AI-enabled Portfolio Management

OUSD (R&E) CRITICAL TECHNOLOGY AREA(S): Trusted AI and Autonomy OBJECTIVE: This platform will integrate tools and best practices in a central portal to modernize the Army's acquisition process, supporting both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) needs. The envisioned solution for this topic is an IT Acquisition Requirements Intake and Portfolio Management solution that will serve as the front-end to the Army's modernized acquisition process, assessing new software, hardware, and services requirements against qualification criteria and against existing capabilities. Without this, the Army risks creating unnecessary contracts, developing redundant systems, and wasting resources on needs that could be met with existing capabilities or contracts. DESCRIPTION: This solution will address key challenges in Acquisition requirements intake and portfolio management including: 1. Lack of consistent processes and templates for intake, review, analysis, and acceptance of new IT Acquisition requirements; 2. Inconsistent governance for prioritizing and sequencing new Acquisition requirements; 3. Limited visibility into the status of approved requirements during the acquisition process; 4. Insufficient visibility into the Army's portfolio of services, contracts, and hardware/software assets; and 5. Inadequate scanning of available contracts and hardware/software during portfolio review and requirements approval. Each of the above challenges is addressed by development of a modern Acquisition requirements intake and portfolio management capability built on advanced AI capabilities and leveraging commercial market research and development (R&D). IMPORTANT: A prize competition, xTechIgnite, will be used to identify small business concerns that meet the criteria for award for this topic. Winners selected from the xTechIgnite prize competition will be the only firms eligible to submit a SBIR proposal under this topic. All other proposals will not be evaluated. See the full xTechIgnite competition details here: https://www.xtech.army.mil/competition/xtechignite/. PHASE I: This topic is accepting Direct to Phase II (DP2) proposals for a cost up to $2,000,000 for an 18-month period of performance. Proposers interested in submitting a DP2 proposal must provide documentation to substantiate that the scientific and technical merit and feasibility equivalent to a Phase I project has been met. Documentation can include data, reports, specific measurements, success criteria of a prototype, etc. (DIRECT TO) PHASE II: The successful small business should be prepared to deliver, due to the time-sensitive need for this capability, an initial Minimum Viable Product (MVP) one hundred and twenty (120) calendar days following DP2 award to demonstrate the maturity and feasibility of their concept. Subsequent to this initial MVP, a series of additional related MVPs in response to additional features requirements will be built to constitute an initial release. The desired outcome for this DP2 topic is the development of a well-defined prototype software product that demonstrates that artificial intelligence and machine learning can be used to effectively and efficiently manage an acquisition and contracts portfolio. An additional desired outcome is an automated and streamlined acquisition requirements intake process, integrated with external systems to scan the external environment for duplication and redundancy across the portfolio. PHASE III DUAL USE APPLICATIONS: Currently available private sector solutions applicable to this challenge are limited due to the unique nature of the Federal Government's budget and appropriations processes. Commercially available Acquisition requirements intake and portfolio management solutions such as Plainview, Smartsheet, Microsoft Project, Zoho Projects, and Monday.com are not tailored to the Federal process or regulation, and do not leverage the power of an AI-enabled Acquisition requirements intake and portfolio management system and thereby are unsuitable for this challenge. A new AI-enabled solution that is tailored to Federal Acquisition processes and regulations is needed. The framework for developing an AI-enabled portfolio management tool that is compliant with stringent federal regulations could be applicable to other highly regulated industries such as Finance and Healthcare. REFERENCES: 1. https://www.pmi.org/disciplined-agile/the-importance-of-having-an-intake-process#:~:text=An%20%E2%80%9Cintake%20process%E2%80%9D%20refers%20to,is%20picked%20up%20by%20development. KEYWORDS: Portfolio Optimization; Business Process Redesign; Lean Six Sigma; Organizational Change Management; Communications Planning