While DOD announced last week that the agency is expanding its Centers of Excellence program to provide DOD buyers more direction in buying commercial services, contractors may not cheer the development.  The effort is, in reality, a mechanism for getting lower prices for commercial solutions while, at the same time, continuing to add burdens for subcontractors.  These burdens include requiring subs that have no commercial customers themselves to provide cost data to DOD so that they can determine price reasonableness.  DPAP Director of Pricing Shay Assad’s key concept is “Value Based Pricing” a term that involves contracting officials, but also program managers, to ensure that DOD is keeping prices and costs under control.  If this sounds a lot like “Value Engineering”, which most companies understand to mean “how do I cut corners and still get you to deliver something that works”, that’s probably intentional.  DOD believes that most commercial contractors can’t support their purported value propositions.  So, if your company is selling commercial solutions to DOD, now is the time to make sure your value statement is updated and thoroughly vetted through a “murder board” process to ensure you’re ready to counteract what DOD, or other skeptics, might think about your pricing.