The VECP systems we have created are designed to assist the contractor. However, the main use and benefits are for the Contracting Officer, and Management. While others were a part of the intended design benefits, the contracting officer and manager, are the groups that will benefit most from the system.

General

The VE Incentive Clause is a 1.5 page series of words in what is often a 2-inch thick contract document. If you are a contracting officers, you probably gave the contractor the obligatory pamphlet, said the magic words, and moved on to other issues. Thereby you met your legal requirements. However, with all the other issues involved, both you and the contractor may have almost forgotten the VE Incentive Clause.

The VE Incentive Clause is a great tool for a contracting officer to generate savings in their current contract, AND save money for their organization for many years to come. It is a win-win situation. You help your contractor generate added profits in the short term, while your organization saves money today and for many years to come.

We have devised a system that not only helps you meet your VECP legal goals, but helps you attain the purposes behind it. If you contractor uses it to generate the VECP, you get a document that has gone through more hundreds of checks to make sure the contractor is disclosing (the main way the CO gets in a dispute in a VECP), understands their requirements (number two on the dispute list), and has supported their submission properly (that is number three). On the contractor's side, the benefits of a contractor using our systems are immense. However, for the CO, the benefits of the contractor using the system are even greater as the CO can be sure that the contractor:

uses their own resources to generate the VECP, not the contracting groups resources (a common complaint due to typical unclear and poor quality VECP submissions)
received multiple request for appropriate disclosure, and if they have not disclosed, have given up their defense for almost all disclosure issues
has obtained high quality and detailed guidance, increasing the probable value of the VECP
computation figures are free of most common errors, and appropriate
has a quality document that is uniform and can be used in reporting
has been given the opportunity to give the best data, enabling the CO to more readily meet their obligations, including the 45 day requirement of VECP response
has helped the CO in their efforts through enabling the CO side of the system in the submission

With the kind of benefits listed above alone, many CO's have stated that they would like to mandate use of our systems. Unfortunately, for many governmental groups, that would be illegal. In almost all cases, the CO is not allowed to specify, or even recommend, use of a system, or even a format of submission. They are obligated to help the contractor, but cannot advise them and cannot give "too" much guidance. As every CO knows, these requirements make it harder to deal with the VECP. No wonder some CO's consider the VECP a pain. They MUST NOT tell the contractor to use any resource. But need to help the contractor. We help the CO meet these requirements as the CO information document can give three or more help resources in their VECP notification contact brochure or other information documents. The CO not only does not need to generate the document from scratch, they can send a generic document that meets the three rule and the help the contractor rule. We offer the following sample document, to assist you. It includes not only the typical information the CO is required to supply, but three quality resources that may help the contractor.

If the CO can get the contractor to begin the process, they have progressed a long ways down the path to success. However, our CO side of the system not only increases the benefits created by the contractor side, but can stand on its own. The CO can

use all information submitted by the contractor through these system as a start, if they started from it

if the contractor did not generate the VECP using the system, the contractor can generate one using the information given by the contractor by the means they used, while using the CO side of the system to identify potential issues

obtain high quality and detailed guidance, increasing the probable value of the VECP

obtain high quality and detailed acceptance guidance, increasing chance that a problem with the VECP will be identified; before it becomes a problem

ensure computation figures are free of most common errors, and appropriate

have a quality document that is uniform and can be used in reporting

have a report that can be submitted to the reporting authority, including the OMB and OIG

have a readily reviewable means to allow auditors to review the results

are able to identify specific problem issues, including the means to meet the 45 day requirement of VECP response

has helped the contractor, in generate the VECP properly, the maximum extent known

How Do We Give and Continue to Give These Benefits?

We have the only two persons accepted as experts by the US Court of Appeals. Plus, as experts, we constantly are in touch with the industry. Using the information we attain, we change the expert system to help both the contractor, and contracting agency attain the benefits of the VECP. Also, we have grant support by various groups for the purpose of enhancing the use of the value process and related endeavors.

Reporting Issues

The number one problem for management in the VECP program is often reporting. The organization actually does all the requirements, and have a valid program, as required by law. Unfortunately, due to the difficulty of reporting, they do not report it. Each third year, it is a mandatory requirement that all organizations value programs be audited by the Office of Inspector General (OIG). While other issues are present, and can be solved (see vereporting.com), the VECP reports are the main issue that trips up 60% of failed audit reports. This is one feature that will go away if an organization uses the enhanced CO and manager features. In this system, the OMB and OIG can enter the organizations reports without any additional cost to the OMB and OIG, and obtain full reports. The only requirement to obtain this benefit is that the organization is using the enhanced system. Some organizations have reduced their reporting costs by more than one million dollars, using this system, with improved results.

VECP training

Our tools section give both the contractor and contracting officer groups the means to succeed in the Value Engineering Change Proposal (VECP) possibilities. However, as a contracting officer, how do you ensure your meet requirements and report your activities such that you get proper credit. Contracting Officers have other issues. We have designed our systems to negate most contracting officer and manager issues. However, training in their use is helpful. While some run 40-hour course on how to handle the VECP, we offer an expert system which we hope can be run by most without training. However, if your CO deals with more than 10 VECP's per year, they can benefit from training in the use of the systems, plus other issues. We have trained more people in this area than any other group. We offer both online and physical course throughout the world. Further, our training courses are tuned for each group so as to help you in enjoying the benefits of the VECP. We have had people that went to a five day onsite course tell us that the results they obtained through our online course far exceeded the onsite. [more]