Commercial Innovation & Integration (CII)

• New! Monthly reports

The Commercial Innovation and Integration (CII) provides a single interface within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (OASD) Networks and Information Integration (NII) to facilitate initial interactions and conduct research on commercial information assurance (IA) vendors. CII breaks down barriers of information sharing between the IA commercial community and potential DoD customers by serving as one focal point for vendor research, communication, and coordination. This provides NII and the Department of Defense (DoD) community valuable insights into IA market trends and a history of vendor interactions between the community and specific IA companies. CII shifts responsibility for fielding unsolicited vendor inquiries from DoD staff to a single interface that can provide consistent vendor handling and messaging. The research functionality of CII supplies NII with market insights and a view of commercial IA vendors, improving "matchmaking," and increasing knowledge of valuable IA commercial technologies, while minimizing wasted time and effort by DoD senior leadership and company representatives. CII regularly publishes commercial technology reports and insight designed to improve DoD processes for interacting with commercial IA vendors. The DoD community should refer unsolicited commercial IA vendor contacts to CII for initial handling, background research and due diligence, and tracking. CII will provide such relevant information as:

· Company and product background
· Previous contacts with other DoD entities
· Competitors
· Other useful market information

Vendor profiles are provided to interested, potential DoD customers in a user-friendly format and logged into the CII database, available to DoD personnel only at (new DoD IA product evaluation link here). Vendor referrals and inquiries should be directed to the CII Coordinator, at iaconnect@osd.mil or (703) 377-6414.

CII is currently receiving vendors with IA and IA-enabled products, as well as vendors offering IA services, defined by the NSA Business Affairs Organization as follows:

  Connecting Vendors to the Members of the DoD Community:

• A completed vendor questionnaire is the first prerequisite for connecting a vendor with the OSD community. If a vendor fails to divulge key information (sponsors, certifications, security plans), the vendor profile will be considered incomplete and will not be passed on.

• Using open source information, CII will review information on the questionnaire provided by the vendor, communicating with the vendor about perceived inconsistencies or incomplete data.

• The vendor should include in the questionnaire:
  • Pilot with DoD
  • Existing DoD contracts
  • Existing government contracts
  • DoD niche player
  • Previous contacts/known quantity with DoD
  • Strong reviews from the trade and technical pubs
  • NIST endorsed product
  • Leading or mid-sized market player
• CII will forward the vendor profile to the appropriate DoD audiences, asking if there is an interest in a meeting.

• If at least one member of the DoD community is of the opinion that vendor product has merit, a meeting will be scheduled.

• If members of the DoD community do not see immediate value in meeting with the vendor, the vendor will be notified and told at the current time, there is no immediate need requirement for the vendor product, but that their record has been captured and is available for reference by the DoD community. The vendor will be encouraged to keep CII abreast of changes and updates to the vendor product or technology.

Assisting Vendors with DoD Technical Standards and Guidelines

• CII will help vendors understand the mandatory technical standards and guidelines for acquisition of IA products and technologies, as defined by the DoD Joint Technical Architecture (JTA).

DoD entities wishing to stay connected to CII should contact the CII Project Coordinator, at iaconnect@osd.mil, and provide contact information and IA areas of interest. You will receive CII updates, vendor reports, and meeting notifications relevant to your interest areas. Please check this Web site for regular technology and vendor alerts.

Inquiries can be made to:
CII Coordinator
iaconnect@osd.mil
(703) 377-6414

Sample CII Vendor Profile
Fact Sheet (pdf)
CII Vendor Questionnaire (doc)

CII Updates (.mil/.gov only)

• July 2007