A new acquisition guidebook published by the Pentagon this month seeks to break vendor lock and ensure the government has greater control of data rights to more effectively build open architecture systems, hold competitions and drive down costs.
The DoD Open Systems Architecture Contract Guidebook for Program Managers faults vendor lock for leaving the government dependent on a single supplier for a product and essentially creating a monopoly.
To avoid this scenario, program managers need to gain control of the data so it can be shared with others in the process of holding competitions for building and upgrading systems throughout their lifecycle.
“Breaking vendor lock is a challenge that many development projects in the Department of Defense must overcome to maximize potential for capturing innovation and reducing life-cycle costs through the power of competition for the duration of the systems life-cycle,” said the draft guidebook, which was published Thursday.
One way to implement changes would be to create a “crisis” derived from a new national security threat or simply from budgetary pressures to alter the competitive landscape in an acquisition, the 155-page document said. The purpose of the “crisis” would be to facilitate a shift in the business approach and the technical requirements by communicating that “new methods to solve new problems are coming and that business as usual must change.”
Program managers should publish the intent to compete programs, including vendor locked systems already in service by holding competitions for upgrades, technology insertions, and operations and maintenance, the book said.
Program managers should ensure that contracts and acquisition organizations are structured for modularity to foment cohesion and a wide variety of innovative and cost effective suppliers.
“Many contracts have been structured in a monolithic and inflexible manner that often mirrors the type of systems they were intended to acquire,” the document said.
Wrestling the right to control the data behind the systems away from the companies into the control of the Pentagon is essential toward opening systems up for competition and innovation, the guidebook said.
Companies view the data as proprietary have expressed reluctance to turn surrender data rights, which effectively guarantee that one firm will keep control of the business. They fear that making the data available would result in lost business opportunities and its use by a potential competitor.
But the Pentagon has been moving to get control of the data rights so they can be distributed later in order to hold competitions for upgrading systems or inserting the latest technology more quickly. It’s a critical part of the effort to introduce open architecture systems, officials have said.
“Data rights are fundamental to breaking out of vendor locked relationships and are valuable for supporting increased transparency across the enterprise,” the document said. “When the government does not possess the data rights needed to re-compete an existing program, they typically become vender locked.”
The guidebook urges program managers to better assess what data rights they have in contracts and identify what they will need in the future to avoid winding up in vendor locked situations. Contracts must be written to ensure the government has the required level of data rights, the document said.
The guidebook calls for limiting the role of the systems integrator during technology insertion by barring the integrator from providing components. It would open the system up to more innovations and cost- competiveness over time. The government should also look to alternate competing products by using different firms or through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
SBIR is a federal program that provides contracts or grants to small businesses to promote creativity and innovation.