DHS Hosts Webinar about FLASH Procurement

After the cancellation of the Flexible Agile Solutions for the Homeland (FLASH) procurement, I committed to speaking openly and honestly with the FLASH offerors about the lessons learned.  On September 28, 2017, our Deputy Under Secretary for Management Chip Fulghum and Chief Technology Officer Michael Hermus joined me in presenting a Procurement Innovation Lab (PIL) webinar about FLASH lessons learned for 179 individuals representing the 111 FLASH offerors. We were also fortunate to have the following FLASH experts join in:  Gary Hickey, Deputy Executive Director of the Office of Procurement Operations; Mike Palmer, Chair of the Technical Evaluation Committee; and Porsha Peele, Post-Award Contracting Officer. We discussed what worked, what didn’t, and the valuable lessons we learned that will help us do better next time. We also shared the feedback we received from industry during the surveys conducted by the PIL. Chip, Mike and I lauded the innovative spirit of the acquisition team and thanked industry for their participation in the process. While all of us were disappointed with the cancellation of FLASH, we all agree that DHS needs to continue using innovative approaches such as technical challenges, demonstrations, and in‑person presentations to streamline the acquisition process and acquire the right solutions to meet our mission needs.