Sellry – DefenseMarket – FESCH.TV

FESCH.TV INFORMIERT:

Sellry, Inc. is proposing the creation of a SaaS-based catalog listing all the SBIR technologies produced by SBIR contract awardees. The catalog will allow end users such as program managers, commanders, and other operators to easily locate and purchase SBIR technology.

Central to the catalog will be an intuitive search mechanism which will utilize keyword and synonym matching as well as natural language processing (NLP) to interpret an end user’s queries and list highly relevant results of existing SBIR technology. From the results page, filters will be available to subset results further. Upon clicking on or selecting a particular listing, the end user will be able to see detailed information about that SBIR technology, along with vendor contact information. Having access to this kind of search will allow Air Force end users to increase their awareness of, and reduce friction in adopting, SBIR technologies. Taken to a logical conclusion, if end users were ultimately encouraged or mandated to search the database prior to requesting bids on a new project, this would significantly cut down on wasteful redundant and inefficient efforts.

A longer-term goal of this effort is to streamline not only the search but also the purchase of SBIR technologies. To make this happen, we envision that SBIR technologies which have demonstrably reached predefined criteria such as Technology Readiness Level (TRL) will be purchasable in an e-commerce fashion via a payment method such as government credit card or MIPR. This “Amazon.com for SBIRs” would reduce the workload for contracting officers and cut down on the time and cost of delivering SBIR technologies.

The ultimate goal of this effort is to revolutionize how the DoD conducts business with small businesses and provide visibility into existing program management and contracting efforts by enabling cross-agency access to all DoD SBIR technology. As this expansion continues, we envision this technology enabling all federal government entities to take advantage of cross-agency catalogs. End users will be able to easily find products and vendors closely matching their needs, thereby maximizing reuse of already-developed solutions and ultimately, reducing the cost to bring new technology into the government. We envision providing coordinated catalogs representing multiple U.S. Government stakeholders, including the Department of Defense / HHS / NASA, which anyone in the military and federal government will be able to access in order to find SBIR technology to solve their needs. In addition, this has the potential to reduce redundant government research and development spending (duplication of SBIR grants) as well as spur economic growth in the private sector by continued funding of small business R&D efforts, resulting in greater economic efficiencies and impact for generations to come.

Future enhancements to this effort may include templates for Phase III contracting, request for quote (RFQ) creation, and / or quote review by vendors. Including slight modifications to products via an asynchronous messaging option enabling SBs to connect with end users, reducing the need for additional officers to get involved.