U.S. Geological Survey
"The Federal Supply Schedule is offered to federal agencies by GSA to provide them with a streamlined procurement device to procure management consulting, facilitation, survey, and quality-related training services...to improve performance, quality, timeliness and efficiency throughout their organizations." This Schedule includes a description of customer research activities available, and a list of customer research vendors. All that is required is to develop the task order and avoid months of procurement. An extensive list of pre-qualified vendors is available with pre-negotiated prices. The contract period is from October 1, 1997, through September 30, 2002.
During the final quarter of FY97, the Customer Survey Advisory Subcommittee (CSAS) was drafting a Statement of Work (SOW) for a full-service customer/market research contract. The plan was to award this contract at the Bureau level so that it could serve as a research mechanism for all of the Divisions. At about this time, one of the USGS Contracting Officers introduced the CSAS to the MOBIS schedule. Further investigation revealed that the Government Services Administration (GSA) had already set up a contract that meshed with the SOW requirements, and which contained pre-negotiated prices. This schedule clearly met all of the SOW requirements, and provided a streamlined process for USGS Program Managers to initiate customer research activities.
Brochures and price lists were requested for 25 of the vendors. A primary goal was to review a representative sample of the complete MOBIS vendor listing. To help accomplish this, both large and small companies were included, as well as firms that specialized in management consulting, and information technology. To further expedite the selection process, the CSAS took the initiative to evaluate the 25 MOBIS vendors that had responded with brochures and price lists. The goal was to cull this list down to about a half dozen vendors, who would then be invited to provide briefings at USGS regarding their customer research capabilities.
The CSAS organized a panel to meet on March 6 to score and evaluate the 25 vendors, based on a defined set of criteria. There were 5 members on the panel. The 25 brochures and price lists were divided up, and each member individually reviewed 5. The scoring criteria included vendor expertise in the area of marketing, customer research, and surveys, OMB collection clearance experience, experience in working with Federal agencies, and capability to conduct in-house customer research, marketing, and surveys.
The scores were tallied and listed from highest to lowest. Ratings and evaluations were discussed, and each vendor's strengths and limitations were pointed out. There was a clear break in the scoring after the first 6 vendors. After some discussion, it was decided that these 6 vendors would be invited to USGS to present briefings on their capabilities within the context of MOBIS. The 6 MOBIS vendors are: Arthur D. Little, Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Chesapeake Consulting, Coopers & Lybrand, Logistics Management Institute, and Price Waterhouse.
The contracting office invited these vendors to USGS to make presentations to the CSAS, as well as other pertinent individuals. This provided an opportunity for these vendors to make a convincing case that they have the requisite expertise in customer research and analysis, have experience working with federal agencies, and the opportunity to provide further references. Each vendor was given a half hour to make a presentation followed by an hour long question & answer session. The sessions occurred on March 18 and 26, 1998.
Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand announced at their briefings that their 2 companies were in the process of merging. The CSAS team consolidated these 2 companies during the final review process, and the 5 remaining MOBIS vendors were evaluated based on briefings and material provided.
The evaluation paragraphs that follow attempt to highlight the capabilities of the 5 MOBIS vendors in light of USGS customer research requirements. While CSAS has reviewed and evaluated these vendors, this in no way precludes anyone from utilizing the entire MOBIS vendor listing for their selection.
Chesapeake Consulting, Inc. is a small, local company offering performance management consulting services; customer survey design and data analysis; facilitation and decision support services; and training in re-engineering, strategic planning, customer service, and quality improvement. This firm conducts survey research related to service delivery and product development, and has designed surveys for clients having diverse customer bases. They emphasize their strengths in computer-assisted phone surveys and personal interviews. They have worked with government agencies, scientists, and research organizations. They are familiar with Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) requirements and USGS' strategic plan, and have assisted some clients in obtaining Office of Management and Budget (OMB) clearances for information collection. CCI emphasizes working closely with stakeholders to build consensus on objectives, to determine information needs, to design a rigorous data collection and analysis process, and to provide positive recommendations that the client can afford to implement.
Chesapeake Consulting, Inc. may be more suited for smaller projects and programs in need of close consultation services with some qualitative research support.
Arthur D. Little, Inc., has teamed with American Viewpoint to offer a broad range of customer management services with ADL providing strong consultation services and American Viewpoint augmenting with survey research capability including in house data processing. Although they have no direct experience with obtaining Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval for information collection, ADL has a strong track record in helping organizations focus on the complex questions involved in improving performance and customer responsiveness. Most of their experience has been with the private sector although they have worked with some Federal agencies such as the U.S. Postal Service and the Defense Nuclear Agency. American Viewpoint is a public opinion research firm providing telephone interviewing, focus groups, and innovative survey research capabilities such as Perception Analyzer audience response testing.
Arthur D. Little, Inc., has a strong management orientation and is ideally suited to provide support early in the planning of programs and projects. In contrast, American Viewpoint provides capabilities to assess public opinion on a large scale.
Booz-Allen & Hamilton is a large, well-known management consulting firm. They have extensive experience in working with Federal Government clients in a broad range of activities including customer surveys and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) information collection clearance process. They have capabilities in both qualitative and quantitative data gathering and analysis and are comfortable with scientific and technical data areas. They also work with applying the results of the customer surveys back to the respective programs.
Booz-Allen & Hamilton would be helpful to programs or projects just beginning to consider customer surveying and who need guidance and support in preparing surveys, as well as those who have some experience but would like to improve.
The recent merger of Coopers & Lybrand with Price Waterhouse resulted in an enhanced capability to provide consulting services as well as customer surveys and market research. Coopers & Lybrand/Price Waterhouse has experience with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) information collection clearance procedures. They can assist program managers in understanding customer satisfaction and market research required by the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). CL/PW has a range of qualitative evaluation services including state-of-the-art facilities. CL/PW also offers a full range of quantitative and analytical services including the software and hardware necessary to identify and evaluate customers nationwide.
Coopers & Lybrand/Price Waterhouse has experience working with both scientific as well as management programs and is ideally suited for projects which are more advanced in understanding customers research.
Logistics Management Institute (LMI) is a large, nonprofit corporation that performs studies and analyses for government and other nonprofit organizations. They are cognizant of the requirements of National Performance Review, Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), and Executive Order 12862, and have experience in obtaining Office of Management and Budget (OMB) information collection clearances. Their consulting services include strategic planning, customer & market research, information & analysis, process management, and business results. They also offer survey design and data analysis services, and utilize a seven step process to ensure that customer service/market research requirements are met. They use focus groups primarily to learn about issues in designing the survey, and have performed extensive analysis with qualitative data and comment information.
With their emphasis on quantitative research & analytical services, Logistics Management Institute are ideally suited to programs which have a clearly developed customer research plans.
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U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.usgs.gov/customer/page16.html
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Last modified: 11-Aug-2006@13:42
