Photo By Bill Mesta | 201022-N-OH262-0947 NORFOLK,Va. (October 22, 2020)--Leah Baker, Military Sealift...... read more read more
NORFOLK, Va. (October 22, 2020)—Military Sealift Command hosted prospective small business industry partners, to its inaugural Virtual Small Business Industry Day, Oct. 22. The event included over 450 registered attendees, which included approximately 300 small business representatives.
The event was designed to connect prospective small businesses and industry representatives with MSC key leaders and subject matter experts in an effort to forge mutually beneficial partnerships.
“Our mission at MSC is to support the joint warfighter across the full spectrum of military operations,” Rear Adm. Michael Wettlaufer, Commander, Military Sealift Command said during his opening remarks. “This includes support for the current global environment, which has been described as the ‘Great Power Completion,’ and to responding to crisis and conflict if required. We provide agile logistics, strategic sealift, and specialized mission support anywhere in the world, twenty-four hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year.”
“MSC is a $2 billion plus annual obligating organization supporting operations in all 24 time zones,” according to Leah Baker, Military Sealift Command’s Director of Small Business Programs and lead coordinator for MSC’s Virtual Small Business Industry Day. “We provide services to the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Transportation Command, the Missile Defense Agency and other U.S. government agencies.”
MSC’s workforce of approximately 7,600 people includes Civil Service Mariners (CIVMAR), active duty and reserve service members federal civil service employees and contractors. An additional 1,400 commercial mariners support MSC’s prepositioning, sealift and special missions.
“MSC’s small business strategy is to promote small business as our first option throughout all of the phases of the acquisition life-cycle,” said Capt. Susan Ayers, Military Sealift Command’s Director of Contracts and Business Management. “We believe that a healthy industrial base is vital for the continued success and affordability of the U.S. Navy as well as our national security.”
“Nearly half of all the contracts executed by MSC are awarded to small businesses; over $1 billion every year,” continued Ayers. “MSC has uniquely emphasized small business programs throughout its history.”
MSC’s mission leads to routine year to year spending which falls into three common categories."
“MSC’s annual spending requirements include ship charters, including ocean going vessels, harbor tugs as well as our operation and maintenance contracts for our government owned, contractor operated ships,” according to Ayers.
“Our second routine spending requirement is ship repair,” she continued. “This includes ship maintenance and repair which is vital to MSC to sustain our capabilities and lethality for MSC’s missions.”
MSC’s ship repair requirements include voyage repairs, mid-term maintenance availabilities, ship dry docking, and emergent repairs to include casualty reports (CASREP) and service support.
“Service contracts also fall under MSC’s ship repair spending requirement,” said Ayers. “We require training for MSC’s service members, civilian support staff as well as specialized training for our CIVMARs.”
“Logistics support, an array of services which include warehousing, material receiving and auditability, is the third MSC annual spending requirement,” Ayers said. “Engineering service support, information technology as well as both ashore and afloat systems fall under our logistic support requirements.”
Commodity requirements, such as paint, lube oil and chemicals, are additional MSC logistics support spending needs.
For small business and industry interested in conducting business with MSC, the command’s Office of Small Business Programs is the best place to start.
“We are the small business advocacy and advisory office responsible for ensuring small business concerns are afforded maximum practicable opportunities to participate in MSC’s acquisition requirements as prime contractors and subcontractors,” said Baker. “Our role as the command’s small business professionals include implementing the overall Department of the Navy Small Business Program, advocating to maximize small business opportunities and advising and assisting MSC personnel on small business matters.”
Baker also addressed the role of her office’s team of Small Business Professionals, which includes the Deputy Director, Ms. Jacqueline Alford.
“Small Business Professionals are in a unique position as we interact with stakeholders, both within and outside the command,” she said. “If you are in need of assistance in locating a requirement or you are having trouble communicating with a contracting officer, we can assist. Our Small Business Professionals can assist with counseling, payment issues, reviewing a small business’ capabilities for potential future requirements and answer basic contracting questions.”
Military Sealift Command’s Virtual Small Business Industry Day included presentations from MSC’s Small Business Office, the Virginia Procurement Technical Assistance Center, the Small Business Administration Procurement Center and the Department of the Navy Mentor Protégé Program.
Key MSC Teammates also addressed the qualifications for items which are critical for shipboard safety, additive manufacturing needs, MSC’s logistics gaps and needs and the command’s ‘Taluga Group.’
The event offered prospective small business industry partners the opportunity to meet individually with key MSC subject matter experts during virtual ‘matchmaking’ sessions.
“We offered a limited number of virtual vendor pitch sessions for MSC’s first VSBID because they allowed small businesses to pitch their capabilities which could assist MSC with meeting our mission,” according to Baker. “The one-on-one sessions were very effective. However, the slots available filled up quickly and we were unable to accommodate all requests.”
If you are a small business representative who is interested in connecting with MSC, please contact the Office of Small Business Programs at comsc_osbp@navy.mil.
Military Sealift Command is always in search of new small business industry partners. Prospective partners who are interested in conducting business with MSC should start by visiting https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/ and MSC’s Small Business web site https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/Business-Opportunities/Small-Business-Opportunities/ for more information about conducting business with MSC.
Feedback from those who attended the event indicated that the prospective small business, industry partners found the virtual occasion to be very helpful.
One small business representative stated that the MSC Virtual Small Business Industry Day was, “well organized and informative. We really learned a great deal and received useful information.”
This year’s Small Business Industry Day was hosted virtually to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Military Sealift Command intends on hosting future Small Business Industry Days which will either be held in person or virtually depending on the state of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Information about future events will be provided to the public.
“We were all sad at MSC that we were not able to meet in person with our prospective small business partners in person this year,” concluded Baker. “Yet we were overjoyed to be able to connect with so many of you in this virtual environment. We recognize that outreach events, such as this year’s MSC Virtual Small Business Industry Day are vitally important to building and sustaining our industrial base.”
MSC is the leading provider of ocean transportation for the U.S. Navy and Department of Defense and is responsible for approximately 125 civilian crewed naval auxiliary ships which operate around the world. MSC is responsible for its ships life-cycle management, material readiness, maintenance, repair and logistics support.
Baker provided the following resources for prospective small business partners and industry:
-Search Contracting Opportunities: https://beta.sam.gov
-Navy Electronic Commerce Online (NECO): https://www.neco.navy.mil
-System for Award Management (SAM): www.sam.gov
-Dynamic Small Business Search (DSBS): http://dsbs.sba.gov/dsbs/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm
-Small Business Administration (SBA): www.sba.gov
-SBA SUBNet: https://eweb1.sba.gov/subnet/client/dsp_Landing.cfm
Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs): http://www.aptac-us.org
-Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR): https://www.acquisition.gov/far/
-Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations (DFARS): https://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/dars/dfarspgi/current/
-Review MSC websites: https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/
-MSC’s Small Business Website: https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/Business-Opportunities/Small-Business-Opportunities/
-MSC’s Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MSCdelivers
-MSC’s Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/MSCsealift
-MSC’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/military-sealift-command
-Long Range Acquisition Forecasts: https://www.msc.usff.navy.mil/Business-Opportunities/Contracts/
| Date Taken: | 10.22.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 10.26.2020 09:27 |
| Story ID: | 381726 |
| Location: | NORFOLK, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 365 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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