Online Event: Department of Defense’s Service Industrial Base
The event will be webcast live from this page.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) invites you to a panel discussion on DoD’s present and future service industrial base featuring: Mr. David Berteau, Ms. Tara Murphy Dougherty, and Mr. Eric Chewning. The discussion will explore the performance challenges of the present moment and examine whether nontraditional firms may find this crisis to be an appealing moment to pursue counter-cyclical defense work. The conversation will be informed by the findings of a recent CSIS report “Measuring Service Contract Performance: Findings on Effects of Service Complexity, Managerial Capacity, and Paired History.”
Researching and manufacturing fighters, ships, and tanks is only part of the picture for defense contracts. Contracting for services accounts for over 41% of DoD contract obligations in 2018. Services include maintaining equipment, moving people and things, creating software, providing server space, and construction. Service contracting is challenging as services can be difficult to define and measure. But services are increasingly central to the U.S. economy. The Department of Defense seeks to attract new firms that will increase its speed and agility—many of these firms are service providers, e.g. data analytics or cloud computing. CSIS looked at a million contracts to evaluate how three factors influence performance:
2. contract-management capacity,
3. and a vendor’s history working with a DoD contracting office.
The existing data fails to explain large differences in contract office performance. More DoD transparency about contracting office capacity could help make the case for further investments.
The report also found that when vendors and contracting offices have a longer history, they tend to have better results. That means DoD needs to think not only about recruiting new partners, but also about helping them succeed.
Services are increasingly central to the U.S. economy and account for over 41 percent of DoD contract obligations in 2018. CSIS experts @andrewphunter and @gregorysanders measure service contract performance https://t.co/wqb69fcp16. pic.twitter.com/Y4ANXARdEq
— CSIS (@CSIS) September 21, 2020
CSIS hopes you will join us for this event on Thursday, Oct 1 at 2pm. Please use the RSVP link to sign up for this event.
This event is made possible by general support to CSIS. This material is based upon work supported by the Acquisition Research Program under Grant No. # HQ0034-18-1-0009. The views expressed in written materials or publications, and/or made by speakers, moderators, and presenters, do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Defense nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. government.
