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Address Resource Constraints Through Organizational Structuring
Beyond the individual contracting officer training and development, a key recommendation is for senior contracting officials to recognize the resource constraints that may result in the use of CSOs and take action to develop organizational structures accordingly. While the CSO is touted as an easy and streamlined process, it has been anecdotally proven in the CSO Cross Talks and the authors’ own observations to become administratively cumbersome to manage when industry implies a high likelihood of strong interest in submitting proposals. Depending on the agency’s structure, separate CSO divisions and additional personnel may be necessary to ensure the potential efficiencies can be maximized. Senior leaders should ensure sufficient budget for the additional personnel and resources to support the additional workload required to realize efficiencies from the use of CSOs. Contracting offices must also ensure they achieve buy-in from their agency’s technical subject matter experts (SMEs) and all necessary agency stakeholders, such as IT, cyber security, and logistics, to facilitate prompt proposal review, operational feasibility, and close collaboration with the contracting officer(s) to draft successful contracts.
Senior leaders should ensure sufficient budget for the additional personnel and resources to support the additional workload required to realize efficiencies from the use of CSOs.
Publication of Requirements and Industry Involvement Another recommendation is regarding industry engagement as numerous findings point to the need for creative means to interact with potential offerors. To successfully reach the often-nontraditional companies that may otherwise be intimidated or discouraged by FAR-based solicitation techniques, DoD agencies need to make a particular effort to advertise their CSOs beyond the government point of entry. Links to the CSO posted on LinkedIn or industry-specific websites would be helpful. Beyond that, technical SMEs or contracting personnel could attend industry conferences to have one-on-one networking opportunities with the types of companies that appear to have government-applicable innovative ideas. This recommendation
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Defense ARJ , Spring 2025, Vol. 32 No. 1
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