2023 Acquisition Conference Thought Leadership Compendium

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP COMPENDIUM

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A Key Missing Link in the CPARS Process Chain

GovConRx provides proactive contract performance management support to ensure our clients get the highest accurate Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) ratings they earned and deserve The GovConRx team consists of former federal acquisition executives and contracting officials with more than 300 collective years of acquisition related experience, trusted agency relationships and unique procurement insider insights. We employ a carefully crafted mix of tools, processes, and effective contractor-government dialog to ensure our clients’ contract performance is accurately documented, rated, and leveraged to keep existing, and win new, federal contracts. Performance Matters!

Communicating Performance with Contractor Self-Assessments A Key Missing Link in the CPARS Process Chain

If you are a federal government contractor you are aware of the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS), the web-based tool used by federal agencies to collect, document, evaluate and track the performance of government contractors. If you are new to federal contracting, you should be aware that most prime contractors will receive a “performance report card” in CPARS that assesses a contractor’s performance record (positive and negative) on most of their contracts over each contract period of performance. These individual performance report cards, called CPARS, are made available to federal contracting officials for use in source selection and stored in the system for at least three years after contract completion. Your CPARS ratings are continuously collected and rolled up to what we call your federal contract performance “FICO” score.

While serving a critical role as the federal government’s primary repository for contractor past performance, CPARS continues to receive a good deal of criticism from both contractors and government contracting officials To get to the root cause of this criticism, and explore ways CPARS may be improved, we gathered government and industry perspectives on what is positive, negative, or missing in the CPARS process. We have identified what we believe is a key missing link that needs to be added to improve CPARS, specifically frequently communicating performance with Contractor Self-Assessments.

Federal Agencies are required by the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) to provide quality and timely reporting of contractors’ past performance information in CPARS. However, if you ask agency acquisition officials (COs and CORs in particular) they tell you that collecting and documenting contractors’ past performance can beatime-consuming and daunting process – adding to additional acquisitionworkforceburdens. Government program and contracting officials can also change, interrupting key performance documentation and communication chains. The unfortunate outcome, evidenced by numerous GAO and agency OIG reports over the last few years, is clear: Many CPARS reports suffer from a lack of timely, accurate, and complete past performance assessment information. Without question, this predicament has a negative impact on both government acquisition and contractor stakeholders

Our recommended solution is simple – periodically communicate and confirm performance on an interim basis with your Government clients using Contractor Self-Assessments. While we urge all contractors to proactively provide self-assessments to their Government customers, unfortunately not all contracting officials welcome them. To address this issue, we had discussions with Office of Federal Procurement Policy and senior federal agency procurement officials and recommended they issue guidance that encourages the use of Contractor Self-Assessments as a federal contracting best practice. We also encourage the use of Contractor SelfAssessments to establish dialogueon the most critical aspects of contract delivery during execution, to lower the burden on government acquisition officials in the CPARS data collection process, and to encourage increased participation by well-performing contractors – especially small and disadvantaged businesses. This will result in an immediate increase in the quality of CPARS data and can be easily and swiftly accomplished through policy guidance. GSA’s Senior Procurement Executive, Jeff Koses, issuance of a recent Acquisition Alert regarding the use of Contractor Self-Assessments serves as an excellent example.

So, close that key missing link in CPARS by establishing a strong communication chain using Contractor SelfAssessments. Once this link in the CPARS process chain is established, and the benefits realized and embraced by both you and your government partners, we’re certain it will spark a positive chain reaction!

Transforming Program Management: Building a Connected Ecosystem

Contractors and aerospace companies provide products, services and technologies to help government agencies achieve their mission goals. However, outdated legacy systems often cause data silos and limit visibility into revenue, cost, delivery and potential risks associated with a program or a business unit, making it hard to evaluate program performance and make informed decisions.

Beyond technology obstacles, program managers today must manage revenue, costs and margin requirements associated with contracts, scheduling, delivering services or products. Additionally, they have to manage risks, service level agreements, and many other duties to successfully execute a program for a client. Today, many program managers are not provided with the digital tools to evaluate their performance against contract schedules, evaluate risks, and provide foresight into program financial performance.

