By Jeff Erlichman

SEWP outreach is based on the strongly held belief that onsite training and one-on-one meetings with customers build relationships.

Key enhancements to the contract are the results of give-and-take training session discussions.

Keep them calling. That’s a big part of the SEWP training goal. “Part of the goal is not that they will call us less, but they will call us more,” Joanne Woytek, SEWP PM explained.

“That way they feel like they really know us. They feel comfortable calling us. It really builds that relationship and we get really good interaction through that process.”

The SEWP outreach model is different from everybody else’s. The model is based on the strongly held belief that going out and meeting one-on-one with customers and training them on site is beneficial to them. It helps build relationships with the SEWP program people. As a result, they gain a good understanding of how to use the contracts correctly which is beneficial from a compliance point of view. “We are in front of them talking with them, interacting with them. This way they are going to get a lot more out of it and we are less likely to have any issues down the road. It’s well worth it from that regard,” said Woytek. “We really have concentrated in the past few years on outreach and training on site as being our main way of getting to people.”

Catalyst for Change

At the same time this interaction benefits the program because many of the changes in how the contract is administered happen as a result of these discussions. Woytek explained that “in fact the key enhancements came about from those training sessions when somebody said, ‘why don’t you have this feature?’ Nobody’s ever asked for it. ‘Do you want it? OK, that sounds good, let’s go ahead and do that’.”

SEWP outreach is aimed at both the procurement and technical communities. “We usually train COs and more often the procurement resource people who support the COs,” said Woytek. “If there is a good relationship between the procurement and the technical folks, we will get some technical folks in there. So I’m always happy when I see the technical folks in there because the process becomes a whole lot easier if you know up front what your options are.”

Practical SEWP

SEWP serves customers in the North America, Europe and Asia. Products bought using SEWP find their way to Iraq and Afghanistan. Logistics and cost-consciousness make it hard for the SEWP team to go everywhere to do training.

That is where the SEWP training video plays a big role. It makes it possible for people at DOD to use SEWP, because DOD requires that everybody be trained to use this. In the 15 minute training video, customers get a basic understanding of the contracts.

“Then we have their name and then when we are in the area we can call and say we are coming to your area,” said Woytek. “We don’t just do these trainings on sites. There’s Germany or Fort Bragg or upstate New York, we don’t just say let’s go fly off there. It’s a process of deciding who else is around there; who else needs to get trained, so it’s cost effective to do.”

The training video has brought a lot of value. It’s instructed more than 3,600 so far. It’s also available on DVD. To get yours, contact SEWP.