Commercial Methodologies for Acquiring Consulting Services: Can Department of Defense Contracting Activities Follow Suit?
Abstract
Spending on services has increased over the past decade while spending on goods has decreased. The procurement methods for Consulting Services (CS) , which comprises the largest spending subcategory of services, has come under scrutiny as a consequence of the results uncovered from an Inspector General Audit conducted in March 2000. The objective of this thesis is to ascertain the best pre-award commercial practices for acquiring CS and draw conclusions and make recommendations for employing these proven methods in future Department of Defense (DoD) procurements. To gather these data, the researcher conducted on-site interviews with the executives and senior level acquisition professionals of eight highly successful firms, all of which are recognized leaders in their competitive niches in the commercial marketplace. Private firms effectively and efficiently obtain top-level CS because of their flexible and innovative acquisition methods. DoD can adopt private industry's sound business practices if the statutory barrier mandating full and open competition and the cultural barriers for conducting thorough market research are mitigated or eliminated.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA401305
Entities
People
- Will A. Clarke
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School