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In our final episode of the season we discuss the application of program management best practices within the acquisition framework to increase transparency, empower business owners and stakeholders to drive key decisions, and enhance the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA’s) efforts to efficiently and effectively acquire goods and services within the established cost, schedule, and scope of the procurement. Not only does this support VA in effectively meeting its mission, it enhances the Veteran experience through successful execution and delivery of products and services that support delivery of care and benefits.
Come for a peek behind the federal acquisition curtain as we gain insights from acquisition professionals at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and dissect varying relevant topics. In this five-episode series we will explore topics such as proposal evaluations, innovation, debriefs, and more!
TAC Talks is premiering Tuesday, September 29th!
The Department of Veterans Affairs does not endorse or officially sanction any entities that may be discussed in this podcast, nor any media, products or services they may provide.
[Music]
Charles Ross (CR): Welcome to the Technology Acquisition Center Podcast, which we affectionately call TAC Talks. Join us as we discuss highly relevant and compelling acquisition topics with highly esteemed industry professionals and attempt to share information with you, the 1102 workforce, program officials and our contractor friends. We hope that you find these topics and discussions helpful. So, turn up the volume on your ear buds and get ready for TAC Talks.
CR: Hello friends and thank you for joining me today for another episode of TAC Talks. My name is Chuck Ross, Procurement Service Director at the Department of Veterans Affairs Technology Acquisition Center. We have an exciting episode for you today regarding the importance of Program Management in Acquisition. The application of program management best practices within the acquisition framework increases transparency, empowers business owners and stakeholders to drive key decisions and enhances VA's efforts to efficiently and effectively acquire goods and services within the established cost, schedule, and scope of the procurement. Not only does this support VA and effectively meeting its mission, it enhances the Veteran experience through successful execution and delivery of products and services that support delivery of care and benefits.
Here with me today to discuss this important topic are Mr. Michael Parrish, who was appointed Principal Executive Director for the VA's Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction on March 1, 2021. Mr. Parrish also serves as Chief Acquisition Officer and senior most advisor to the Secretary, managing and overseeing all acquisition activities for the department. Mr. Parrish has over 35 years of senior leadership experience in military, government, corporate and nonprofit organizations. A retired Colonel, Mr. Parrish served for 14 years on active duty and 21 years in the U.S. Army Reserves as a Senior Army Aviator and Army Acquisition Corps Officer, serving as an Air Operations Officer during Desert Storm.
Joining Mr. Parrish on today's panel is Mr. Phillip Christy, the Deputy Executive Director for the VA's Office of Acquisition, Logistics and Construction. Mr. Christy serves as an adviser to Mr. Parrish on acquisition, logistics and construction issues. He has served in multiple senior acquisition, construction and logistics positions during his 20-year career. He is responsible for the day to day operational management of OALC's Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics, which is made up of the Technology Acquisition Center, the National Acquisition Center, and the Strategic Acquisition Center. In addition, Mr. Christy is a retired U.S. Army Medical Service Corps Officer. Thank you both for being here with me today.
Michael Parrish (MP): Thank you, Chuck.
CR: Mr. Parrish we'll start with you. Would you mind sharing with our listeners a little more about your background before coming to the VA?
MP: Sure, so uh, in addition to the bio that you read, uh you know I look at this job as a, as a job of passion because uh not only was I a military Veteran, but I'm also a service-disabled Veteran. Um, so I'm a user of all of our systems inside the VA. But more importantly regarding uh my acquisition experience, uh both academically and professionally, uh I have a bachelor's degree from West Point, a masters in astronautical engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Wharton. And then uh as mentioned I spent uh several years working with DARPA and doing program management in the Army. Um, but also I worked in GE, learned a lot of Six Sigma experience working for Jack Welch as well as uh I've been a CEO and a Small Disabled Veteran Owned small business owner. Um, so I've lived the pain of working uh to get uh VA type contracts.
CR: That's great, um, and I imagine that many of our listeners are not familiar with the political appointment process. Would you mind sharing your experience relative to being selected as the Chief Acquisition Officer of a large cabinet level agency?
