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Strategic Acquisition 

Information Technology Portfolio Council Charter 

August 3, 2012

Background 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has implemented a 21st century acquisition 

program to implement category management principles to manage the goods and services that 

the NRC purchases. This program is overseen by the Acquisition Management Division (AMD). 

The Commission’s Staff Requirements Memorandum (SRM), dated February 28, 2011, on 

COMSECY-10-0020 reflects the Commission’s support of this initiative, and provides direction 

to staff. The desired outcome is the implementation of a more integrated and informed 

acquisition planning approach that leverages agency resources and contract dollars utilizing 

effective and efficient business processes and automated tools. 

 

The Portfolio Council (PC) supports the NRC’s strategic planning goals by providing active 

management of strategic acquisition planning and oversight of the acquisition of specific 

categories of goods and services (referred to hereafter as commodities). The PC also supports 

the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) initiative for strategic sourcing by engaging in 

planning for the Agency’s enterprise contracts and increases the effectiveness of NRC’s efforts 

to meet the current Administration’s goal (OMB Memorandum dated July 29, 2009). This goal is 

to ensure more robust competition, fewer sole source and high-risk contracts and more effective 

procurement practices Federal-wide, and obtain the expected quality of services and products, 

on schedule, and at reasonable prices. 

Purpose 

This PC is a cross-functional team responsible for managing the commodity category of 

Information Technology. This involves monitoring agency spend through the spend analysis, 

conducting centralized acquisition planning and developing strategies around: strategic 

sourcing, supplier relationship management, demand management and total cost of ownership. 

Key objectives of the PC are: 

• Enterprise approach to acquisition planning and execution; 

• Ensure compliance with small business laws, mitigate the impact of justified contract 

bundling, and provide the maximum practicable prime and subcontract opportunities for 

small business; 

• Prioritize implementation for strategic sourcing vehicles; 

• Improve commitment, obligation and expenditure of funds as the result of reduced 

procurement cycle times during the budget execution year; 

• Eliminate redundancies among offices buying similar commodities; 

• Implement streamlined processes with an enterprise approach to meeting programmatic 

requirements; 

• Develop policies to drive demand in accordance with strategies and vehicles; 

• Establish Supplier Relationship Management with NRC’s critical vendors (top 

commercial vendors); and 

• Robust reporting on NRC-wide acquisition performance, such as tracking savings and 

spend for commodity initiatives. 
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Scope 

The PC will use detailed spend analysis data and the PC members’ experience and expertise 

to: 

• Identify and prioritize opportunities to establish a category management approach 

including establishment of strategies spanning: strategic sourcing, supplier relationship 

management, total cost of ownership and demand management. Activities may include 

the establishment of enterprise-wide contracts (EWCs), to address similar requirements 

across office and program lines; or development of policy and procedures for utilizing 

existing / future contract vehicles; 

• Support appropriate comprehensive market research; 

• Determine the sourcing strategy for the IT commodities; 

• Make sourcing recommendations to the Strategic Sourcing Group (SSG) for approval; 

• Make recommendations to the SSG for updates to Management Directives, delegations, 

policies, etc., needed to implement Portfolio Council recommendations; 

• Actively manage the performance of the strategic sourcing initiatives for the commodity. 

An annual spend analysis will inform subsequent procurements. As much of the agency’s work 

is the same, similar and/or routine from year to year, this approach will be used to plan the 

majority of all agency work, with sufficient contract ceilings to allow for growth, unplanned 

changes, and emergent needs in agency priorities. The scope of the PC’s work encompasses 

all agency procurements, i.e., commercial contracts, DOE Laboratory agreements and 

Interagency Agreements. Consistent with the current process, all acquisitions will be supported 

by Commission budget decisions, and executed in compliance with existing financial and 

contractual regulations, policies, and internal controls. 

