In a recent blog post we described a procurement method known as other transaction agreements (OTA) that has become increasingly popular to access valuable war-fighting technologies, especially from non-traditional defense companies.
We highlight a structure used by Army Contracting Command – New Jersey (ACC-NJ) that leverages a consortia of companies that agree to participate under a common ruleset to submit white papers in response to the government’s interest in emerging technologies.
10 USC 2371b (Other Transaction Authority for Prototype Projects) provides significant flexibility in how DoD can use OTAs for prototype projects. Another methodology in use by DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx) bypasses the use of consortia and solicits ideas directly from industry with a focus on non-traditional defense companies.
DIUx was stood up in 2016 to “develop new partnerships with the private sector in communities in Silicon Valley and America’s many other great innovation hubs” to “put commercial-based innovation in the hands of America’s soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.” That same year DIUx initiated a first-of-its-kind acquisition framework called the Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) by which DIUx solicits solutions to problems that our warfighters are facing.
To effectively work with non-traditional innovators DIUx divided the CSO into several phases: Solicitation, Phase 1 Evaluation, Pitch, Phase II Evaluation, Kick-offs, Proposal, Negotiation and Awards, and OT Modifications as applicable.
In the solicitation phase, DIUx posts areas of interest (AOIs) on its website. Instead of complex requirements and specifications, AOIs describe problems to be solved or particular technologies DoD is interested in. In response to solicitations posted on the DIUx website, companies submit either a short 5-page white paper or a presentation not to exceed 15 slides. In their submission they simply describe their technology and their company.
In Evaluation Phase I, DIUx uses four factors for evaluation:
- Relevance: Is the company’s solution relevant to the AOI?
- Technical merit: Does the proposed solution feasibly address the AOI?
- Business viability: Is the company viable enough to perform the work?
- Innovation: Does the solution represent a truly unique and innovative approach?
If the company receives a favorable evaluation they will be asked to pitch their idea either in person or through video conference. During the pitch phase the company and DIUx discuss the technology and potential use cases in more detail as well as a rough order of magnitude (ROM) of the costs involved.
After the pitch DIUx re-evaluates the technology based on the Phase 1 factors and three additional Phase II factors: cost, schedule, and data rights. Based on a positive evaluation the agreements officer (AO) will issue a Request for Prototype Proposal (RPP).
Once the RPP is issued DIUx schedules a kickoff meeting with the company, the DoD customer and the AO. At the kickoff meeting, the DoD team will explain the proposal process, which is a collaborative process wherein the contractor will develop the statement of work in collaboration with the government. During this process the government team and contractor discuss different ideas and send drafts of the proposal back and forth.
In the proposal process a final statement of work has been collaboratively developed, accordingly the technical aspects of the proposal have already been evaluated and the government performs a final cost/price evaluation based upon non-traditional government methods which might include return on investment.
After evaluation the agreements officer will negotiate the terms and conditions of the OT with the company. Since the government and the company have worked collaboratively, this is usually a relatively quick process. Often the company is willing to sign the baseline OT without any modifications.
Once the project is underway the government may want to modify the scope of the OT based upon requirements changes or even because of emerging technology. As long as the scope changes are within the original AOI, the government and the contractor work together to update the project scope and modify the OT.
The CSO process outlined above and OTs have allowed DIUx to effectively access innovative technologies from non-traditional defense companies. It offers another way to do this without the use of consortia by reaching out directly to the technology companies and leveraging the OT authorities recently given to the Department of Defense.