MP: Sure, so um, it is a little bit of a black hole understanding the actual process that we go through. but usually it starts with uh, being nominated or being, being recommended by someone, uh, to the White House, the Presidential Personnel Office. Then they go through a vetting process, checking backgrounds, doing uh, doing uh security checks, uh interviews, interviewing your references, and much like a normal position interview type of process. However, they add the extra layer of a lot of the, uh, governmental type uh security issues. Having come from governmental, uh, positions before, uh previous to this job I was a professor of engineering management at West Point. Um, I was already quote in quote in the system as a federal civilian, so that made it a little bit easier. Although there's still a significant amount of bureaucracy and process work to be done before officially being nominated and then, um, appointed to the position.
CR: Very good. And so, as the Principal Executive Director and Chief Acquisition Officer, for those of our, uh, listening audience that aren't familiar with those positions, could you just explain some of your overall responsibilities?
MP: Sure, yeah, there's two hats of course. The Principal Executive Director of the Office of Acquisition, uh, Logistics and Construction really has three big buckets that I've been talking to our leadership team about. One is in plans and policy, talking about our overall acquisition, uh, uh, what's coming out soon is the Acquisition Lifecycle Framework. Uh, and then the other piece is obviously dealing with operations, which is our contracting officers and uh our teammates across the OALC. Um, and then the third part obviously is facilities, and, you know, we do facilities management, that's our construction facility management team. So that's, that's the, the PED, uh, job. But, as Chief Acquisition Officer for the VA, uh, I was designated based upon Title uh 41, which designates all agencies to have a Chief Acquisition Officer. But I'm ultimately responsible for the overall acquisition management throughout the department and I'm the senior advisor of all things acquisition, uh, for our senior leadership and the Secretary. Mainly responsible for the policy and oversight of the Department's 36-billion-dollar acquisition needs. We manage all the VA major construction and leasing programs to support the largest integrated health care system in the United States, uh, which provides care as we all know to over 1,250 health care facilities and over 9 million Veterans that are enrolled in the VA health care program. Many of which are, are your listeners, including myself. Uh, we have billions of dollars, uh, that we manage to acquire all the material and services that our employees need to fulfill the VA's mission. But more importantly, what we do relates directly to what Secretary McDonough mission is for us, which means everything we do relates to increasing the access and the outcomes for our Veterans. Also, we have an acquisition workforce of over 15,000 contracting, logistics, and facility managers across the VA. And then the biggest thing is obviously modernizing our VA acquisition management program, which I consider as kind of an acquisition reform but also as we all know and I'll talk a little bit later about it is, is our digitization of the VA.
CR: Oh, that's very good. So now Mr. Christie, I'd like to give you, uh, the same opportunity to, uh, share a little bit more about your background before coming to the VA and also as your current role as the Deputy Executive Director.
Phillip Christy (PC): Hey thanks Chuck and, uh, fun question to ask, you know I'm pretty fortunate as in, to, uh when I left high school, I basically joined the Army. I enlisted in the Army and first job right out of, uh, high school was within the field artillery for a tactical nuclear missile system. Part of assault treaties that, uh, MOS or that job series went away and was abandoned and put me on to a pathway of becoming an Officer in the Army and specifically in the Medical Service Corps. In the Medical Service Corps, it was just really kind of, uh, where I am today matching back to that career where I had three primary components, uh, in my career that I focused on logistics, procurement and acquisition and then also construction. Uh, through my career those were pretty well balanced, meaning I wasn't lopsided one or the other, but it seemed to work out. About those three topic areas uh consumed my career equally and put me in a pretty good footing for a position at the VA. And having those experiences and very specifically to the OALC mission, acquisition, logistics and construction. And so through those different jobs series and things of that nature, uh, I did get to, uh, work in very senior roles in all of those areas. And I think that really kind of helped me uh as I was transitioning from active duty and into the VA for the role that I am now. I mean, it was almost as like if somebody had hit the rewind button saying hey, 20 years from now, this is what we need at the end of the life cycle and, and to transition into the VA to do a job. I mean it couldn't have been a better fit and alignment of the stars if you will, to make that happen.
