JustificationforOtherthanFullandOpenCompetition2019_JG.pdf

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition United States Department of Agriculture

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 6.3

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity.

Contracting Agency: Procuring Agency:

USDA, AMS, Cotton and Tobacco Program USDA, AMS, Dairy Program 3275 Appling Road 1400 Independence Ave., SW Memphis, TN 38133 Washington, DC 20250

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This action is for contractor services with Symphony Corporation located in Madison, Wisconsin to deliver enhancements for the Electronic Trade Document Exchange (eTDE) System and Electronic Document Creation System (eDOCs). The enhancements will include the addition of new features and enhancement of existing features for system functionality, navigation, certificate templates, etc.

commodities, trade documents, and countries/ports.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

The purpose of this contract is to perform enhancement services for eTDE and eDOCs applications.

This service is required and will continue to be required as long as there are outstanding enhancement requests for eTDE and eDOCs Trade applications. The original contract for enhancements to the eTDE / eDOCs was awarded to Symphony Corporation. Symphony will perform the enhancement services described in the spreadsheet ‘eTDE_EDOCS_Dairy_Enhancements_FY19’ in order to develop and implement the Trade system according to the agreed upon specifications and completion dates. USDA / MRP ITS / AMS will cooperate with Symphony to accommodate requests for information and data necessary for completion of work.

4. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, titled "Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements."

5. A statement demonstrating the unique qualifications of the proposed contractor or the nature of the action requiring the use of the authority.

The original contract for development and design of eTDE and eDOCs was awarded to Symphony by the Almond Board of California (ABC) and funded by grants from USDA / Foreign Agricultural Services (FAS). Moving forward, USDA / MRP /ITS / AMS will handle the contracting with Symphony Corporation. Symphony is being sought because the enhancements required for eTDE and eDOCs are a continuation of the development for eTDE / eDOCs and the contractor from Symphony is the original designer and developer of both systems. As the designer and developer of eTDE and eDOCs, Symphony Corporation has the system expertise. No other contractor would have the necessary knowledge of eTDE / eDOCs Trade Systems.

To proceed with a full and open competition for this follow-on contract will introduce unacceptable delays for users of eTDE / eDOCs Trade applications including USDA/AMS users, Trade Industry

Associations, Exporters and Government Officials from other countries. In case of fixes needed for the existing system, delays can result in loss of money for exporters whose shipments are waiting in the ports at other countries. Furthermore, the effort to bring a contractor up to the same level of the institutional knowledge that the incumbent contractor offers would result in duplication of costs. A sole source approval is requested for continuation of this major Trade System due to the following reasons:

• The software is still being enhanced with new features and introduction of new documents, commodities and use of the system in new countries. These enhancements require intimate knowledge of the business practices, the eTDE/eDOCs workflows and design, coding of many on-line and batch components and the overall platform for the trade applications. To bring a new contractor on at this point would result in major duplication of costs as the new contractor would need to learn the design and coding of many complex components and then implement the new features. This will require more time by the new contractor and will result in additional cost for the project.

• In most cases, when new and isolated problems are discovered, due to the nature of international trade, these items need to be fixed within 24 hours or less. If this deadline is missed, the delay in getting the exporter’s shipment delivered will result in fines to be paid by the exporter and is unacceptable. The fixes must be done by the group who are experts in this set of Trade applications. Having a new contractor would result in significant delays in delivery time and more cost. This is not acceptable for our trade and business operations.

• The AMS Trade system consists of many components, a complex cloud platform, and large set of artifacts and programming code. A new contractor would need to be familiar with this environment. A transition to a new vendor would be time consuming and introduce major delays in delivering enhancements and fixes on-time.

• It will be necessary for USDA / AMS to train the new contractor in Business and Technical aspects of the eTDE and eDOCs applications. The USDA / AMS does not have resources and time to invest on this training.

6. A description of efforts made to ensure offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable.

Symphony Corporation is the only contractor that can deliver extensive enhancement work for eTDE / eDOCs on-time and on-budget. When eTDE / eDOCs applications are at a state where enhancements and feature fixes are minimal, we will look to increase our vendor base.

7. A determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

Cost of the new effort will be negotiated and we have several years of data to evaluate the reasonableness of our effort.

8. A description of the market research conducted and the results or a statement of the reason Market Research was not conducted.

New European Union export requirements were passed in the June 2019 for implementation by December 14, 2019. Foregin Agriculture Service (FAS) facilated the establishment of eTDE/eDOCS to ensure agriculatural commodities could be exported to the EU. This work is under tight deadlines and the time needed to onboard a new contractor is estimated to take 6-8 weeks.

Due to the impending deadlines no market research was conducted.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition.

Reference (40 CFR Part 141 and 21 CFR Parts 129/165).

New European Union export requirements were passed in the June 2019 for implementation by December 14, 2019. Foregin Agriculture Service (FAS) facilated the establishment of eTDE/eDOCS to ensure agriculatural commodities could be exported to the EU. This work is under tight deadlines and the time needed to onboard a new contractor is estimated to take 6-8 weeks.

Due to the impending deadlines no market research was conducted.

10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed a written interest in the acquisition.

Symphony Corporation is the only company with extensive knowledge of the eTDE / eDOCs applications and platforms.

11. A statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition if subsequent acquisitions are anticipated.

An eTDE/EDOCS modernization effort will begin in FY 2020 to retire eTDE/EDOCS and move the application to a new sustainable platform. The modernization effort will include full and open competition for the development of the replacement system. The object of the modernization is to develop a system that meets the needs of the US agricultural industry and provide AMS with a sustainable platform and eliminate the need to repeatedly sole source support and development work.

Certifications & Approvals

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

Dairy Programs Joseph Gaynor Project Management Analyst and Coordinator

The information contained in this Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition is certified accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Beverly Brown, Contracting Officer