Army Seeks Faster Software Buying Through Contracting Changes

Army contracting officials say outdated acquisition practices are slowing software purchases across the service, prompting a push to consolidate contracts, modernize pricing and simplify procurement.

Speaking during a Dcode session, Danielle Moyer, executive director of Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, said the Army’s acquisition system was largely built for hardware purchases and has struggled to keep pace with commercial software.

“Every contract gets delayed,” Moyer said. “Every program I have right now that is waiting to be awarded, it is not awarded because of pricing.”

Army Contracting Command oversees more than 1,000 contracting professionals executing approximately $15 billion in annual contract actions. As the Army’s digital center of excellence for software contracting, the organization reviews every Army system containing software, giving it a unique view into systemic acquisition challenges.

Consolidating Software Contracts

One of the biggest issues, Moyer said, is that the Army often buys the same commercial software through dozens or even hundreds of separate contracts, limiting visibility into spending and reducing its negotiating leverage.

She cited Oracle as one example. Army Contracting Command identified 109 separate brand-name justification and approval documents supporting independent Oracle purchases for the same product across different Army organizations.

“I have 109 different branding journeys for the same thing,” Moyer said. “How? And it was 109 separate contracts.”

The command has found similar purchasing patterns for platforms including Palantir, SAP, Salesforce and Appian.

Rather than continuing to purchase identical software under separate contracts with different licensing terms and pricing structures, the Army plans to expand enterprise contract consolidation for products purchased repeatedly across the service.

“If you’re selling any item to the Army, Department of War, or federal government more than one time, we are looking at consolidating all of your contracts,” Moyer said.

Procurement Models Built for Hardware

Moyer also argued that many of the Army’s procurement vehicles aren’t suited for buying commercial software.

While the Army has introduced digital procurement marketplaces, many still rely on multiple-award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contracts that require a competition for every purchase. Moyer said that process prevents commanders from buying software as easily as they can through commercial marketplaces.

Army Contracting Command is developing a smart contracting tool initiative to begin building that purchasing architecture.

Rethinking Software Pricing

Pricing remains one of the largest barriers to faster software acquisitions, according to Moyer.

The Federal Acquisition Regulation does not contain a dedicated software section, which means contracting officers have no framework for evaluating software labor categories or commercial software pricing. Cost pricers default to comparing specialized software engineers against general IT staff, generating disputes that stall awards on the capabilities the Army is most actively pursuing.

“This software person — this is an SAP software person. This is very different than somebody who’s going to come,” Moyer said, describing the disconnect between how companies price specialized labor and how government evaluators assess it. “They’re comparing to our internal IT people.”

With each contracting officer managing roughly 300 actions per year across a portfolio that spans artificial intelligence, communications equipment, chemical and biological defense and business systems, the bandwidth to develop deep market expertise on any single technology is limited.

To address this, the command is pushing toward outcome-based and value-based pricing frameworks — evaluating what a technology delivers rather than dissecting its cost inputs.

“What is the value of something … If you’re selling me something, you’re saying if you buy this thing, you can divest at least four other things … that is so valuable. And then compare that to what is affordable,” Moyer said.

She pointed to next-generation command software that reduced a task from 17 minutes to less than one minute as an example of the type of operational improvement procurement officials should consider during evaluations.

“It takes me right now 17 minutes to do this. This new piece of software now takes me less than a minute,” Moyer said. “That is so valuable.”

She acknowledged the shift requires a cultural change inside the contracting workforce, not just a policy update.

“I need to start training our contracting people to think like this,” she said.

The Regulation Rewrite’s Real Effect is Cultural

Moyer also highlighted the Army’s implementation of the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul as another effort to modernize software acquisition.

Last year, she led a review of the Army Contracting Command’s acquisition supplement, assembling personnel from contracting centers across the Army to identify unnecessary requirements. Within 12 weeks, the team eliminated more than 75% of the supplement.

“I put a team across the entire Army Contracting Command, so not just my center. We handpicked people from every center,” Moyer said. “I think we got rid of over 75% in 12 weeks.”

The review focused on determining whether individual provisions added value or unnecessarily slowed acquisitions.

Moyer said reducing regulatory complexity gives contracting officers greater confidence to use the flexibility already available under federal acquisition rules.

“Even though you may read the grain of it, the way it’s worded doesn’t make you feel like you have swivel room,” she said. “It coming with the companion guide … it does drastically change culture.”

She also wants to revive sealed bidding under FAR Part 14 for certain technology procurements. Under the approach, the government tests and evaluates submitted products in step one, then invites qualified vendors to submit price only in step two, awarding the contract on the spot to the lowest price.

“All done within 30 days,” Moyer said. “No written proposals, no anything. They walk out with a contract.”