advancing government through collaboration, education and action how do i arrive at a fair &...

Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action

How Do I Arrive at a Fair & Reasonable Price?

11/03/2011 Workshop

Advancing Government through Collaboration, Education and Action 2

Information on ACT-IAC

• On behalf of the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council we would like to welcome you to today’s event.

• Before we begin, we would just like to say a word about ACT-IAC. • ACT-IAC is a unique public-private partnership dedicated to advancing the business

of government through the application of technology. Our agenda is government driven. We provide a forum for collaboration where government and industry can create solutions to the most pressing government IT issues and challenges. We provide education and training to build essential knowledge and skills for government and industry professionals who want to serve the IT community. We deliver strategic insight and actionable solutions to advance government’s ability to serve citizens and the nation. We are collaborative. We are trusted. We are knowledgeable. We are leaders. We are committed.

• And we welcome participation by everyone in government and industry who shares

our commitment to improving government. For more information, please look at our website at www.actgov.org.


Your Hosts Today

• Patrick Bradfield, CPCM, Department of Education, Federal Student Aid

• Peter Tuttle, CPCM, NCMA Fellow, Distributed Solutions, Inc.

• Ben Coit, Sapient, Inc.

• PLEASE MAKE SURE WE GET YOUR EMAIL CONTACT INFORMATION BEFORE YOU LEAVE TODAY!!

• THANKS FOR ATTENDING!!!

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Agenda

• Welcome, general introduction and administrative details - Peter Tuttle & Ben Coit• Kick-off - Pat Bradfield and Joanie Newhart• Subject Introduction – Pat Bradfield • Panel – Moderated by Pat Bradfield

– John Nyce– Chris Hamm– Richard Pineda– Elie Stowe

• Break - 15 minutes to organize into 3 discussion groups• Breakout Sessions –-

– Group 1 – Vendor Engagement – Althea Kireilis– Group 2 – Labor Rates & Commodity Pricing - Stacey Lowenberg– Group 3 – Contract Administration – Marie Jatsko

• Breakout Group Findings and Q&A – Pat Bradfield• Concluding Remarks – Pat Bradfield • Networking – Enjoy!!!!

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Breakout Group 1 – Vendor Engagement

• When is it appropriate to talk to vendors in advance of issuing a solicitation?• When a program official or contract specialist lacks the technical knowledge of the

service or commodity being purchased (such as in the case of a new or rapidly evolving technology), is it appropriate to ask for such information from the vendor community? In the pre-solicitation stage?

• Is it legal to ask vendors about labor rates and other cost information in the pre-solicitation stage of a procurement?

• Under what conditions can I engage vendors in advance of solicitation in order to ascertain cost drivers and other aspects of pricing that will impact solicitation terms and ultimately the determination of a fair and reasonable price?

• What are legitimate questions that I can ask industry to obtain the information I need to help me determine a fair and reasonable price, without asking for too much?

• How does one document the results of pre-solicitation conversations with vendors?

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Breakout Group 2 – Labor Rates and Commodity Pricing

• Other than GSA Schedules, what sources of labor rates, inflation indices, cost-drivers (like economic or marketplace factors) exist?

• Other than GSA Schedules and other catalogs, what information is available to examine inflation indices, cost-drivers (like economic or marketplace) factors related to commodity or material pricing?

• Where/how and where do I find the information listed in the above questions?• Why are labor rates, inflation indices and cost drivers important in supporting a

determination of a fair and reasonable price?• How does one use labor rates, inflation indices and cost drivers to set negotiation

objectives and to support negotiations?• How does one properly document the use of labor rates, inflation indices and cost

drivers to support a determination of a fair and reasonable price in the contract file?

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Breakout Group 3 – Contract Administration

• How does one manage a determination of fair and reasonable pricing for changes that invariably arise during the course of a long term service contract?

• How do I prepare myself to ensure that I am ready for negotiating contract administration changes?

• What are the requirements for Certified Cost or Pricing Data and Data Other Than Certified Cost and Pricing Data when modifying existing contracts?

• What is a Certificate of Current Cost and Pricing Data? When is it used? When is it submitted?

• Can I negotiate? Should I negotiate? How do I know a negotiation is appropriate?• When negotiating a change order or request for equitable adjustments and the

contract specialist lacks the technical knowledge of the service or commodity being procured what method(s) can be used to support the establishment of a fair and reasonable price?

