1.5.1FEMA_CMS_Sole_Source_JA_Updated_02-06-2026_SIGN_CA_Redacted.pdf

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification & Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) December 2025

Note: Period of Performance for Current contracts (70FA3123C00000001 & 75N98118D00064) end May 11, 2026.

(e) Type of funding: 6R Disaster Funds

(f) Year of funding: Fiscal Year 2026

(g) Solicitation number: 70FA3124I00000013

(h) Background information about the requirement:

The central business decision is to transition the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Crisis Management System from a traditional enterprise software license to a Software as a Service model provided by the current proprietary vendor, ESi/Juvare. Building or configuring an alternative solution—either a new government-owned system or a different commercial platform—would be significantly more expensive, slower to field, and risk mission interruption. It would also conflict with Executive Order 14271, which directs agencies to prioritize commercial, cost-effective solutions.

A recent Business Analysis completed in May 2025 concluded that rebuilding the emergency management response components in a government-owned solution would cost between $16 million and $25 million and require 24 to 36 months. This estimate does not include the cost of maintaining the current Crisis Management System in parallel during that time, nor the added burden of testing, remediation, and rework that comes with a new vendor learning the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s environment. Under the required 180-day transition timeline, these alternatives are not viable.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency does not possess in-house software engineering, cloud operations, or cybersecurity resources to design, build, accredit, and operate a comparable, large-scale crisis management platform while sustaining mission operations on the existing system. Transitioning to Software as a Service with the current proprietary Commercial off-the-Shelf provider is therefore the only approach that can meet schedule, cost, and risk constraints while preserving mission continuity.

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency Crisis Management System (CMS) is a Mission Essential System and High Value Asset that underpins the agency’s primary disaster response mission by serving as the core platform for managing, coordinating, and tracking requests and resources across the full lifecycle of disasters and incidents. The Crisis Management System supports Incident Action Planning, functions as a key situational awareness tool, and is the system of record that facilitates requesting, ordering, and tracking requests for critical life-saving and life-sustaining resources, and ensures decision makers at federal, state, tribal, territorial, local, and non-governmental organizations have timely, accurate information to direct response and recovery operations. By centralizing operational data, enabling coordinated resource management, and providing a common operating picture for tens of thousands of users, CMS directly enables FEMA’s Mission Essential Task of

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification & Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

Emergency Response, the Office Essential Task of Response Operations, and year-round crisis management capabilities for partners nationwide.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency intends to procure the Unified Command Platform, a Commercial off-the-Shelf Software as a Service solution developed and owned by ESi/Juvare. This Software as a Service offering includes all necessary wraparound services, such as Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program High Impact Level-4 authorized hosting in the Juvare Federal Cloud, elastic system scaling, cybersecurity operations and patch management, data sharing support, and configuration of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s existing custom workflows and forms.

The Software as a Service solution provides advanced data exchange capabilities that are not available under the current enterprise license model. These capabilities enable the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its partners to collaborate more effectively, connect data streams, analyze information, and publish data and workflows that strengthen national resilience. Users at all levels—federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and non-governmental— will be able to enter data into custom forms, aggregate and visualize that data in dashboards, and export those products in commonly used formats such as Excel and PDF.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency requires a cloud-based, Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program High Software as a Service product that can perform all current Crisis Management System capabilities, interoperate with the existing platform for data transfer, and scale to support approximately 28,000 users across all time zones, including during major disasters. Based on cost, risk, and market research, procuring ESi/Juvare’s Unified Command Platform as Software as a Service is the best course of action. It enhances the current system, maintains compatibility with key partners, and directly supports the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Mission Essential Task of Emergency Response, the Office Essential Task of Response Operations, and year-round crisis management capabilities for state, local, tribal, and territorial partners.

4. Identification of Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition.

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3004(a)(1) implemented by the FAR entitled “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

5. Identification of Exception to the Buy American Statute Not applicable (N/A)

6. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

ESi/Juvare is the only responsible source that can deliver a mission-ready, Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program High Impact Level-4 Software as a Service solution that preserves the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s highly customized, proprietary Commercial off-the-Shelf environment and meets all functional, technical, and schedule requirements on Day One without substantial duplication of cost or risk.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification & Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

ESi/Juvare is the original manufacturer and proprietary owner of the Web Emergency Operations Center Unified Command Platform, on which the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Crisis Management System is built. Since 2012, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has invested heavily to customize this Commercial off-the-Shelf platform, transforming it into a tailored system that supports Federal Emergency Management Agency-specific emergency management processes, including resource request and fulfillment, incident action planning, and information collection and dissemination. These custom components and workflows rely on the underlying functionality of the proprietary product. Only ESi/Juvare has the legal rights and technical access necessary to modify and operate this environment at the level the Federal Emergency Management Agency requires.

