Acquisition Project Management
Industry: Government/Services
Capability: Project Management Support/Acquisition Planning
The Situation
Our U.S. Government client was responsible for leading an enterprise effort to consolidate four existing contracts for services including basic facility operations and maintenance (O&M), engineering support, supply chain management, and project management into a single contract. In addition, this contract was to provide these services at several sites throughout the continental U.S. while being managed at the headquarters location. Our client faced a tight deadline as the new contract had to be awarded and executed before the existing contracts expired.
The government acquisition team was comprised of team members from two independent organizations, each with their own distinct culture and mission. Consequently, the team members had to develop working relationships, build trust, and create effective communication channels to successfully execute such a large and complex acquisition.
The Strategy Bridge SolutionStrategy Bridge's solution included both short-term assistance focused on specific project management milestones, as well as long-term, cradle to grave on-site support and guidance. A Strategy Bridge master facilitator facilitated decision meetings with the leadership of the key stakeholders to identify, discuss, and reach a consensus on the acquisition strategy and expected outcomes. With leadership's expectations clarified and defined, we continued to facilitate decision meetings during the acquisition planning phase to assist the management team in developing supporting processes and deliverables that aligned to the senior leadership's strategy and expectations.
A full-time Strategy Bridge consultant was assigned to the government acquisition team developing critical acquisition deliverables. Our consultant, assisted by our corporate bench of experts, provided daily support and guidance to the Acquisition Manager, Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR), Contracting Officer (CO), and other government subject matter experts (SMEs) on the team. The Strategy Bridge team assisted with key decisions and deliverables, including:
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
- Red Team Review
- Communications Plan
- Engineering Change Process (ECP)
- Transition Plan
- Training Plan, Content, and Schedule
The Impact
The acquisition goals, objectives and schedule were all met. The enterprise services acquisition was an important step in the government agency's evolution from an inefficient stovepipe structure and culture to an enterprise-focused organizational model. This acquisition was among the first enterprise-wide contracts awarded at our client's agency, and has subsequently been used to develop an agency-wide acquisition framework for enterprise service contracts.
