GSA Blog

Focusing on Healthy and Productive Industry Relationships - Communication Is Key

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of blogs about how GSA is fostering healthy and productive industry relationships. Be sure to read the second post.

“Can we talk?” Such a simple question, yet one that causes so much confusion in the acquisition world. At GSA, our answer is simple: “Yes, we’d love to talk.”

We know there is great value to communication at every stage of the acquisition process. Early industry engagement during the market research phase contributes to clearer requirements, stronger competition and better acquisition outcomes. Similarly, using kickoff meetings to discuss how contractor performance will be evaluated and encouraging contractors to self-evaluate regularly contributes to better performance.

One of my major areas of focus is ensuring healthy and productive industry relationships.

Towards that end, we’ve been working on our listening skills. Effectively communicating is one of the keys to getting our requirements right. When we don’t communicate effectively, the burden on our industry partners is greater.

GSA has been trying to improve our communication with industry in several ways. We’ve pioneered some great practices in major acquisitions such as OASIS, Alliant II and EIS. Many of our big assisted acquisitions feature robust industry engagement strategies. Still, we recognize that there’s more to be done.

From hosting reverse industry day training sessions and advancing an ambitious regulatory reform agenda to harnessing the power of technology, GSA is working hard to find numerous channels and ways to step up our communication efforts in 2019. I’ll share more details about these initiatives in upcoming blogs, as this is just the first in a series of 2019 blogs about how GSA is fostering healthy and productive industry relationships.

In my next blog, I’ll share more about GSA’s efforts to strengthen and enhance communication with our industry partners.

Thank you for taking the time to listen. We will continue to do the same!