Improving Competition, Pricing & Efficiency in IT Acquisition
mFED Will Keep Your IT
Contract Vehicle on Track
Awarding an Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract is a milestone, but mission success occurs post award. Managing multiple IDIQs with thousands of task orders seems overwhelming rather than orchestrated. Complex compliance requirements can add to the confusion of the contract deliverable rather than providing promised consistency. Federal acquisition leaders who have a post award strategy will have an advantage on cost, schedule, and mission outcomes. Below are five proven best practices that will keep your post award progress on track. mFED experts employ these practices every day to help agencies turn contract vehicles into mission accelerators.
The mFED 5
These 5 Best Practices help mFED clients meet the milestones that move the mission.
1. From Contract to Program
Leading your contracting organization as a program is a key to success. Policy is critical and just as important as process innovation. Innovation complacency can erode fair-opportunity and drive prices higher. Contracts are something organizations establish and forget about, whereas programs continually evolve and improve.
2. Establish a Mission and Vision
The first step is to begin by documenting your goals and creating your mission vision. What problems are you trying to solve? What do you want to accomplish in the next two years? What defines ‘easy, efficient and convenient’ for your organization? Ensuring all staff and stakeholders understand the organizational goals helps right-size expectations and increase satisfaction long-term.
3. Monitor Contractor Performance and Provide Continuous Support
Performance expectations are included as a standing agenda item from kickoff to completion. This practice ensures that performance issues are spotted and mitigated before they morph into failures. A key to success is collaboration with Industry, ensuring they have the applications that enable them to quickly and clearly respond to customer requests.
4. Invest in Continuous Training and Customer Support
Well-trained Contracting Officers, CORs and technical users are critical. Keeping these skills sharp requires constant refreshers on using program resources and applications, understanding ordering procedures and program policies. In the age of AI, training can be integrated into the customer experience digitally at different points throughout the ordering process. Additionally, personal customer service must be available for customized needs. Training in the flow of work and individualized support are both keys to success is helping your stakeholders operate efficiently.
5. Drive Decisions with Data
Collecting data is not enough. Successful IT program execution requires rigorous analysis to provide a complete picture. Strategic data insights allow agencies to understand what they are purchasing, the prices and discounts they are receiving, and how compliant they are with various policies. Structuring your contract data and collecting it in a way that makes the contractor’s participation easy is a key to success.
.png)