The overall outcome is an inherently inefficient ecosystem that makes the job of these program managers even harder.

But there’s a way forward: Companies like Salesforce provide technologies that can transform the program ecosystem for businesses. By simplifying program management processes, enhancing collaboration, improving visibility and reducing risks, program leaders can focus on more important tasks, said Mike Mulcahy, strategy and business development executive for global public sector aerospace and government system integrators at Salesforce.

As one of the world’s largest technology companies, Salesforce is leading the way in digital transformation and cloud computing, helping businesses of all sizes connect with their customers and streamline their operations. It

has over 200,000 customers globally and has long partnered with government contractors and aerospace companies to help them streamline business processes, improve customer engagement and gain a competitive edge in the market.

Although the company is best known for its software and applications for managing customer relationships, its capabilities extend well beyond those particular products.

“Salesforce is a trusted platform and we are known for our CRM, but we have capability across the entire enterprise and can add value across the entire business cycle,” as Raj Shankar, VP of Digital Transformation & GTM, points out.

Take Salesforce Customer 360 for Public Sector, for example. It refers to the integration of all Salesforce products and services into a single, unified platform that helps public services manage relationships, cases, collaboration, integration, analytics, outreach and application development.

“We can use all elements of our Salesforce 360 suite of products and work with government contractors to put in place a much more efficient way to manage all aspects of their contracted programs, which creates value towards their business objectives,” Mulcahy explains.

Salesforce is a trusted platform and we are known for our CRM, but we have capability across the entire enterprise and can add value across the entire business cycle.”

- Raj Shankar, VP of Digital Transformation & GTM

Those elements include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Community Cloud and more. By bringing these solutions together into a single platform, businesses can manage their customer interactions and data more seamlessly, gaining insights into customer behavior and preferences that inform their marketing and sales strategies.

Overall, Salesforce 360 empowers businesses to build better relationships with their customers, simplify their operations and drive growth.

“A good ecosystem is one where you mitigate some of what I call the non-value add tasks” Mulcahy says. ”One example is when a program manager has to participate in program management reviews for each of their contracts. They review the margins internally, which is very time consuming to prepare for. In the meantime, they still have to manage the contract, so digitizing that process takes that burden off them, which allows them to add value to the client and organization.”

When it comes to the challenge of disparate systems, Salesforce can help by sharing program data more efficiently through tools like Slack. Integration software like MuleSoft can extract data from ERP, HR, legacy, finance and other systems to allow businesses to bring data together on a single system of record. This integration of data helps businesses streamline their operations and improve efficiency by then utilizing data visualization tools such as Tableau and Salesforce platforms to digitally automate a variety of processes.

The end result is what Salesforce calls program excellence -- increased contract margins by driving efficiencies through digitization and improving customer and client experience, Mulcahy says.

“Having an organization that can collaboratively share, learn and grow from the knowledge it creates over time is valuable, this knowledge is your internal goodwill,” he says. “And a lot of times when people rotate or move out, that knowledge is kind of lost. It needs to be retained for that organization.”

Program excellence also focuses on ensuring programs run as efficiently as possible and driving

focus to key business objectives. The outcome is improved margins and improved contract performance assessment reviews or customer satisfaction.

By performing well on contracts, organizations can build stronger relationships with clients and increase their probability of winning future contracts with an agency, leading to better longterm outcomes for the organization and the client alike.

The end result is what Salesforce calls program excellence -- increased potential contract margins by driving efficiencies through digitization and improving customer and client experience”

- Mike Mulcahy, strategy and business development executive, global public sector aerospace and government system integrators, Salesforce

Customer Success Stories

Salesforce has worked with multiple government contractors recently to assist them on their journey to achieve program excellence.

In one instance, Salesforce helped a customer enhance decision-making by creating data visualizations for program metrics with Tableau. That led to improved process efficiency and centralized monitoring of production, quality assurance and facility staffing metrics. Tableau implementation also increased collaboration between the customer and its suppliers and partners.

