For contracting officers, nothing makes the job easier than having a great contractor on the team. That is the goal of every acquisition; but, of course, everyone has the battle story of the difficult contractor who was trouble from day one – they showed up understaffed, reports were not timely and of poor quality, or they were always looking for the next contract change to negotiate. So, what can you do as the contracting officer to not only avoid these companies, but find and keep the best ones that will help your team get the job done right?
Finding the best companies starts in the contract planning stage. Requirements definition is key since it lays the foundation for the entire acquisition. A poorly written statement of work will only lead to a drawn-out evaluation process with excessive findings and ultimately degraded contract performance due to misunderstandings of what was expected. Some of the best companies will likely chose not to participate in acquisitions with undeveloped requirements since they know it will lead to disagreements over what was proposed and what was actually required under contract. These disagreements may then effect their past performance ratings and for this reason some of the better companies will chose to avoid solicitations with poorly developed requirements. They know under these contracts it will be more difficult to achieve EXCEPTIONAL performance ratings and possibly hurt their position on future acquisitions. That does not mean a poorly developed requirement and solicitation will not receive offers, but the pool of good contractors will be smaller, if not zero, and comprised mostly of companies that reply to any solicitation published.
Early involvement and communication with industry will also help lay the foundation for a strong acquisition that attracts the best companies. Go ahead and send the statement of work and draft solicitation out for industry comment and feedback. This will help identify any ambiguities in the requirement or terms and conditions which may push companies to choose the no-bid option. For example, a draft solicitation that uses a lowest price technically acceptable approach for a technical service requirement may result in feedback that some companies will not bid under this strategy. Companies with a business model of providing a high-quality service prefer the tradeoff source selection approach since it allows for consideration of performance strengths, but you will not know who these companies are unless you solicit their feedback.
Once the contract is awarded, developing a working relationship with the awardee will be key to retaining the successful contractor. Contract kickoff meetings are a good way to begin since you are now past the source selection phase and can have a more open dialog. This sets the foundation for open communication for the remainder of the contract. Occasional tag-ups will then help keep the dialogue open and ensure any performance issues are identified and discussed early. A program team, that includes the contractor, will foster ideas and develop a synergy that can last for the life of the program. Every contract will have a performance issue at some point, but it is the ones that address it early on, via a team approach, that enables a strong relationship with the contractor and program success.
Aside from communication it is important to keep expectations realistic. Your best contractors, especially small businesses, will normally go over-and-above to exceed the contract requirements and keep the government happy, but don’t take advantage of this quality. For everyday tasks, don’t place unreasonable time constraints on submittals and don’t push the scope envelope. Remember, while they want to make you happy, they have a bottom line figure they must meet and unrealistic deadlines and out of scope requests can be detrimental to the relationship. As the contracting officer, it will be important that you act as the intermediary when the program office is pushing for more than is realistic or allowed under contract.
Ultimately, finding and retaining the best contractors boils down to relationship building. The relationship begins before contract award, during acquisition planning. The acquisition team that includes industry during this phase will ensure they have a solid foundation from which to attract the best contractors and then they can build on that relationship throughout the trials of the contract and possibly into follow-on efforts for years to come.
This blog was written by guest author Scott Syring.