If you want to make your contract management more efficient and see greater returns on your investment of time and effort, standardization could be the solution you’re looking for. Contract management systems and technologies, standardized contract language, templates, best practices, and lessons learned can yield positive, measurable results in effectively and efficiently crafting, administering and …
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Can you think of a time when you said to yourself, “there’s got to be a better way to do this?” I know I can. We’re always looking for ways to make our business practices and our lives more efficient. Standardization provides an answer. It can help increase productivity and efficiency by defining expectations, formalizing …
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Facing an aging workforce, the question of how to train the next generation of acquisition professionals is a challenge that federal leaders and industry managers have yet to solve. The need for training is great, but budgets and time are often limited. Senior government procurement executives and practitioners say agencies have cut training dollars even …
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Employing best practices in Task Order Solicitation Management processes can help Government respond to constant challenges throughout the acquisition life cycle, particularly the acquisition planning phase. The primary reason for using a coordinated effort to apply best practices among Government Program Managers, Contracting Officers, program officials, and industry stakeholders is to increase the probability of …
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Relationships matter. It’s a simple but powerful statement that is true in most areas of life, particularly in business. Trusting and lasting business relationships fuel the creation and completion of projects that serve organizational missions. Relationships lead to new opportunities. In the federal sector, it is critical to build solid relationships between government, prime, and …
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In blackjack, there is a strategy known as doubling down, in which players double their bet to get one more card in addition to their two card hand. Doubling down increases players’ chances of winning, just like risk management increases the chances of success during a contract’s lifecycle. Risk is an inevitable part of any …
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Every year the federal government awards contracts worth $100 billion to small businesses, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA). That makes for a lot of opportunity, but there’s stiff competition to win those contracts. Relationships, connections and trust are crucial to doing business with the government, advises the SBA on one of its blogs. …
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It’s the problem that won’t seem to go away: for decades, government agencies, academics and industry associations have identified a lack of expertise and training among acquisition personnel as a key challenge for the acquisition workforce. Frank Kendall, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, acknowledged the problem, adding a new goal to …
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Today’s fiscally constrained environment is being felt in many places, including acquisition. The Federal Government spends billions to execute its missions through acquisitions. After talking with one of my colleagues about the impact on the acquisition discipline, she astutely said “though resources may be narrowing, the way you approach acquisition shouldn’t”. In fact, to face …
Continue reading “Widening the Aperture of Acquisition & the Acquisition Team”
Recently I wrote an article about the significant role that Contracting Officer’s Representatives (CORs) play in the acquisition process flow. In “Do COR’s Matter in Your Agency? Why they Should,” I advocated the importance of reassuring CORs that they are a valuable force within acquisition teams. This blog generated some really positive conversations, including with …
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