ABOUT THE DCVC:
The DCVC is a consortium of commercial vendors for the defense industry. The DCVC actively promotes federal acquisition reform in order to foster the development of a truly competitive marketplace. This free market competition will lead to better value for the American taxpayer and – most importantly – better technology and resources for our men and women in military service.
DCVC GOALS:
- Promote free market forces within the DoD acquisition system to create a healthy, competitive environment that fosters adoption of superior and cost-effective technologies available in the commercial marketplace
- Create meaningful financial incentives that motivate prime contractors to seek out and procure readily available, capable, and cost-effective products and technologies for DoD programs
- Enforce existing acquisition regulations that prescribe the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) items
- Align resources and contracting practices to advance technological development of unique capabilities and eliminate reinvention
- Create awareness and a voice for DoD COTS vendors and their capabilities
BACKGROUND:
The Defense Department’s traditional cost-plus award fee (CPAF) acquisitions inadvertently reward higher expenditures and provide no incentives for innovation and efficiency. Positive policies and regulations exist such as the Defense Federal Acquisition Requirements, FAR parts 10, 11, 12, and the DoD 5000 series. These provide sensible guidelines regarding COTS, but lack enforcement.
Numerous articles, reports, and hearings have elaborated on these issues, substantiated the problems with real-world examples, and offered solutions. However, as Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton write in The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action (Harvard Business School Press, 2000): "one of the great mysteries" is "why knowledge of what needs to be done frequently fails to result in action or behavior consistent with that knowledge. We came to call this the knowing-doing problem."
The DCVC is providing a collective voice to bridge the “knowing-doing” gap and to support innovation and competition. We recommend the enforcement and certification of FAR parts 10, 11, and 12 to integrate readily-available technologies more fully into DoD acquisition decisions.
Thanks to the diligent legislative efforts of the DCVC over the past four years and with the signing of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act by the President, we have achieved terrific victories for our coalition -- and more importantly for our men and women in uniform.
It has long been our position that the Department of Defense needs to do much better job of conducting market research before awarding major contracts and task orders. If DOD did so, it would find a wide array of readily available products and technologies that could be inserted into DOD programs – thereby reducing costs and deployment time, and improving the final product. All too often, however, market research is not conducted at all and when performed it is often done in a cursory manner.
We have achieved several successes in this regard in past years:
In 2006, the year of our organization's founding, we succeeded in winning adoption of a provision that required certification of additional market research by major defense acquisition programs prior to receiving approval to advance to the technology development phase (Milestone B) of the acquisition process. The new legislative language was inserted in the FY 2007 National Defense Authorization Act. The insertion into Section 805 of the legislation amended the law and now requires Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAP) to certify that “appropriate market research has been conducted prior to technology development to reduce duplication of existing technology and products.” Other provisions that we helped craft will expand the successful Challenge Program – an important tool for generating savings in Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAP). Read our Press Release.
In 2007, our victory was more sweeping. The defense authorization included provisions that accomplish the following:
1. Reinforces the market research directive on task orders or delivery order
2. Sets a minimum threshold on market research to be conducted on task orders above $5 million
3. Requires the Secretary of Defense to develop market research tools and training for contracting officers
In 2008, the DCVC helped strengthen past legislative language by influencing Section 803 and 826 in the FY2009 National Defense Authorization Act. Read our Press Release.
Section 803 of the new Act requires that contracting officials identify and evaluate the use of commercial computer software “at all stages of the acquisition process (including concept refinement, concept decision, and technology development).”
Section 826 of the NDAA serves to enforce the implementation of legislative language added last year, requiring market research to prevent technology reinvention. Congress is now requesting an implementation report, due by October 1, 2009, outlining the steps that the Secretary of Defense has taken to encourage better market research and to supply the appropriate tools to support contracting officials in their search.
In 2009, while acquisition and contracting issues came to the forefront, the DCVC worked with other groups as well as submitted its own report to Congress entitled "Major Factors in Department of Defense Information Technology Aquisition Failures."
As we work with DOD and our champions on Capitol Hill to make certain that market research is ingrained ever more strongly in the defense acquisition process, we are all confident that we will see the results from our efforts. We will be following up, utilizing our Congressional champions and others, to make sure these legislative provisions are being implemented by the DOD.
Your support would allow the DCVC to greatly expand its advocacy efforts on Capitol Hill and within the DoD. It will enable us to broaden our outreach to policymakers on behalf of our members while citing examples of how our COTS products have been overlooked to the detriment of the DoD, the warfighter, and the American taxpayer.
The DCVC will serve as an advocate for your business. A grassroots advocacy plan is best measured by the strength of the support behind it. As supporters of COTS products and technologies, we need to band together to strengthen our position in the DoD acquisition process – and joining the DCVC is a good place to start.
The time is ripe for change, but we need your help. Join our team today.