Blog · Other Transactions and CSOs
Five Questions to Ask Before You Answer a CSO or Open Call
The first hour with a new solicitation decides more than most companies realize. Before anyone drafts a solution brief or cuts a pitch video, UDC recommends answering five questions.
1. What authority does the notice cite?
A notice that cites 10 U.S.C. 3458 or DFARS 212.70 leads to a fixed-price FAR contract. One that cites 10 U.S.C. 4022 leads to a prototype Other Transaction. One that cites both lets the buyer choose at award. The words "Commercial Solutions Opening" on the cover tell you none of this.
2. What will we sign, and what does that do to our intellectual property?
A procurement contract carries the FAR and DFARS patent, data and software rules. An OT sits outside the FAR and the Bayh-Dole Act, which generally leaves more room to negotiate. Pricing and data-rights assumptions in the solution brief should match the instrument that is coming.
3. Is the selection competitive enough to carry a production award?
A noncompetitive follow-on under 4022(f) requires that the prototype participants were picked with competitive procedures and that the prototype succeeded. A directly awarded sole-source OT gives up that path. If production is the goal, settle this before the agreement is signed.
4. What is our 4022(d) basis?
A prototype OT needs significant participation by a nontraditional defense contractor or nonprofit research institution, an all small-business or nontraditional team, one-third non-federal cost share, or a written exceptional-circumstances determination. Know which one applies, and check whether a large teammate changes it.
5. Who is the agreements officer?
OTs are signed by appointed agreements officers, not under a FAR warrant. If the interested program office has no agreements officer with authority at the expected value, the work will be routed elsewhere, and the schedule will slip while that happens.
These questions come from our new paper, Other Transactions and Commercial Solutions Openings: What Companies Need to Know. It also covers the FY2026 NDAA changes to the statutory CSO, the March 2025 software memo, and a selected directory of 31 portals, 40 standing SAM.gov announcements and 41 OT consortium entries.
Read more about the paper