Exception to Fair Opportunity_UC_07 21 2023_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Acquisition Title: Unified Communications (UC), Moderator, & Cloud Network Operations Support Agency: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Acquisition Year:2023

Author: Tasha Rowe, Contracting Officer Representative, Tasha.Rowe@cms.hhs.gov

1. Description of Action:

A. Nature

New Requirement

Follow-On Order

Modification of Existing Purchase Order / Contract Number B. Order Against

47QTCB21D0039 Multiple Award IDIQ Contract 8(a) Stars III C. Contract Type

Firm-Fixed Price

Time and Materials

Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF)

Term

Completion

Cost Plus Award Fee (CPAF)

Other:

D. Projected Cost / Price of contract (Base & All Options):

E. The total estimated value of the proposed sole source action (for modifications only):

N/A

F. Funding Source (s): Funds are anticipated to be committed for this acquisition by August 15th 20223.

G. Basis for Approval (Far 6.303-1(d))

Individual Basis

Class Basis

Below is relevant current contract information:

Contract / Order Number: 75FCMC18C0055 Contractor: Third Packet Technologies LLC Contract Vehicle: N/A- FAR Part 12 competition Set Aside (y/n & type): Y – 8(a) Set Aside Period of Performance: 09/30/2018 to 08/29/2023 Dollar Value (total): approximately $109,363,290.95

2. Description of Supplies or Services:

One year of severable services necessary to support the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) current and future cloud infrastructure & network, Unified Communications (UC)/ Unified Communications & Cloud (UC&C) systems & data center locations and equipment, Virtual Private Network (VPN) and networking/security systems.

The contractor furnishes all the labor, maintenance, expertise, personnel, and transportation necessary to support CMS’ UC systems, equipment, & infrastructure.

The contractor will provide multi-faceted support to the CMS Infrastructure & User Services Groups (IUSG) in connection with their delivery of audio and video conferencing equipment, network engineering, network operations, cloud network operations, application development, data center operations, and maintenance support to all areas of CMS UC. In addition, IUSG is responsible for:

• Managing a UC&C network infrastructure that includes numerous types of end user and infrastructure technologies, integrations, and support for over 14,000 CMS end users.

• Managing a video teleconferencing network infrastructure that includes over 200 individual nationwide teleconferencing systems & associated data center infrastructure.

• Providing local and cloud network services that includes operations & support of various technologies to include, but not limited to: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Equinix data centers, local data centers, remote access solutions, premise-based networking technologies, CMS voice systems etc.

• Providing technical support staff to respond to UC related requests or issues for the Agency’s Baltimore, Washington D.C., Bethesda locations, and Regional Office locations.

• UC Engineering Services that include design and equipment integration of both small- and large-scale installations; creating network diagrams; developing long-term strategies and capacity planning for future UC growth; configure and maintain operations of UC equipment.

• Provide engineering support for all UC functionality and infrastructure.

• Providing application development services for integrations of custom apps, integrations, designs, and application development activities.

• Providing call moderator services for support during select conferences, leveraging the features of the preferred CMS UC conferencing solution.

3. Authority and Rationale:

The Contracting Officer shall give every awardee a fair opportunity to be considered for a delivery/task order exceeding $3,500 unless one of the following statutory exceptions applies.

FAR 16.505(b)(2). Mark the applicable exception:

The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays [FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A)];

Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized [FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B)];

At present there is only one capable source of meeting the Government’s requirement. The current contractor is working on several in-flight projects that support the transition from the CMS Virtual Data Center (VDC) to the Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS)/ Continuously Available CMS Hosting Environment (CACHE) as well as CMS Staff Return to the Office. While another contractor could conceivably perform that work, the time and cost of transition would be particularly onerous and would create an unacceptable delay and risk in successful delivery at a critical point in time for these two initiatives.

Given sufficient time, another contractor could learn to do the necessary tasks; however, this transition and the resulting re-work would create significant problems for the Government. To provide further detail on relevant factors limiting the capable vendors to a single entity, the following two main factors are provided below:

Factor 1: Need for continuity of operations for ongoing efforts.