By pre-planning procurement requirements in well advance of the execution year, the agency 

can develop better sourcing strategies, explore the full range of alternatives to satisfy the 

agency’s needs, consider the impact of all procurements on socio-economic contracting goals, 

and provide vendors sufficient lead time to develop improved proposals. With early 

identification of anticipated high level requirements and associated funding through monitoring 

of the contract landscape, discussions with the PC members, and monitoring the APP process, 

the agency will be able to establish contract vehicles for known, or reasonably anticipated, 

upcoming agency requirements prior to the start of an execution year. Once the agency has an 

appropriation, task orders (or other ordering mechanism) for that work can be placed. 

The PC also supports the various acquisition initiatives developed by the U.S. General Services 

Administration (GSA). The Acquisition Gateway and the category hallways allow for agencies to 

interact with new digital services that improve acquisition outcomes including various 

contracting vehicles across the government. The Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI), 

has established and continues to develop federal wide vehicles for agencies to utilize. The PCs 

actively monitor the IT commodities under the Acquisition Gateway and FSSI and incorporate 

into their strategies as appropriate. 

Composition 

The PC will be formed under the oversight of the Strategic Sourcing Group (SSG) and will be 

comprised of: 

• An Senior Executive Champion from Office of Information Services (OIS) 
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• PC Chair, OIS 

• Representatives from NRC offices (including large, small and regional offices) that have 

acquisition requirements similar to the commodities identified in the establishment of the 

PC 

• Contracting Officer and/or Contracting Specialist with knowledge of the agency’s 

historical acquisition of the product or service; 

• Small Business Program Representative; 

• Business Advisory Center, AMD, Representative 

• Sourcing Team, AMD, Representative 

• An acquisition attorney from the Office of the General Council; 

• Financial representatives (at least one with senior level knowledge of the NRC’s budget 

process); 

• Subject matter experts, as applicable 

The SSG will be informed of significant changes to PC membership. 

Portfolio Council Process 

The Portfolio Council will work through consensus on areas of responsibility. Any 

challenges/issues where consensus cannot be reached will be presented to the SSG with 

recommendations for guidance and resolution. 

Supporting Staff 

Integrated project teams (IPTs): IPTs will support the PC by completing specific tactical tasks 

such as the aggregation of detailed requirements, developing statements of work and contractor 

performance criteria; and actively assisting the Contracting Officer in issuing solicitations, 

evaluating proposals, request for information (RFI), sources sought notices (SSN), and 

awarding the sourcing strategies, including Enterprise-Wide Contracts/Agreements. The teams 

may also support items such as the development of ordering procedures, policy changes, and 

communication documents. These teams will be organized and implemented by the PC, and 

may include members of the PC as well as other staff. These teams will remain a functional 

component of the PC, and will conduct tasks and activities as needed to support the PC. 

Information Technology/Information Management Portfolio Executive Council (IPEC) and 

Information Technology/Information Management Board (ITB): The PC will maintain a working 

relationship with the IPEC and the ITB to ensure alignment on IT acquisitions. As identified in 

the August 8, 2011, OMB memo M-11-29, “Chief Information Officer (CIO) Authorities,” OMB 

has further clarified agency CIO’s role in the commodity of IT to pool the Agency's purchasing 

power across the entire organization to drive down costs and improve service for this 

commodity. As appropriate, PCs will include an IT representative to ensure alignment with the 

IPEC, the ITB and the direction in OMB memo M-11-29. 

Meetings 

PC meetings will be held monthly, unless determined otherwise by the PC, and may be adjusted 

based on progress in meeting key project milestones. Meetings will be one hour or more and 

will be convened and adjourned by the SES Champion at the times specified in the meeting 

agenda. 

To promote sharing of knowledge and effective use of time, the following process will be used 
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for meetings: 

• AMD will prepare and distribute an agenda in advance of meeting (AMD will solicit 

agenda items as needed); 

• AMD will distribute necessary information in advance of the meeting; 

• Action items will be documented for follow-up at a later date; 

• Participants will come prepared to participate in the discussions and to participate in 

working meetings; 

• All participants will allow for differing opinions/views; 

• Participants will use a "parking lot" for issues to be worked outside the meeting. 

Meeting Notes 

AMD will prepare meeting notes which will be used to communicate PC progress, and 

discussion and disposition of issues identified by PC members.