Contracting Officer Podcast
Slides
Knowledge & Insights From Contracting Officers
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Episode 060
Who are the Key Players in an Acquisition?
Original Air Date: Jan 3, 2016
Hosts: Kevin Jans & Paul Schauer
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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
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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.
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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
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The Government Contracting Ecosystem
• Government:
• 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”
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The Government Contracting Ecosystem
• Government:
• “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)
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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!
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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…
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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 [email protected]
• For Community support, contact Shelley Hall at
[email protected]
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