EFN and its Sub-Contractors Management
EFN fully understands the requirements of the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps as laid out in the Seaport-e RFP, and has carefully selected a strong team comprising the following companies as our subcontractors for the Seaport-e Contract:
- Dynamic Research Corporation (DRC) - A premier U.S. Department of Defense contractor and a Seaport-e Prime Contractor.
- mLogica, Inc. (mLogica) - Small Business.
- Teracore, Inc. (Teracore) - U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) certified 8(a), Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOB) and Seaport-e Prime Contractor.
- The Performance Center Medical & IT, Inc (TPCMIT) - Alaska Native, 8(a), and SDVOB
As indicated in this proposal, DRC and Teracore are currently supporting Warfare Centers on active NAVSEA programs. An important feature of our Team is that the personnel, facilities, and Government-to-contractor relationships are already established and functioning. Our Teammates will continue to support the Warfare Centers without interruption and the ongoing relationship will not be altered or impaired. EFN has already executed Teaming Agreements with all our subcontractors.
Our subcontractors are an integral part of our Seaport Enhanced Team and ensure that both current and future requirements of the Seaport Program are supported seamlessly. Our program management office regularly monitors the quality, cost, and schedule elements of our Teammates. We maintain frequent communication with our teammates' personnel and they are held to the same standards of performance as the EFN personnel. These communications are both in the form of formal meetings, status reports and emails as well as informal relationship building.
Our teammates' personnel are also required to regularly and accurately fill in their time sheets. Time Sheets, Status Reports and Meetings enable us to monitor the subcontractor performance and identify issues and potential problems in a timely manner. They also enable us to eradicate variances with regards to costs and schedule.
EFN's Program Management Office will work with the erring subcontractor personnel to correct the defects or performance issues. Unresolved issues will be promptly escalated to the concerned Subcontractor's Senior Management, and efforts will be made to resolve them in an expeditious manner.
We will focus on the following key enablers in making the subcontractor management process work smoothly:
- Structure. The Team organization is straightforward and provides single point leadership and clear lines of authority. All employees, regardless of company affiliation, function as members of one integrated team. Subcontractor roles are clear and work shares are well defined.
- Agreements. In all subcontracting agreements, EFN spells out in detail the procedures for prompt invoicing and payment, the promotion of fairness in the division of work share, general communications, and conflict resolution. Having a set of standards ensures a common understanding of purpose and consistency of action.
- Leadership. The Program Manager will have direct oversight of all subcontracts and review team member performance on a regular basis. This person also will serve as our Teaming Coordinator and the single point of contact for subcontractors. The Program Manager will continuously review the marketplace for companies that provide new and innovative products and professional services that add value to meeting the customer's needs.
- TO staffing. Upon task award, and based on the individual subcontractor's teaming agreements, an authorized, discrete work package will be developed for each subcontractor. The authorized work package will define the work to be completed based on the specific customer requirements; establish subcontractor deliverables; provide a master program schedule; establish budgets that include labor, material, etc.; and develop a reporting structure that is directly linked to the WBS and the contract organizational framework. The subcontractor will be assigned organizational responsibility consistent with the WBS and the teaming agreement. Where required, a flow down of contract provisions, risk, and reporting requirements will be a part of the individual work package requirements. Specific SEI-CMM/CMMI, ISO, CM, QA, EVMS, and other process requirements also will be included. This methodology will provide consistency of effort and allow for a full accounting of task completion.
- General communication. These procedures take several forms. In order to have an effective and efficient team, rapid and coherent intra-team communications will be established and maintained among all members of the team. The rules regarding communications with the customer and other external agencies will be spelled out. The team speaks with a common voice when answering questions raised by the customer, but, more importantly, such rules ensure that the customer gets the right answer from someone authorized to provide it.
- Quality control. In order to ensure quality of services and compliance, the Team will use an established set of standards and processes with which all team members agree to conform. The principles of these two important elements are established first in the subcontracting agreements, and, finally, in the QC Plan. Our standard TO management processes and risk mitigation strategies will be used to measure subcontractor performance. In addition, EFN will survey the team members on a semi-annual basis to determine the team's performance and to invite recommendations to improve the in-place organizational structure and management processes. This will be supported by our in-place Service Level Agreement (SLA).
- Conflict resolution. In every business relationship, issues and problems arise requiring immediate resolution and attention. Through our established communication processes and procedures (particularly the TO management and review process) and open communications with the customer, we will identify and resolve issues quickly at the lowest organizational level possible. In the event of the issues not getting resolved at the lowest level, it will be escalated to Senior Management of the subcontractor and resolved promptly. Example-If the performance related problems are due to lack of subcontractor personnel's ability or poor attitude, EFN would put in an immediate request to the subcontractor senior management urging them to replace that individual within 48 hours, with another who is better qualified and customer oriented.