Among the statutory responsibilities laid out for DoD Product Support Managers (PSM) for major weapon systems in 10 U.S.C. 2337 Life Cycle Management and Product Support is found in para (b)(2)(H) to “ensure that the product support strategy maximizes small business participation at the appropriate tiers”.

For DoD life cycle logistics and product support professionals directly involved with small business programs as part of your portfolio, wanted to pass on several resources of interest:

• The DoD Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) and the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Government Contracting and Business Development will be jointly presenting a webinar at 3:00 pm EST this afternoon, Wednesday April 8, 2020 “to discuss various resources available to the Defense Industrial Base’s Small Business community. Speakers will include leaders from will include leaders from OSBP and SBA, and topics will include COVID-19 updates, resources, policy changes, and questions & answers. Attendees can join the conference on their computer, or alternatively can dial in at 1-877-369-5243 or 1-617-668-3633 (Access Code: 0533737#)
• See also a blog post from our DAU contracting counterparts entitled “New Online Training: CON 0690 PTAC Awareness for Government Employees”, with information about and a link to the new CON 0690 PTAC Awareness for Government Employees online training (OLT) course. Additional information on this topic can also be found at the Procurement Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) website.

• Back in January I also posted a LOG Blog post entitled “Small Business Resources for DoD PSMs” containing information about a January 8, 2020 report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) entitled “Small Business Administration: A Primer on Programs and Funding”. The report provides an overview of the various Small Business Administration programs, as well as more general information about small business.

In addition to the new CON 0690 PTAC training, DAU also offers a number of easily-accessible, web-based learning assets on the subject, including CLM 059 Fundamentals of Small Business for the Acquisition Workforce online training module, as well as three ACQuipedia articles entitled Small Business, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs, and Small Business Set Asides respectively.