Back to the roles, you heard Mike discuss a lot of things there, obviously as a Deputy you fill into many of those roles when, when uh, the CAO or the Principal Executive Director is not able to attend a meeting and/or represent the Secretary or the VA, or even the OALC mission set. So a lot of times it is, if you will, making sure that we're keeping really tight alignment within the OALC family and making sure that we have coverage for all the missions sets that the OALC family does support. Uh, but I'll say one of the bigger things that I do is a lot of behind-the-scenes work, uh, orchestrating, uh, the details on execution and getting things to the end state of where they need to go. Uh, so that requires a lot of relationship building, working across many different offices, not in just the one to one but a one to many, for a lot of the issues that, uh, come into the OALC mission set. It's not just a simple hey, it's just these two parties, something that's worked out. Usually there's a lot of staff elements, a lot of components and pieces to a lot of the work we do. You spend a lot of time trying to if you will, nest that all together in a, in a way that supports, uh, where the CAO is going, where the Secretary is going. And make sure that the execution piece is a harmonized and moving out with the vision and the intent that the most senior leaders in the Department have, uh, said that's the direction we're going.
CR: So, I know I first met you when you were, uh, a Director at the Strategic Acquisition Center. Um, and then you went to headquarters. So, you've been with the VA for a little while. You have some years with the VA under your belt. What, um, have you seen change in the agency during your tenure at the VA?
PC: Yeah, hey Chuck, and you know, and this I do remember that first encounter was at the VA Academy and I know we were all going through at the time, uh, Secretary Bob, um, McDonald in taking over what had just been probably a very tumultuous six to 12 months of the VA, really being called out into the public forum, both congressionally and in the media. And this was a time of the VA kind of looking at itself going is this, is this who we are and is this who we represent. And at that time unfortunately there was probably a lot of data that did support a lot of the stuff that was occurring in media and on the hill about, uh, how well the VA was doing its mission and where the priorities are.
And so, from that time to today, I think one of the biggest things that I've noticed as a change is really kind of re-orientating back to the Veteran first. It's all about the Veteran. Regardless of what we do in the VA or who we are in the VA, it all goes back to making sure we're supporting, at the, supporting the Veteran. And they are number one in everything that guides us to what we're doing with our particular, you know, talent or specific job series. And so, I've really watched, I think a really dynamic change of the culture at the VA moving towards, uh, that single mission. So, I do find this 'cause I ask the question a lot and to see if we are triangulating, is the Veteran number one? But I find, back to my comment about my role of interacting with a lot of different staff organizations in different parts and pieces uh within the VA, that that culture has uh embedded itself and is at the forefront of all people, that the Veteran is first in everything that we do. It's because of them and everyone is trying to achieve their best to support the Veteran. And so, I, I really noticed a major cultural change on how everyone at the VA approaches their work and understanding it and matching it back to it. It's all about the Veteran. Uh, and then also kind of I'll share with you some subcomponents of that. Just real fast, is you know, yes, it's about the Veteran, but it's about the Veterans' experience and that it's positive. Very focused on how is that working out. And then too, uh, honestly, looking at ourselves and measuring our performance. It's not enough to say hey yeah, we're doing our best and we're doing great things, but to actually have uh data that supports what we've been doing too, if you will. Make sure that we're walking the talk and there's proof behind it. It's just not just fluff and words, but here's data that shows that. And I'll just say those are what, I, really come to the top of the mind what's changed since we met Chuck. Uh, probably I guess it was about 2017 or 16 somewhere in that ballpark. Uh, but a huge cultural shift.
CR: Thank you very much for that and you know, I, I know, Mr. Parrish has spoken to the workforce and he is also expressed his desire to make data driven decisions. And, um, as we now talk and shift our discussion into the program management and making those data driven decisions, Mr. Parrish, can you explain the importance of the program management within the acquisition lifecycle?
MP: Sure, so um, everything we do, and, and a lot of people say this before, you know, we do it based upon three what I call non negotiables. Cost, schedule, and performance. So, we deliver what we promise, we deliver it on time, we deliver on or under budget. And part of the whole program lifecycle and program management uh idea is, is really encompassed, as I say, from cradle to grave. You know, we've done, uh, a lot of work in the VA of just kind of getting projects together. One of our struggles as you well know is, is getting that requirements analysis done up front. So, I'm trying to change the idea and using the best practices program management to, to go full from cradle to grave from uh you know, program initiation all the way to conclusion or adjournment of a program or project all the way through. And it fits the overall vision, uh, that I've set for OALC. Actually, the team has set. Is, as our teammates know that we rolled out our vision. Uh, which is, we consider OALC to be a high performing, innovative, and evolving organization; recognized as the best practice value leader in all of government. I call it high. In other words, we're always making ourselves better. We're always improving the organization. We're always trying to either to learn about best practices or become best practices, uh, for doing things newer and better. So, change is constant, um, especially in this environment. The other things that I look at it in program management is being able to provide that governance and oversight. So we're the ethical stewards of these government resources. You know the limited resources both in time and in people. And then we obviously focus on outcomes, which is probably the most important thing of, of a, of a program manager to make sure that we're delivering. Again, what we promised, delivered on time and on or under budget.
