MiDAESS Touch

The Missile Defense Agency is calling on the Von Braun Conference Center in Huntsville, AL, to host an industry day next month for its MDA Engineering and Support Services (MiDAESS) program, according to a Federal Business Opportunities notice posted yesterday.

MiDAESS is MDA's effort to restructure and consolidate the way it procures contractor support services.

The event, scheduled for Dec. 17-19, would require a venue with a capacity of 1,000 people, the notice states:

The intended source for the requirement is the Von Braun Center located in Huntsville, Alabama, as they are the only responsible source who can satisfy the agency's need for this requirement. However, all responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency.

MDA spends approximately $900 million annually on contractor support services for functional areas like quality, safety and mission assurance; business and financial management; administrative and professional support; engineering; acquisition management; and warfighter support, among others, Inside Missile Defense reported in February when the MiDAESS draft request for proposals was first released.

In 2004, MDA began a re-engineering effort "to better align the agency to achieve an overall goal of developing a single integrated ((ballistic missile defense)) system," according to the RFP's executive summary. "A foundational premise of the re-engineering was to centralize control in the agency headquarters and de-centralize execution in the field."

"We are constantly looking for ways that we can be more efficient and more effective," then-MDA Director Lt. Gen. Trey Obering told reporters at a Feb. 12 conference sponsored by Aviation Week, "and this ((draft RFP)) is part of that."

One of the major changes brought about by the re-engineering was a transition from a "project" organization to a "matrix" organization, the draft RFP states. That resulted in government personnel working in a "functional alignment," with each person in a program office being responsible to a functional manager for their particular skill "and responsible to the program leadership for day-to-day direction," the draft RFP reads.

In related news, MDA this week also released a MiDAESS "organizational conflict of interest policy" via FedBizOpps to encourage the contractor community "to resolve al OCI issues prior to submitting proposals or teaming in connection with the MiDAESS effort." Stay tuned to next week's issue of IMD for more info on this.