• How does one properly document a fair and reasonable price determination for a change order in the contract file?

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Biographies

Joanie F. Newhart, CPCM, Associate Administrator for Acquisition Workforce Programs

Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP)

Joanie F. Newhart, CPCM, has over 27 years experience in Federal government contracting. Prior to her position at OFPP, Ms. Newhart gained a variety of work experience: 13 years supporting the Naval Air Systems Command as a contractor; 8 years in nonappropriated fund contracting supporting the U.S. Army Community and Family Support Center (CFSC); 6 months as the policy chief at the Army’s Information Technology, E-Commerce, and Commercial Contracting Center (ITEC4); 2 years as the Procurement Chief at the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 2 years at the Small Business Administration (SBA) as their Senior Procurement Executive, 1 ½ years at the Department of Transportation (DOT) as their Senior Procurement Executive and most recently, 5 months at GSA as the Senior Advisor for Acquisition Workforce. Ms. Newhart has a Master’s Degree in Strategic Studies from the Air War College, a Master’s Certificate in Government Contracting from George Washington University, and an MBA from George Mason University. She is FAC-C Level III certified in Contracting, is a Certified Professional Contracts Manager (CPCM), and is a National Contract Management Association (NCMA) Fellow.

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BiographiesPatrick Bradfield, CPCM, Head of Contract Activity, Federal Student Aid

U.S. Department of Education

Pat Bradfield’s office is responsible for the planning, execution and management of over $1.2 billion in acquisitions annually focused on the delivery of over $130 billion dollars in student aid each year while simultaneously helping to manage a debt portfolio valued at over of over $1 trillion. Pat joined the Department in January 2003.

Previously, Pat was Vice President, Business Operations for Distributed Solutions, Inc., a provider of Federal e-Procurement solutions. Over the past 25 years he has served in various business development, logistics and acquisition positions in both the public and private sectors and has over 9 years experience managing growth and business development for small businesses. His experience includes negotiation and management of many international commercial contracts as well as the negotiation of agreements between the United States and allied governments.

Pat is a National Contracts Management Association - Certified Professional Contracts Manager and he holds professional certification from the U.S. Army Logistics Management College. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of South Florida and earned a Master’s degree in organizational effectiveness from Troy State University. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at Northcentral University.

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Biographies

Chris Hamm, Operations Director, FEDSIM, GSA Assisted Acquisition Service,

General Services Administration

Chris Hamm is the Operations Director for GSA FEDSIM, a fee for service acquisition and project management organization. Chris’s organization manages over $1.4B annually in contracts. Chris has 12 years of experience in managing acquisitions and post award performance. Chris is a frequent speaker at conferences and panels on the subjects of performance based contracting, information technology service level agreements, and the BetterBuy project.

Chris hails from Harrisburg, PA. He attended Elon University in North Carolina, majoring in Political Science. Chris obtained a Masters Degree in Public Administration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He was selected to the Presidential Management Internship Program in 1999. Chris is married to Julia Hamm, the CEO of the Solar Electric Power Association. Chris & Julia have two young children – Nathan and Alexa.

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BiographiesJohn Nyce, Associate Director, Acquisition Services Directorate

National Business Center, Department of the Interior

John Nyce has over 30 years of experience in the acquisition field. While at the Naval Air Systems Command he led two major military aircraft contracting branches and ended his tour as the Division Director for the Cruise Missile Contracting Division. He also was the Program Manager for all interface requirements and the execution of a 50 million dollar budget of the then newly created Navy Electronic Acquisition office, which was chartered to design and implement the Navy’s electronic acquisition system for the 21st century. John joined the Department of Interior’s National Business Center in 1998. His first assignment was as the procurement chief of a small contracting organization. By 2001, John became the Assistant Director for Administrative Operations having daily management and oversight of 4 highly diverse divisions, 200 employees and an annual operating budget of $40 million dollars. In 2007,John was selected to be the Associate Director for Acquisition Services. Under John’s leadership, the acquisition organization has seen a steady growth and today is comprised of a staff of 250 government and contractor personnel located in offices in six cities across the United States.

John also served five years as a Supply Corps Officer in the U.S. Navy. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration from the Pennsylvania State University and a Masters of Business Degree from the George Washington University.

