Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Introducing the Insider
The Industry Defined
HUBZones: Anyone Can Play
Beyond Reproach: The Incumbent's Bind
Breaking Wave: Human Resources BPO
Cooperative Personnel Services: Differentiating Not a Problem
Adventures in Marketing
Policy & Regs: Can We Satisfy the Appetite for Cleared Personnel?
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Posted on February 4
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The National Defense Authorization Act of FY 08 contains a long list of provisions that suggest more regulation of, and declining trust in, the contracting process, contractors, and their agency overseers. Many have implications for other agencies, e.g., if a civilian agency uses a DoD contract or vice versa. In any case, because DoD is often the acquisition trend-setter, these provisions may find their way into other agencies' FAR supplements, or the government-wide FAR itself. We summarize and comment on ten provisions that can have a direct effect on your ability to win, or avoid, competitions and prepare for unprecedented scrutiny along the way.
While Congressional leaders (at least one party's) were extolling their success in the first session of the 110th Congress, three really important bills dribbled out. They are months late, have run the earmark gauntlet, and contain some important provisions for government services firms. Alan Chvotkin highlights some of these and makes a couple of thematic observations. One, Congress is fed up with agency and contractor performance issues and is inserting itself more into programs that have, or might, run amuck. Second, using a vantage point that few people have in the industry, he cautions firms about ignoring their own workforce shortcomings, both capability and capacity.
If either party were a publicly owned firm, this emerging transaction would be daily fare in the business press, but it isn't. It doesn't even make much news in the government services industry because the particulars have been successfully cloaked. Nonetheless, we can give you a brief update on known developments. Some MSM are mistaking this for either a mere buyout or the spin-off of one Booz Allen business that had some tension with the other. There's more to it than that.
We take a look at the stereotype of PE firms, why they have largely skirted the government services industry, how much ROI they aim for, and the few prominent PE investments in government contractors.