JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas –
Small business professionals from across the Mission and Installation Contracting Command combined efforts in fiscal 2022 to exceed contracting goals across all socioeconomic categories for the eighth consecutive year.
The MICC executed more than 24,000 contract actions valued more than $5 billion in fiscal 2022, including more than $2.79 billion to small businesses supporting the Army’s installation readiness requirements.
Small business professionals from across the command combined to achieved 61.45% against its 50.5% small business goal. The command also achieved 40.24% against a goal of 30.33% for small disadvantaged business; 11.35% against its 9.18% goal for service-disabled veteran-owned small business; 14.39% against its 9.8% goal for woman-owned small business; and 11.98% against its 7.45% goal for historically underutilized business zone small business.
Beth Scherr, the director of the Army Contracting Command Office of Small Business Programs, said the MICC continues to bring significant contribution to ACC’s small business program.
“In fiscal 2022, not only did the MICC achieve all of their assigned small business goals for the eighth consecutive year, but they also increased their overall small business achievements by over 10% in the last five years,” Scherr said. “But more importantly than achieving and exceeding goals is the ‘beyond the goals’ approach that has been adopted across the MICC. MICC small business professionals set the bar high in the areas of communication and collaboration, which are primary factors behind their success.”
Scherr added because of that communication and collaboration, the MICC small business team is made up of not just the assigned small business professionals, but the entire acquisition team – from MICC senior leaders and leadership at the contracting support brigades and field directorate offices to their mission partners, requiring activities, customers and contracting officers.
Mark Massie, the director of the MICC Office of Small Business Programs at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, said the secret to sustaining success is thorough planning, having a cohesive, dedicated team to execute, and open dialog with industry partners both virtually and in person.
Easing COVID-19 restrictions permitting increased small business industry engagement combined with the MICC virtual Advanced Planning Briefings for Industry that took place in March both contributed to the small business program’s success.
“Our goal is to be as transparent as we can to identify opportunities for industry,” Massie said. “Transparency is the key. We nearly doubled the number of requirements briefed in fiscal 2022 compared to the previous year. We also posted another 1,527 requirements to SAM.gov that substantially increases exposure to MICC requirements, increases competition and helps build our Defense industrial base.”
Massie continued, “our small business professionals continue to be actively engaged with small businesses. We have had much success working in this virtual environment and want to increase our in-person interaction with industry in fiscal 2023.”
Massie said the command will again rely on the advantages of reaching a national audience through a virtual event in early March 2023 as planning continues.
Scherr added the support by the MICC’s entire small business team for its annual Advanced Planning Briefings to Industry allows it to reach more than a 1,000 industry and government partners including senior leaders from across the Army each year.
“Their virtual platform ensures that this informative and critical event for industry is not impacted in times of uncertainty and provides small businesses with insight into upcoming opportunities directly from the acquisition team while enabling them to share their capabilities with the team all at minimal cost,” Scherr said. “These efforts are a significant step in breaking down barriers to entry for small business by improving transparency and provides them with a detailed forecast of opportunities to support MICC requirements and Army readiness overall.”
Massie said one of the challenges faced by the small business team entering fiscal 2022 was meeting the women-owned small business goal. However, he added the MICC commanding general, Brig. Gen. Doug Lowrey, identified that socioeconomic small business category as a focus area in a goaling memorandum.
“Our small business professionals and contracting professionals responded, identifying North American Industry Classification System activity underrepresented by women-owned small businesses and coming through, obligating 14.39% of our total small business eligible dollars against a goal of 9.8%,” he said. “We also had an increase in all five small business goals in fiscal 2022, but of particular interest was a significant increase in the small disadvantaged business goal as a result of the president’s executive order on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Again, the MICC responded with a small disadvantaged business achievement of 40.24% against a goal of 30.33%. This was an outstanding effort, considering our small disadvantaged business goal increased from 24% in fiscal 2021 to 30.33% in in fiscal 2022.”
Small business industry representatives can find the 2022 APBI requirements briefings at the small business tab at www.army.mil/micc. The small business tab also provides information on reaching a MICC small business professional to discuss capabilities and opportunities to compete for Army contract opportunities.
“The MICC small business team’s commitment through the years with efforts such as realistic and detailed acquisition forecasting, conducting robust Advanced Planning Briefings for Industry, and establishing processes and procedures to break down barriers of entry for small businesses resulted in not only continued increased performance from one year to the next, but also has allowed the MICC to lead the way and set the standard in small business participation across ACC,” Scherr said.