apsofacto

Hello, Hoosier! If you receive an answer from them please let us know. I've had a similar situation, but was operating under a state law without the three-firm requirement. The purpose of the law was to ensure public safety by not low-bidding engineering work, so it seems odd that the application of the law would lead to the relaxation of safety standards. Separate question: Does your agency have a file cabinet of statements of qualifications handy?: We have no such cabinet, and I'm curious if we should.

I may be slow, but I don't understand the difference between "safeguarding" and "information security" after reading the answer. I gleaned that "safeguarding" is a verb and "information security" is not, and that they are trying to establish "information security" concerns data availability and "safeguarding" does not. However, that sounds like information security is the narrower term, not the other way around. Do you think there was a mix-up?

Second.

FAR 8.002!

I would say that the children are our future, and that you love America. Also that your preference is that they get all supplies from existing inventory. I am so un-hirable.

Am I misunderstanding when I say this confusion could have been avoided by structuring the price schedule differently? Our ability to help the OP is pretty close to nil, but perhaps the lesson to take away is the unit could have been "months" rather than "each", and made clear that the implementation was included in the monthly charges, there would be no issue here?

I think we are talking past each other because I'm thinking of value and utility as two different things. It may not be the proper use of that word, though, so perhaps I should stop. I must be abbreviating 'value per dollar' or 'value for money' to just 'value'. Is there a lot of that going on? You often hear people say 'This car is a great value', meaning its a good car at a low price.

Hi, Vern, I was trying to convey that value has a direct relationship to utility, and an inverse relationship to the price you pay (division in a way, I suppose) and not much else. I don't know if you ever really get a number for value, but we try to assign one at work in the form of a numerical technical score which reflects the strengths and weaknesses of the proposal. A straight quotient feels arbitrary unless every procurement considered price and non-price factors to be equal. If otherwise, you have to put a weighting in there somewhere: V=wU/P Once you have a this weighting, why not disclose it precisely? Why not disclose the entire formula? I don't think the operation should be performed, which I suppose echoes the concern of a certain amphibian: http://www.wifcon.com/discussion/index.php?/topic/3455-dod-source-selection-procedures-march-31-2016/&page=2#comment-30990 I'd add that utility has no "unit" like pounds or yards because it doesn't have a physical form. Therefore value can't either if the relationships I described make any sense. If utility were measures in "yoots", value would be measured in "yoot dollars". But there are no yoots. Just youths from New York.

In my personal life I'll get a "requisition" from my daughter for an expensive toy (approx. one time per week). I don't often say "no", but I do say something to the effect of "That's a quarter of our mortgage!". I'm trying to teach her about opportunity cost. This is easy since I am the contracting officer, budget officer, project officer and Secretary of the household. At work, these functions are split between different people. I'm not saying the Government or a large firm cannot think in terms of opportunity cost- it can in theory. However, the Contracting Officer cannot cancel a project and apply that budget toward paying down debt, or funnel the money to another use. You get a requisition for a computer, you tend to buy a computer, you are locked out of alternatives like paying off debt. I think for this reason opportunity cost may not be a good answer to the OP. When performing a price evaluation, I find myself making comparisons to other prices (e.g. other prices received in response to the solicitation, other prices paid by my agency, or other agencies, etc.). I think mean to use the word "evaluate" in the sense that we are assessing the prices we receive. Perhaps performing a price comparison is a better way of stating it, and we are using the wrong word when we say "evaluation"? I think the value of the price is its own amount, but this all feels murky for some reason. I probably need a better finance background. Hi, Vern, Would you say that the following is true? Value=Utility/Price Paid

I hope our planes are unmatched and we'll one day have nuclear fusion, but I was cruelly limiting the question to software. For whatever reason, it seems to be the worst match to our acquisition system. I don't think we have a singe "yes" vote, but we do have some "fairness" supporters (about 1/3 as of now). ADDENDUM: Also, the question was about the acquisition system, not the grant system. So counting some of that research is cheating.

Sorry, folks, here is the actual question. Trying to learn the ropes with the polls: Professor Steven L. Schooner states in his “Desiderata: Objectives for a System of Government Contract Law”: Does the Government enjoy access to the most advanced technology (specifically software) today?

