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How to leverage the government’s focus on transformation

October 25, 2018 By Andrew Smith

Vendors with truly transformational technologies may soon find more receptive ears in the public sector, as senior IT executives wrestle with topics from acquisition reform to creating an environment that will attract the workforce of tomorrow into today’s government.

In late August, a number of public and private sector officials met in DC for a series of brief conversations on government IT and procurement, focusing on transformation. These conversations considered how to use innovation for everything from protecting critical assets to reforming acquisition methods.

Three key conversations dealt with how to consolidate procurement schedules, collaboration for technology modernization, and making government more attractive to younger prospective employees.

Keep reading this article at: https://washingtontechnology.com/articles/2018/09/14/insights-shaker-government-transformation.aspx

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: acquisition reform, government reform, GSA, GSA Schedule, IT, procurement reform, regulatory reform, solutions, technology, Technology Modernization Fund

Defense logistics official sees potential in 3-D printing parts

March 20, 2017 By Andrew Smith

Across the Dept. of Defense (DoD), leaders are looking at technology solutions for complex challenges. For future logistics support, additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing may hold the key.

Brig. Gen. Allan E. Day, commander of Defense Logistics Agency Aviation, a field activity of the Defense Logistics Agency, Richmond, Virginia, visited officials at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory at APG Feb. 23 to learn about advances in materials sciences.

Many of today’s weapons systems and platforms are legacy systems that were designed and manufactured decades ago and are maintained through expensive repair or replacement parts.

“Take the B-52 Bomber for instance, it’s a legacy system that’s going to be on the flight line for a long time,” Day said. “Its life is being extended continuously. So, for the logistics community, additive manufacturing is a game-changer.”

Day said he’s optimistic that as the technology matures, 3-D printing may provide a cost effective and efficient path to keeping systems at full readiness.

The general toured ARL’s Rodman Materials Research Laboratory and learned about the Army’s initiatives for unique additive manufacturing technologies like cold spray. Cold spray is a material-deposition process where metal or metal-ceramic mixtures of powders are sprayed to form a coating or even a freestanding structure.

“The particles embed on impact, forming a strong bond with the surface,” explained Victor Champagne, ARL’s Advanced Materials and Processes team leader.

Champagne said the technology has already saved millions of defense dollars by enabling the re-use of previously unusable worn parts.

Day also met with the laboratory’s additive manufacturing team to discuss advanced techniques that will one day enable confidence that critical parts will perform as intended.

“Additive manufacturing gives the unit the advantage to make the part themselves right then and there,” Day said. “They won’t have to outsource to get these parts. That means they’ll get the part sooner.”

Day said he hopes future processes will result in parts that are “just as reliable” as traditionally manufactured parts.

The laboratory is looking to discover new and innovative technology solutions, officials said.

“We conduct the fundamental interdisciplinary research in materials and manufacturing science that will ensure rapid and affordable development of materials, from discovery to delivery, critical to the Army of the future,” said Dr. Jeff Zabinski, director of ARL’s Weapons and Materials Research Directorate. “Our goal is to create a science base that is the foundation for making in-line certified parts that will reduce logistics burden and enable rapid response to unknown threats.

Day oversees more than $3.8 billion in annual sales in the DoD’s aviation demand chain. His organization, DLA Aviation, supports more than 1,800 weapon systems and is the DoD’s integrated materiel manager for more than 1.1 million national stock number items, industrial retail supply and depot-level repairable acquisitions.

“The work that is being done at ARL is extremely important,” Day said. “We need to press the envelope and continue moving forward, finding different ways of creating new parts that will help the supply chain.”

Source: https://www.army.mil/article/183446/

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: 3-D printing, additive manufacturing, ARL, Army Research Laboratory, Defense Logistics Agency, DLA, DoD, parts, solutions, technology, technology development

How one small business chipped away at the market and captured a $75M opportunity

December 22, 2011 By ei2admin

Contrary to its name, marketing and communications company LeapFrog Solutions didn’t immediately leap into the government market.

