Description
Organization: SPAWAR, PEO (IT)
Team Name: Navy and Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) Program Team
Related Acquisition Topic(s): Alpha Contracting, Commercial and Non Developmental Items (CANDI), Integrated Digital Environment (IDE), Integrated Product Teams (IPT), Open Systems, Paperless Contracting, Performance Based Acquisition, Performance Specs and Standards
Description:
The Navy and Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI) Program Team implemented and executed an approach so innovative to performance based systems acquisition that it is unprecedented in the history of the Department of Defense.
In June 1999, the Department of the Navy established a new Program Executive Officer organization to develop an acquisition strategy and execute the NMCI initiative. NMCI is a Department of the Navy enterprise-wide network capability that provides end-to-end, secure, assured access to the full range of voice, video and data services. It is expected that NMCI will provide Information Technology (IT) services to 360,000 seats on completion and valued up to $16 billion.
The new PEO was constrained by limited staff and budget and had but six months to generate a solicitation that would impact almost every member of the department. To accomplish this feat, the project office adopted a commercial contracting strategy to procure IT services instead of physical assets. In negotiations with ASD(C3I), an oversight framework was established that would rely on existing, non-traditional project documentation and an unprecedented degree of ASD(C3I) insight into day-to-day project operations. The NMCI initiative has since been designated a Special Insight Initiative by ASD(C3I) to address its unique oversight requirements. The Project staff was augmented by quickly establishing a highly collaborative relationship with the major Navy commands and the Marine Corps to generate required acquisition documentation and facilitate consensus and decision-making throughout the Department. As an example, the contracting team was formed from the best IT contracting talent of three Systems Commands.
To ensure that the initiative maintained a continual customer focus, a modified Integrated Product Team (IPT) structure was established. Small teams were organized to focus the best subject matter experts from across the DoN on generation of project documentation. To facilitate a vibrant open communications with the user community, a parallel structure was established to facilitate user document review and input and formal communications with the multitude of individual parent commands.
To contend with the geographic dispersion of the team members, a web-centric process for collaboration on all IPT activities was stood-up. That website is extensively used to generate, edit and approve documentation, solicit questions and generate answers, vote and express issues with major project issues, and otherwise share extensive project information. External oversight was facilitated in the same fashion by allowing oversight organizations access to working documents on the website. A separate website was used to facilitate early and continual industry involvement in preparation of the solicitation. In addition, the contracting team itself was composed of contract professionals from numerous echelon 2 commands and the HCA, seeking the best talent available, selected and warranted a PCO not in his command structure to lead the team. The emphasis on customer satisfaction was institutionalized in the contract by including a significant dollar incentive for the service provider based on surveys of user satisfaction.
The Team developed an innovative acquisition management methodology that enabled representatives from the 50 major DoN claimants and participating Joint organizations to collaboratively develop a Request for Proposal (RFP) and issue it to private industry in three months. The resulting solicitation package embodied the best of the DoN and the private sector and represented a true user focus - from user need definition to contract incentives.
Award of the Certificate of Achievement is recommended for the NMCI team's having successfully demonstrated an improved ability to meet combat and support forces' needs smarter and faster through improvements in the efficiency of DOD's acquisition process, and streamlining DOD infrastructure through a more aggressive pursuit of business practice reforms, and enabling a smaller acquisition work force.
The team members' dedicated efforts and innovative management of the NMCI initiative have been instrumental in enabling the Navy to maintain an extremely aggressive schedule in issuing a solicitation and receiving initial proposals for one of the Department's most important acquisitions--a vital component of the Navy's vision for the Battle Force of the 21st century. The team's dedication and outstanding skills in accomplishing these results under such extreme time constraints reflect great credit upon themselves and have contributed significantly to the effectiveness of DoN procurement.
The NMCI Program Team successes are attributed to seeking relief from unnecessary regulation, delegating decision authority to the lowest possible organizational level; eliminating non-essential oversight requirements, military specifications and standards; encouraging maximum use of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) equipment; and achieving best value for the government.
