{"id":1111,"date":"2013-08-26T19:50:41","date_gmt":"2013-08-26T19:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2013-08-26T19:50:41","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T19:50:41","slug":"promoting-real-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/2013\/08\/promoting-real-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense Department Promoting Real Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1120\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1120\" style=\"width: 550px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WC-130J_small.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-1120 \" title=\"WC-130J Hercules aircraft weather reconnaissance loadmaster\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WC-130J_small.jpg\" alt=\"WC-130J Hercules aircraft weather reconnaissance loadmaster\" width=\"550\" height=\"366\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WC-130J_small.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/WC-130J_small-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">WC-130J Hercules aircraft weather reconnaissance loadmaster. <br \/>DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Manuel J. Martinez, U.S. Air Force. (Released)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>By Tom Gerbe &#8211;\u00a0Defense Information Analyst \u2013 BidLink.net<\/p>\n<p>Small businesses have an uphill battle when trying to compete with big companies for defense contracts. Government officials know that small business participation not only helps local economies, but increases competition therefore reducing costs for the military. \u00a0Undersecretary of Defense,\u00a0Dr. Ashton Carter recently stated that, &#8220;Real competition is the single most powerful tool available to the department to drive productivity&#8221;. \u00a0A number of initiatives are in place to promote &#8220;Real Competition&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Twelve memoranda have been issued over the last three years from the president on down, outlining rules and methods for increasing competition in defense contracting. \u00a0All of this is designed to deliver better value to the taxpayer and warfighter by improving the way the department does business. \u00a0At a time when all departments are cutting expenses to reduce the deficit, program managers throughout DOD have a real motivation to act on these initiatives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PROMOTE REAL\u00a0<\/strong><strong>COMPETITION<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The following are recommendations from Dr. Ashton Carter on how to promote competition:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Present a competitive strategy at each program milestone<\/li>\n<li>Remove obstacles to competition<\/li>\n<li>Allow a reasonable time to bid<\/li>\n<li>Require non-certified cost and pricing data on single offers<\/li>\n<li>Require open system architectures and set rules for acquisition of technical data<\/li>\n<li>Increase dynamic small business role in defense marketplace<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Government buyers have a responsibility to promote competition wherever possible. \u00a0If you know the rules, they can be convinced to un-bundle contracts, consider alternative suppliers and even set-aside contracts exclusively for small business. \u00a0The key is understanding the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and how they can be used to benefit your company.<\/p>\n<p><strong>BUNDLED CONTRACTS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In some cases, your company may produce a part which is often included in larger, long-term contracts. The Small Business Reauthorization Act of 1997 defines\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">contract bundling as\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">\u201cconsolidating two or more procurement requirements for goods or services previously\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">provided or performed under separate, smaller contracts into a solicitation of offers for a\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;\">single contract that is unlikely to be suitable for award to a small business concern.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The act requires that each federal agency, to the maximum extent practicable:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>structure contracting requirements to facilitate competition by and among small business concerns, taking all reasonable steps to eliminate obstacles to their participation; and<\/li>\n<li>avoid unnecessary and unjustified bundling of contract requirements\u00a0that may preclude small business participation in procurements as prime contractors.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>In some cases, requirements are bundled together for years even though buyers are supposed to re-evaluate the market on a periodic basis. \u00a0At the time of the initial requirement by the Government there may have been only one supplier for a part, while years later a number of small business may be able to compete. \u00a0As a potential bidder on a contract, it is your responsibility to advise the buyer that you would like to compete for this business. \u00a0If you are successful, buyers may un-bundle a long-term contract for many items and solicit them separately in order to promote more small business competition. \u00a0The Government is required to justify contract bundling and this justification can be challenged by a prospective bidder.<\/p>\n<p><strong>COMPETITION ADVOCATE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When all else fails, each program provides a competition advocate. \u00a0According to FAR 6.502 Competition advocates are responsible for \u00a0promoting the acquisition of commercial items, promoting full and open competition, challenging requirements that are not stated in terms of functions to be performed. They are also responsible for challenging barriers to the acquisition of commercial items and full and open competition such as unnecessarily restrictive statements of work, unnecessarily detailed specifications, and unnecessarily burdensome contract clauses. \u00a0A memorandum from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense states a commitment to, &#8220;Reinvigorate and expand the role of the competition advocate and reinforce the importance of competition to everyone involved in the acquisition process&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>We encourage you to study the Federal Acquisition Regulations and learn your rights as a contractor. \u00a0Many initiatives have been put in place to help small contractors compete. \u00a0 Understanding the rules is the first step toward bringing Government business to your business.<\/p>\n<p>BidLink.net is a provider of defense industry information for contractors worldwide. This data includes millions of defense contracts, procurement history, part numbers and vendor details. This unique combination of resources allows BidLink to monitor and extract important information for the defense contracting industry.\u00a0<a title=\"BidLink.net\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/?utm_campaign=public_relations\" target=\"_blank\">BidLink.net<\/a>, based in Washington, D.C., provides bid search and notification services, competition analysis as well as part number\u00a0<a title=\"NSN Lookup - BidLink.net\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/nsn_search?utm_campaign=public_relations\" target=\"_blank\">(NSN) lookup<\/a>\u00a0to many military activities and thousands of private companies around the world.<\/p>\n<p>For the news and tools to compete in the defense industry, go to www.bidlink.net.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; By Tom Gerbe &#8211;\u00a0Defense Information Analyst \u2013 BidLink.net Small businesses have an uphill battle when trying to compete with big companies for defense contracts. Government officials know that small business participation not only helps local economies, but increases competition therefore reducing costs for the military. \u00a0Undersecretary of Defense,\u00a0Dr. Ashton Carter recently stated that, &#8220;Real &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/2013\/08\/promoting-real-competition\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Defense Department Promoting Real Competition&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1128,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions\/1128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidlink.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}