Streamlining Contracting Business Operations

2. Streamlining Contracting Business Operations Breakout Session # 114 Date: 19 July 2010 Time: 11:15 – 12:30PM 1

3. Presentation Outline Objectives and Presenter Bios Common Challenges within Contracting Organizations An Approach for Streamlining Operations (include strategies for user traction) Assumptions and Risks Sample Implementation Questions

4. Objectives and Bios Objective: To present a holistic approach including both process and technology solutions for resolving or mitigating common challenges and risks faced by contracting organizations Presenters: Crystal Washington Ms. Washington possesses 17 years of contracting experience working for the Department of the Army, United States Marine Corps, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. She has been an Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton for 4.5 years working on Contracting Policy, Research, and Development and Automated Information Systems Implementation Chris Chambers Mr. Chambers possesses 13 years of information technology experience working for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, the United States Marine Corps, the US Air Force, and numerous commercial entities He has been an Associate with Booz Allen Hamilton for 4.5 years working as a Collaboration/Knowledge Management Solutions Architect and IT Specialist

5. Common Challenges Compliance Inconsistent application of policy and procedures Business unit-specific approaches and templates Resources Potpourri of information lacking organization, no standard naming conventions, multiple storage locations, etc. Stove-piped procurement automation systems (lack of interoperability, integration) Human Resources Workload visibility and appropriate distribution of work Staff familiarity/recognition of experience/geography Acquisition/Contracting personnel turnover

6. An Approach for Streamlining Operations

7. Assumptions and Risks Assumptions Contracting professionals will be accessible for knowledge transfer and interview Contracting policy and related documentation will be made available Suitable portal platform is in place or will be implemented during course of project execution Targeted portal platform will be certified and accredited and conform to all relevant security requirements Version control and maintenance of documentation and portal will be coordinated with Project Officer and relevant stakeholders Management and administration of portal platform and associated infrastructure will be performed by organization’s IT • Risks • Identifying gap between “as-is” and “to-be” documents and subject matter • Resources to close gap • Obtaining substantive feedback from non-project engaged stakeholders • Receiving buy-in from workforce-level acquisition professionals and sustaining a consistent message of use from leads and supervisors • Reliance on IT organizations (availability of infrastructure, software, and other resources) • Migrating data from legacy data stores • Contract/requirements scope creep

8. Sample Implementation

9. Sample Implementation – Policy Research Identified and prioritized Topic Areas for content evaluation and creation Conducted research to benchmark against other federal agencies and identify emerging contracting issues Determined a Quick Reference Guide would be created for each Topic Area Identified three areas for content evaluation – file share, legacy web site, paper files Analyzed and categorized content by Topic Area, document type (e.g. policy, briefing, sample, template, etc.), contract management phase, and publication date Identified activities that could be made into standardized processes; process mapping Developed Quick Reference Guides and templates and aggregated other supporting documentation for each Topic Area • Useful URLs • Defense Procurement Acquisition Policy (DPAP) • Defense Acquisition University (DAU) • Federal Acquisition Institute (FAI) • DoD Directives • Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) • Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) • Tools Utilized • Microsoft Visio 2007 • Microsoft Office 2007 Suite

10. Sample Implementation – Portal Development • Conducted analysis of alternatives for portal layout, design, and technology • Decided upon Microsoft SharePoint based on availability of already established environment • Developed and socialized portal “mock-up” • Conducted survey to identify pros and cons of current tools/information and consensus on portal “mock-up” • Convened “Focus Group” consisting of ~6 key stakeholders to steer development • Established “Beta Test Group” consisting of ~25 end-users to help identify performance issues • Coordinated pre-rollout demonstrations with all-hands events • Held open-house events to assist users with any issues immediately following rollout • Useful URLs • Microsoft SharePoint Product Page • Microsoft SharePoint Designer Product Page • CorasWorks SharePoint Add-ons • Tools Utilized • Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 • Microsoft SharePoint Designer • Microsoft Visio 2007 • Microsoft InfoPath 2007 • Microsoft Office 2007 Suite

11. Portal Site Structure and Purpose

12. Portal Screen Shots – Home Page

13. Portal Screen Shots – Topic Area Home Page

14. Portal Screen Shots – Search

15. Portal Screen Shots – Sample Log

16. Portal Screen Shots – Procurement Profiling

17. Portal Screen Shots – Dashboards

18. Strategies for Affecting Collaborative Culture Change • De-duplication of Resources (High Impact) • Remove materials posted to portal from their legacy storage locations (e.g. file shares, internal web sites, etc.) • Cease the posting of new content to legacy locations in favor of new portal • Post a link to portal on legacy web sites • Coordinate leadership communications through portal-based announcements rather than direct email (where appropriate) • Informational (Moderate Impact) • Request that all users update their POC information on the portal within a specified timeframe • Establish alert on announcements lists for all users • Establish alert on calendar for all users • Post relevant activities/events to the calendar • Establish monthly “What’s New” alert/workflow from portal or consider manual mailing with exported entries from the “What’s New” list • Schedule monthly tips and tricks post to “What’s New” announcements • Convenience (Nominal Impact) • Draft content review process, formalize, and distribute to users so that they are comfortable that the information on the portal is up-to-date and that they will receive notification when content is updated • Post instructions for creating a desktop shortcut to the portal • Post instructions for adding the portal calendar to Outlook • Post instructions for uploading content to the portal • Gimmick • Reward users who contribute to the WIKI/Threaded Discussion/User Links • Use site usage metrics to reward most active users • Alter a document or page deep within the portal to include text which users must email to leadership in order to receive some sort of reward (i.e. scavenger hunt)

19. Questions

20. Contact Information Crystal Washington Associate Booz Allen Hamilton 25 Center Street Suite 103 Stafford, VA 22556 Tel (540) 288-5097 Washington_crystal@bah.com Chris Chambers Associate Booz Allen Hamilton 25 Center Street Suite 103 Stafford, VA 22556 Tel (540) 288-5111 Chambers_christopher@bah.com