realism Analysis

Attendees receive instruction, a printed Student Guide to be used back on the job, valuable handouts, and exclusive web-based resources. A complimentary breakfast is served each morning, along with snacks throughout each class day.

This is a federal core course, required for FAC-C and DAWIA certification. Register here.

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech is an official Defense Acquisition University (DAU) equivalency training provider. Georgia Tech’s coursework also is recognized by the Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI).

May 8, 2019 By AMK

Don’t miss our contract cost and price analysis course in July

Georgia Tech’s course on the Fundamentals of Cost and Price Analysis (CON 170) features an in-depth review of the market research process. By attending, students gain fundamental quantitative pricing skills.

The 10-day course is being offered on July 15-26, 2019 on the Tech campus in the Global Learning Center in Midtown Atlanta. Registration details can be seen here.

Attendees will learn how to accomplish Cost-Volume-Profit analysis, calculate Contribution Margin Estimates, and develop Cost Estimating Relationships to achieve effective price analysis pursuant to FAR Subpart 15.4. These are the skills needed to negotiate pricing of contracts, subcontracts, and contract modifications.

Georgia Tech’s course includes an examination of the regulations and processes governing the use of cost analysis and requiring certified cost and pricing data.

After learning the basic elements of price and cost analysis, students receive instruction on how to build and defend a pre-negotiation objective, including a minimum and maximum pricing objective with a Weighted Guidelines Assessment. Students also learn how to defend pricing objectives by practicing face-to-face negotiations.

By attending, you’ll learn how to:

Identify the Government’s Pricing Objective
Review an Independent Government Cost Estimate
Apply Price-Related Factors
Review General Cost Principles on Allowability
Evaluate Direct and Indirect Costs
Determine the Applicability of Cost and Price Analysis
Practice Cost and Price Analysis Techniques
Conduct Cost Realism Analysis

Attendees receive expert instruction, a printed guide to be used back on the job, valuable handouts, and exclusive web-based resources. A complimentary breakfast is provided each morning, along with snacks throughout each class day.

This is a federal core course, required for FAC-C and DAWIA certification. Register here.

February 22, 2019 By AMK

Bots could be climbing another rung on the workforce ladder

Bots have been making some headway in the government workforce, performing the kinds of mundane, clerical, routine tasks that make the people who do them feel less than human.

But robotic systems may soon take it up a notch, gaining new responsibilities with basic but essential procurement duties.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently issued a request for information looking for robotics and intelligent process automation applications in the commercial sector. The robots would need to perform tasks such as evaluating proposals, automating market research, performing cost and price analyses, carrying out modification actions, and issuing price negotiation memoranda. The Pentagon’s top research arm isn’t proposing that robots run the show or take people’s jobs, but it is talking about the kind of jobs that might move robots up a theoretical pay grade from what they’ve been doing.

DARPA said it wants to look into the possibility of using the “operational efficiency and functional capabilities” of such systems to perform “routine administrative tasks and document generation in the government procurement process.”

Keep reading this article at: https://www.governmentciomedia.com/bots-could-be-climbing-another-rung-workforce-ladder

January 28, 2019 By AMK

DARPA looks to procurement bots

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is looking for a few good bots to help with procurement.

In a request for information posted Jan. 23, DARPA said it wants information on off-the-shelf options for robotic and intelligent process automation tools that can increase efficiency and expand its ability to manage routine administrative tasks such as proposal evaluation, market research, cost and price analysis and documentation related to price negotiations.

DARPA is also considering integrating robotic process automation into Defense Department IT systems, including the System for Award Management, Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System and the Standard Performance System/Procurement Desktop-Defense. Respondents are asked to provide available information on the software’s security and any interoperability limitations it might have with existing government systems.

Keep reading this article at: https://gcn.com/articles/2019/01/24/darpa-rpa.aspx

July 12, 2018 By AMK

Proposed rule would create a separate, more restrictive standard for ‘adequate price competition’

On June 12, 2018, the Department of Defense (“DoD”), the General Services Administration, and NASA proposed a new rule that would limit the “adequate price competition” exception to certified cost or pricing data requirements on all DoD, NASA, and Coast Guard procurements.

Currently, FAR 15.403-1 prohibits contracting officers from requiring contractors to submit certified cost or pricing data to support a contract action when the contracting officer determines that the prices agreed upon are based on “adequate price competition,” which the regulation defines in one of three ways:

Two or more responsible offerors, competing independently, submit priced offers that satisfy the Government’s expressed requirement where award will be made in a best-value competition and there is no finding that the price of the otherwise successful offeror is unreasonable;
Only one offer is received from a responsible offeror, but there was a reasonable expectation that two or more responsible offerors, competing independently, would submit priced offers, the offer received was submitted with the expectation of competition, and the determination that the proposed price is based on adequate price competition and is reasonable has been approved at a level above the contracting officer; or
Price analysis clearly demonstrates that the proposal price is reasonable in comparison with current or recent prices for the same or similar items, adjusted to reflect changes in market conditions, economic conditions, quantities, or terms and conditions under contracts that resulted from adequate price competition.

The proposed rule, however, would eliminate the second and third definitions for the DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard. Instead, for these agencies, a price would be based on adequate price competition “only if two or more responsible offerors, competing independently, submit responsive and viable offers.”

Keep reading this article at: http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=715666