CMS is in the process of executing several key initiates related to CMS’ return to the office objectives in headquarters, regional offices, and sub-offices. The scope of is work is to accommodate increased connectivity requirements directly related to operational needs required to support back on campus initiatives that are required by Fall 2023. These efforts will enhance all onsite, remote, and hybrid workers’ connectivity to the CMS environment using enterprise VPN. To ensure readiness and support of hybrid work posture and return to office, the existing contractor is in process of various ongoing efforts which include the following:

CMS WIFI network validation and remediation work as well as support for renovated areas to supply WIFI connectivity and support to returning workers.

CMS conference room refreshes to support hybrid work posture for CMS end users1

Mid-migration of CMS end users from CMS enterprise VPN to Zscaler VPN – including infrastructure and internet work related to CMS internet access from CMS physical locations, crucial to success of return to work (onsite users/remote

1 This is one of the projects that has been negatively impacted by supply chain delays.

users use 3P managed internet access). This work is critical due to CMS’s timelines to migrate approximately ~330 application developers from Cloud VPN to Zscaler VPN – as well as remaining 7500 CMS employees – from Enterprise VPN to Zscaler by May 1, 2024. The timeline to complete this project is compressed by the team’s inability to make significant environment changes during the 2023 open enrollment period2.

WIFI continuity which needs to be supported in CMS buildings with no break/fix, and disruptions to ensure proper CMS operations.

CMS is currently undergoing an audio visual (AV) renovation at its main headquarters location that is approximately 60% complete.

Ongoing Cloud Network Migration Efforts

If a transition were to occur, it is likely that service disruption would occur significantly degrading VPN connectivity, support for conference room equipment, and negatively impact CMS’ ability to support the evolving hybrid work model. Additionally, transition to a new contractor during this phase of the projects discussed creates a significant risk to the 2024 Open Enrollment. This is due to the potential impact to the VPN. The net result would be the need to maintain both legacy services and new services which would result in significant financial burden to CMS and risk to critical CMS operations.

Factor 2: The Potential Need for Reprograming

The systems being incorporated into the CMS offices have not been developed in a way that they could be easily transitioned to a new vendor. A transition to a new contractor during the current phase of project execution would result in CMS paying twice for the same work. A new contractor would need to redo the programing that has already occurred to get the new contractor to the phase in the project that Thirdpacket Technologies, LLC is currently operating. This would present a significant risk to CMS from a technical perspective and require a significant duplication of costs.

Conclusion:

Thirdpacket Technologies, LLC is the only responsible source to complete these projects because the company contains highly specialized and technical knowledge, specific to this contract. The highly specialized, technical knowledge, and abilities to meet the Government’s need is as follows: knowledge of CMS cloud systems and applications, cloud networking transition expertise, specific knowledge and configurations of CMS enterprise VPN migration activities, custom AV configuration and programming design knowledge and activities related to ongoing CMS back to campus efforts. This experience and expertise necessary to be successful in this phase of the UC project is contract specific.

The only way to have obtained this expertise is to have been operating on the contract for the last year. If a transition occurred at this time a new contractor would need to reprogram the existing systems that are currently in process of being installed. As a result, the only

2 The contractor is not permitted by the Government to make necessary changes during Open Enrollment (OE).

company that can successfully meet the Government’s requirement, without a significant risk is Thirdpacket Technologies, LLC. Based on the information presented above, a sole source contract to Thirdpacket Technologies, LLC is in the best interest of the Government.

The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order [FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C)]; or

N/A

It is necessary to place the order to satisfy a minimum guarantee [FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(D)].

N/A

A statute expressly authorizes or requires that the purchase be made from a specified source.

[FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(E)].

N/A

4. Provide a statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made:

The agencies are taking the following actions to remove barriers to competition.

By completing this sole source action all projects identified in the previous section will be at a phase that those projects can easily be transitioned to a new contractor, which enables an effective future competition.

The program office is targeting rapid completion of outstanding projects, post-COVID19 pandemic, to promote future competition.

5. State any other facts supporting the justification:

N/A