Sales is a contact sport

Leveraging advisory board members to defeat competition

Situation:  The DoD and the Army are committed to affecting major changes throughout the acquisition process to significantly increase productivity, cut costs, reduce the time, and minimize the risk involved in developing and delivering world class military systems to America's fighting forces.
A principal thrust in the overall DoD effort to modernize and streamline the acquisition system is Simulation Based Acquisition (SBA). SBA calls for combining modern approaches to process change with more extensive and coordinated usage of modeling and simulation (M&S) tools throughout the acquisition process, from initial realization of an unmet need to system retirement.
US Army TACOM and NAC were investigating ways to lower product lifecycle and acquisition costs using modeling and simulation technologies.  Essentially, the leadership within the Army (from the Pentagon to Detroit) wanted to develop and showcase an acquisition strategy.

Critical Issues: The National Automotive Center and TACOM wanted to develop a showcase application for the Simulation Based Acquisition strategy using existing commercial off the shelf products.  The Army was trying to remake its reputation as an organization that pays

too much money for everyday items.  This problem has become a major issue over the years with reports of $100,000 toilet seats and screwdrivers costing more than cars. The NAC wanted to use a contracting vehicle called DUAP (Dual Use Application Program). 

The NAC was looking for an experienced integration partner to take leadership on the program.

Image is everything.  The Army had made positive strides in their acquisition strategy under the leadership of Mr. Gil Decker.  Several new programs were created to help industry collaborate with the DoD to reduce costs and improve the time to market for new innovations.  The current leadership of the NAC wanted to demonstrate these capabilities.  Mr.  Decker created the DUAP during his tenure with the Army. Most of the companies wanting to participate did not fully understand the benefits and weaknesses of the DUAP funding.  As a result, we had a major lead in the selling process. 

Vision: The DoD and the Army are committed to effecting major changes throughout the acquisition process to significantly increase productivity, cut costs, reduce the time, and minimize the risk involved in developing and delivering world class military systems to America's fighting forces.  Making good on the vision of "better, faster, cheaper" calls for nothing less than a radical transformation in how the department does its business in this critical area of national defense, as it involves not just the formal acquisition process but also the embedded culture and the surrounding highly dynamic technical environment.

Result:  We developed a CRADA (cooperative research and development agreement) with NAC and helped influence the vision of the SimTLC project. This action was critical.  Our competitors included bigger operations (PTC and Sun were teamed against us) that were willing to provide services at lower cost and give away on-site support.  By participating in the vision process, we created a long-term partnership with the US Army.  The Army introduced us to EDS. EDS became an important reseller of our technology.  MPI received contracts in excess of $2 million from the SimTLC initiative . These contracts helped fund R&D for next generation products and improved company profitability.

View this project:

www.simtlc.org