Agencies at the federal level continue to lack a collaborative environment with partners. Here's a potential solution to bridge that gap.
The Mission Partner Environment (MPE), a long-standing priority for defense and federal agencies, aims to securely connect partners for real-time collaboration across jurisdictions, domains, and networks. However, the vision for MPE remains a goal rather than a game-changer, due in part to procedural issues rather than technical ones.
Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) platforms and tools have matured to meet many of the technical requirements for the MPE, such as the API layer. These solutions, proven at scale in both government and industry, offer a faster deployment and more cost-effective alternative to custom-built alternatives.
The primary barrier to adopting these COTS solutions is access. They often do not appear on existing contracting vehicles, and procurement rules make it hard to buy them outside the traditional process. To address this issue, agencies need to shift from procurement-driven acquisition to mission-driven acquisition. This approach would create pathways for emerging and nontraditional vendors, vet vendors, and use market ratings to determine quality.
Federal acquisition processes favour large vendors and traditional contracting vehicles over modern, agile solutions. Abandoning the outdated assumption that higher cost equals higher quality is crucial in today's commercial tech landscape. Large contracting vehicles, often chosen for convenience, come with hidden costs, including higher prices, custom-built systems, extended timelines, high costs for support, maintenance, and upgrades, and vendor lock-in.
To foster innovation, speed, and flexibility, federal acquisition teams should allocate flexible, small-scale funding for rapid testing and deployment of COTS solutions. Vetting the vendor and then swiping a card for a COTS product that customers have tested is a more efficient and effective approach.
The search results do not provide specific information about the authorities trying to reform procurement processes for Mission Partner Environments to focus more on smaller, innovative, commercially available products (COTS). However, the technology to support the MPE vision already exists, and the capabilities are proven.
A fully operational MPE is attainable, but it won't be achieved by waiting for a few big-name vendors to build and mature it over multi-year timelines. Mission agility requires procurement agility, and until agencies make a change, MPE will remain a goal, rather than a game-changer. The vision for MPE is to improve coordination, decision-making, and outcomes across coalitions and commands. With the right procurement approach, this vision can become a reality.
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