Transition of PEO STRI’s Contracting Center

On 9 February 2015 the Program Executive Office Simulation, Training and Instrumentation’s (PEO STRI’s) Contracting Center officially transitioned to the Army Contracting Command (ACC), renaming the former PEO STRI Contracting Center to Army Contracting Command – Orlando (ACC-Orlando). Mr. Joe Giunta will still serve as the Executive Director/Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting (PARC). In addition to this change, the Head of Contracting Activity (HCA) for PEO STRI was transferred from the Program Executive Officer MG Jon Maddux to Gen Dennis Via, Commander of the Army Materiel Command. The latter action was part of an Army-wide effort to consolidate all HCA’s under one command.

SEAMLESS TRANSITION/OPEN COMMUNICATION

The leadership change took place on 9 February but the complete transition will occur over the next year and a half. ACC-Orlando’s primary customer will remain PEO STRI, but over the transition ACC-Orlando will expand its customer base to support requirements outside of PEO STRI. Mr. Giunta discussed this transition in the February Procurement Acquisition Lead Time (PALT) meeting, saying this transition will be seamless to industry partners. He went on to say ACC-Orlando would not only continue to provide world-class support to PEO STRI but would work to improve their communication with industry. ACC-Orlando is already an open office, always willing to meet with industry one-on-one, but they also have three unique initiatives to improve communication with industry. These initiatives are:

Procurement Acquisition Lead Time (PALT) – This is a monthly forum where PEO STRI Staff, Project Management Offices (PMOs) and ACC-Orlando representatives meet with Industry to enable direct communication. The Government usually starts this monthly forum with a few “push” items but quickly opens up the meeting for questions. Industry is allowed to ask any appropriate question about upcoming contracts (in or out of the PALT process) or status of contracts in source selection as long as the questions conform to statutory requirements outlined in FAR 15.201. For a list of upcoming PALT dates for calendar year 2015, please go to: https://bop.peostri.army.mil/sites/bop/Contract%20Vehicles/STOCII.aspx
Source Selection Improvement Group (SSIG) – PEO STRI formed a working-level SSIG Focus Group in April 2014 to address specific concerns from an Industry perspective to encourage best practices and potential process improvements. This group is made up of Government and both large and small business representatives from Industry. This pilot SSIG ended in December 2014 providing recommendations presented to the PARC to implement improvements in the PALT process. PEO STRI anticipates future follow-on focus groups with new Industry partners to address additional source-selection-related issues. To find out more about this group or sign up for follow-on groups go to: https://bop.peostri.army.mil/sites/bop/ssig/default.aspx
Contract Tracking Schedule – This is a new initiative started by the ACC-Orlando PARC as a result of the SSIG. The schedule is still in development and will not be implemented until May 2015. The purpose of this schedule is two-fold: it prompts requirements developers to prepare for new or re-competed contracts and allows industry to know timelines of opportunities they are interested in pursuing. Once developed, this schedule can be found at the ACC-Orlando Business Opportunity Portal (BOP): https://bop.peostri.army.mil/sites/bop/default.aspx

NEW OPPORTUNITIES

ACC-Orlando’s first mission outside PEO STRI support is to develop requirements and release new solicitations for training support service requirements transferring off the War Fighter Focus (WFF) contract. These training support services were initially going to be task order on the Teach Educate And CoacH (TEACH) contract PEO STRI cancelled in June 2014, but will now be developed and evaluated by ACC-Orlando. These services have been divided into Army and non-Army training services and will be acquired through a number of future contract vehicles with planned release dates from FY 2015 through FY 2018. These contracts will provide great opportunities for companies trying to break into the PEO STRI market – especially small businesses. A list of both the Army and non-Army training services task orders coming off the WWF contract can be found on the ACC-Orland BOP but the lists are only a start. More training support services requirements could be added in the future based on mission needs of the Army, sister services and other federal agencies. To pull down these two lists, please go to:

https://bop.peostri.army.mil/sites/bop/PALT%20Update%20Session%20Briefings/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2fsites%2fbop%2fPALT%20Update%20Session%20Briefings%2fWFF%20Transition&FolderCTID=&View=%7b9711801E-35F4-4158-BEE3-FEB4370F703F%7d

Agility consultants understand the Orlando market and are ingrained in PEO STRI, Team Orlando and ACC-Orlando. We can provide business development, capture and proposal support through consultants who not only know the people and the mission, but have served on Source Selections Boards for PEO STRI. Please let us know how we can help your company penetrate this new market or grow your presence in the Orlando market.