The document discusses service level agreements (SLAs) as a new acquisition model that can help address budget constraints. Some key points: 1) Under an SLA, a vendor provides infrastructure and operations to deliver a service, while the customer makes a stable, multi-year commitment to acquire the service. 2) The document provides DigitalGlobe's EnhancedView SLA as an example, which guarantees capacity, accuracy, timeliness and availability of satellite imagery to the NGA for 10 years at a lower cost than ownership. 3) SLAs are argued to enable better performance than traditional acquisitions by providing stable requirements, funding, staffing, and managed innovation at lower cost and risk.

1. Service Level Agreements
A New Acquisition Model for a Budget
Constrained Era
Image: Iran | July 5, 2011 | 50cm

2. Service Level Agreement (SLA)
• Vendor provides infrastructure and
operations to deliver a service
• Customer makes stable, multi-year
commitment to acquire the service

3. Consumer Electronics

4. Dedicated Manufacturing

5. SLA Manufacturing
• Seasonal demand
• Can repurpose
excess capacity
• Can surge if needed

6. EnhancedView (EV) SLA
QuickBird
• NGA contract to acquire WorldView-2
unclassified, shareable imagery
WorldView-1
• 10 yr term, monthly fee
• Priority access to 5-satellite On-orbit
0.6m GSD
imaging constellation for much
On-orbit
less than cost of ownership On-orbit 0.46m GSD
0.5m GSD
• Guaranteed capacity, accuracy,
WorldView-3 WorldView-4
timeliness, availability
• Includes hosting and delivery
• Continuous improvement in
capacity, # sats, resolution,
2014 2018
timelines, etc 0.3m GSD <=0.3m GSD
• Firm fixed price, low cost risk

7. DigitalGlobe Satellite Acquisitions
Schedule Growth (Percent) 160%
140%
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
-200% 0% 200% 400% 600% 800%
Cost Growth (Percent)

8. DigitalGlobe Satellite Acquisitions
Schedule Growth (Percent) 160%
140%
120%
100%
80%
60% WorldView-1
40%
QuickBird, WorldView-2
20%
0%
-200% 0% 200% 400% 600% 800%
Cost Growth (Percent)
(All cost growth has been absorbed entirely by
DigitalGlobe; none was passed on to the USG)

9. SLAs Enable This Performance
• Stable requirements
• Stable funding
• Stable, experienced staffing
• Managed innovation
• Eating our own cooking

10. Why Are SLAs Better?
Traditional Acquisition SLA Acquisition
• You buy the car • You sign up for an SLA
• You drive the car • We drive the car
• You pay for gas • We pay for gas
• We fix the car if it breaks
• You fix the car if it breaks
• We add a better car every few years
• You buy a new car every few years
• When your relatives visit, we provide
extra cars for their use
• And it all costs less than ownership

11. SLAs Most Applicable When
• Up-front investment is needed to create required
infrastructure
• Activity requires development and operations
• Long term, (mostly) predictable needs
• Bleeding edge technology not required
– SLA does allow for technology insertion
• There are multiple customers across whom to
spread costs, and enabling surge capacity

12. SLA Model is Applicable To
 Imagery
Geospatial production
• & Analysis?
• Telecommunications
• Launch
• Weather?
• Cyber?