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Contract management

Keeping a Secret Secret

The Pentagon warns that cyber attacks and threats from foreign intelligence services on national security are very real, and they aim to increase protections for subcontractors from foreign hacking efforts so that sensitive information remains undistributed.  Part of the new standard reads, “a company’s level of security is accepted by all prime contractors, systems integrators, and the DoD.” Subcontractors should now be able to better explain their security controls to defense companies. (J.Lynch, Fifth Domain, December 2018)

Subcontractors are being held to new standards, and the Pentagon is serious about poor or lapsed cybersecurity measures. A Pentagon task force has been created to prevent defense secrets from outside hackers as well as a pilot program for the DoD to learn which companies are actually in their network.

In light of those warnings, the Aerospace Industry Association (AIA) has updated the national aerospace standard, which now consists of a list of 110 security controls broken down into “22 control families.” (J.Lynch, Fifth Domain, December 2018) These new AIA guidelines do not replace the National Institute of Standards and Technology standards, but work to compliment them. Updated AIA standards are built around successive levels of security, thus allowing for continual improvement of cyber defense capabilities.

Questions about your cyber security plan? Give us a call at (301) 913-5000, we are here to help!

You Get What You Pay For

The Commerce Department is succeeding in an area where most other agencies have failed: the shared services arena. Glen Davidson, the former executive director of enterprise services at Commerce, who led the shared service’s effort said, “the initiative is saving millions of dollars, providing better services and setting Commerce up of for future successes.”(Miller, J., Federal News Network December 10, 2018)

According to Davidson, Commerce may have paid less in the past, but the quality of services was substandard. He felt that poor quality and lack of timeliness likely impeded the mission. Davidson believes the impact of shared services is clear particularly around IT services.

Rod Turk, the acting Commerce chief information officer, gave a great example of how shared services work.  He recently shared how something as simple as taking printers off of employees desks and moving to a centralized and secure approach reduced costs for printing and maintenance of the printers. According to Turk, the next big effort will be around IT shared services for identity credentialing and access management (ICAM).

Davidson explained why Commerce has been so successful with shared services

•A long view of the effort was taken. It was a crawl-walk-run scenario.

•Data was painstakingly collected The data set a true baseline of current costs, as in the example above, for printers.

•It was understood that it would take money to save money.

Davidson looked well beyond the cost for labor. He said, “Most people look at labor costs. But I go beyond that and look at the costs of the building, electricity, the operations, and maintenance of the technology platform and other things so I could determine total costs. There is a lot of information that currently exists in the systems that we have, but you have to go and find it. No one even knew exactly how many people were employed at Commerce. My standup costs came from Commerce’s working capital fund that is largely made up of contributions from all the bureaus in order to fund my stand up costs. I was under a great deal of scrutiny because any dollar I received meant another organization was receiving less.” (Miller, J., Federal News Network December 10, 2018)

Commerce has built a one-stop portal so that actions, including acquisition, can be accomplished via an online request. Davidson said Commerce will deliver acquisition services for its eight smallest bureaus of the Office of Secretary, mainly around commodity products and services.

Davidson said, “we can continue to deliver IT services in a more consolidated way. We will look at grants management services too. The list of possibilities is endless.” (Miller, J., Federal News Network December 10, 2018)

The current administration will use Commerce’s success as a model for other agencies.

Questions about shared services? Give us a call at 301-913-5000.

There’s an App for That!

The Per Diem mobile app shows travelers the Federal Government per diem rate by city and zip code for US states and territories. GSA’s per diem rates are the daily allowance for lodging, meals and incidental expenses (excluding taxes).

The Department of State sets rates for foreign locations.

For Apple users, the app is available on the App Store, for Google users, the app is available on Google Play.

Give us a call at 301-913-5000 if you have questions about the app or per diem rates.

!!!! E Pluribus Unum (Schedule) !!!!

GSA announced it will modernize federal acquisition by consolidating the agency’s 24 Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) into one single Schedule (!!!!) for products and services. This sole Schedule will have one set of terms and conditions, bringing consistency in contracting practices, across the board.

Can it be true? We’re not quite sure how they will implement this. Will there still be individual acquisition centers? Will this be kind of like the current OOCorp system, wherein MOBIS-like services remain in Washington, video products are out of Philadelphia, etc.? That’s our bet. But we also believe that this will not be a smooth transition for contracting officers, let alone contractors!

Consolidating Schedules is part of GSA’s Federal Marketplace strategy to make the government buying and selling experience easy, efficient, and modern.  GSA’s strategic goal is to establish the agency as the premier provider of efficient and effective acquisition solutions across the government.

The consolidation is supposed to make it easier for government agencies to obtain products and services because the purchasing agents won’t have to search multiple Schedules. GSA states that this means industry can bring their offerings to the federal marketplace using a solutions-based approach, which more closely aligns with the way agencies are buying.

Consolidating to one Schedule reflects this feedback obtained by GSA from stakeholders who shared their ideas to improve the Schedules experience.

GSA is taking a measured and phased approach (!!)  over two years to transform the Schedules. They promise to incorporate stakeholder feedback throughout the consolidation process.

EZGSA is here to answer all of your questions or just chat about the big announcement at 301-913-5000.

 

 

HUBZone Relief!

The Small Business Administration (SBA) is proposing major changes to the Historically Underutilized Business Zone or HUBZone program. The Federal Register defines a HUBZone as, “small business concerns are those that have a principal place of business located in a HUBZone and 35 percent of their employees residing in one or more HUBZones. After SBA certifies eligible businesses into the program, they become eligible for HUBZone contracting preferences. HUBZone areas are generally defined as areas with low income levels, high poverty and unemployment rates, Indian reservations, closed military bases, or disaster areas.”

SBA is seeking comments on the following:

  • eliminating the burden on HUBZone small businesses to continually demonstrate that they meet all eligibility requirements at the time of each offer and award for any HUBZone contract;
  • requiring only annual recertification;
  • allowing small firms to count employees as living in a HUBZone if they move out of the area after initial certification or if the area no longer qualifies as a HUBZone.

You have more than a month to comment, so let SBA know what you think. Submit all comments with the identifier RIN 3245-AG38 by either the Federal eRulemaking Portal or mail (for written, CD, or disk submissions) to Mariana Pardo, Director, HUBZone Program, 409 Third Street SW, Washington, DC 20416.   (Federal Register)

Give us a call for assistance with your comments at 301-913-5000.