{"id":24373,"date":"2018-02-06T16:17:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T16:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/02\/06\/inside-dod-the-customer-is-speaking\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:50:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:50:39","slug":"inside-dod-the-customer-is-speaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/opinions\/2018\/02\/06\/inside-dod-the-customer-is-speaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside DoD, the customer is speaking loudly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is axiomatic that customer satisfaction is the coin of the realm. And in government, it has been the primary driver of significant citizen engagement initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But across the broader government ecosystem, especially in acquisition<\/a>, where the \u201ccustomer\u201d is internal (e.g., process and mission owners), the system\u2019s responsiveness and attention to customer satisfaction has been much more uneven. And there is reason to believe the \u201ccustomer\u201d is increasingly responding accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think about this. The use of Other Transactions Authority (OTA) at the Department of Defense has grown nearly five-fold since 2012. Specifically, DoD\u2019s use of OTAs, which basically offer a work around for the traditional acquisition process, often through prototyping of systems outside of the Federal Acquisition Regulations, doubled from 2015 to 2016 and grew another forty percent in the following year. Air Force Research Lab\u2019s use of OTAs has grown by a whopping 1,600 percent; the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency\u2019s a full 1,000 percent; and the Army, long the most significant user of OTAs, by nearly 500 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All told, more than $2 billion in OTAs were signed in 2017 (vs. just over $400 million in 2012) and it is expected that 2018 will be another record year. Moreover, while OTAs have traditionally been focused on mission-related technology research and development, more and more are today aimed at applied business systems technologies that have been largely proven through commercial use and are ready for demonstration and rapid expansion in the defense enterprise. In other words, the customer is increasingly using OTAs to improve operations and to reach a vastly expanded base of capabilities that continue to be generally inaccessible through the traditional acquisition system. <\/p>\n\n\n\t