# Federal Contractors Target Outcome-Based Acquisitions

Accenture Federal Services and Leidos executives advise federal contractors to plan for multiple funding and policy scenarios in a divided government, focus bids on areas where they can win, and streamline growth operations. They describe a shift toward outcome-based, milestone-driven acquisitions, where technologies such as agentic AI are more persuasive when linked to measurable mission results and supported by process, policy, and change-management improvements. Accenture Federal Services’ call-center arrangement, which ties payment to avoiding live-agent handling of calls, illustrates how payment models can reward measurable outcomes.

- Contractors can use scenario planning to identify investments and capabilities that remain valuable across different funding and policy conditions.
- Bid strategies should connect proposed technology—including agentic AI—to measurable mission outcomes rather than presenting technology alone.
- The call-center arrangement highlights a model in which payment is tied to a defined operational result; companies should assess whether they can demonstrate and deliver comparable measurable outcomes in relevant procurements.
- Streamlining growth operations and concentrating bids on areas with a credible competitive advantage may help contractors respond to uncertainty.

**Jurisdictions:** federal
**Industries:** Information Technology
**Topics:** Artificial Intelligence
**Published:** November 10, 2026

### Government Entities
- U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)
- U.S. Army (Army)
- U.S. Congress

### Vendors
- Accenture Federal Services ()
- Leidos ()

### Key Quotes
> If you think of this not as one scenario but three, and then you look at things that are critical in every one of the scenarios, then we have no brainer things that we have to invest in
> — Ira Entis, Chief Strategy Officer, Accenture Federal Services

### Sources
- [Accenture, Leidos execs on how to survive a divided government - Washington Technology](https://www.washingtontechnology.com/contracts/2026/11/accenture-leidos-execs-how-survive-divided-government/417155) - Washington Technology