I don’t do these hybrid tales very well. I used to think these “inside baseball” accounts were useful excursions for those who can mostly ignore the daily follies of the central government, but it occurs to me that it is not quite worth the time. I do have to remark at this juncture that things were so weird here in DC this week with the testimony, investigation, Congressional shoot-em-ups and attempted assassinations that I hardly know what to make of it all.
I have a regular morning meeting with my former Boss at the Enormous Contracting Company where we both worked for the better part of a decade before rapacious senior management decided to acquire a smaller and hungrier company and replace all our people with theirs. Kind of cold blooded, in my opinion, but it was a good run, and I liked all the people that were laid off with me. She reminded me of the big Friday Conference that was not on my calendar, since I had screwed up the registration form, which for reasons best known to the organizers, wanted the body text in the subject line, which offends my sense of good order and discipline.
So that is how I found myself behind the wheel of the Panzer at 0730 on the Dulles Access Road, headed for the second Industry Outreach day at the sprawling headquarters of one of the more prestigious consulting firm in Tysons Corner. They are not having a good week, either. I saw in the messages this morning they are currently under investigation by DoJ for improper billing procedures to the Government. So many investigations it is hard to keep track of them.
Attending for the company were our BD lead, crisp and professional in suit and tie and Vic Socotra, resplendent in a white seersucker suit, white bucks and snappy red clip-on Bow Tie.
The conference room was filled nearly to capacity with representatives from the usual Defense and IC contracting crowd. Government presenters included the Acquisition Chief, the chief of the Contracting Activity, the Agency Chief Information Officer (CIO) and the legendary and irascible Contracting Officer. He has been there since Christ was a Corporal and is supposed to be running the Industry Outreach Program. As things stand, he laughed and told me he was the highest paid event coordinator in town.
I will tell you what: there was plenty of hot coffee, regular and un-leaded (why?), pastries, fruit and more bagels than I have seen at Einstein’s Brothers and enough cream cheese and jam in tubs to make them worthwhile.
The Contracting Officer responsible kicked things off and introduced the representatives of the host company and covered admin matters before introducing the Acquisition Executive, who gave an extensive ramble through his charter from the Director (DR) on the leadership vector he is expected to follow.
Key bullets: expect many seniors at the Agency to move by October in keeping with the DR’s policy of not allowing his executives to plant their roots too deep in any one office.
· The AE’s daughter worked for the company that was hosting the conference .
· He is deeply rooted in the Pentagon’s Joint Staff J-8 acquisition programs
· The Agency doesn’t have any ACat 1 or ACat 1a programs, since nothing they do breaks the $195 Million threshold established by the DoD 5000-series instructions. He is hiring to get more help, but attrition is high.
· He will do one-on-one meetings with industry in his office, or is willing to visit.
· Will establish an “Acquisition Review Board.”
· Is eager to have select industry sectors for small group discussions at the Officer’s Club.
· Spoke extensively about the PEO concept but did not describe how they work.
· He may change to “PEO” the names of groups in AE that seem to be working.
· Will work on better and further out pipelines for industry
· Will be transparent
· Specifically mentioned HUBZone utilization as a challenge he will meet.
· Will rely on the provisions of DoD 5000.74 and 5000.02 Instructions.
· The challenge to obligate 50% of funds by March 31, 80% by 31 July and 100% by 30 September.
· We are currently living in UFR-Land (Unfunded Requirements). Money talks ant the other stuff walks.
The articulate Chief Information Officer in the Directorate for Systems (CIO/DS) was up next as he described his campaign of “CIO Implementation.” He began by asking if there were any members of the working press present, explaining that DR had received a lot of ink for his remarks about Agency’s relevance at a recent Conference held by a sister Agency, using the metaphor of Kodak, inventor of digital imagery and their decision to ride film-based products into corporate bankruptcy. He explained he understood the audience, since he had been a Business Development person, 1994-95, before joining the Agency. His charter is to make Agency the “Hub for Defense Department Intelligence.”
He emphasized the critical nature of continuing training in new technologies, which resonates with a lot of folks. He wants rapid innovation- “90 days” is his benchmark, not years. Key points for him:
· Cost for Performance.
· Disruptive technology that drives change- like Uber (and the DARPA Cyber Grand Challenge of 2016).
· Getting to “eleven nines” in reliability- available “99.99999999 of the time.”
· Cloud issues.
· Big Data.
· Social media analysis.
· Mobile platforms.
· The Internet of Things.
· Training to accommodate all the above.
He was supposed to be followed by a Speaker who was intended to give a commercial about the huge DoD Intelligence Information Systems Conference we drag ourselves to each summer, but she did not appear. The meeting was running long but lurched back on time after the break. We were encouraged to attend the event in steamy, stifling St. Louis in August.
After the intermission, the Contracting officer took to the podium to conduct a briefing on “Contracting/Acquisition/Procurement and the Forecast.” He gave a detailed account of how acquisition works and the importance of defining valid requirements, funding and the contracting and evaluation process. There was nothing new or surprising in his presentation, though with a lot of specifics about the baffling process. There was an interesting sidelight on the multi-billion dollar Solutions of Intelligence Analysis contracts, which will re-competed late this year, and which he used for the demonstration of the utility of Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) vehicles.
The prime role was to establish grounds for the evaluation of the “Reasonable” nature of the proposals his office receives (which in the run-to-the-basement on pricing since the wars ended, the bids are often not executable as awarded, wit the successful bidder re-neotiating payment as the mission fails. Ugly strategy). He went on to give a very detailed depiction on the arcane process of going from requirements identification, funding, RFI issuance, industry days, Q’s and A’s, amendments, proposal submission, evaluation, award and finally protest resolution. He seemed a bit defensive on the issue of protests, which are now routine, even in the pre-solicitation phase. He stressed that “only 10%” of them were successful like it was a warning for us vendors to save our money and shut up and leave him alone.
He encouraged questions on the fly from the audience, and was peppered with them from the audience. One off the most penetrating was from an old shipmate, now with a company that has just graduated from Small Business status. Don’t get me started on that whole thing. The Agency got a strange ruling on the interpretation of a successful protest in another Department, and managed to let the old contract shudder to an end without replacing it. That is what I got hired to do, and why I am always looking over my shoulder to see if retirement is narrowing the gap and following closer behind.
The CO says the hunt to find contract vehicles on which to place expiring Task Orders is hurting a whole class of vendors, since without knowing where and how they and where they will come out, and not knowing if they are going to be set-asides or Full-and-open competitions. Many of the smaller companies will not being prime contractors on the multiple-award contract vehicles and as a consequence, may not be able to compete for work they already have. The Contracting Chief said she would take that on.
He finished his remarks on the process and was about to conclude when the Chief of Contracts interjected that the audience was still waiting for the Forecast, since it was the only reason a lot of people came.
His summation was this: “Nothing big until mid-October and the new Fiscal Year. Nothing else has changed since the last outreach session. Then he repeated the current state of affairs at the Agency: “We live in UFR-Land.”
It is always interesting to find stuff like that out. Useful information to know where you really are.
Copyright 2017 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com