CR: Mr. Parrish, have you seen any progress in program management within the acquisition role here at the VA, since you've laid out this vision?
MP: I think so. I, I think you know, to, to build upon what Phil had mentioned earlier. As far as how the VA is changing is, is I think that, that with the new leadership, we, we're bringing a big push for transparency and the whole of enterprise, not just the whole of government. The whole of enterprise concept where all the pieces and teams work together for an overall program. And it really deals around the idea of business transformations so no longer will we have these, quote unquote, cylinders of excellence or siloed type of projects. But we want to be able to, to, as I mentioned earlier, analyze, and understand the needs of our end users and of our Veterans from a holistic standpoint. Not just in VHA or not just in VBA, or OALC, but across the enterprise. And so the way we do that is to obviously transform the way we do business. And it's essential for us to grow and to be that high performing organization as I mentioned earlier. So we want to try to accomplish that mission to support the whole of government using the, the program management tools that I mentioned earlier. Part of the efforts that we're doing is really around, uh, digitization in improving our financial acquisition and supply chain management processes. And these programs include FMBT, Financial Management Business Transformation, which is upgrading our system that's over 30 years old and getting to, to the point of having real time integration with our financials to a single consolidated system. Along those lines, we have another program called integrated Financial and Acquisition Management System, iFAMS. And that provides the ability to track and monitor budget formulation and execution payments to vendors and Veterans as well as financial reporting and other key processes. And then of course, we have the FITARA, uh, Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act, that we're trying to comply with. And that helps us, uh,it serves as a catalyst for us to promote shared awareness and decision making really around the IT and the technology procurement process. So, we're leveraging a lot of those oversight lessons of FITARA to, to help strengthen our oversight of all acquisition programs. Some of these things include doing life cycle cost estimating, doing that early and upfront requirements analysis. And our largest program that, we, has been ongoing for a couple years is our Electronic Health Record Modernization effort. The concept there of the $16 billion program is to be able to have, for us Veterans, a seamless transition from active duty to, uh, Veteran status, so therefore we're not having to create or learn a new process. With this, what I call a disruptive technology that requires a lot of qualitative, uh, change management internal to the VA team and family. And again, the only way this is successful is to be able to work across the enterprise. In addition, with this one, it's really critical that we work with DoD and our other partner organizations to make sure that all works.
CR: Very good. And, and so Mr. Christy, what actions do you plan to implement to help drive Mr. Parrish's vision within OALC's Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics?
PC: Chuck, I think you know. I just would refresh so everyone has a really clear understanding what we mean when we talk about that vision and it's broken down into three buckets, people, transformation and value. Ah people. We look at that, uh, making sure that they're evalu-, uh, valued, and acknowledged for their success. And transformation. That we understand ourselves and we seek improvement. And value. Really focusing on those outcomes. Um you know today is actually a good example through the podcast here and specifically at the TAC. What we have done in the past and how we cascade down these visions to, uh, folks within the OALC family. Uh, so, I look at that to, to continue. So, through that vision, through the senior leaders, uh, in the Office of Procurement, Acquisition, Logistics, their performance and their, uh, alignment to OALC's vision actually gets codified, uh, into a plan for that, uh, particular fiscal year. And so, I'll, you'll see that same pattern, but very specifically if we look at this year or if we go into next year, I'll use today as an example of the podcast, right? Folks, such as yourself and the team uh organizing ideas or initiatives on how they can one engage with their people, how they can transform and drive value. You know you're doing that through multiple things. One, you're sharing data, but two by having, you know, myself and Mike on today and the others that you've had on, you're bringing out information and sharing and building people's understanding of what's going on within your organization, within the VA and, and you know, trying to, at the end of the day, affect outcomes, right? Making better products, becoming smart, becoming aware of what's going on, and so again we will see a replication of the previous years of cascading down vision requirements to the senior leaders.
