Command improves customer support with MICC Marketplace

By Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Gabbert, Mission and Installation Contracting Command commanding generalMay 4, 2016

Command improves customer support with MICC Marketplace
Mission and Installation Contracting Command officials have developed the MICC Marketplace to support customers and simplify the acquisition process. Aimed at providing greater visibility of contract actions and reinforcing transparency in the acquis... (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas -- (May 4, 2016) The Mission and Installation Contracting Command has evolved from a brand new command in 2009 into the Army's premier contracting organization. We have built a ready, transparent and accountable organization founded in trust and respect, but this did not occur overnight. It has taken the tremendous skill and serious dedication from every member of our command to support Soldiers and warfighters with responsive contracting solutions that contribute to the success of our mission partners day after day.

We all must understand that contracting is a team sport. Our workforce is committed to supporting our customers by working with them on their mission priorities as well as all their acquisition needs. Contracting is a combined effort, and we need to ensure we have an end-to-end process for all of our teammates. Working with our customers takes time and many meetings. Sometimes there have been 32 different ways to support similar requirements. But all of that will be changing with the introduction of the MICC Marketplace.

The MICC Marketplace truly supports the customer and makes the acquisition process easier. This initiative will enable us to bolster credibility, build trust, strengthen partnerships with our customers, provide visibility of contract actions, and reinforce transparency in the acquisition process. Added bonuses of the marketplace are that contracts will more often become standardized and touch labor will be reduced for both the customer and MICC workforce.

MICC Marketplace gets after our teammates' needs and equities. We have a three-pronged attack focused on standardizing and gaining efficiencies across the MICC enterprise.

The first component of the marketplace is a new initiative that we plan to begin rolling out in May. It is a web page designed for our customers' activities. Within this page are user templates, training and direction all of which will allow us to standardize how we interact with our customers across the command. All the documents that make up a requirements package will be just a click away with the MICC Marketplace.

The second component is the further development of the Contracting Tactical Operations Center contract management application. We create a common operating picture between us and our customers with the use of CTOC as we input data imperative to the success of all contracts.

The third component of the MICC Marketplace is the strategic sourcing element that allows our acquisition professionals and data analysts to aggregate all of the output from CTOC, the Procurement Defense Desktop and other acquisition systems to find out how we can buy smarter. Using MICC Marketplace will show us how we can use strategic instruments to gain a better buying power for the Army.

This initiative will be done in phases. Phase One has already begun, and is the initial standardization as the MICC Marketplace website goes live. The second phase will permit users to automatically upload their documents for the procurement they want the MICC to execute. Developers also will constantly fine tune the site to make sure the marketplace is easy to use as it is to navigate through the site. Follow-on phases to the MICC Marketplace will focus on standardizing other functions that we perform, such as the Government Purchase Card program and reverse auctioning, just to name two.

The MICC Marketplace is going to save a lot of time, standardize what we do and how we do it, cut down on the number of exchanges that take place, and connect all of the different systems we use while reducing duplication. In the process, it makes it easier for our users. We are coordinating with officials from the Installation Management Command, Army Materiel Command, Training and Doctrine Command and other major customers to ensure the standardization of these products fit into their acquisition management processes.

All of our users are going to go to the MICC Marketplace, and this site is going to show them how to do business with the MICC. There is a link from each office's website to the MICC Marketplace. If our customers need training on how to be a contracting officer's representative or how the acquisition system works, they will be able to find what they need on this website, because everything they need will be linked at this site. Different documents required for different actions at different dollar thresholds will be delineated clearly with the marketplace. The documents our customers need will already be available in templates at the site. What is required and the format in which it is required will be standardized across the enterprise, which will further enhance the MICC's ability to accomplish the mission more efficiently and effectively.

Gone will be the days where every MICC office developed its own way to make a small purchase. There will be only one way - the MICC way. The MICC Marketplace will unify the command.

As our customers use this application, their data inputs go directly into CTOC. Then our contracting specialists execute the action. If the request is under the simplified threshold, we already have the simplified acquisition form developed by members of the MICC Contracting Operations Directorate that is being used across the command and in Afghanistan. Throughout the MICC Marketplace process, contracts will be standardized, time to accomplish contracting will be faster and touch labor will be reduced for both the customer and MICC professionals.

Some elements of our business model such as advanced acquisition planning will remain critical and still require a little old-fashioned contracting that calls for sitting down with customers. But with the MICC Marketplace, everything our customers need will be right at their fingertips.

Maj. Andra Moore, the MICC-Fort Belvoir executive officer, is the project lead for the MICC Marketplace. She has teamed with MICC and Army Contracting Command officials and DOD partners on this forward-thinking, joint venture.

She believes the website, at its fullest operational capability, will have a profound and immediate impact on how we do business across the enterprise. The functionality will arm leaders across the stakeholder spectrum with precise data relevant to enabling sound business decisions paramount to fiscally responsible procurements and make every dollar count.

Now is the time for the MICC to lead the way in acquisition reform, and the MICC Marketplace is powerfully designed in the best interest of both our workforce and customers. I am confident that when our team and customers begin to quickly adopt this approach they will wonder why we haven't done business like this before.

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Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Gabbert

MICC Marketplace

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