Sole_Source.pdf

Source Selection Information – see FAR 2.101 and 3.104

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN ORDER/BPA EXCEEDING

THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

(AUTHORITY: FAR 8.405-6)

NWWP4000-18-00349

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

1. Agency and contracting activity.

Department of Commerce, NOAA Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), National Weather Service (NWS) and Systems Operations Division.

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This is a sole source justification for a continuation of services on existing GSA order AB133W-15- NC-1463. The Government intends to award another firm fixed price GSA order solicited only to Selectron Technologies, Inc.

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

IV-ROCS is an integrated voice remote observation collection system consisting of telecommunications lines, data, application and backup servers, IVR software and custom business logic programming used to collect weather observation data by telephone from the National Weather Service’s cooperative observers. These observations are collected, quality controlled and transmitted to the National Climatic Data Center for dissemination and storage.

This IVR system, developed Selectron Technologies Inc., uses proprietary software which was confirmed in the letter received on July 30, 2018 from Selectron. Selectron monitors the system for performance and maintains the hardware and software systems under its GSA Premier Pro contract GS-35F-0315X. The period of performance will be (1) base year with four (1) year options from September 30, 2018 to September 29, 2023.

4. Authority and supporting rationale. The following circumstance justifies limiting the source as supported below:

Only one source under the authority of FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) - Only one source 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. The IV-ROCS system is proprietary to Selectron per the letter received on July 30, 2018 and other systems are not compatible with Selectron’s software.

5. Determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

The contracting officer (CO) determines that the anticipated price(s) will be fair and reasonable based on the preliminary quote provided by Selectron and the IGCE provided by the program. The quote currently aligns with Selectron’s GSA schedule pricing. However, the CO intends to conduct a price analysis and request further discounts in accordance with FAR 8.404(d).

6. Market research conducted among schedule holders (or reason market research was not conducted).

NWWP4000-18-00349

Source Selection Information – see FAR 2.101 and 3.104

Market research was not conducted due to the proprietary nature of Selectron’s VoiceEngine™ IVR system which is specifically tailored to provide services for the National Weather Service. The supporting software code is part of the vendor’s proprietary, intellectual property and is considered a trade secret.

No other party is capable of performing product updates/upgrades, enhancements, modifications, application database integration changes, and various maintenance responsibilities including code corrections and technical support , as the vendor would not release the source code to any other organization. Organizations other than Selectron performing code modifications to the VoiceEngine™ IVR system will void the existing System Warranty and Maintenance Agreement established between the vendor and NWS. As the sole provider and manufacturer of this system, Selectron is the only source that can provide these services. See attached letter from Selectron.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

All supporting facts have been documented herein.

8. Actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for supplies and services is made.

Selectron Technologies is the only vendor that offers this proprietary technology. If Selectron chooses to sell the source code in the future, this requirement will be competed amongst those authorized vendors.