So, in the example of within the OPAL family at the NAC, SAC and TAC, uh, the category management and our logistics and support areas of making sure that those big themes of people, transformation, and value are, um, the beacons or our north star as to where we're going to focus our energies and down underneath that is that those initiatives that are going to do that are being done at the lowest level. And the reason I say that is, cause we're really trying to not make this about, hey what Mike or Phil or in your case Michele Foster is saying you should do. But, as an organization, uh, we got people driving those changes, coming up with the best ideas, and again I'm going to site today and this podcast. This is a, just a great example of what occurred at the TAC and people going ooh, there's this, here's this vision, and here's an initiative we can do to go underneath that and here's an actual what we're doing, pen to paper, uh, walking the talk, of back to feeding those visions and missions. And that's what I want to continue on - is that continued growth, sustainment of great ideas like this one today, uh and moving it forward. So, you'll see that push of cascading down, uh, and kind of cultivating an environment where people are always improving, thinking of new ways to interact, new ways to be effective with the end state of the Veteran and outcomes.
CR: And I can attest, you know, through our, uh, all hands meetings and staff meetings that you guys have clearly set the vision and, um, that you've now allowed the employees to engage, uh, to try to work on projects, to, to meet and, and help meet that vision. And I think that's in in full force and effect, uh, throughout the, the agency right now. Now, uh, shifting to, uh, some of the, the major acquisitions that we have and, and program management. So, through the implementation of program management best practices what changes might our acquisition staff and, and even more importantly our industry partners expect to see in our daily operations and administration of our major acquisitions?
PC: Chuck, uh, I'll sum this up, uh. We're about to take a huge, gigantic step forward within the entire VA when it comes to using, uh, formalized program management. And where I'll take the conversation is how does that, uh, improve for our acquisition staff within our strategic acquisition centers such as SAC, NAC, and TAC, and even the VHA folks. Is really clearly defined understanding of what, what is somebody trying to buy? What are they trying to accomplish? Tying that back to, you know, the Secretary's goals and initiatives and priorities, and translating those into actual requirements. In the case of the contracting centers, they understand what is it that they're trying to buy and at the end of the day accomplish, right? It's, uh you know, I think sometimes in our business and procurement and contracting we get stuck on the, the, the mechanical aspects of contracting. You know a pre-solicitation, solicitation, the documents, the files and things like that. But at the end of the day where I think program management starts to really help with, uh, uh bringing this through the acquisition process is about focusing everyone about the end state and, and how I opened up the conversation about the Veteran and outcomes, right? Um, please don't take my words wrong that hey, you know this, having all the files, you know, dress right, dress and looking pretty isn't important. Those are aspects because of the business we in, are in of spending taxpayers' monies that we need to document those things. But for me the focus uh, really should be about the outcome and delivering on what we're trying to accomplish and tying it back to the Veteran. And that's where I think program management becomes super important. Somebody that keeps that focus on what am I, I, we, we've identified something we need to do, and then going through the acquisition cycle and at the end going did we do it? Or we not do it? And how well did it impact uh, uh that outcome for the Veteran? And that becomes really important. And I think program management, if you will, provides, uh, guidelines and a guidepost or a way, a recipe, on how you can do those things so you achieve what you think you started out to achieve and actually deliver it. And I think that's really important about program management. It's kind of that guide, that Sherpa that keeps everything online from a cost, performance and schedule perspective, uh, and, and to, again, make sure you're aligning where you started, to where you end, and you got what you thought you were going to get.
CR: Now Mr. Parrish, um, we understand that one of your goals is to review all of the major VA programs to ensure proper program management rigor is now being applied. Uh, so what types of things will you be looking for to determine if a program is healthy or at risk?
