COMMENTARY
parts of the commercial tech ecosys- tem. While the difficulties they expressed apply broadly to DOD as a business part- ner, SPARTN was able to address them in the SBIR program largely by removing self-imposed restrictions. None required changes in laws or authorities.
Te four key tenets to make the Army a viable business partner are:
• Potential for long-term revenue and long-term relationships.
• A level playing field for companies that don’t regularly work with DOD.
• Sufficient capital moved at the speed of business.
• Access to government-furnished infor- mation, key stakeholders and users.
These tenets not only represent what companies need when doing business with DOD, providing these basics also enables and incentivizes companies to create better solutions to Army moderniza- tion challenges. Consequently, some Army stakeholders who used to view SBIR as a four-letter word are beginning to use it to solve some of their most vexing techni- cal problems.
LONG-TERM REVENUE AND RELATIONSHIPS SPARTN topics offer only two paths for companies on contract: transition to follow-on contracts or early offramp of technologies without transition potential. It eliminates the third option: a limbo in which companies wait, and hope, for fund- ing as a program of record or part of one.
AAL works with cross-functional teams (CFTs) and program managers to identify and frame SPARTN problems important to them and to the Army. No SPARTN topic has ever been released without personal endorsements from both the CFT director and the program manager. Teir
endorsement is a pledge to be involved in the entire process, from problem framing and company selection through to transi- tion or offramp, ensuring the right people make decisions on technology investments and companies have continuous access to the problem and to problem owners.
AAL gains insight into their acquisi- tion timelines and can tailor timelines
What do companies need from the Army to make it an appealing market for commercial solution providers?
and funding under contracts accord- ingly. Traditional Army SBIR has used a one-size-fits-all Phase I contract in which the funding amount and a three-year timeline for development through proto- type are set from the start. SPARTN’s technology-specific funding and flexible periods of performance enable stake- holders to plan for funding continuity so technologies do not sit in limbo for two or three years waiting to be included in the program objective memorandum— the “valley of death.” (See related article, "Understanding Acquisition: Te Valley of Death," Page 92.)
LEVEL PLAYING FIELD SPARTN topics receive an average of four times as many applications as traditional Army SBIR, according to data from the Office of the Secretary of Defense SBIR portal. Outreach for the program happens
across a range of digital channels, includ- ing Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Tis outreach emphasizes the problem to be solved—allowing solvers to under- stand where their company fits into the Army's needs—rather than discussing how the SBIR program works, as the Army SBIR website had done before its favor- able redesign in July. When AAL increases commercial awareness of Army problems and provides resources specifically to help companies through the application process, it matters.
Another reason SPARTN applications are way up is that AAL rewrote SBIR application requirements, simplifying the language and decreasing the techni- cal application length by more than 50 percent. If a company doesn't apply for a SPARTN topic, it should be because its technology isn't relevant, not because life is too short to go through the process.
AAL presumes that companies inter- ested in working with the Army have no knowledge of Army structures or systems. SPARTN problems are broad, presented in plain language, devoid of jargon and designed to allow commercial problem solvers to propose solutions the Army hasn't thought of yet. Te differ- ence between "build an autoloader for field artillery" and "how can we make field artillery fire faster" creates a world of potential solutions. Companies can attend webinars where technical specifications and application requirements are laid out and complex military processes are explained by experts.
As a result, SPARTN portfolio compa- nies with little prior DOD experience were nearly five times more likely to receive follow-on awards than companies whose primary business was SBIR. More compa- nies now see the Army as an attractive and approachable business partner: 44 percent
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