Open Forum Outsourcing Acquisition and Procurement Shops

to program managers (PMs) that a function be competitively sourced. Now, procurement and acquisition shops are themselves being competitively sourced. Competitive sourcing euphemistically refers to outsourcing, or the emigration of in-house functions to an outside provider. Contracting officers (COs), often considered the rainmakers in both public and private organizations, survive by the award and administration of pacts with service providers. Consequently, procurement chiefs are quick to remind PMs that limited permanent staff and scant indigenous IT talent connotes an outsourcing solution. For the federal government, Congress authorizes a set number of employees, or full-time equivalents, making contracting-out indispensable for mission accomplishment. THE AGE OF PUBLIC sector outsourcing has given redoubled importance to statements of work, the procurement shop, and to contracting officers and their on-site representatives. This has been particularly the case in acquiring IT services since the mid-1990s. The Office of Management and Budget’s A-76 guidelines for agencies to evaluate whether to keep noncore functions in-house or outsource them has been applied to all elements of IT. Of particular interest to military planners has been outsourcing hardware and software configuration, help desk support, visual information, records and mail management, telecommunications, and all installation and maintenance of computer wherewithal. With online procurement increasingly in vogue and Department of Defense aggressively planning to complete $2 billion worth of IT functions during the next three years according to McLean, Va.-based Federal Sources Inc., what must be considered by the procurement and the funding program when outsourcing