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Biographies

Elie Stowe, Assistant Chief Procurement Officer, Policy, Oversight and Systems

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Elie Stowe is the Assistant Chief Procurement Officer in charge of Policy, Oversight and Systems at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Among her accomplishments there are the establishment of a Knowledge Management-focused blog, and a Risk Management Unit to assist HUD in improving its acquisition business practices. Prior to HUD, she was the Director of Contracts at several Army Contracting Field Activities, a Legal Executive for an IT firm in London, and a Russian Linguist for the Air Force.

She holds a Juris Doctor from The American University, a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maryland, and just completed her CPCM.

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Biographies

Richard Pineda, President, Dell Services Federal Government

Richard Pineda is responsible for the strategy, operations and long-term growth of Dell’s Federal Government Services Division (formerly Perot Systems Government Services).

Prior to his current position, Richard served as a Chief Operations Leader, responsible for oversight of the company’s business operations and service delivery to its Civilian Federal government, Department of Defense, and National Security customers. He has been instrumental to the growth of the organization’s consulting, business process outsourcing and information technology service offerings. He helped expand the company’s presence in the federal marketplace in the areas of financial management, cost and economic analysis, capital planning, investment control, federal travel management, and overall IT and program management. In 2008 and 2009, his division achieved a 100 percent win rate on all re-compete competitions and attained highest levels of customer satisfaction metrics.

Prior to Dell, Richard’s background includes serving in several managerial positions in the banking and management consulting industries.

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BiographiesAlthea Kireilis, Chief Procurement & Contract Management Officer, Office of the Chief

Financial Office, Office of Administration in the Executive Office of the President

Althea is responsible for all operational contracting in support of the EOP component organizations. Althea is also the Chair for the Small Agency procurement Council. She is the former Director of the Acquisition Policy Division of the GSA Office Chief Acquisition Officer which provided overall management and direction to the Office of Acquisition Policy for major functional areas related to overall contract and program management policy. She was a former Director for Federal System Information Management (FEDSIM) Acquisition Center and was responsible for the overall direction and control of contracting center resources of annual obligations of $1.5B.

Prior to her assignment at the General Services Administration she worked for three years in private industry as an Acquisition Consultant supporting PEO STAMIS and Immigration and Naturalization Service. Althea is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel with more than 21 years of active service in a variety of worldwide Army assignments as a Contracting Professional and Military Police Officer. She is certified FAC-C level III and DoD level III for contracting and program management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from Huron University and Masters Degree in Information Management Systems from Keller Graduate Management School, DeVry University.

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Biographies

Stacey Lowenberg, Acquisition Quality and Compliance Sector Director, GSA Assisted Acquisition Service, FEDSIM, General Services Administration

Stacey is responsible for maintaining acquisition processes and procedures across FEDSIM, assuring the consistency and efficiency for which the organization has become known. She supervises a staff of Project Managers who support template development, policy implementation, quality and oversight, as well as contract closeout activities. Currently, she is focusing on FEDSIM’s cost contracting practices and is developing internal training in conjunction with the launch of the FEDSIM University. Prior to that she spent six years with the Department of Justice where she awarded and administered the $10B Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) Project, the largest contract in DOJ, Justice Management Division history at that time. Prior to DOJ, Stacey had a long history with GSA where she served as the Civilian Acquisition Group Manager, Acquisition Operations Manager and a Contracting Officer at FEDSIM from 1995 to 2005. She began her career in 1987 as a Management Intern with the former Federal Supply Service.

Stacey is a Northern Virginia native and received her BA from George Mason University. Stacey’s awards include the Special Commendation Award from the DOJ Assistant Attorney General for Administration and the GSA FTS Commissioner’s MVP Award.


Biographies

Marie L. Jatsko, CFCM, Director of Subcontracts & Procurement,

Dell Services Federal Government

Marie L. Jatsko, CFCM, NCMA Fellow, is the Dell Services Federal Government division’s Director of Subcontracts & Procurement. Ms. Jatsko has been in the subcontracting / contracting field for almost 30 years. She was CPSR Compliance Manager at Northrop Grumman IT and Kellogg Brown and Root. She is responsible for assuring that price analyses and files are documented to demonstrate “fair and reasonable and in the best interest to the Government and Dell”. She started her government contracting by being an 1102 at Fort Monmouth, NJ. And since then has worked for several government contractors, large and small.

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VP & GM Civilian and Intelligence Agencies at Dell

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