Show Notes
Today on the show, Tyler sits with Bonnie Evangelista, Tradewind Execution Lead at the DoD Chief Digital and AI Office. Bonnie’s procurement background gives us some unique insight into the federal contracting and acquisition process, from start to finish. In this episode, she passionately opens up about how the government has begun transforming conventional procurement models and mindsets in an effort to create new ways to streamline the deal-making process.
What’s Happening on the Second Front:
- Why traditional contracting is not working for emerging technology
- Leveraging your competitive playground: Three mechanisms that give the government buyer maximum flexibility
- What the government is doing to minimize ‘red tape fatigue’ and make the contract process less intimidating
- The pros and cons of negotiating in an unstructured environment
Connect with Bonnie: LinkedIn
Connect with Tyler: LinkedIn | Website
This show is produced by Soulfire Productions
Top Relevant Quotes:
“Traditional contracting is very structure- and compliance-oriented. It has its place, but it’s not working for emerging technology. The marketplace is our attempt to do something different. When it comes to contracts we’re focused on identifying funding, identifying the solution and then creating the business deal as fast as possible. There’s nuance and intricacies involved in all three of those elements.
Bonnie - 6:30
“In order to enable competitive playgrounds where we’re asking industry to show us something meaningful, before we make an investment decision, requires a lot of knowing and understanding on the government's part. In a lot of cases, we’re lacking that.””
Bonnie - 9:12
“One of the many things that has befuddled me is the level of confidence with which leaders in the department will speak about the state of information technology knowing that they have procured all of their information technology out of word documents.”
Tyler - 11:12
“If we can do distributed or federated contracting using the marketplace—where you are accelerating these lead times to buy and other services are using that approach—I consider that a win.”
Bonnie - 12:30