Moving from enterprise licenses to the vendor’s Software as a Service model is a sound business decision. Under Software as a Service, hosting, patch management, security operations, and system scaling are handled by the provider. This reduces the government’s cost and staffing burden, ensures timely access to new features and security enhancements, and provides robust uptime and disaster recovery. The Software as a Service model also allows the system to scale rapidly during disaster spikes and contract during periods of lower usage, avoiding the need to procure infrastructure annually based on anticipated peak demand. Built-in connectors and open Application Program Interfaces facilitate integration with other Federal Emergency Management Agency and partner systems. The Federal Emergency Management Agency does not have comparable in-house capabilities to provide this level of hosting, security, and continuous modernization at lower cost or risk.

Cost analysis reinforces this conclusion. The Business Analysis completed in May 2025 estimated that rebuilding the system’s emergency management components in a government-owned solution would cost $16 million to $25 million and take 24 to 36 months.

When the requirement to maintain the current Crisis Management System in parallel is included, the total estimated cost to replace the system rises to approximately $21 million to $29 million.

During this time, FEMA would have to fund both the operation of the existing system and the development, testing, and security accreditation of the new one, with no net gain in capabilities compared to the proposed Software as a Service solution. This level of duplication would be fiscally irresponsible.

Security and compliance requirements further limit alternatives. The Crisis Management System must operate in a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program High Impact Level-4 environment. Unified Command Platform Software as a Service includes hosting in the Juvare Federal Cloud, which meets this requirement. Awarding to another vendor would require integration of a new compliant hosting environment, a new security assessment and authorization, and a new Authority to Operate from the Department of Homeland Security/ Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Authority to Operate process alone can take up to 12 months, and until it is complete, Federal Emergency Management Agency will not be able to use the new system or transfer operational data. This would extend the period of parallel operations and increase both cost and risk.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification & Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

Vendor expertise is also decisive. ESi/Juvare subject matter experts have 14 years of experience tailoring the Crisis Management System to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s evolving mission. They are the only personnel qualified and authorized to modify the proprietary platform at the depth required. The Federal Emergency Management Agency does not have equivalent internal expertise, and any new vendor would face a steep learning curve, adding risk to schedule and performance.

Extensive market research, summarized in Section 9, confirmed that no other commercial product can meet 100 percent of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s requirements, including 26 core capabilities and key technical requirements, with an existing solution. Other vendors either offer general-purpose tools that lack specialized emergency management features or provide smaller-scale systems that cannot match the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s scope and complexity. Adopting any of these alternatives would require extensive customization, significant delay beyond the required 180-day transition, and prolonged dual-system operations.

Awarding this requirement to ESi/Juvare is therefore the only approach that satisfies the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s technical, schedule, and mission needs at a reasonable cost and risk profile.

7. Description of Efforts Made to Ensure that Offers are Solicited from as Many Potential

Sources as is Practicable.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency conducted extensive market research and industry engagement to identify and evaluate potential sources capable of delivering a Software as a Service-based crisis management system at the required scale and complexity.

A Request for Information was posted on SAM.gov on March 21, 2024, and updated on April 18, 2024. Fourteen responses were received from a mix of large and small businesses.

Respondents were invited to clarify their proposed solutions via email, and the program office reviewed their public materials and websites for additional context. This engagement was built on an earlier request for information and industry day conducted in 2021, which provided historical context on the market and how vendor offerings have evolved.

The program’s analysis determined that only ESi/Juvare proposed a solution that could meet all of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s requirements with an existing commercial product. Some vendors did not specialize in emergency management and offered general platforms that would have required substantial Federal Emergency Management Agency-specific customization. Others provided narrower emergency management tools that did not cover the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s full range of needs or could not operate reliably at the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s scale or technical requirements. No alternate solution could meet all mission-critical requirements on Day One.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification & Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

8. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable.

The contracting officer has determined that the anticipated cost of this acquisition is fair and reasonable. This determination is based on an Independent Government Cost Estimate developed using average prices for relevant labor categories and on market research conducted across government-wide acquisition contracts and commercial vendors.

Selecting any contractor other than ESi/Juvare would impose additional costs on the government.

Because no other vendor can meet all Federal Emergency Management Agency requirements with an existing solution, Federal Emergency Management Agency would have to maintain the current Crisis Management System while funding extensive customization, integration, and security work on an alternative platform. This dual-system scenario, projected to last two to three years, would significantly increase expenditures and is inconsistent with the cost-efficiency expectations in Executive Orders 14271 (Ensuring Commercial, Cost-Effective Solutions in Federal Contracts), 14222 (Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Cost Efficiency Initiative), and 14275 (Restoring Common Sense to Federal Procurement).

