Contract Management articles from July 2002

Contract Management archives from July 2002

Reader response corner.
July 1, 2002... Negotiating the Intersection I would like to address some of the discrepancies and omissions concerning foreign persons in the article "Negotiating the Intersection" (Contract Management February 2002). Although these issues are overdue...

Erratum.(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2002... The performance-based contracting article by Gregory A. Garrett, which appeared in the April 2002 issue of Contract Management magazine, incorrectly stated in myth #5 that fee limitations apply to all cost-reimbursement contracts. In fact, the...

Milestones for NCMA. (President's Forum).
July 1, 2002... As I write this column, my term as national president draws to a close. Serving the interests of the contract management profession has been an honor and privilege. Although there is always much to accomplish, I leave this office with a great...

Is your organization at risk? Early warning signs of business troubles. (Professional Development).
July 1, 2002... Too often, companies die unnecessarily. Why? Because most managers haven't learned to recognize the symptoms of oncoming illness in their business. Management doesn't really know how to "manage" in this situation. They perhaps haven't had to...

Muddling through intellectual property: research FAR and DFARS IP procedures and clauses, as well as common commercial business practices, to negotiate clauses that reflect the risk to all parties on a particular contract.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The mere mention of intellectual property (IP) can conjure up either fear or boredom, even for attorneys. Nonetheless, IP is here to stay, as accessing commercial technology through non-traditional sources is more important than ever. Software...

Adding value to the management of intellectual property: enterprise software can be a powerful to improve the creation and management of intellectual property along the entire IP value chain.
July 1, 2002... Historically, intellectual property has not been an area of significant strategic planning or focus when considering the areas of competitive advantage for an organization. However, the world is changing. The industry-based economy has evolved...

Facing the dangers in the contracting world: Contracting officer representatives, quality assurance evaluators, and other technical representatives must walk a fine line between being a partner and protecting the rights of the government.
July 1, 2002... In the past several years, there has been a significant trend toward contracting-out government functions. Contractors are now performing many jobs previously performed by government employees. The workplace has changed considerably, and...

Open source software licenses--your rights and obligations under a new breed of license: understanding software rights and restrictions will enable contract professionals to perform their jobs more effectively in the future.
July 1, 2002... Software companies have come and gone over the past several decades, but they have had one thing in common--they have restricted the use of their intellectual property through stringent software license agreements. There is a growing new...

Planning for organizational conflicts of interest: advance planning can help acquisition professionals avoid or mitigate costly situations with contractors.
July 1, 2002... The potential for organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) is practically ubiquitous. One of the most prominent examples of this problem can be found in the Enron scandal. The Enron implosion exposed layers of OCI within the company and its...

Drafting software escrow agreements: A software escrow agreement can help limit the risks associated with licensing technology.
July 1, 2002... If you are involved in license negotiations for software, you are probably familiar with software escrow. Sometimes referred to as source code escrow, software escrow is an agreement under which the client can obtain access to the program's...

Legal protection for software: No one method will provide total protection for software products, but by effectively combining several safeguards, software developers can be assured that their products are protected to the full extent of the law.
July 1, 2002... The software industry primarily uses three legal resources to protect the intellectual property and technology of software products, codes, and inventions: patent protection, copyright protection, and trade secret protection. Each resource...

"Knowledge, opportunity, excellence:" incoming president shares significant plans for year. (Special Profile: Thomas E. Kelkis).(Interview)
July 1, 2002... Recently, CM magazine talked with Kelkis about his view of the profession, NOMA, and his new leadership role. CM: In the last five years you have served as a nationally elected officer for NCMA, pursued an MBA at a major university,...

A meeting of minds in contract development and agreements. (Case Commentary).(Ortiz Enterprises Inc. v. Dykes Air Force Base, Texas)(Granco Industries Inc. v. General Services Administration)
July 1, 2002... In 1992, a B1 bomber crashed at the Coal Mine Ranch in Van Horn, Texas. In May 1998, the contracting officer (CO) at Dykes Air Force Base (DAFB) solicited M.E.E., Inc. (MEE) to provide a bid to clean up the crash site. Officers of MEE,...

Web solutions for Contract Management. (Information Technology).(Nextance)(Software Review)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Nextance offers enterprise software products and solutions for contract and commitment management. Here are a few highlights about the product and solution features. The Learning Curve Nextance software focuses on contract management...

MED Week. (Small Business Briefs).
July 1, 2002... The 20th Annual National Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week is scheduled this year for September 24-27, 2002, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. Co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development...

Corporate contracts. (Small Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The General Services Administration Federal Supply Service (GSA FSS) has issued solicitation number FCO-00-CORP-0000C for corporate contracts. GSA envisions corporate contracting as a single storefront for all products and services for the...

Size standards. (Small Business Briefs).(Small Business Administration to icrease size standard for testing laboratories industry)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The Small Business Administration (SBA) is proposing to increase the size standard for the testing laboratories industry (North American Industrial Classification System 541380) from $6 million in average annual receipts to $10 million (Federal...

Federal Prison Industries. (Small Business Briefs).(interim rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The Department of Defense (DOD) has issued an interim rule amending the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) to implement Section 811 of the Fiscal Year 2002 National Defense Authorization Act (Federal Register, April 26,...

