Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting (CPARS) Automation Team

Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting (CPARS) Automation Team

Developed a Web-Based Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting (CPARS)
Organization: NAVSEA, NAVSEA Logistics Center Detachment Portsmouth, PEO
Team Name: Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting (CPARS) Automation Team
Related Acquisition Topic(s): Acquisition Practices Streamlining, Integrated Digital Environment (IDE), Integrated Product Teams (IPT), Paperless Contracting, Paperless Program Office, Partnering, Performance Based Acquisition, Performance Based Business Environment, Risk Management
Description:
Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of the Navy (DoN) policy requires that Past Performance Information (PPI) be collected and used in awarding future contracts to ensure the government obtains best value goods and services. On 2 October 1997, Assistant Secretary of Navy Research, Development & Acquisition (ASN RD&A) issued an interim "DoN Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) Guide" to jump-start the collection of PPI with a handwritten note saying "Let's do it!". Automated collection and retrieval of PPI was recognized as being critical to reducing the impact on limited resources, and for sharing PPI across the Services.
On 1 December 1997, NAVSEALOGCEN Detachment Portsmouth offered and secured NAVSEA 04L approval to develop a web enabled automated CPARS application for NAVSEA in accordance with the "interim" DoN CPARS Guide.
In less then 6 weeks, the application was ready for alpha testing and deployed to all Navy System Commands (SYSCOMS) for beta testing on 1 February 1998. In mid February, NAVSEALOGCEN Detachment Portsmouth demonstrated the live application to DoD officials and the DoN Past Performance Process Action Team (PAT). The application met all the DoD requirements for past performance automated systems and was immediately accepted as the automated system for all Navy.
On 4 June 1998, the CPARS Automated Information System (AIS) was centrally funded by the ASN (RD&A) Paperless Acquisition Office, PEO ARBS (EA-21). The application is managed by NAVSEALOGCEN Detachment Portsmouth for the EA-21 (Electronic Acquisition for the 21st Century) Office of the PEO ARBS (Program Executive Office for Acquisition Related Business Systems). Services provided include program enhancements and application maintenance, help desk services, database and system administration, user training, as well as program and configuration management.
Services also include enhancement and maintenance of the DoN CPARS Website containing access to the "production" and "practice" CPAR Systems, system features and requirements, links to the DoN CPARS Guide, the automated procedures manual, the Computer Based Training module, access forms, software release history, and the DoN automated metrics.
A Configuration Management Board (CMB) was established in 1999 to manage enhancements to the AIS. The board developed a Configuration Management Plan to assure the integrity and continuity of "change management". The SYSCOMS, United States Marine Corps (USMC), and other DoN activities are represented on the board with voting privileges. NAVSEALOGCEN Detachment Portsmouth chairs the CMB.
Quarterly DoN metrics are posted on the web site. The metrics capture, by Business Sector, number of contracts registered, completed and overdue, counts of overall ratings, and other counts of usefulness of the CPARS process as determined by the program managers, and source selection officials. Automated queries are also utilized to capture the program manager's feedback on improved communication between the activity and the contractor being evaluated as well as the source selection official's feedback on the quality of the CPAR and how critical the CPAR was as a data source for the past performance evaluation.
Since introduction of the CPARS AIS in April 1998, the DoN (as of 3 March 2000) has completed over 1500 CPARs with an additional 800 in process. Total contract dollar value is over $130B. The 150 Focal Points have registered 4600 users. All elements of the DoN organization utilize the AIS for report card completion, viewing and process status. Almost 300 source selection officials from all DoD Services have accessed the automated system over 1300 times to retrieve completed report cards.
Survey of Program Manager and Source Selection Officials in September 1999 confirmed that CPARS are improving government/contractor communications and performance of contractors. Additionally, source selection officials from all Services commented positively on the centralized, automated source of past performance information. A real cost saver for them.
Result:
The DoN Automated CPARS team created and deployed a state-of-the-art information technology tool enabling CPARS' users to enter and retrieve CPARS in a "paperless" manner. The team rapidly and efficiently fielded a DoN web-enabled application to centrally collect and store CPARS, and retrieve them for use in source selection. The application is now used by almost 5000 DoN personnel and contractors to enter report card information and by all DoD Services to retrieve report cards for source selection.
As a result of the development of the CPARS automated system, the DoN Past Performance IPT made recommendations to direct all DoN activities to utilize the DoN Automated CPARS, and continue to centrally fund CPARS at the DoN or DoD level. Mr. Elliott Branch (PEO ARBS) accepted these recommendations in June 1999.

NAVSEA, NAVSEA Logistics Center Detachment Portsmouth, PEO

Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting (CPARS) Automation Team