Acquisition

3 Negotiation Methods: Phone, In-Person and Email

After using all three in a professional setting for a few years, I think these are some general notes that can help new government contract specialists. Phone Negotiations First, I prefer phone negotiations. They’re usually faster than the alternative and don’t give either side much time to delay, meaning neither side overanalyzes its interests toRead… Read more »

Selling to the Government

Folks, I used to work for County government but now I work for the private sector. My job is to sell to the government and it is a daunting task. It is fairly simple to sell to local and county government but selling to the federal government is a nightmare. The State of Virginia recognizesRead… Read more »

Better Buying Power 2.0

Frank Kendall, DoD’s Acquisition Executive, published a preliminary version of Better Buying Power 2.0 on Nov 13 “to ensure affordability and increase productivity in defense spending to deliver better value to the taxpayer and Warfighter”. Better Buying Power 2.0 encompasses 36 initiatives across seven focus areas: Achieve Affordable Programs Control Costs Throughout the Product LifecycleRead… Read more »

Part 1: Chronology of Contractors in American History–The Revolutionary War

By KerryPatton Too few realize or willingly accept the need of US defense contractors. They have been criticized and chastised by media, politicians, military leaders, and the public for too long and its time the madness stops. Some people mistakenly believe that even our founding fathers despised the contractual force and refused to incorporate themRead… Read more »

Making Performance Based Service Acquisition Work for You

By Donald Freedman, Senior Fellow, DoD DAWIA III, PMP Professional sports have successfully used Performance Based Contracting. Baseball players get bonuses for such things as making the all-star team, or winning so many games as a pitcher. Football players sometimes have a contract bonus tied to the number of offensive or defensive plays in whichRead… Read more »

Peering into our Crystal Ball — 2013 Tech Trends Unveiled

It’s hard to peer into a crystal ball and predict what will be the top trends for government technology, but that’s exactly what the experts at IDC Insights have done. Thom Rubel is the Vice President for Research at IDC Government Insights. He told Chris Dorobek on the DorobekINSIDER program that 2013 will be anRead… Read more »

Program Management in an Era of Tight Budgets – How Strategic Sourcing Could Loosen the Squeeze

By Tom Kuhn, PhD and Fellow, DAWIA III from Integrity Matters blog For a better part of twelve years the federal budget has been pretty ample and programs were free to operate in a much more flexible environment. “Supplemental” allotments of funding were in large supply at the Department of Defense (DoD). Then the faucetRead… Read more »