Performance-based contracting. (Small Business Briefs).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The Federal Acquisition Regulation has been amended by a final rule, which explicitly states that performance-based contracting is the preferred method for acquiring services, and enumerates an order of precedence (Federal Register, April 30,...

Anti-competitive teaming. (Small Business Briefs).(Department of Defense withdraws rule creating the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement addressing teaming issues)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The DOD has withdrawn its proposed rule, which would have created Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement coverage addressing exclusive teaming arrangements. The proposed amendments specified that certain exclusive teaming...

Software shrinks proposal times, triples revenues. (Case Study).(client relationship management/marketing automation software)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... An innovative software approach has helped reduce proposal generation time from three or four days to two to three hours at L. Robert Kimball & Associates, tripling revenues. Preparing each proposal by hand was slow and did not always show off...

Bill establishing pilot program for small business concerns introduced in Senate. (Legislation).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Senator John Ensign has introduced a bill, titled "National Small Business Regulatory Assistance Act of 2002," in the Senate. If enacted, the bill would amend the Small Business Act to direct the administrator of the Small Business...

Bill restricting bundling of DOD contract requirements introduced in Senate. (Legislation).(Department of Defense)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Senator Susan Collins has introduced a bill in the Senate that is designed to restrict certain bundling requirements by the Department of Defense (DOD). If enacted, the bill would amend 10 U.S.C [section] 2381 (Contracts: Regulations for Bids)...

Bill modifying contract consolidation requirements in Small Business Act introduced in Senate. (Legislation).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Senator John Kerry has introduced a bill titled "Small Business Federal Contractor Safeguard Act" in the Senate. If enacted the bill would amend 15 U.S.C. [section] 632 (Small Business Concern) to modify the contract consolidation requirements...

Bill refining military base closures introduced in Senate. (Legislation).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has introduced a bill, titled the "Transparent and Enhanced Criteria Act of 2002," in the Senate. If enacted, the bill would create additional selection criteria for the 2005 round of defense base realignments and...

Bill providing law enforcement authority to certain Inspector Generals introduced in Senate. (Legislation).
July 1, 2002... Senator Fred Thompson has introduced a bill in the Senate to amend the Inspector General Act of 1978, to establish police powers for the agents of certain inspector generals. If enacted, the bill would allow the attorney general to authorize...

Bill amending Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act introduced in House. (Legislation).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Representative Tom Davis has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to amend the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act (Pub. L. No. 93-400). If enacted, the bill would amend the act by adding a program that would encourage and...

Bill providing for Flexibility in Emergency Federal Procurements is introduced in House. (Legislation).(Federal Emergency Procurement Flexibility Act of 2002)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Representative Dan Burton has introduced a bill, titled "Federal Emergency Procurement Flexibility Act of 2002," in the House of Representatives. If enacted, this bill would allow executive agencies to have greater flexibility in making...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue final rule regarding preference for performance-based contracting. (Regulations).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The DOD, General Services Administration (GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have issued a final rule to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in order to implement Section 821 (Improvements in Procurements...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue final rule regarding balance of payments program. (Regulations).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a final rule to amend the FAR, removing specific language dealing with the balance of payments program (BPP). The BPP was established in 1960 to provide a preference for U.S. products and services for overseas...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue final rule regarding European Union trade sanctions. (Regulations).(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a final rule to make corrections to the FAR with regard to European Union trade sanctions. This final rule amends FAR Part 25 (Foreign Acquisition) to clarify that solicitations issued and contracts awarded by...

DOD, GSA, and NASA issue proposed rule regarding Training and Education Costs. (Regulations).(Department of Defense, General Services Administration and National Aeronautics and Space Administration)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... The DOD, GSA, and NASA have issued a proposed rule to amend the FAR and address a "Training and Education Costs" cost principle difficulty. According to the agencies, the current regulations expressed in FAR [section] 31.205-44 (Training and...

NCMA National Officers 2002-2003. (NCMA Association News).
July 1, 2002... Thomas E. Kelkis National President THOMAS E. KELKIS, CPCM, Fellow, a 15-year member of the East Central Pennsylvania Chapter, has served as chapter president, vice president, vice president of education and programs, and NES chairman....

Report from meeting in New Orleans, April 26, 2002. (NCMA Fellows Network Newsletter).(National Contract Management Association)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... In the absence of the Council of Fellows chairs, Mariel D'Eustachio, national functional director for Communities of Interest, led and facilitated the meeting. The group addressed several issues facing the council in a free-flowing discussion....

Our latest Outstanding Fellow Award winner. (NCMA Association News).(National Contract Management Association)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... NCMA never passes up an opportunity to award a high honor for those deserving recognition, especially our Fellows. Karen H. Reuter, CPCM, Fellow, was recently named an Outstanding Fellow Award winner, which she accepted at the spring governance...

NCMA's newest fellows--a broad array of members. (NCMA Association News).(National Contract Management Association)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... Mid-Atlantic Region Norfolk Area Chapter Lynn Y. Carroll, CPCM, is currently director of business development for Alutiiq Security & Technology, LLC, in Chesapeake, Virginia. She is responsible for daily management decisions in all...

Outstanding article of the year. (NCMA Association News).
July 1, 2002... Once a year, we step back to acknowledge the outstanding content that has appeared in our CM magazines from our contributing authors. This year was a hard one to discern, but after much review, Robert Law's "Coming Full Circle" in the November...