industry partners | The Contracting Education Academy

July 7, 2020 By cs

Contractor confidence in government market less certain amid pandemic

Before the coronavirus outbreak, the contracting community expressed “high confidence” in public sector sales for 2020, expressing optimism in steady government buying following 2019’s lengthy government shutdown that set many companies back.

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Now, amid a pandemic with no end in sight, a largely remote workforce and other contractor challenges, the contracting forecast for 2020 and beyond is much less certain.

“We saw a strong performance across the board in 2019, and as we entered 2020, the outlook was rosy,” said Amy Champigny, senior product marketing manager at Deltek. “Now, to some degree, that has happened, but not in the way people expected. The COVID-19 pandemic is going to force a lot of contractors to think carefully about how they come out of this.”

Champigny spoke with Nextgov about Deltek’s Clarity Government Contracting Industry Study, a wide-scale survey of hundreds of government contractors regarding issues, trends and opportunities impacting the market. At the time the survey was fielded—between Jan. 6 and March 2—70% of contractors expected government sales to be higher in 2020 than 2019. Now, “consensus expectations call for significant negative growth in the second half of 2020, and there is not yet a clear path to recovery,” the authors state.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2020/06/contractor-confidence-government-market-less-certain-amid-pandemic/166406/

May 19, 2020 By cs

Project management and COVID-19 recovery: Lessons from previous disasters

The rapid outbreak of COVID-19 has prompted an unprecedented response from all levels of government, across the country and around the world. As part of this response, local, state, and federal agencies sprang into action to help protect citizens from this potentially catastrophic biological threat while continuing to deliver services in communities nationwide.

As the initial public health threat hopefully subsides in the days and weeks ahead, many federal projects and programs will be launched to support longer-term COVID-19 economic recovery. These recovery efforts will affect people whose housing, utilities, and other life necessities are at risk, as well as entire industries whose existence has been disrupted by the COVID-19 threat.

While these efforts may be unparalleled in many ways, there are some lessons learned from previous disaster recovery efforts that can inform policy makers, federal project and program managers, and their executive sponsors in their work to help the nation recover from the effects of this extraordinary event.

The Project Management Institute’s 2020 Pulse of the Profession® research reveals that 11.4% of each dollar invested on projects is wasted due to poor performance — that’s $114 million for every $1 billion. There is a great deal at stake to ensure that pandemic response projects and programs are delivered as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/05/project-management-and-covid-19-recovery/165298/

The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech has established a webpage where all contract-related developments related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) are summarized. Find the page at: https://contractingacademy.gatech.edu/coronavirus-information-for-contracting-officers-and-contractors/

May 7, 2020 By cs

Navy contract spending jumps 30% in April amid coronavirus pandemic

The federal contracting community has gotten used to seeing major upticks in contract outlays in the last couple months of the fiscal year.

But for the Department of the Navy, April’s numbers rivaled those figures: Contract obligations this month are already up 30% compared to the same period a year ago, and almost double the figures from April 2018.

To be sure, the coronavirus pandemic was a big factor in the increase in dollars-on-contract. Like most other parts of the government, the Navy and Marine Corps are spending a lot to respond to the pandemic itself and to keep vulnerable parts of their supply chains afloat.

But that’s not the whole story, said James Geurts, the assistant secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. The Navy Department’s ability to get cash out the door more quickly is also the result of reform efforts that have been underway for the last two-and-a-half years and emergency planning that predated the COVID crisis.

“I’m seeing some remarkable efficiencies,” he told reporters on a conference call Tuesday. “I think a lot of that is getting rid of layers of bureaucracy that weren’t needed. Some of it is also creating better partnerships with industry so that we can leverage cost and pricing data we already have, and we don’t have to send out an RFP and get a proposal back just to confirm that data. And some of it is just a continued sense of urgency and mission focus.”

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2020/04/navy-contract-spending-jumps-30-in-april-amid-covid-pandemic/

April 30, 2020 By cs

GSA develops human-centered design buying guide for agencies

The General Services Administration wants the federal government to get into a customer-first mindset, and to help, the agency released a customer experience roadmap document explain to federal agencies how to do it.

The Evaluation and Buying Guide provides federal agencies an overview of customer experience, tips for framing customer experience efforts, principles for evaluating industry partners, acquisition help and additional resources. It also offers a three-phase approach to transforming an agency priority into a measurable customer experience initiative.

“Agencies are making significant progress in building customer-centric services,” said GSA’s acting Chief Customer Officer Matt Ford in a statement. “GSA developed this guide based on the needs agencies have expressed in structuring contracts and identifying the best industry partners to help accelerate their service transformations.”

The guide leads with four basic tenets: focus on a persistent customer need; start with an inspiring vision for changes; identify your needs and ask for help; and share your research in the open.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.nextgov.com/it-modernization/2020/04/gsa-develops-human-centered-design-buying-guide-agencies/164990/

Before the coronavirus outbreak, the contracting community expressed “high confidence” in public sector sales for 2020, expressing optimism in steady government buying following 2019’s lengthy government shutdown that set many companies back.

The federal contracting community has gotten used to seeing major upticks in contract outlays in the last couple months of the fiscal year.

The General Services Administration wants the federal government to get into a customer-first mindset, and to help, the agency released a customer experience roadmap document explain to federal agencies how to do it.

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