Vendor Communication Plan, Final Summary of Changes

Summary of Changes as of August 26, 2011:

Section 2.2 — Reducing Barriers and Promoting Engagements, Identified which barriers HHS will confront in the future going forward with the vendor community.
Section 2.3.1 — Pre-Award Phase, Page7, Section 2.3.2—Vendor Engagement Strategy. Encourage using innovative technological solutions to effectively tap the understanding of industry partners, during pre-RFP phases such as market research. Also encouraged staff in 2.3.2 to use collaborative tools that are mentioned in section 2.2.
Section 2.3.2 — Vendor Engagement Strategy. Added the criteria for identifying the extent of the required engagement as a condition of approval by the agency’s investment review board.
Section 2.4 — Publication of engagement events. Clarified the nature and schedule of the engagement with specific dates for these events.
Section 5 — Links to regulatory authority. Added more links to existing policy.
Section 6 — Plans to follow up with employees and industry representatives within 6 months. Provided more specific details and milestones for how HHS will further refine and improve communications with vendors after the plan has been released.