Strategic IT team increasing efficiency in their requirements

ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Illinois (February 3, 2026) – Jennifer Barker, Strategic Information Technology director at Army Contracting Command- Rock Island, and her team have been innovative and efficient in how they handle their requirements. The teams have actively adopted creative acquisition methods that put into practice the directive from Department of War to transform acquisition strategies, aimed at enhancing speed, flexibility and efficiency. Lynda Armer, executive director, Army Contracting Command – Rock Island, has led the charge to transform by supporting the teams and modifying processes to streamline procurements.

“In addition to our innovative personnel that are eager to accept new challenges, we had backing from Ms. Armer who opened the door to give us more flexibility with updated thresholds, specifically from a legal perspective, allowing our teams to push even faster and take more risks,” said Ashley Smith, a Strategic IT branch chief who was also a member of the Contracting Thresholds Integrated Product Team that worked diligently to provide recommendations for the updates.

The Strategic IT team started small in their quest to move faster. Procurement planning required a discussion/dialogue with industry via one-on-ones or an industry day in lieu of a sources sought posting to ensure the requirement was structured appropriately and procured efficiently. A draft Request for Proposal was required in every requirement’s milestones and they implemented much shorter/trimmed evaluation criteria, including gates/down selects, and use of oral presentations in lieu of written technical proposals in addition to limiting the number of evaluators. Other Transaction Authority evaluations often include a simple matrix for down select to allow efficient review of numerous white papers.

Their changes continued to morph into bigger and better ideas with execution of a best-suited evaluation that only required negotiating with the apparent awardee. They also wrote nearly 10 Class Justification and Approvals to avoid writing a new Justification and Approval every time the customer needed to purchase the same type of software. Lastly, they issued calls under the Army Open Solicitation in a matter of days and used simple matrixes for down select to allow efficient review of numerous white papers.

The team incorporated the use of artificial intelligence, specifically the Fostering Acquisition Streamlining through Technology, Rapid Automation, and Contracting Knowledge tool. This tool is a closed artificial intelligence system designed to simplify source selection evaluations and significantly decreases the time required to complete them.

“We amended a solicitation just days before the closing date to include use of Fostering Acquisition Streamlining through Technology, Rapid Automation, and Contracting Knowledge tool for evaluations,” said Barker. “We knew little about the new system, but our milestones were behind schedule for a critical program so the timing of this artificial intelligence tool was perfect, and it was a huge success for us to get back on track.”

The Strategic IT team is currently working with their mission partner to train an artificial intelligence system, Govly, that will craft the acquisition requirements package. The team tested an IT hardware supply purchase at fiscal year-end with great success. The next iteration targets use for the 15,000 Information Technology Enterprise Solutions – 4 Hardware requirements for all Army requirement owners.

The team’s latest initiative has included standing up Department of War-wide enterprise agreements directly with the Original Equipment Manufacturer to obtain lower pricing and total spend/quantity discounts across the Army.

Historically, software purchases have been through a value-added reseller because the Army Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement requires IT software to be purchased under Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions, which primarily consists of vehicles awarded to resellers. In addition, the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement requires use of Department of War Enterprise Software Initiative agreements, which are also awarded to a third party or reseller as many of the Original Equipment Manufacturers do not want to deal directly with the Government.

“In order to expedite providing vital software capability to customers, the Strategic IT directorate has utilized other available contracting means to award initial contracts directly to Original Equipment Manufacturers, and then worked to scale those contracts to the Army and Department of War needs,” said Barker. “As expected, these high dollar value indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contracts have presented challenges, but the team continues to find ways to deliver effective contract solutions. This approach allows us to get a vehicle in place within 8-12 weeks that provides the lowest pricing available and opportunity for additional discounts under a single vehicle, while doing a more thorough analysis of the Government’s requirements.”

The Strategic IT team came up with these initiatives to speed up the contracting process, and they are continuing to refine and develop new ideas to make things better.

“We dove headfirst into change, knowing that some of our ideas might not pan out, but we were willing to be bold, take on some risk, and try,” said Barker. “We are lucky to have some very innovative and curious personnel who don’t have to think twice about trying something different and are fantastic at adjusting on the fly when a curveball comes their way.”