In contrast, awarding a Software as a Service contract to ESi/Juvare leverages an existing, proven Commercial off-the-Shelf product, minimizes duplication of cost and effort, and represents the best value for the government and taxpayers for a Mission Essential / High Value Asset.

9. Description of Market Research.

FEMA conducted comprehensive market research to assess the availability of Software as a Service solutions capable of meeting its crisis management requirements. This research included reviews of vendors on General Services Administration schedules, AbilityOne, government-wide acquisition contracts, information technology and telecommunications contract vehicles, and relevant databases and open-source materials. The program also drew on expert knowledge and prior market research, including the 2021 request for information and industry day.

The primary market research activity was the posting of RFI 70FA3124I00000013 on SAM.gov and the analysis of the responses. The Federal Emergency Management Agency developed a requirements matrix based on the request for information and attached Performance Work Statement, then evaluated respondents against critical criteria. These included out-of-the-box emergency management workflows and custom forms, no-code/low-code capabilities, Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program High Impact Level 4 certification, multi-factor authentication, experience customizing workflows, use of open application programming interfaces, and the ability to support the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s scale, scope, and complexity.

In total, approximately 54 vendors were reviewed across these sources. Where specific information was not clear from request for information responses, the program consulted vendor websites and other public materials and, when necessary, sought clarification directly from respondents.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification & Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

The findings were consistent across years of engagement: only ESi/Juvare currently meets all 26 core capability requirements and all critical technical requirements with an existing commercial product. The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Crisis Management System has been extensively customized since 2012, and no other vendor has equivalent familiarity with these configurations or the ability to deliver the same functionality without substantial bespoke development. Other products would require significant customization, longer implementation timelines, higher overall costs, and greater operational risk. As a result, ESi/Juvare is the only viable source able to meet Federal Emergency Management Agency’s requirements on Day One.

10. Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other Than Full and Open Competition.

Additional factors support the use of other than full and open competition in this acquisition.

Large, complex system components—such as resource request processing, incident action planning, and information collection—are implemented through specialized workflows and permissions within the current Crisis Management System. These workflows have been refined over many years to reflect evolving emergency management doctrine and practice.

ESi/Juvare subject matter experts have supported the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Crisis Management System for 14 years and possess unique institutional knowledge about the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s mission, processes, and system evolution and they are the only personnel with both the authority and technical expertise to modify the proprietary platform at the depth required. The Federal Emergency Management Agency cannot reasonably modify its requirements to fit a fundamentally different software product without incurring major delays, retraining costs, and the risk of reduced mission effectiveness.

From November 2024 to May 2025, Federal Emergency Management Agency sponsored a Business Analysis to examine what it would take to rebuild the Crisis Management System from scratch as a government‑owned system. The analysis estimated that rebuilding the emergency management response operations components alone would cost approximately $16 million to $25 million and take 24 to 36 months, not including concurrent costs for operating the existing system, testing new custom components, and addressing inevitable rework with a new vendor. A full rebuild would require the Federal Emergency Management Agency to sustain the existing contract while executing a new development contract in parallel, significantly increasing costs for taxpayers and risk to operations, with no net benefit over the proposed Software as a Service path.

In light of these findings, the program office concluded that following the market research recommendation and procuring the ESi/Juvare Software as a Service product is the most prudent course of action. This approach preserves and enhances the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s existing custom tools in a compatible, interoperable environment, improves user experience, and strengthens connectivity with federal, state, tribal, and territorial partners.

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U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification & Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

11. A Listing of the Sources, if Any That Expressed, in Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition.

A Request for Information was issued in SAM.gov on March 25, 2024, with a response due date of April 03, 2024. Fourteen vendors expressed interest in writing:

- Agility Technologies

- Appian

- Arch Systems Inc.

- Enspyre Management Services

- Esi/Juvare

- International Business Machines (IBM)

- Ignyte

- Intrepid Networks

- Navancio

- Palantir Technologies

- Priority 5

- Restrata

- RV Global Solutions

- Signature Data Solutions The program office performed a thorough evaluation of all responses and determined only ESi/Juvare’s Unified Command Platform can meet the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s requirements with an existing Commercial off-the-Shelf solution.

12. A Statement of the Actions, if Any, the Agency May Take to Remove or Overcome Any

Barriers to Competition Before Any Subsequent Acquisition for Supplies or Services Required.

FEMA has begun to address potential future barriers to competition by commissioning the Business Analysis that concluded in May 2025. That analysis provides detailed estimates of the resources and funding required to build and maintain a government‑owned crisis management system that could, in the future, be competed under full and open competition for ongoing operations and maintenance.

If Federal Emergency Management Agency determines that a government‑owned solution is a viable future option, the agency will use the results of this analysis to plan a competitive acquisition strategy that preserves mission continuity while transitioning to a more competitive environment for subsequent contracts.

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