Consolidated network and mission operations support - A case study of a successful transition to performance based contracting

Abstract

A performance-based contracting arrangement at the Goddard Space Flight Center was established to achieve critical cost reductions and help preserve the NASA Center's ability to fulfill its mission. The new performance-based contract was initiated by a joint NASA/Contractor team, made up of civil service, AlliedSignal Technical Services Corporation, and Computer Sciences Corporation representatives. This partnership resulted in the consolidation of three large cost-plus awardfee contracts into a single, team-oriented $300 million a year performance-based contract with $40 million in targeted shared cost savings. Implementing the consolidation required significant cultural and behavioral changes. A number of lessons were learned, including the importance of constant and ongoing communication, clearly understanding the work to be done, establishing and maintaining upper-level commitment, embracing resistance, persistence toward accomplishing set objectives, and a concern for the people involved. Performance-based Answer to Budget Crisis Severe budgetary constraints, along with government reinvention initiatives such as the National Performance Review, have forced Federal government organizations to continually reassess their mission and purpose, and align themselves with realistic, cost-effective contracting strategies. At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Maryland, a performance-based partnership has emerged between NASA and its contractors as government and contractor managers reassessed the roles of civil service employees and mission operations contractors in providing the services needed to conduct the government's civilian space exploration program. The performance-based contract consolidation occurred in Goddard's Mission Operations and Data Systems Directorate (MOD and Systems, Engineering and Analysis Support (SEAS), a systems development (task order) contract primed by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC). These two costAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Copyright © 1997 by Wayne L. Friedman. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. with permission. 125 Copyright© 1997, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. plus-award-fee contracts provided 80% of the support for the directorate, employing approximately 4,000 people at their peak staffing levels. Teamwork between the government and the contractors and between the two contractors was a priority from the beginning. The developeroperations relationship could have led to difficulty in communications, with contractors blaming each other for problems — operations saying development's product is not good enough, development saying operations is not performing properly. But that did not happen. NASA, AlliedSignal, and CSC worked weU together. A continuous improvement environment was created that transcended the traditional government/ contractor relationship. Responding to the Challenge By 1994, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and Congress were discussing significant budget cuts. Goldin announced that budget reductions were needed, but the agency must maintain its mission services. Arthur Fuchs, head of the MO&DSD at Goddard, faced a $40 million budget cut for FY97. Instead of cutting programs and reducing services, he brought together key contractors to help find the answers. The contractors stepped up to the challenge by forming a team and studying Mr. Goldin's goals: • To cut out duplication and overlaps. • Privatize and commercialize whenever possible. • Cut back operations budget by turning over day-to-day operations to contractors. • Emphasize performance based contracting whenever possible. With these goals in mind, a plan was developed for immediate consolidation of three contracts at Goddard, with a promise of $40 million in cost savings. Consolidation details are contained in the following paragraphs. Contractors Propose Consolidation The NMOS and SEAS contracts were scheduled to end in October 1997 and become part of NASA's Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC), a consolidation of 11 or more contracts across all NASA centers. Understanding the criticality of the budget situation, AlliedSignal and CSC volunteered at the end of 1995 to combine the contracts and work together to achieve savings over the last 18 months of the contractual period. They presented a plan to integrate the activities of NMOS and SEAS to start saving money immediately rather than waiting for the CSOC. NASA, AlliedSignal, and CSC generated a Tripartite Agreement and openly participated in contract negotiations to accomplish the consolidation. The existing NMOS and SEAS contracts, along with the AlliedSignal operations and maintenance contract at Goddard's Wallops Flight Facility, were combined into one $300 million a year performance-based contract, with a goal to achieve $40 million in cost savings over the remaining 18 months of the contract. The Consolidated NMOS (CNMOS) contract began on April 15, 1996, with AlliedSignal as the prime contractor. During a transition period from April through July 1996, AlliedSignal and CSC employees were integrated into a singlebadge organization and began to achieve synergy,