MP: Yeah, so to play off of what Phil had just talked about, as far as all things program management you know, we focus on outcomes, we want to make sure that we're delivering quality, encourage innovation for those better outcomes. And as I mentioned earlier, cost, schedule, and performance are kind of the three most important and most basic of measures that we can do to kind of evaluate, uh, a major program or any program that we're doing. Um, as I said deliver what we promise, deliver on time, deliver it on or under budget. And we can do this by using earned value management which is a tool to evaluate how well a program is performing in terms of that cost, schedule, performance. So, we can calculate the cost performance index and the schedule performance index where a value above one is good and below one is bad. It's really a comparison of actual versus planned and the key to this understanding is knowing the planned cost, schedule, and performance measures up front, i.e. the requirements as we mentioned earlier. So, part of the program management process is, we want to make sure that we're improving our ability to properly capture requirements up front and early. And this obviously will help us mitigate and minimize for our, for our, uh, industry partners any of the change orders and any of the, the scope creep that is always, uh, uh a fear of a program manager. We also want to make sure that we provide our potential offerors with better information to help them shape their business decisions and their proposals for us. So, we're taking a hard look at the requirements and we're establishing reasonable and attainable targets that will hopefully be clearly communicated to both our internal, uh, employees but also both through our internal teammates, but also to our industry partners. And it could set the stage for using other contract types like fixed price incentive contracts versus what we've always been using traditionally is firm fixed price. Um, this will better enable us at the VA to reward performance, uh, in meeting and exceeding the cost, schedule, performance goals that we just talked about.
CR: So, I think it's fair then to say that the, the most important metrics are cost, schedule and performance. Um, and then IT acquisitions, now, we're trying to put contracts in place that are agile in nature. Uh, how does this differ in an agile environment? Or does it not differ at all? Or those still the three most important metrics?
MP: Yeah, personally and philosophically I think those three metrics still apply to agile. Agile is really kind of a spiral type of acquisition. So in other words, in the software world or the IT world, um, part of what my challenge is and, and what Phil and the rest of our team's challenge is, is to educate, uh our, our, our fellow teammates across the VA to understand that, that and also in Congress, that eh, especially a technology type of acquisition is an iterative process. It's, it's a continuing process as it is spiraling. So you know you do one and then obviously you have a different version and a different upgrade. It's just like, ah, you know Microsoft Windows, you'll always get those upgrades that pop up. Same kind of thing happens as technology, you know, moves at the speed that it moves now. So we think that in, in especially in software world, three to four years is probably the life limit where you now need to refresh and renew. So it's not a one and done, and I've been trying to communicate that as, as articulately as possible to the outside world, that, that we in the VA need to get under that agile spiral type of acquisition process, uh, more aggressively. But it still meets the cost, schedule, and performance goals that, that apply.
CR: Mr. Parrish, um, TAC Talks has a large industry following, um, and with your experience in leadership roles in both federal and commercial sectors, uh, what advice could you give our industry partners?
MP: Sure, so you know, my view is our partnerships with industry play an integral role in achieving our goal to improve those access and outcomes for our Veterans. And the Biden administration has been very clear on this matter. You know, we're very focused on data driven decision making, working with our partners early and working together to create those solutions. Also included in this is the Buy America, uh, push so we're increasing our small business purchases and American made. I personally know first-hand the importance of engaging with industry and the good that could come from consistent and frequent collaboration between industry and government, 'cause remember, I was on the, on the outside as a small business, uh, owner. And I do remember the frustration of trying to find a single point of contact not only in the VA but also in DoD. So, we're looking for stronger relationships with our vendors, which includes building agency wide vehicles to increase the Veteran vendor presence, provide agility in those delivery of goods and services, and reduce procurement variability and lower sustainment costs to the VA. Uh, we want to try to minimize what we in the VA are using for the purchase cards and, and uh, and these one-off types of acquisitions. As I mentioned before, uh, if people heard some previous talks of mine, one of the exciting things I'm pushing is over the next few months, we're working on rolling out a single point of entry where our industry partners can proactively send us their offerings, especially new technologies, uh, via what I consider an innovation or supply chain portal. So hopefully it should be a single point of entry where they can send us any new technologies, any of their current supply chain offerings, um, and what not. Then we can then parse to the right organization, so it should not be incumbent on our industry partners to figure out where to go, it should be incumbent upon us to figure out where to send them. And that's hopefully one of my main efforts in the next, uh, few months to few years.
CR: Now would that be, more, kind of like unsolicited proposal? Or would it be the actual technology that they would, uh, provide that the VA could demo or mess around with? A little of both?
