Icon

The Integrated Casting Order Network (ICON) Portal is an online platform that improves the ability of the Defense industry to source and procure metal casting parts and tooling. Managed by the Non-Ferrous Founders’ Society (a North American trade association for the non-ferrous metal casting industry) and sponsored by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), the ICON Portal enables foundries that manufacture parts for the Defense industry to make their capabilities and tooling records available to government users, and to identify and be notified of government solicitations matching their machining and casting capabilities. The program to date has generated thousands of new business orders for the cast metals industry and has documented millions of dollars in cost savings for the government.

Faced with the sunsetting of its legacy web portal platform, the Non-Ferrous Founders’ Society (NFFS) engaged PARTNET to develop and implement a next-generation web portal that would not only provide all of the features of the legacy system, but also add new capabilities to improve the ability of non-ferrous metal casting industry members to identify, research, collaborate, and bid on defense industry solicitations for specialized parts and tooling. 

Tasked with standing up the new portal in a very short timeframe, PARTNET leveraged the technical expertise and experience of its IT solution delivery team to develop an approach that resulted in a successful launch of the Integrated Casting Order Network (ICON) portal that was on time and on budget.

Today the ICON Portal transcends traditional bid matching services by providing a robust e-Sourcing solution that filters, organizes, and delivers defense casting business opportunities to capable metal casters by matching part requirements to a supplier’s manufacturing capabilities. The ICON Portal also provides government users with access to the largest database of metal casting suppliers, capabilities, and tooling records.

• Up-to-date view of defense casting solicitations that can be configured and sorted according to a supplier’s material and process capabilities or bid match settings.
• Daily notifications of open solicitations, including those matching the supplier’s tooling and capabilities.
• Database of over 34,000 industry tooling records where government users can identify if tooling exists for a specific National Industry Identification Number (NIIN), and where it is located. 
• Supplier capabilities database where government users can identify foundries or machine shops capable of manufacturing an item based on material and process requirements.
• Ability to search procurement history based on an NSN, NIIN, FSC, CAGE code, description, technical characteristics, or NAICS.
• Interfaces with external government data sources for real-time validation of data and up-to-date solicitation requirements and information.
• Internal messaging system that allows users to communicate and collaborate on solicitation opportunities and to be notified of actions and events in the system.