“Call & Response” Procurement Data Services
An Introduction
The Department of Defense (DoD) has a number of Big Data (BD) and Business Intelligence (BI) software platforms. These technologies are used to collect, navigate and distill information from large sets of data, which is then used to help inform defense procurement policy. Although these tools are commercially available to many, the capability is only useful if the right person is able to get the right information at the right time at the right price. For this reason, DPAP is providing information logistics through the "Call and Response" (C&R) procurement data service.
C&R gives users a simple way to get and organize publicly available data about DoD procurements that are reported to the Federal Procurement Data System (https://www.FPDS.gov). Note: DoD public data is 90 day delayed.
About C&R Procurement Data Services
C&R is an efficiency initiative designed to make visualizing procurement trends a simple task. Specifically, the C&R service gives users an ability to find answers to commonly asked procurement questions across the four most recent fiscal years.
C&R does this through:
- A basic, self-service tool that requires minimal expertise or training
- A “call” file with drop-down filters that can be emailed to the server
- A “response” file, which a server sends after a “call” is processed
C&R benefits include:
- Easy access to FPDS data
- An ability to customize and repurpose charts and tables
- Promotion of common views through easy-to-share data filters
- An ability to link other data structures with FPDS’ data dictionary
- Potential to upload (or “crowd-source”) custom data calls through this framework
Users also benefit from C&R’s incorporation of DoD's “Taxonomy for the Acquisition of Services and Supplies & Equipment” (http://www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/ss/taxonomy.html) and crosswalk to the Office of Management and Budget’s Budget Object Class Codes (www.acq.osd.mil/dpap/policy/policyvault/USC000365-14-DPAP.pdf). By mapping elements within these databases to Product and Service Codes (PSCs), C&R users are able to see and analyze trend data about Services and Supplies & Equipment (“Goods”) from the strategic perspective of a Functional Domain Expert.
Before using this tool, please take a moment to look at the below presentation and to watch the training video.
Presentation
“Call” File (Download this to start using C&R)
Mr. Victor Deal is the senior analyst on this topic. If you have questions, please email OSD.ContractData@mail.mil.