Contracting Officer Podcast Slides Knowledge & Insights From Contracting Officers

Who are the Key Players in an Acquisition? Episode 060 Who are the Key Players in an Acquisition? Original Air Date: Jan 3, 2016 Hosts: Kevin Jans & Paul Schauer

Formatting notes Hyperlinks: Blue font indicates hyperlinks – presentation must be in ‘Slide Show’ mode to activate the link Red bold font indicates a point of emphasis Green bold font indicates CO’s personal comment or perspective

Introduction Purpose of this podcast: To explain the people in the whole process and how they interact Inspired by a recent discussion with a Community member (Proposal Mgr) Interaction between contracting and proposal managers as critical. However: Her proposal company did not: saw no reason to get her CFCM NCMA also did not: “proposals are a ‘subset of the Contract Mgt profession.’ ” Most people don’t see the whole market like we do.

When do the Key Players interact? Acquisition Time Zones (from Podcast Episode 003) Requirements Zone Market Research Zone RFP Zone Source Selection Zone (or sole source) These interactions occur throughout the entire Pre-Award phase of the process

The Government Contracting Ecosystem User (who has the requirement) Acquisition Personnel Program Manager (or COR) (who manages the technical acquisition) Financial Managers – different types of money combined into one program “Reviewers” of the acquisition process Policy Legal “Acquisition Center of Excellence”

The Government Contracting Ecosystem “Reviewers” of the acquisition process, continued Other reviewers as driven by contract value and/or agency policy Supervisor Source Selection Team Technical Evaluators (user, PM, SME – subject matter expert, customer) Past Performance Assessment Group (PRAG) Pricer (may be the CO, may be a CS, may be an actual pricer) Acquisition Consultant (often a grey beard SETA – Systems Engineering & Technical Assistance – with more repetitive experience)

The Government Contracting Ecosystem Industry (some companies use different terms, but these are common) Targeting Strategy (see Podcast 016) Opportunity Tracking (software or manual) PIPELINE Business Developer (broad) and Capture Manager (focused) Capture Manager starts solidifying the team

The Government Contracting Ecosystem Industry Proposal Manager (see Podcast 031 and 032) Often outsourced if you don’t need/can't afford a full-time employee May be anybody, but assign someone! Process Market Research, Draft RFP Analysis Strategy, win theme, story boards, etc. Pricer Owner / Business Unit Leadership (final approval)

Why are Key Player interactions important? Government contracting is a team sport Everyone needs to understand who needs to be involved at each stage of the process All participants must understand their roles, and have a basic understanding of the other roles Everyone can benefit from understanding how the Government acquisition process works You can write a better requirement if you know how industry will answer You can write a better proposal if you know how it will be evaluated

Why Should Government Care? Internally, need to make sure everyone is on the same page. Can't build requirement without users Can't buy anything without finance (budget) Can't do a source selection without physical space IT resources, version control, etc. Can't do a source selection without evaluators Emotions run hot here too! – Need To Plan Ahead

Why Should Government Care? Externally, need to understand who does what on the contractor side Why should I talk to Capture Managers? How does my RFP impact the number of people needed to write a proposal? And the cost of preparing the proposal

Why Should Industry Care? Need to understand who is in charge of what on the Government side For small buys, CO has power: CO is SSA (Source Selection Authority) Larger buys mean more levels of review PEO or Director may be SSA Need to understand who is in charge of what in writing the proposal This is a stressful time Lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities can contribute to a meltdown You do NOT want a meltdown at T minus 2 days!

Summary Terms, role descriptions, and functions vary by agency, by company, and even (and especially) by acquisition (depending on size and complexity) This could be one person ($200k contract) or an army of people (F-22 program) But most of the same stuff needs to be done for every acquisition and proposal, scoped to size and complexity Know ‘who’ is going to do ‘what’ before you start Oh, there’s that planning again…

Contact us We are on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook We also started the Government Contracting Network Group on Facebook. Join us there! Send your topics to paul@Contractingofficerpodcast.com For Community support, contact Shelley Hall at shelley.hall@skywayacquisition.com