Small-Business Opportunities with the Navy
Order Instructions:
Assignment 1: Small-Business Opportunities with the Navy
Due Week 3 and worth 150 points
Imagine that you are the owner of a small floor refinishing business that provides a specialty coating product for ceramic tile and marble floors. There is no other local flooring business that provides this service. Having recently received a patent on your product, you are ready to expand your business by competing for Navy contracts at the local base, which is located a few miles away. The service you want to sell is the specialty coating, the application of the coating, and a regular maintenance schedule. Your company consists of you, one office assistant, and two production employees.
Note: You will be referencing this business throughout all five assignments for this course. Please use “First Name, Last Name, Inc.” as the name of your company throughout these assignments.
Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you:
- Develop your company’s acquisition and planning strategy for obtaining a contract.
- Analyze the manner in which utilizing SmartPay or a similar program in electronic contracting will assist your company and the Navy. Provide a rationale for your response.
- Use at least three (3) quality references Note: Wikipedia and other related websites do not qualify as academic resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
- Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
- Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:
· Describe the nature of government contracting, including authority, responsibilities, and legal considerations.
· Explain the government acquisition process using sealed bidding, negotiations, and alternative contracting methods.
· Use technology and information resources to research issues in federal acquisition and contract management.
· Write clearly and concisely about federal acquisition and contract management using proper writing mechanics.
See the rubric attached
SAMPLE ANSWER
Assignment 1: Small-Business Opportunities with the Navy
Ben Rose Inc., is a small business dealing in small floor refinishing and provides specialty-coating products for marble floors and ceramic tile. The company strives to expand and therefore, competes for Navy contracts at the local base. The company wants to sell specialty coating, the application of the coating and regular maintenance schedule service to the Naval. This paper provides the acquisition and planning strategy to obtain the contract and provide analysis on how utilizing Smart Pay will assist the company and the Navy.
Acquisition planning is very important at it will allow the company to come up with appropriate documentations that will enable the company to compete favorably. It is a process where concerned personnel coordinate comprehensively to meet the agency need in a timely manner and at reasonable cost (Acquisition. Gov. 2014). This process as well includes development of overall strategy for managing the acquisition.
The moment Navy identifies the need of these services, planning shall commence. I will inform the team that will be responsible for various aspects of the acquisition. Since we are only four individuals’ one-office assistant, two production employees, and I. Everyone will be assigned with their duties (Acquisition. Gov. 2014). I will handle contracting responsibilities myself while technical duties will be assigned to the office assistant. I will therefore reveiew previous plans for similar acquisitions and discuss them with the key personnel in charge of the acquisitions. At this stage, some revisions may be made to ensure that the right and relevant information is provided. I will then consult with the logistics personals to determine the type, quality and quantity and delivery requirements (Mueller, 2012). I will then coordinate with the contracting officer and secure his concurrence in all the acquisition planning. Having collected this information, I will them write an acquisition plan by providing all the required information. The plan shall address all the technical, business management and other important consideration that will control the acquisition. In this plan, specific contents will vary depending on the nature, circumstances and the stage of the acquisition process. Applicable instructors that are in tandem with the Naval implementing procedure will be followed to the later. This acquisition plan since it is for services contract, strategies for implementing performance based contracting methods will be described or if not used, then rationale will be provided (Acquisition. Gov. 2014). Once this acquisition plan if filled, it will then be presented to the contracting officer of the Naval. The process must be in line with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 7 that requires any agency to carry out acquisition planning as well as market research for all the acquisitions (Energy. Gov. 2011). This is aimed at promoting and providing acquisition of some items as well as to obtain full and open competition whenever possible. Therefore, once the acquisition template is filled, I will wait to receive feedback from the contracting officer from the Naval on whether I qualified or not.
SmartPay is one of the new ways of making payment in this age of electronic contracting. SmartPay is a lease to own payment plan that individuals and companies use (SmartPay, 2014). The payment system allows the customers to get the products they want and are allowed to make payment over a given period as agreed. This program will assist my company and the Navy in various ways (SmartPay, 2014). This electronic form of contracting will help my company to offer its services at competitive prices hence this will benefit the company from high accrued fees. The method is as well convenient as the company will be assured of getting its payment. It is as well secure way of making payment. The company that is the naval that is buying the services will benefit because it will have some period to make payment. This therefore enable the company to prepare in advance and make the payment. The company can as well request our services as per the contract agreements and make their payments automatically with the debit card. This therefore, avoids time wastage and heavy paperwork and transactions are made easily. The company as well takes over the ownership of the value of the services provided once they make the payment in their lease plan. In overall, using SmartPay is beneficial to both the contracting party and the agencies and in this case the Naval because it is secure and safe and it is also convenient form of making payments.
In conclusion, it is very important to take time to go through contract requirements to acquaint with the requirements. This is why acquisition and planning stages are very critical. These stages provide an opportunity to understand the contract and its requirements. Therefore as one of the parties interested in this contract, I have opportunity to be granted if I will be able to meet the requirements and meet the laws pertaining to contracts. Embracing SmartPay programs is essential, as it will increase my chances of winning this contract. Smart Pay has numerous advantages to both the company and me.
References
Acquisition. Gov. (2014). Part 7- Acquisition planning. Retrieved from: https://acquisition.gov/far/97-03/pdf/07.pdf
Energy. Gov. (2011). Acquisition planning. Retrieved from: http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/7.1_Acquisition_Planning_0.pdf
Mueller, J. (2012). The Acquisition Strategy. Defense AT&L, 41(3):2-5
SmartPay. (2014). SmartPay=Smart sale. Retrieved from: http://getsmartpay.com/
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