Q&A: Evelyn M. DePalma
Contract Strategist:
Meeting the Needs of Customers Every Day, Everywhere
Evelyn M. DePalma
Director for Procurement
and Logistics
Defense Information
Systems Agency
Information Systems Agency (DISA), where she provides executive leadership and strategic guidance for the procurement of net-centric technology solutions and the integration of logistics support for those solutions. She is dual hatted as the chief of the DISA Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO), and is also the head of contracting activities and agency source selection authority.
DePalma is responsible for developing procurement strategies and policies, and for directing contracting operations at DISA Headquarters and six field offices located in Illinois, Hawaii, Alaska, Germany, Bahrain and the National Capital Region. She ensures that integrated logistics support is provided throughout the life cycle of DISA’s major programs and services, including Global Information Grid-Bandwidth Expansion, Net-Centric Enterprise Services and Defense Messaging.
A graduate of Mercyhurst College, DePalma received a master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California, specializing in information systems. She began her professional career in 1975 as a computer programmer with the Operations Center at the Defense Communications Agency (DCA), now DISA. In 1978, she joined the DCA Office of the Comptroller, where she supported automated data processing policy and management, manpower and management analysis.
In December 1991, DePalma joined the Center for Information Management at DISA. She managed the Department of Defense Software Process Improvement Program, improving the quality of software developed by more than 35 organizations. In 1994, she assumed responsibilities of all software systems engineering improvement efforts for DISA.
In 1995, DePalma was appointed the principal deputy for engineering management for the Global Combat Support System, and two years later became the program manager during the system’s concept exploration phase. She then led the effort in DISA to establish the Joint Electronic Commerce Program Office, serving as resource manager and technical team lead.
In 2000, DePalma was promoted to the Senior Executive Service. She served as the chief, Center for eBusiness Applications, and in April 2002 became the director for acquisition, logistics and facilities.
Q: The Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO) recently lowered its fees to customers. How was this done, and why?
A: In October 2005, for the first time in history, DITCO passed on $27 million in savings to the nation’s warfighters. DITCO achieved this savings by lowering its fees under the Defense Working Capital Fund from 2 percent to 1.25 percent. Given a $3.6-billion business base, the cost avoidance of that three-quarters of a percent is staggering. How were we able to turn around decades of operating losses and avoid a budget deficit over the last four years? The answer is simple: customer satisfaction.
My team and I cut operational costs while keeping customer satisfaction at the forefront of the mission. We improved our efficiency in the face of paradigm shifts, including the global war on terror, DoD policies on the use of non-DoD contracts and large procurements for programs like the Global Information Grid-Bandwidth Expansion [GIG-BE].
Q: How does DITCO do what it does?
A: DITCO’s primary mission is buying telecommunications and information technology products and services for military customers. DITCO accomplishes this mission through field offices in Southwest Asia, Europe, the continental United States, Alaska and the Pacific. Each of these offices provides contracting support, but each office has unique customers that it strives to satisfy within various areas of responsibility.
Q: Can you tell us a little more about those field offices?
A: DITCO Southwest Asia [DITCO-SWA] was established in April 2002 in Manama, Bahrain. DITCO-SWA is both the newest and most far-flung office of DITCO, whose headquarters are located in Arlington, Va. DITCO-SWA began with one contracting officer but soon expanded to three in 2005 based on our need. DITCOSWA is responsible for fulfilling DITCO’s primary mission for the U.S. Central Command [USCENTCOM]. This office played a vitalrole in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom, procuring the largest commercial network in the Persian Gulf region. Starting with 20 megabytes in 2002, that region now boasts over 2.7 gigabytes with an astounding 50 percent reduction in operating costs, largely due to the savvy contracting guidance of SWA chief Putney Goodwin. Goodwin and DITCO-SWA report through DITCO-Europe. Located in Sembach AB, Germany, DITCO-Europe [EUR] is responsible for 119 countries covering the U.S. European Command [USEUCOM] and USCENTCOM. In addition to Lieutenant Colonel Charles R. Boone and his deputy, Gerry Jordan, this office’s 25 personnel are a combination of U.S. civilians and foreign nationals. They work together smoothly as one team, purchasing telecommunications support for events ranging from the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion to the 2004 Summer Olympics.
