industry feedback | The Contracting Education Academy

October 19, 2017 By AMK

DoD wants to cut contracting time by 50 percent as part of AT&L split

As the Pentagon prepares to split its acquisition office, the Defense Department’s top buyer is setting a goal to cut contract delivery time by 50 percent.

Ellen Lord, who will likely be the last defense undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, wants DoD to take advantage of new authorities given to the department in order to speed up the delivery time from when the Pentagon requests a product and when it’s delivered.

“Other transaction authorities, I think we see the Air Force doing a nice job with some of those and, frankly, we don’t have all of our staff that are totally cognizant of what those authorities are and what we can do and what we can’t do. What we are trying to do is develop an environment where people are comfortable saying ‘Hey, what if?’ and I’m trying to say ‘Yes, if’ versus ‘No’ to things,” Lord told reporters after an Oct. 11 speech at an Association of the United States Army event in Washington.

She added that DoD has created a risk averse culture because it makes such a public exhibition of programs that stumbled. Lord said she wants stumbling to happen earlier in the acquisition cycle where it is less costly.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense/2017/10/dod-wants-to-cut-contracting-time-by-50-percent-at-part-of-atl-split/

August 9, 2017 By AMK

Panel urges acquisition system reform

The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) established the Section 809 Panel to address fundamental problems with how the Defense Department acquires goods and services to support its warfighters.

**Starting in 2008, whenever new legislation or regulation debuted that affected government contracting, it was written on a band-aid and stuck to a golf ball. It’s 10 times bigger now.**

It recently released an interim report and supplement advocating in broad strokes for a host of improvements to the acquisition system to better streamline the process and increase industry offerings to the government.

In meeting with over 200 government and industry representatives, the interim report found that the acquisition system creates obstacles that make it unattractive for small and large businesses alike to offer their goods and services to the government. It explained that “the United States’ ability to maintain technological, military and economic superiority is being challenged,” as our adversaries are recognizing vulnerabilities in our forces and the ability to respond through modernization.

Thus, the Pentagon’s acquisition procedures must be improved to achieve “a degree of agility that DoD is not currently able to deliver,” it said.

To achieve this agility, the interim report recommended several improvements.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2017/7/25/panel-urges-acquisition-system-reform

July 18, 2017 By AMK

Major defense contractors on panel that will direct billion-dollar defense decisions

A new advisory panel has been tasked with streamlining the Department of Defense’s procurement process.

Sitting on the powerful panel: several current or former employees of major military contractors including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric. Those corporations every year do billions of dollars of business with the Department of Defense — and have given more than $2.2 million in campaign contributions to members of the House Armed Services Committee, which is responsible for approving changes to DoD funding.

The panel’s creation, mandated by Section 809 of 2016’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), has received little media attention compared to other provisions in the NDAA. But the panel will be responsible for recommending policy that affects how approximately $115 billion of taxpayer money is spent annually.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/major-defense-contractors-panel-will-direct-billion-dollar-defense-decisions

July 14, 2017 By AMK

How to improve DoD industry collaboration

For the past several years, the government has directed that innovation be made a key ingredient of acquisition. Industry has embraced this idea, and it has become a standard practice.

Many Department of Defense (DoD) suppliers have stood up innovation cells within their organization, whereas others have claimed that their entire organization is the innovation cell.

So what other practices can we embrace in order to improve acquisition? What should we be doing more of in order to develop and deliver quality products, on time, at an affordable price? One thing we can do is ensure we maximize collaboration between all stakeholders when developing new requirements, designing new products, or resolving issues on existing programs.

Keep reading this article from the July-August 2017 edition of Defense AT&L magazine at: https://www.dau.mil/library/defense-atl/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=/library/defense-atl/DATLFiles/July-August_2017/Ogden.pdf

April 14, 2017 By AMK

Progress impeded, acquisition workforce anxious as bid protests continue to multiply

If you want to strike a nerve with federal acquisition managers, bring up bid protests.

The number of protests have all but doubled over the past decade, and that’s creating a significant amount of consternation among the ranks of acquisition personnel at the General Services Administration (GSA).

Janine Wilkinson, GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service national account manager for the Army, said that this was one of the main things federal customers need from industry during a Coalition for Government Procurement panel on April 4, and other GSA officials quickly piled on.

“It’s not just the Army, it’s across the spectrum of customers,” Mark Aucello, director of GSA’s Assisted Acquisition Services client support center for the Mid-Atlantic region, said. “We understand, if we do something wrong, and there’s a legitimate reason to protest, then protest. That’s what it’s there for. But … [when] it’s ‘I want to keep it another six months because I’m the incumbent and I lost,’ I think that’s the sort of thing that creates a lot of work and expense on the government’s part.”

Tom Howder, assistant commissioner for AAS, agreed, noting that nationally, there’s been an increase in protests, which lengthens the acquisition time frame and impacts the workforce, who frequently have to be reassured that the number of bid protests are not a reflection on the quality of their work.

Keep reading this article at: http://federalnewsradio.com/acquisition/2017/04/progress-impeded-acquisition-workforce-anxious-bid-protests-continue-multiply/

As the Pentagon prepares to split its acquisition office, the Defense Department’s top buyer is setting a goal to cut contract delivery time by 50 percent.

The 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) established the Section 809 Panel to address fundamental problems with how the Defense Department acquires goods and services to support its warfighters.

A new advisory panel has been tasked with streamlining the Department of Defense’s procurement process.

For the past several years, the government has directed that innovation be made a key ingredient of acquisition. Industry has embraced this idea, and it has become a standard practice.

If you want to strike a nerve with federal acquisition managers, bring up bid protests.

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