The U.S. Navy’s Program Executive Office for Digital and Enterprise Services, or PEO Digital, is advancing the development and testing of new technologies meant to improve its processes through the Small Business Innovation Research program, Federal News Network reported Wednesday.
Justin Fanelli, acting chief technology officer at the Department of the Navy, said that SBIR has helped PEO Digital streamline the process of informing small businesses of its objectives and telling such firms how they could support the service branch.
“We’re looking at more mechanisms. We have something that’s called Advanced Naval Technology Exercise so that we can do commercial solution offerings. We have both phase one and phase two [opportunities] going out,” he said of the SBIR program.
Fanelli, who also serves as technical director of PEO Digital, told FNN how the use of other transaction authorities and partnership with the Defense Innovation Unit enable the Navy to support small businesses as it advances the use of the SBIR program.
He noted that PEO Digital looks at five mission outcomes as it pursues SBIR contracts and works with DIU and other government and industry partners. The measured outcomes are user time lost, operational resilience, net promoter score, cost per user and adaptability.