This may be a good question for a poll, but my WAG is there will be no effect.

Jason, do you think we can train Watson to advocate adopting communism in the United States in order to streamline the federal procurement system? I'll bet good money there is no red tape when the North Korean purchasing agent has an opportunity to purchase some uranium. That may be how we get it turned off- our jobs will be saved. Conversely, it may run for President . . .

Hi, Joel, Didn't mean to imply that you did. Just thought your anecdote supported the premise of the article. BTW, Politico crashes my work browser. I wish more web sites were as clean as this one.

Howdy, Desparado, I always thought that GSA allowed 10,000 agency COs purchase one desk each from the smaller subset of contracts, whereas strategic sourcing would require the GSA CO combine those orders into one 10,000 desk order. It would require all agencies involved to settle on a specification, evaluation factors, etc. Or have those things forced on them. It sounds very, very hard for GSA or anyone else to do.

Hi, Joel, When they said most hated, I suppose they weren't just whistling Dixie.

Hi, Lionel, I always thought that was an exhaustive list of knowable and unknowable things. Until I came up with unknown knowns. These are the ones that really make your organization look bad. Like when you administrator does something stupid, something that everyone three levels down knows was a mistake in advance, but the information never got up the chain. I have also been thinking about known unknown unknowns . . .

I probably stick with my employers for too long. I'm countercultural, I suppose. BTW, should we ask how long on average have you stayed with a job? The question is silent on the respondent's age. Age may partially explain the higher number of jobs.

Another reason to add to the list is to help notify potential offerors who register to receive e-mails from FBO.

You can download a copy of "The Undue Reliance on Physical Objects in the Regulation of Information Products, by Pascale Chapdelaine" from SSRN.com. I think it is kosher to excerpt a small passage from it (I added the emphasis): It's clever to point out the double standard. Software operated from the cloud or downloaded without a physical object shoots the same photons into your eyes as the software that is installed with a physical CD. The author notes that we get this when it comes to copyright, but not with software. I like the argument, too bad it may not be a winning one yet. I won't link to SSRN since there is some advertising there. If you want to read more, though, it's free to set up an account and you can create a "briefcase" which is a list of articles you won't get around to reading. If you are curious about anything whatsoever, it's worth setting up an account.

I always thought of software as instructions more than information. It instructs your computer to perform the physical task of shooting photons at your eyeballs. Here's an analogy: Sheet music is instructions to a musician to perform certain physical actions. The paper the sheet music is printed on is the physical container for the instructions. I'd still have to pay Boosey & Hawkes if I perform their music from memory, though. Don't know where I'm going with this, or if this analogy is useful. Is sheet music a supply? I think it is. The musician's time and effort is a service. The *sound* that comes out of the musician is the end product, though. What is that? Sometimes the musician is a robot (or synthesizer) and the service aspect is removed. (Sheet music is almost exclusively black and white. Rarely gray. Or grey.)

Anyone have trouble getting parts for vehicles?

Hi, Todd, That sucks. Are there any purchase card holder nearby? When you asked, did you ask another person to create a requisition? Or did you create a requisition which fell into a black hole?

Oh boy: http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/2016/03/30/marine-corps-broke-plane-parts-museum-raid-aviation-thornberry/82416918/ The author apportions blame to Congress for fighting over the budget, and also to procurement: I initially read this sentence as: Thornberry said that several service members have told him they’ve started buying “basic supplies” like [they would buy] pens and cleaning products “because otherwise it would take three to four months to get them if they could get them at all.” However, the author may actually mean this given the context: Thornberry said that several service members have told him they’ve started buying “basic supplies” like pens and cleaning products [with their personal funds] “because otherwise it would take three to four months to get them if they could get them at all.” It's hard to believe no one has a purchase card to buy pens or cleaning supplies. Either way, it appears soldiers are have problems getting things. I may have to keep our parts warehouse stocked one day, and would love to hear discussion as to what the challenges are. Thanks in advance.

Thanks, Vern- I did mean rifle. Appreciate the explanation.