Salesforce addressed the collaboration challenge of a second customer that had a problem with information being isolated in emails, applications and file-sharing systems by using Slack to connect dispersed teams, systems and processes, allowing for efficient file sharing, workflows and polling. Slack was a critical component to this customer’s program transformation connecting both internal and external teams allowing them to stay aligned and become more agile.

Salesforce helped a third organization improve its program execution and connect its field airport security operations with backend operations to reduce issue resolution times. This was done by implementing a flexible field service case management system that allowed for a quick and easy rollout of new functionality. Additionally, the system was scalable to meet global requirements.

“You would be surprised at how quickly you can ramp up some basic things with Salesforce within

a program,” Mulcahy says. “The advantages are tools that are easy to use and you can move a lot quicker than you think to stand up elements within your program, in your business units to simplify or create more efficient ways of working.”

Salesforce Tools

Among its arsenal of tools, Salesforce offers a program management solution, which simplifies program management, connects teams and creates visibility for government contractors and aerospace companies. This solution reduces costs, drives revenue growth, improves scheduling and reduces risks by creating a single record for data, helping program managers focus on key performance indicators.

The platform provides digital solutions that help program managers, team members and partners connect and align with KPIs and business

You would be surprised at how quickly you can ramp up some basic things with Salesforce within a program. The advantages are tools that are easy to use and you can move a lot quicker than you think to stand up elements within your program, in your business units to simplify or create more efficient ways of working.”

- Mike Mulcahy, strategy and business development executive, global public sector aerospace and government system integrators, Salesforce

objectives. It features task management, workflow approval and analytical tools that create a digital value chain from capture through closeout, maximizing program KPIs and business objectives.

Salesforce divides program management into four areas of responsibility for program managers: revenue, cost, delivery and schedule, and risk management.

In revenue, the key to successful program execution includes accurate revenue forecasting, staffing programs with the right personnel at the right time to minimize revenue leakage, gain visibility into potential supply chain delivery impact, and providing business development leaders insight into program performance to better manage future growth.

In cost, accurate cost forecasting, identifying ways to lower program costs, automating workflows within business units and program execution such as case management.

For delivery and schedule, it’s vital to keep internal teams, suppliers and subcontractors aligned on program priorities, connect the customer to the current program status and minimize supply chain disruption.

And in risk management, analyzing trends by program and business unit for insight; access to information in real time to drive action; and early warning for underperforming metrics and programs with the ability to take action on them are fundamental to successful program execution.

Regardless of the specific type of program manager, KPIs for each business objective will likely fit into one of these categories. Although the terminology may vary among organizations, business units and programs, your KPIs will likely fall into the revenue, cost, delivery, or risk category buckets. By enhancing visibility

to KPI performance and by creating the ability to collaboratively take action on insights on underperforming KPIs is essential to elevating your program, business unit, and organizational performance.

Where to Start

If you’re a government contractor or aerospace manufacturer looking to achieve program excellence, now is the time to take action.

Mulcahy suggests the first step to building a more comprehensive program ecosystem is having clearly defined KPIs, asking yourself if there is an easier way, and setting goals to improve your program performance.

“Ask what’s important to you and your business?” he says. “How are you measuring your business and your program? What are the goals of a specific program or a business unit?”

After setting your goals, explore methods for standardizing business reviews by using data visualization. This way, you can eliminate the time program managers spend on manual data mining and presentation creation. This is especially helpful in cases where pre-packaged ERPs, financial, HR, and legacy systems are not integrated.

Finally, reflect on how to eliminate mundane labor-intensive tasks that get in the way of more important work and think about how processes can be automated.

“Really think about all the non-value add work in our roles today where you’re simply taking time to prepare things that probably could be automated or digitized,” Mulcahy says. “Look at how much time your program managers spend on just review preparation or information searching and ask if there is a better way to do it.”

Learn more about how Salesforce can help transform your program management ecosystem.