Attachment_5_JFOC.pdf

Limited-Sources Justification United States Department of Agriculture

FAR 8.405 Federal Supply Schedules Multiple Award Schedule Program

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity.

OCIO NITC EAS AgLearn

2. Description of supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs.

Sole/Limited source award to GP Strategies for continuation of Totara / Next Gen LMS Professional Services for AgLearn Learning Management System (LMS) platform. This is FY2018 Totara / Next Gen LMS Professional Services for the USDA AgLearn Learning Management System (LMS) completed by GP Strategies, this requirement is for continuation of the development and release of the AgLearn Next Gen Platform.

USDA/OCIO/NITC/EAS/AgLearn requires continuation with project management and technical services in support of the AgLearn program. These support roles provide the required assistance for Totara / Next Gen LMS release in Jan. 2018 & continual LMS support after Go Live. These services are a continuation of development of the Totara AgLearn LMS platform. This requirement supports the continuation of the development, release, and ongoing project management of the platform currently in process via a different award (Next Gen Phase 1 & 2). FY2018 Totara / Next Gen LMS Professional Services of the LMS platform development, release, and ongoing project management includes requirements for Project Management Support & Technical Support.

Estimate cost for this requirement is $ 445,200.00 for the base support. The period of performance for this requirement is beginning November 1, 2017 through April 30, 2018.

3. The circumstances and rationale for limiting competition.

a) FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(A) - an urgent and compelling need exists, and following ordering procedures would result in unacceptable delays (explain the nature of the urgency and the extent of injury or harm to the Government if the award is delayed)

4. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

The Government reviewed the Totara certified partners list at the Totara website and compared the list to the list of GSA FSS Professional Services Schedule (PSS) contract holders. At the time there were no other Totara partners, other than GP Strategies, that are available via GSA FSS.

Totara software is open source, highly flexible, and is used in a diverse range of sectors and organizations for Learning Management System (LMS) delivery. Totara is an open source distribution of Moodle developed for the corporate and government market. Totara is translated into 24 languages and has over 5 million subscribers. The current version of Totara LMS is 2.9 and is based on Moodle

2.9. Totara releases a full but unsupported version of the product publicly via Github prior to each major release.

Totara is a licensed product (see the agreement a https://www.totaralms.com/subagreement.pdf).

Though their license is much less expensive and more flexible than commercial LMS licenses, it still places constraints on the use of the software. One of these constraints is that Totara LMS hosting is only delivered through Totara-partnered corporations due to the expertise required for the Totara solutions.

No other vendor is authorized to provide this software licensing & hosting or allowed access to their code unless partnered with Totara.

GP Strategies Corporation is a certified partner with the Totara Corporation. Based on that certification GP Strategies holds a unique and specialized ability to be able to provide USDA with Totara software licensing and hosting needed to develop and deploy the USDA LMS platform. Market research, as stated below, shows that no other Totara platform holds a GSA FSS contract making GP Strategies even more unique in being able to offer this support to Government Agencies.

GP Strategies Corporation is also currently providing support for system architecture, design, configuration, development, and delivery with the Totara platform, also known as phase 1 & 2 of LMS development. This requirement is for continuation and finalizing of the development, system release, and system support post go live for the final LMS system called AgLearn. Under phase 1 & 2 they have a developed platform already in place for USDA AgLearn LMS and the Totara / Next Gen LMS Professional Services is to finalize and complete as stated above. This information, in addition to the Totara partnership and only Totara partner available via GSA FSS, supports the fact that the support required for USDA AgLearn is unique and specialized and can only be completed successfully for USDA by GP Strategies.

5. Recommended source(s).

Service rates offered on schedule have already been determined to be fair and reasonable by GSA.

The Government will seek additional discounts from contractor published rates for this requirement.

The level of support for this requirement of Totara / Next Gen LMS Professional Services for the AgLearn LMS platform will be compared to the support utilized under the previous contract for phase 1 & 2 to ensure comparable use of resources to ensure best value of resources to the Government.

The features and specialized services received in support and development of the LMS platform for USDA will result in completion of the LMS next generation platform for Government use and the best value possible due to contractor’s specialized ability to work with the Totara framework specifically within the USDA AgLearn system.

Competition Barrier:

There are no further actions to be taken regarding contract barrier as the work being completed by GP Strategies for the development of the AgLearn LMS platform will be finished at the completion of this award.

Supporting data which form the basis for and included in this justification are certified accurate and complete.

Insert Jerome Davin

Insert Director, AgLearn

The information contained in this Limited Sources Justification is certified accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Insert Kasey Koch Contracting Officer

Notes and Guidance:

Pursuant to FAR 8.405-6, Orders/BPAs under Federal Supply Schedule Contracts are exempt from the competition requirements of FAR Part 6; however, ordering activities may restrict consideration of Schedule Contractors. Circumstances justifying limiting the sources include:

a) An urgent and compelling need exists and following the procedures would result in unacceptable delays;

b) Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required because they are unique or highly specialized; or

c) In the interest of economy and efficiency, the new work is a logical follow-on to an original Federal Supply Schedule order, provide the original order was place in accordance with applicable Federal Supply Schedule procedures (e.g. competed).

Brand Name. Items peculiar to one manufacturer can be a particular brand name, product, or feature of a product, peculiar to one manufacturer. A brand name item, whether available on one or more schedule contracts, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer. Brand name specifications shall not be used unless the particular brand name, product or feature is essential to the Government’s requirements and market research indicates other companies’ similar products, or products lacking the particular feature, do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet the Agency’s needs. See below for posting of brand name requirements.

Program personnel are advised to work with contracting personnel early on in order to promote and provide for full and open competition amongst schedule holders to the maximum extent practicable. In circumstances that permit restricting the consideration of Schedule Contractors, program personnel shall provide necessary information to contracting personnel to support and document the circumstances limiting competition, including use of brand name specifications, through the use of this form.

Posting. For proposed Orders/BPAs with an estimated value exceeding $25,000 that restrict competition to items peculiar to one manufacturer, i.e., Brand Name, this form shall be posted along with the Request for Quotation (RFQ) to GSA’s e-Buy. This form is not required to be posted with the solicitation when restricting consideration due to urgency, unique source, or logical follow-on as described in the first paragraph above.

Screening. Before posting this Justification, in accordance with FAR 8.406-6 and 24.2, the Contracting Officer is responsible to redact any information that is exempt from disclosure under Freedom of Information Act or information proprietary to the contractor.

Signatures. After review and completion by the Program Office and Contracting Officer, the Word document shall be converted to an Adobe PDF file, and then signed. Signature blocks shall include dates.

Delete these Notes prior to finalizing document for signature