Our cost research services include:

• Collecting, normalizing and analyzing large amounts of cost, technical, schedule and programmatic data with efficiency and expert insight.
• Supporting decision makers with objective and defendable costs for high-technology components, newly developing systems, large-scale programs, legacy equipment upgrades and systems architectures.
• Blending the most appropriate cost-estimating relationships (CERs), factors or analogies that respond to changes in acquisition strategy, mission requirements, system technical characteristics, emerging technologies, schedule constraints and program/model uncertainties.

• Unlike many others in our field, we are not owned by, or operated as, a subsidiary of another enterprise – this is key to our independence and to garnering the trust of industry.
• We are a trusted advisor to the Government and a proven guardian of sensitive information.
• Tecolote cost research products include models and methods that provide a quantitative foundation for all levels of program decision making.
• Trusted working relationships with every major hardware contractor lead to extensive data collections, resulting in robust and relevant methodologies.
• Early and active communication with the target model and tool users ensures products with form and function that fully support everyone’s needs.
• Thoughtful teaming of seasoned engineers and analysts delivers statistically sound methodologies built on solid technical understanding.
• Our analysts have extensive experience working with the CAIGs and know how to build open databases and models that are fully traceable from the raw data to the final estimate.
• Our Tecolote-developed tools like CO$TAT and ACDB offer a seamless interface to the estimating process.

Unmanned Space Vehicle Cost Model (USCM) and Passive Sensor Cost Model (PSCM):

Performance Evaluation Report Excerpt: “Tecolote has effectively utilized their PSCM & USCM experience to continue a second to none service supporting the SMC cost estimating community with their core capabilities to conduct cost research and model development.”

• USCM supports cost estimating of unmanned, earth-orbiting space vehicles. The USCM database consists of military, NASA, and commercial satellite programs that encompass navigation, weather, experimental, surveillance and communications missions.
• PSCM is used to support both development and production phase cost estimates for visual sensors, infrared sensors and microwave radiometers. PSCM provides methodologies at a low enough level to estimate sensor subsystems and components, including Optical Telescope Assemblies (OTAs), Focal Plane Arrays (FPAs), Thermal Subsystems, Pointing Assemblies, Control and Data Processing Electronics and Sensor Calibration systems.

System Trades Economic Effectiveness Model (STEEM):

• Enables rapid Army-level trades across systems and produces reliable, high-resolution estimates.
• Enables analysts to perform inter-program/architectural trades and generate summaries for force capability areas, and allows the user to incrementally trade between these areas.
• Provides a means for the analyst to rapidly navigate various funding options and identify the alternative mix of systems that best meets the Army’s requirements.
• STEEM is an excellent example of Tecolote’s ability to broker collaboration across services to satisfy a common problem.

Tri-Service Missile & Munitions Automated Cost Database:

• Initiated by the U.S. Army Cost and Economic Analysis Center (CEAC) in the mid-1980s. The current version is in wide distribution throughout the DoD missile cost analysis community.
• The database contains cost, technical and programmatic data for more than 1,000 missile and munitions contracts.
• Data can be easily sorted and exported into Microsoft Excel or CO$TAT for immediate cost analysis of learning curves and CER development.

Proposal Evaluation Tool (PET):

• Developed to answer the question: “How should I allocate my limited resources to best achieve my objectives?”
• Decision makers define their objectives as evaluation criteria and the criteria are prioritized using the Analytical Hierarchy Process. A recommended combination of proposals that will maximize total Relative Value within the budget is produced using Integer Linear Programming (ILP).
• PET applies genetic algorithms to solve the multi-year, multi-appropriation resource allocation problem.

Robust Analytical Tool Sets:

Tecolote has developed and supports tools that support an analyst to easily collect, analyze, manage and share data:

• ACDB is the Automated Cost Database tool within the ACEIT suite. ACDB is a database-building and search/query tool. It contains powerful database entry and administration tools to enable any site or office to create its own tailored database. No knowledge of programming, SQL or DBMSs is needed. Users can search and retrieve cost, schedule, technical, and programmatic data and export the data to either CO$TAT or Excel files. ACDB consists of two applications: (1) the ACDB Database Development kit (DDK); and (2) the ACDB Report Writer. Both of these applications come standard with the ACEIT desktop application suite. We also have web-enabled ACDB databases for certain complex, multi-organization clients.
• CO$TAT is the statistical analysis package of the ACEIT suite that has been specifically designed for the cost/price analyst. CO$TAT is an Excel add-in that contains most of the features available in major commercial statistics programs. With CO$TAT, users can rapidly move through the analysis process to develop estimating relationships and quickly include the analysis directly into their cost estimate. Datasets can be quickly created in an Excel spreadsheet. All statistical analysis features are easily accessed via an intuitive GUI. Users can edit data obtained from ACDB or other sources; develop histograms and scatter plots; perform statistical analysis, including linear, log-linear, and non-linear regression; fit beta curves; and fit learning curves both with and without rate effects.
• Knowledge Web Services (KnWS) is a browser-based Enterprise Knowledge Management System used to organize, share, search and retrieve documents, Automated Cost Estimator (ACE) models and CER libraries. It also allows remote access to ACE-built cost models from an easy-to-use browser interface. KnWS has built-in, multi-level security and very simple administration features. Once created, KnWS can be maintained by an analyst rather than a network administrator.