Behind the Buy Podcast 7 - The Importance of Bringing in Experienced Teams

In the seventh episode of Behind the Buy, U.S. Chief Acquisition Officer Anne Rung interviews Beth Hochberg, an Assistant General Counsel at the General Services Administration (GSA) and GSA’s chief intellectual property (IP) lawyer. In addition to IP, Beth works on issues involving mobile device applications, technology transfer, and end user license agreements.

Leveraging play #7 of the Digital Services Playbook–which recommends building project teams comprised of program managers, designers, engineers, and contracting officers who have experience building modern digital services–Beth discusses how bringing in the legal team early and often can help contracting officers and program managers avoid legal problems up front. The legal team can also help find creative solutions and approaches that exist within the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). Cross functional teams that consult with each other from the beginning help create more efficient, long-term procurements that save time and money, and deliver better digital services.

Additionally, Beth addresses topics such as protecting end user data through the procurement process, the future of mobile device applications in the Federal Government, and how training contracting officers in specific subject areas (such as technology and IT) can help them navigate tricky intellectual property and data rights that agencies may seek to protect when delivering digital services.