WHAT THE CUSTOMER SEES
Capabilities to Consider Figure 1
CAPABILITY Acquisition Planning
Procurement Workload Management Customer Service Information and Data Management Common Operational Picture Vendor Base Intelligence Theater-wide Contracts Intelligence Contract Administration Training DESCRIPTION Provide acquisition planning assistance. Provide pre-award contracting support. Manage new and existing requirement packages.
Provide quality, professional, and responsive customer service.
Provide timely, accurate responses to data calls and taskers; manage contract information effectively.
Provide updated status of current operations.
Provide useful information on the regional and local vendor base.
Provide useful information on existing theater-wide contracts.
Provide post-award contracting support.
Provide contracting officer’s representative (COR), field ordering officer (FOO), and quality assurance (QA) training.
OUTCOME/RESULT
Complete requirements packages are submitted IAW published acquisition lead times.
Contracts are awarded IAW customer requirement docu- ments, in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost.
New requirements are assigned within one day of receipt; existing requirements are tracked until contract files are destroyed.
Customer needs/expectations are met or exceeded throughout the acquisition process.
Responses to taskers and data calls are submitted IAW suspense dates; contract files are organized to ensure easy file retrieval.
Contracting personnel maintain operational situational awareness.
Vendor information is used to make effective business decisions.
Existing contract information is used to make effective business decisions.
Contracts are administered IAW FAR Part 42.
COR/QA personnel are trained to effectively execute contract oversight and management; FOO personnel are trained to initiate purchases below micro-purchase threshold.
capability will be provided to custom- ers. Currently, a standard structure for a contingency contracting office does not exist; therefore, this article explores planning considerations
and proposed
capabilities, and presents a simple layout for establishing and operating a deployed contracting office.
It has been said that failure to plan is planning to fail. CCOs should heed this message as they consider how to establish an initial contracting capability in sup- port of a contingency operation.
CONDITIONS FOR SUCCESS Even before the deployment, CCOs should have a general idea of how they will operate. Setting the conditions for success requires the CCO to consider key elements of the overall operational environment, including the mission,
94 Army AL&T Magazine
operational location, the operation’s duration, and available resources.
Mission: An understanding of the mis- sion is crucial in determining what capability is required for the operation. If possible, the CCO must be fully inte- grated into the mission analysis process conducted by the supported unit.
Location: A CCO needs to understand, among other things, the local vendor base, predominant languages spoken, types of currency, and the information technology infrastructure (i.e., Inter- net availability). CCOs can expect to be integrated with the supported units’ logistics element, where office space is shared, or to operate out of independent offices consisting mostly of contracting personnel. Additionally, operating out of a tent or hotel room is not uncommon. The capabilities-based
approach for a stand-alone office can be tailored and/or adjusted based upon the situation. Whether operating out of a physical location or from a three-ring binder in a remote location, a CCO must understand that the location is not as important as the specific capabil- ity to be provided to a customer.
Duration: The projected duration or length of the mission—whether it will be short-term or enduring—will influence the capability provided. The purpose of a CCO is to provide short- term contracting capability in support of contingency operations. As the duration of the mission changes, the capability provided will change.
Available resources: A CCO should consider what resources are available to execute the mission: How many contracting personnel will support this operation? What is their level of
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