In November 2004, EUR awarded a one-of-a-kind enterprise wireless contract based on an initial requirement from one customer, the Army 5th Signal Command. With great foresight and the agreement of the customer, Boone expanded the requirement to support all of DoD throughout Europe and the Gulf region. The contract provides for cell phones and BlackBerry services at attractive prices within 14 days of the receipt of the order. By consolidating these services and migrating 75 percent of the services to this new contract, the Army has already realized a savings of $1.2 million per year. More than 700 personnel in Europe now have BlackBerry service at the same cost of voice-only service under their previous contract.
The U.S. Midwest houses the largest DITCO office with the broadest mission. Located at Scott AFB, Ill., and collocated with members of DISA’s Chief Financial Executive office as well as DISA Continental United States Field Command [CONUS], the DITCO-Scott office awards 80 percent of all contracts. Under the leadership of John Biggins and his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Arrieta, the DITCO-Scott office provides daily support to the entire DoD for many telecommunications and information technology missions.
Scott’s customers include the military services and defense agencies as well as DoD’s federal partners, such as the Federal Aviation Administration [FAA] and the Department of Homeland Security. Due to their long-time expertise and the availability of a variety of contract vehicles, contracting officers at DITCO-Scott put capability in place quickly based on customers’ needs. For example, they expedited the purchase of a command-and-control infrastructure for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. It is not unusual to find these contracting officers working in the evening on a satellite issue or on a weekend during an intense evaluation. During disasters involving tsunamis or hurricanes, they are ever vigilant.
DITCO-Pacific [PAC] recently relocated to Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Under the leadership of Lieutenant Colonel Pete Kim and his deputy, Keith Nakasone, DITCO-PAC supports the Pacific warfighter with requirements for joint missions. It partners with Native Hawaiian-owned small businesses on special joint staff projects. DITCO-PAC is currently on the cusp of awarding a multimillion-dollar contract called the Joint Hawaii Information Transfer System, which is a follow-up to the Hawaii Information Transfer System contract, due to expire in several years. Their vision is to improve the Defense Information Systems Network services for 32,000 users in over 60 military sites in Hawaii.
Moving further to the west and much farther north, DITCOAlaska is located on Elmendorf AFB, in Anchorage, Alaska. Numbering four contracting personnel, DITCO-AK is led by Guenther Bareihs. DITCO-AK partners with Native Alaskan small businesses on joint staff projects. It also provides telecommunications contracting support to the FAA and military bases in the state, which include Fort Richardson, Fort Greeley, and Eielson AFB. DITCOAK reports to DITCO-PAC.
Q: Where is DITCO’s main office?
A: In addition to several field offices, our main office, DITCONational Capital Region [NCR], is collocated with DISA’s Procurement Directorate, which provides policy, quality assurance and headquarters staff support. DITCO-NCR is dedicated to serving DISA customers. Headed by Warren Arneson, the office supports the entire region, including DISA’s program executive offices. This includes DISA’s shared service units like the Manpower, Personnel and Security Directorate, which may have a requirement for special training classes or physical security services, or the DISA chief of staff, who might need flags for an upcoming ceremony. NCR also supports the White House Communications Agency. Perhaps our largest recent effort was a series of competitive procurements done for the GIG-BE program.
As my geographically closest office, I often turn to DITCONCR when urgent problems arise. For example, when Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath affected a DISA building in Slidell, La., I asked DITCO-NCR contracting officer Steve Block to be on-call at all times to meet their immediate needs. Block procured many necessary supplies and services, and as a result of his efforts, the DISA building was the only one in Slidell to have power and hot water. It became a refuge not only for DISA employees but also for relief workers and the citizens of Slidell.
Finally, the Procurement Directorate serves a headquarters function, including operations and policy. Michael Geist leads the Procurement Planning and Policy Division and also serves as the agency competition advocate. Nathan Maenle runs the Operations Division, and is currently my acting deputy until a new Air Force colonel comes on board in the summer of 2006.
The headquarters challenge is to keep a finger on the pulse of the disparate offices that are far away in terms of miles and hours. Something as simple as holding a staff meeting becomes complex when 13 time zones are involved. Meetings are held every other week in the morning so that DITCO-EUR can participate and opposite weeks in the afternoon so DITCO-PAC can participate. At least twice a month, the worldwide management team holds a lunchtime video teleconference so that everyone can participate. Appropriate to DISA’s telecommunications mission, the DITCO management team makes extensive use of the telephone to keep each other informed.
Q: Why so many field offices?
