Contracted support awards mark ‘sweeping change’ for center: All ten phase-one task orders now awarded

Published Oct. 4, 2007
By Chuck Paone
66th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

HANSCOM AFB, Mass. -- The Electronic Systems Center has now issued all ten phase-one acquisition support task orders for its professional (non-technical) acquisition support services program known as PASS. The total value of the awarded task orders is nearly $243 million.

The contracts were awarded to Business Technologies and Solutions Inc., Oasis Systems Inc., Odyssey Systems Consulting Group Ltd., Sumaria Systems Inc. and Quantech Services Inc.

Because of the massive scope of the effort, ESC had divided the PASS task order award process into three phases. Planning is currently under way to compete the remaining two phases over the next several months.

"That's a lot of work for the center and a tremendous amount of evaluation," said Ed Bohn, chief program manager for the effort. "For Phase One, the evaluation teams worked miracles to compete, evaluate and conduct 10 demanding competitions over a very, very compressed schedule -- bravo to each of the teams. The same level of effort will be required as we move forward through the remaining phases."

These most recent awards are part of "the sweeping change" the center has adopted to better manage its contracted workforce, said Mr. Bohn. Combined with the three initial PASS task orders awarded last spring, the Specialized Cost Services awards issued last fall, and the ongoing Engineering and Technology Acquisition Support Services effort, these awards help bring ESC's comprehensive new approach to fruition.

"With more than 2,200 contract support personnel constituting approximately 40 percent of our workforce, there's simply no way to overstate the importance of this transition," Mr. Bohn said.

The center, with its new approach, is centralizing management of the Advisory and Assistances Service workforce, said Linda Jean, chief of the Enterprise Acquisition Division.

"Why do we need to do this?" she asked rhetorically. "First off, decentralized management was resource-intensive, with some 75 fulltime equivalent individuals managing 160 work orders between 102 different companies across the Center. Best practices weren't easily shared and a single integrated site picture of program performance wasn't possible."

Under the new construct, a program office of 22 people will manage 35 consolidated task orders being awarded to the 11 prime contractor teams supporting the $1.5 billion acquisition, engineering and specialized cost services programs.

"Now we'll have a focused and effective management team, established processes and a trained quality assurance network, a dedicated program manager for each program, one contracting officer per contract, and eight dedicated buyers to serve each of the wings and groups," Ms. Jean said.

This is a significant change, one that, at one level or another, impacts every organization and nearly every military, government-civilian and contractor in ESC, Ms. Jean said. Making it all work, and doing it while task order competitions are still ongoing, is the major challenge.

"Fortunately, the government and the winning contractors share an equally compatible goal to effect smooth transitions and minimize impacts to ongoing operations," she said.

So far, the center "has gone about this smartly and has successfully demonstrated the ability to transition," she said. "The transitions for the first three PASS task orders, awarded in April, were well orchestrated with the government, incoming and outgoing contractors all working in partnership."

The center had been under a deadline to accomplish all of it's A&AS transitions by year's end. However, the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition has granted ESC a three-month extension to the existing bridge contracts, which now expire March 31, 2008. The additional time will enable smoother transitions to PASS and ensure continued engineering support until ESC awards its 16 ETASS task orders.

"Although Phase One of the PASS effort was a tremendous success, there's no time to rest," said Linda Sasser, the PASS program manager. "We've all got to stay focused on conducting solid competitions and on continuing to make smooth transitions as we not only award further task orders, but also usher in a new era in how ESC manages its professional contracted workforce."