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News | April 5, 2016

Associates Attend Annual Automated One-Time Buy Training Session

By DLA Land and Maritime Public Affairs DLA Land and Maritime Public Affairs

COLUMBUS, Ohio  –   The Automated One-Time Buy Team at DLA Land and Maritime hosted an in-depth training session in Columbus March 15-17.  

Per the Automated Procurement System Internal Control (APSIC) DLA Manual, DLAM 5025.06, published Sept. 30, 2015, Automated Contracting Officers and Small Business Directors or their designated representative must be trained annually to confirm they understand the automated system logic.  Automated Contracting Officers were under this requirement prior to the new DLAM, but this was the first year Small Business directors were also included.

Associates from across the agency attended the training on Defense Supply Center Columbus, including: Amy Sajda, DLA Director of Small Business Programs; small business directors from Land and Maritime, Aviation, and Troop Support; and personnel from DLA Aviation, DLA Troop Support, and Land and Maritime.

“The training was important because it met the new requirements of APSIC and allowed business process analysts across the agency to receive refresher training on two of the most complex areas of automated system logic and prepare for system testing later this year,” Kelly Penwell, chief of the Automated Systems Team, Land and Maritime, said.

Over the course of three days, attendees were presented training topics such as Automated Set-Aside Determination, Evaluation Logic, Automated Foreign Evaluation, APSIC Details, and an Automated Request for Change Overview. 

In preparation for Automated Request for Change testing scheduled to occur later this year, Procurement Analysts led the attendees in a live session on how to create data and execute programs used in most Automated One-Time Buy system testing.  

Ryan Snyder, a member of Land and Maritime’s Small Business office, said it’s important for his team to know how to respond to buyers or vendors at workshops who ask questions about the auto process.

“With any automated process, a system has to be programmed how to handle the gray areas, so it's important for my team to understand that computer logic is giving appropriate advantage to the small business community,” Snyder said.

Associates who attended said it was also beneficial to network with the attending small business directors, J6 personnel and agency-wide BPAs.