mentorship,” said Zurmuehlen, “across the board but particularly in contract- ing. Tere’s a lot that has to be learned in a relatively short time, especially for our military workforce members. Doing that by yourself, without the aid of a mentor, I think would prove very difficult.”
CONCLUSION For Hallock and Harrison, there are many bright spots on the horizon, despite the uncertainties. “Te Army is behind the civilian sector. … We’re using ’80s and ’90s technology for our contract writing systems,” Harrison said.
“ACC’s interim answer,” he continued, “is the use of the Virtual Contracting Enterprise (VCE) modules. Te VCE has been a big help getting us to where we want to be for paperless contracting and standardization across the command.”
VCE, he said, “is a homegrown, internal-to-the-Army process that does data mining and other things to help us operate more efficiently across the enterprise.”
Te Army is also working on getting the DOD-mandated Army Contract Writing System (ACWS) into place, Harrison said. ACWS, an Armywide, DASA(P)- sponsored initiative that passed its materiel development decision on May 15, “is expected to incorporate the VCE functionality
and replace our legacy contract writing systems,” Harrison said.
ACWS leverages modern software architectures “to support the full breadth of contracting processes, with the strategic goal of implementing a single software solution that will meet the Army’s current and future end-to- end business requirements.”
“ACC continues to transform into a more lean, agile and responsive command,”
THE ARMY CONTRACTING WORKFORCE IS NOW STRONGER THAN IT HAS BEEN IN 20 YEARS, LEADERS SAY—AND GROWING MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE AND PROFESSIONAL EACH YEAR. THESE CONTRACTING LEADERS SEE IT POISED TO WEATHER THE LINGERING EFFECTS OF SEQUESTRATION, CONTINUING ATTRITION AND THE DRAWDOWN IN AFGHANISTAN.
Harrison continued, in part by con-
solidating the ACC and its subordinate U.S. Army Expeditionary Contracting Command headquarters staffs—both at Redstone Arsenal, AL—to help meet the Army’s mandated 25 percent reduction of two-star-and-above headquarters staffs. ACC also attached its stateside contract- ing Soldiers to its subordinate U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Command (MICC) and major contracting centers, to enhance training and provide additional staff for those operations.
“Our transformation working group is studying other opportunities for reshap- ing our command,” looking at structural changes as well as how to leverage tech- nology and improve business processes, Harrison said. Technology, he continued,
“allows the command to compensate for smaller and more diverse staffs” and better prepares employees to “operate in more demanding environments that include contingency deployments.”
“We continue to require a highly educated, skilled and capable workforce to meet the strategic demands of the war fighter,” Har- rison said. “As we reshape, our primary focus will remain providing world-class contracting support to the warfighter while being good stewards of the taxpay- ers’ money. Everything we do has one underpinning goal: providing responsive, innovative and efficient procurement
solutions to enable the Army’s global warfighting dominance.”
For more information, go to http://asc.
army.mil/web/organization/aacoe/,
www.army.mil/acc and http://www.
dau.mil/default.aspx.
MS. MARGARET C. ROTH is the senior editor of Army AL&T magazine. She has more than a decade of experience in writing about the Army and more than three decades’ experience in journalism and public relations. Roth is a MG Keith L. Ware Public Affairs Award winner. She is also a co-author of the book “Operation Just Cause: Te Storming of Panama.” She holds a B.A. in Russian language and linguistics from the University of Virginia.
MR. STEVE STARK provides contracting support to
the U.S. Army Acquisition
Support Center for SAIC. He holds an M.A. in creative writing from Hollins University and a B.A. in English from George Mason University. He has worked in
a variety of positions
supporting
communications for the Army and Navy, and has written about defense-related topics for more than a decade. He was the founding editor of the Program Executive Office Soldier Portfolio and edited the Army’s Weapon Systems handbook for six years.
ASC.ARMY.MIL
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