Contracting Officer Podcast 2.0 Episodes
As former Federal Contracting Officers who have also walked in industry’s shoes, Kevin and Paul share their expertise and perspectives in support of the podcast’s mission: Make government contracting better, one contract at a time.
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433 – Contract Length
How long can a government contract be? Most contracts are awarded to meet ongoing requirements. Therefore, it makes sense to have a contract in place to cover that requirement at all times. However,...
432 – Protestor Types
A protest is the formal process for offerors to challenge the way the government awards a contract. It’s like having check and balances built into the contracting “system”. However, protests tend...
431 – Contingency Contracting (Part 1)
“Government contracting” is a broad phrase. There are many types of contracts, and types of contracting that fit under Government Contracts. One of the lesser known types of contracting is...
430 – Advisory Multi-Step Process
Government and industry are “encouraged to communicate” in the FAR…that’s nice…but how do they do that? How can the government and industry teams actually execute that “encouragement”? What exactly...
429 – Advisory Downselect with Trevor Wagner
One of the best ways to improve acquisition outcomes is for Government and Industry to communicate. Open communication is one of the key concepts we focus on in our podcast, as well as Skyway’s...
428 – Thresholds
The federal acquisition regulation (FAR) is chockablock with “thresholds” – a threshold is the term for a specific numbers (usually dollar a specific dollar amount) that requires specific action....
427 – Consent to Subcontract (Part 2 of 2)
Sometimes, the government gets a vote on who contractors subcontract to. It’s called “consent to subcontract”.. Part 1 was about the process to get consent (as a contractor) Part 2 is about the...
426 – Oral Proposals Part 2
Back in Episode 422, Vicky Strycharske and Kevin Jans outlined how Oral Proposals work. They dug into what they are, and why they tend to be a valuable option for acquisition teams…especially when...
424 – Problem Solved
To meet its mission, the government needs to buy things. To meet their mission, contractors need to sell things. Easy, right? Well, no. The difficulty comes when neither side is targeting. When the...
423 – What’s the Problem?
Communication matters. Communication between Government and Industry (between buyer and seller) is a key factor in the effectiveness of GovCon. Without effective communication, both government and...
422 – Oral Proposals
Oral proposals are back… though maybe they never left. Either way, the government teams are using more oral proposals more often as part of their acquisition process. Kevin invited Vicky Strycharke...
421 – Pre vs Post Award Protest
Protests are rarely the best course of action. Nonetheless, they are part of the GovCon landscape so it’s important to understand them. Kevin and Paul cover the basics of protests back in Episode...
420 – What is OASIS+?
In this episode, we dig into the OASIS+ contract. OASIS stands for One Acquisition Source for Integrated Services and the + is that this is the second version of the contract. In OASIS+, the...
419 – What is SETA support?
In this episode, Kevin and Paul explain the concept of SETA Support or Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance Support. This is a specific type of professional services the government hires to...
418 – SMBs in GovCon (or Not)
SMB or Small to Mid-sized Businesses is a marketing term often used in the private sector to describe businesses that are larger than a sole proprietorship but smaller than a large corporation. In...
417 – Notice of Intent to Bid
One of the most frustrating variables of the source selection is not knowing how many proposals the government will get. One of the ways to solve this problem is to require a notice of intent from...