WT wants your take on the agency-contractor relationship

Love them or hate them, you have to work with contractors to accomplish your agency’s mission.

FCW's sister publication, Washington Technology, has launched a survey to delve into the relationship between government agencies and the contactors that support them.

What are contractors doing well? What’s not working? What do you look for in the contractors you hire? How can the relationship be improved?

This confidential survey and the subsequent analysis will explore those questions and more. The results will be published in a Washington Technology Insider Report before the end of the year.

Washington Technology produced a similar report in 2014 and many of the findings were surprising. For example, nearly half of respondents said they couldn’t identify a single best contractor. This indicated to WT that many contractors aren’t distinguishing themselves with their customers, and are viewed as essentially interchangeable.

Another critical finding was that technical skills and teamwork were the top attributes agencies look for when picking a contractor when price is not a factor.

And when things go wrong? Forty-four percent of respondents said the contractor over-promised, but 39 percent also said that projects go off the rails because the agency has changed requirements or the scope post-award.

The new report will take another look at these findings and compare the 2017 results to the 2014 results. The analysis will look for trends in the relationship between government and its contractors.

To do that, however, we need the broadest possible pool of government participants to take the survey, which you can find here.

Responses are anonymous and will be aggregated as part of the analysis and final report. Please take a few moments to share your insights, so that Washington Technology can share them with the broader community.