Is the thought of doing business with the Department of Defense enticing? Does it also make your head spin?! It’s true there are a lot of nuances that can be confusing, and in some cases conflicting, but it is possible to understand how to find and pursue opportunities of interest. The DoD recognizes the need to expand beyond the traditional defense industrial base to pursue innovative solutions and technologies and has numerous organizations and initiatives focused on doing business with startup and non-traditional vendors.
MITRE’s Acquisition in the Digital Age (AiDA) team recently created a collection of pages specifically focused on industry. AiDA is a publicly available web-page offering guidance, solutions, and resources to support government acquisition and contracting activities. The “Demystify DoD Acquisition and Contracting for Industry” pages offer content to help non-traditional vendors, who may not have previously done business with the government, understand the DoD environment and navigate to the many opportunities to do business with the DoD. These pages offer a variety of information to include, fundamentals for doing business with the DoD (i.e., registrations/certifications, types of government contracts, timelines to awards), entry points for connecting and finding opportunities via DoD contracting portals, intellectual property considerations, and scenarios to offer starting points based on goals and objectives for working with the DoD. The material presented on these pages is intended to simplify how to do business with the DoD and provides resources and links to official government sites.