That happened in 2002, when Lisa Martin’s company won three small consulting contracts from the Federal Railroad Administration, Voice of America and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Others modest government awards followed from the Secret Service, National Credit Union Administration and Office of the Currency.

Martin said she quickly realized that, like commercial entities, many federal agencies had websites that were not in sync with their mission statements. Also, activities such as direct mail, trade show appearances and ad campaigns also were disjointed because each operation was the responsibility of a different domain.

So for the government market, she said, “Our very ambitious goal was ‘make the message matter.’ Whether it was online, offline, we wanted to make the message consistent.”

LeapFrog’s big leap into the government arena began in 2008, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency set aside its marketing and communications contracting as a small-business award.

Following Hurricane Katrina and other ensuing natural disasters, FEMA managers in 2010 decided they needed a public campaign to publicize how citizens could protect their homes and possessions from flood damage through government-sponsored insurance.

FEMA then created the National Flood Insurance Program Integrated Marketing and Advertising and Public Services contract.

About 30 small businesses answered FEMA’s request for proposals, which included managing the agency website, its publications, direct mail, conference appearances and advertising.

“We’d been watching for [the RFP] for a while,” said Mark Nelson, LeapFrog’s business development and communications manager, who joined the company in 2010.

“Our challenge was putting together a strong proposal in response to the RFP and corralling all the [partner] elements,” he said. “For example, we don’t do large-scale media buying so that’s why we enlisted Spurrier Media Group out of Richmond.”

And although LeapFrog does some web design, it doesn’t do the more complex back-end coding that is required, so it brought in Blue Water Media as a partner.

This past March the LeapFrog-led team won the five-year, $75 million FEMA contract to publicize and market government-sponsored flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program.

The LeapFrog team of Blue Water Media and Spurrier Media Group also includes Bender Consulting Services Inc. and former incumbents ad agency JWT, once known as the J. Walter Thompson agency, and Ogilvy Public Relations.

Among other tasks, LeapFrog manages the FEMA website FloodSmart.gov and collates the data from the agency’s call center queries.

“If you go to FloodSmart.gov, you can type in your address it will show you what your [flood] risk level risk is and give you a ballpark figure of what a policy would cost,” Nelson explained.

“FEMA actually has done a really good job,” he said. “They’re in the process of redoing a lot of the flood maps around the country using more digital and interactive tools.” Martin’s team also is tasked with spreading the word about FEMA’s flood insurance assistance through trade shows and by disseminating information to local officials, insurance companies, contractors and others.

LeapFrog Solutions is leveraging its work with FEMA at other government assistance agencies including the Homeland Security, Health and Human Services and Interior departments as well as the Office of Personnel Management.

“We’re also working at VA because of all the health care initiatives; also the military heath care system under DOD,” Martin said.

As a result of the FEMA award and its other government and commercial contracts, LeapFrog Solutions has grown to about 25 employees and the company, which began in Martin’s basement in 1996, will be moving into new, larger offices within the next few months.

“We’ve probably doubled [the staff] within the past two years,” she said. “As we’re growing, one of the things that we’re finding is that communications really need to be more and more refined.”

She said the advent of new social media and the growth of a tech-savvy government work force require companies like LeapFrog to be up on the latest technologies and be able to communicate their benefits. That includes keeping abreast of what the young generation of government workers wants and needs, she added.

At the same time, Martin sees health care initiatives becoming a big part of LeapFrog’s future.

“There’s a huge opportunity there,” she said, citing new opportunities at VA, HHS and NIH, where LeapFrog has secured a blanket purchase agreement.

But “it’s not enough just to be able to build and maintain a website. If you have a solution, you really have to show results,” she said. “When we go into an agency, we’re looking at what we can measure. What gets measured gets results.”

About the Author: David Hubler is senior editor of Washington Technology. This article was published Dec. 19, 2011 at http://washingtontechnology.com/Articles/2011/12/19/LeapFrog-FEMA-contract.aspx?s=wtdaily_201211&p=1.

Filed Under: Contracting Tips Tagged With: blanket purchase orders, FAA, FEMA, FRA, HHS, innovation, NIH, small business, solutions, VA, VOA

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