A: DITCO’s reach stretches around the world because DITCO’s services are needed in every country where the DoD has a presence. DITCO works hard to leverage existing contracts from all available sources so that DoD and federal agencies do not duplicate contracting efforts. Where there is a gap, DITCO will create a new vehicle. [DITCO’s 2006 Contracts Guide, included in this issue of Military Information Technology, provides more detail on each ID/IQ contract, Blanket Purchase Agreement and Basic Ordering Agreement.]
Q: How do extraordinary events, such as Hurricane Katrina, expand the mission of DITCO?
A: In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, DITCO-Scott provided constant support. The Coast Guard, Army, Air Force, Air National Guard, Defense Finance and Accounting Service and FAA all needed communications in place very quickly. A coordination center for recovery operations was established at the Louisiana Convention Center in Alexandria, La., and communications requirements for that center were critical and immediately filled. DITCO-Scott also ordered a new switch 800 service to support military and civilian families. U.S. Northern Command had urgent requirements for satellite transmission services. Another contracting team provided support to the FAA, responding to more than 90 emergency requirements to restore communications in the damaged area, many of which were critical to flight safety. DITCO also fulfilled requirements under National Security Emergency Preparedness, which requires that circuits be installed and operational within 24 hours of notification to the contracting officer. The Scott office provides this type of support almost routinely, but it is nevertheless a testament to their customer commitment.
DITCO-PAC is also called upon to support emergency operations. The office worked with telecommunications vendors to quadruple the bandwidth to the Asia-Pacific Network (APAN) during the tsunami relief operations in the Pacific in early 2005. APAN is an unclassified Web portal for collaboration in the region. This bandwidth increase substantially improved the collaborative planning environment and operations between U.S. Pacific Command forward-deployed personnel, Asia-Pacific governments and non-governmental organizations.
Q: What are some strategic challenges you face in the current contracting environment?
A: In addition to the nuts and bolts of contracting, we do address some strategic challenges. In the interest of furthering our goal of customer satisfaction, we continue to move from current contracting approaches towards providing innovative solutions. An example is the shift from “Old Think” to “New Think” contract structuring. “Old Think” rewarded contractors for unique, stovepiped solutions where data was tied to the system, giving them more money to expand on a solution designed for a limited set of users. “New Think,” on the other hand, is designed to reward contractors for interoperable solutions where data can be shared regardless of the system that creates or maintains it. The way I see it, “New Think” solutions will be tied to the best past performance scores so that DITCO can reward vendors with solutions that allow interoperability and the sharing of data—in other words, vendors who promote net-centricity.
Q: In addition to eliminating stovepiped solutions and promoting net-centricity, what other innovative business practices is DITCO implementing?
A: We also address an additional area of concern: managing risk through contracting. Traditionally, contract type addresses risk with a well-articulated requirement resulting in a performancebased contract, which by its nature minimizes the government’s risk. When a requirement is loosely defined, the government takes on more risk. But in some performance-based approaches, vendors turn this concept around and attempt to push risk right back to DISA.
A notional example of this issue would be a firm-fixed price contract with 10 discrete deliverables. Progress payments are certainly an option, provided that they are tied to the deliverables. However, some industry partners offer in their proposals payment schedules based on the passage of time—which does not equal progress, and if agreed to, the government will have the risk if the vendor does not deliver the product but gets paid anyway.
Another notional example related to the appropriate assignment of risk would be the acquisition of managed services, where the vendors charge for usage and incentives are built in for vendors to improve their products after award by attracting more users with enhanced capabilities. Some vendors might front-load the payment schedules in their proposals so that there will be little incentive to increase usage, which negates the concept. We will be watching these trends closely in 2006 and will look to properly manage risk through contract type and payment schedules.
Q: We’ve heard a good deal about DISA Director Lieutenant General Charles E. Croom’s “ABC’s” of acquisition. What is DITCO doing to advance this philosophy?
A: General Croom is turning to DITCO to help implement his “ABC” strategy for DISA products and services. The “A” is “Adopt before buy” and means that DISA will leverage existing capabilities to meet 80 percent of a requirement before initiating a new purchase. The “B” is “Buy commercial,” and that is where our team is working to put together commercial service buys with broad statements of objective. The “C” means “Create as a last resort,” and in this arena, we plan to use performance-based contracting to fulfill these requirements.
Q: So what’s the bottom line?
A: The bottom line is customer satisfaction. DITCO reduced its rates by $27 million and still maintained over a 90 percent customer satisfaction rate after every competitive information technology award. DITCO seeks to help government customers save money and manage risk, and we challenge our partners in industry to do the same thing. ♦
