DOD is expanding the use of Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO) use per a June 26^th memo issued by Director of Defense Procurement Shay Assad.  The move comes as GSA and DHS also expand their own CSO capabilities.  The new DOD authority allows CO’s in any part of DOD to acquire, “any technology, process or method, including research and development, that is new as of the date of submission of a proposal of a technology, process, or method.”  This is a significant expansion over the initial DOD pilot program that covered only a limited number of agencies.  CSO’s of up to $100 million can be executed before approval from senior DOD procurement executives is needed for higher dollar buys.  CSO’s are in addition to, not instead of, OTA’s, though the two innovative methods share a common goal of making commercial item acquisition easier in DOD and civilian agencies.  GSA’s CSO program, for example, was launched in May and has been discussed widely among Schedule contract holders.  Contractors should take the time to thoroughly understand these new flexible acquisition tools.  The key to actually using them is to ensure that you and your customer are comfortable enough with them so that their use brings the intended benefit.  Understanding the risks is important as well.  While there may be no FAR requirements in a CSO acquisition, neither will there be FAR protections.   Remember that streamlined can easily turn into chaos if both parties don’t fully understand key terms.  Still, CSO acquisitions have the capability to speed commercial buys at year end, giving you and your customer a new way to get deals done quickly.