MP: Well, initially, obviously as a technologist, because I've been doing, you know, as a tech geek, I've, I've kind of been working with our innovation team to kind of get it out of just the, the VHA only mode to VA wide mode. And there's some fantastic, fascinating technologies that are probably light years ahead of where we can be, such as 3D bone printing and some of these other opportunities that we would not otherwise have known had these new companies and small businesses, many of them coming to us and offering this to us. So we want to create this as a, as a proactive portal, like I said, a website that people can send us, you know their information and then from there it can hopefully generate into some sort of an SBIR or CRADA, some kind of technology, um, kind of partnership, uh, with, with the new organization. That's kind of the goal.
CR: Great.
MP: But also for those who have the commodity type products. If we don't know about it to help us with the Buy American Act or the effort that we're doing on Buy American, uh, we want to be able to know who's out there. And, uh, instead of having to always go solicit, you know, through the, the sam.gov, the old FedBizOpps, is we want to have this, this additional, uh, vehicle by which people can kind of proactively -
CR: Right.
MP: - send us information and then it leads to hopefully, you know, partnerships over time.
CR: So, Mr. Christie then, uh, how can effective federal program management strengthen our relationship with our industry partners and improve performance in your eyes?
PC: Yeah Chuck, I think I got just two simple answers on this one. Uh, I think it establishes super clear communications and really clear expectations. Uh, when you have good program management, those things are easily communicated and understood by, uh, industry. Um, you know I, I engage with industry all the time and a lot of the feedback is we just really need what you... we just really want to understand, what do you need from us? We want to deliver that. Where we get in a lot of confusion is what is that? And so, with good program management, with really clear identified expectations and communication, uh, that, that does a wonder to strengthen the relationship between, uh, us and the VA and our industry partners.
CR: So, Mr. Parrish and Mr. Christie, is there anything else that you would like to share with our TAC Talks audience today?
MP: Sure, I'll, I'll go first. I, I want to reinforce what I've told a lot of our internal teammates and also to our industry partners is, is we have a great, uh, wealth of professionals and, and really skilled, uh, teammates on the, in the OALC family and also the acquisition community in VA wide. Um, one of the things I've noticed, uh, in my four short months here, uh, is, is we want to get more aggressive and get more on offense, uh, to be able to work in partnership as we talked about earlier. I think that, uh, one of my personal development needs is, is followership. I'm not a very good follower, um, but I always want to be more aggressive in doing, you know, doing the right thing, choosing the harder right over the easier wrong, which means accelerating and innovating and, and, um, you know, improving not only myself but also the organization. And so, I want us as our teammates internally to kind of expand and spread our wealth and our knowledge to all the rest of the, the VA family and government wide. And likewise, I'd like our, in-, uh, our industry partners to do the same, to kind of help us get smarter on the new technologies and new emerging, um, medical and, and personnel type processes and, and uh, technologies. You know, I don't believe in waiting and I don't want you to wait. And as I say, to, to all my other audiences is, this is no longer your parent's VA, so more to come.
PC: Yeah, just to quickly build on what, the comments on Mike there and it's just - it's this simple one is that, uh, uh, the OALC family wants to interact, wants to hear information, uh, wants feedback. It's a safe zone for industry to communicate with us, even if it's an uncomfortable topic or something that's not a shiny great example of how something should be done. Uh, we're a learning organization, and that's important to us. I just want to make sure it's super clear that both myself and Mike and Doctor Angela Billups - we, we're looking for feedback, it's, and it's in the vein of supporting the Veteran. And it's how can we get better, realizing that there are things that, uh, we may, may not be doing, uh, at the A plus grade. Uh, but, we absolutely are committed to working towards that. Uh, and just want to make sure everyone understands it's okay to communicate with us and not to feel, uh, that they can't reach out or work with us, uh, through any type of problem sets or observations.
CR: Very good. So, this will conclude another episode of TAC Talks. It was an honor having both Mr. Parrish and Mr. Christie join us today. This was a great conversation and I'm sure our listeners have also enjoyed hearing the information that was presented. So, thank you both for participating and I also want to thank our listening audience for tuning in to another episode of TAC Talks.
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CR: As always, we must remind you the Department of Veterans Affairs does not endorse or officially sanction any entities that may be discussed in this podcast, nor any media, products, or services that they may be providing. We thank you for listening to this episode of TAC Talks and hope you found it helpful as well as enjoyable. You may direct any questions or feedback to me, Chuck Ross, at Charles.Ross@va.gov. And remember, if you are passionate about government acquisition, are a continuous learner and enjoy fruitful dialogue, then keep tuning into TAC Talks.
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