IRS Form (Rev. 5/26)

RFO 6.103

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

(JOFOC)

RFO 6.103

I recommend the use of other than full and open competition for the acquisition of the following supplies or services. If this acquisition is to be made with only one source or a limited number of sources, negotiations will be conducted with the proposed supplier(s).

1. IDENTIFICATION OF THE AGENCY, BUREAU, AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Smart Conference Room (SCR) program and Video Conference Room (VCR) program require long-term and coordinated support for equipment and services. A contracting vehicle, FY27 IDIQ, is determined to be the optimum strategy to meet the evolving requirements of the programs.

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION BEING APPROVED:

FY27 IDIQ Smart and Video Conference Room Equipment, Installations, Maintenance, Managed Support, Equipment Refresh, and Relocations.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES OR SERVICES:

The proposed action includes the acquisition of Smart Conference Room and Video Conference Room Equipment to maintain the IRS Video Conferencing operations. The IDIQ vehicle will allow the Programs (SCR and VCR) to acquire Equipment and Services using Task Orders that are limited to bids from ~3 Vendors selected during the IDIQ solicitation. The following brand-name products and native ecosystem lines: HP/Poly, Crestron (including Crestron NVX digital signaling), Q-SYS, AVer, and native Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) compute cores have been identified as mandatory brands because, among other reasons, equipment manufactured by these brands are currently installed in the 410+ Video Conference Spaces in IRS facilities nationwide. Please see section 4b for additional details about the brands.

4. SHOPPING CART

NUMBER:

5000223032

5. NAME OF PROPOSED SOURCE(S):

Video Conferencing Equipment Brands:

HP / Poly, Crestron, Q-SYS, AVer

6. COST ESTIMATE:

7. CERTIFICATION OF TECHNICAL OR REQUIREMENTS PERSONNEL

I hereby certify that any supporting information and data provided, which form the basis for this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

PROGRAM OFFICE (Requiring Activity) (Name & Title)

Ciara Green

(Signature) (Date)

RFO 6.103

8. PROCUREMENT OFFICE CERTIFICATION

This requirement [ ] will / [ ] will not provide for a bridge contract.

I certify that this submission is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. This certification will serve as approval, unless action exceeds $900K.

CONTRACTING OFFICER

(Name)

Michelle McGibbon

9. STATUTORY AUTHORITY PERMITTING OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

X

41 U.S.C. §3304(a)(1), RFO 6.103-1– Only one responsible source; or brand name specification

41 U.S.C. §3304(a)(2), RFO 6.103-2 – Unusual and compelling urgency

41 U.S.C. §3304(a)(3), RFO6.103-3 – Industrial mobilization; engineering, developmental, or research capability; or expert services

41 U.S.C. §3304(a)(4), RFO 6.103-4 – International agreement

41 U.S.C. §3304(a)(5), RFO 6.103-5 – Authorized or required by statute

41 U.S.C. §3304(a)(6), RFO 6.103-6 – National security

41 U.S.C. §3304(a)(7), RFO 6.103-7 – Public interest

10. JUSTIFICATION

(add pages if needed)

A. DEMONSTRATION THAT THE PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS OR

THE NATURE OF THE ACQUISITION REQUIRES USE OF THE AUTHORITY CITED.

The specified video conferencing equipment brands—HP/Poly, Crestron, Q-SYS, and AVer—are essential to meeting the Government's operational requirements and maintaining continuity within the IRS enterprise video conferencing environment.

These manufacturers support the IRS's existing deployment of approximately 410 conference rooms nationwide. Their products are fully integrated into the IRS collaboration infrastructure and provide standardized, enterprise-grade audio and video capabilities that support mission-critical hybrid meetings, executive communications, employee collaboration, training, and customer engagements.

The existing platforms provide certified interoperability with the IRS collaboration ecosystem, centralized device management, established monitoring and support processes, and a consistent user experience. Standardization has enabled efficient lifecycle management, reduced operational complexity, minimized troubleshooting, and improved reliability across the enterprise.

Over more than a decade, the IRS has invested substantially in designing, deploying, securing, accrediting, and supporting conference room solutions based on HP/Poly, Crestron, Q-SYS, and AVer technologies. These products are embedded within IRS room standards, system architectures, management platforms, operational procedures, training materials, and support processes.

Introducing alternative manufacturers would require significant engineering, testing, validation, security assessments, and documentation updates to ensure compatibility with existing room designs, audio/video infrastructure, network configurations, management platforms, and operational procedures.

The estimated one-time transition cost is approximately $132,000, consisting of:

• Government labor: $72,000 (800 hours by two GS-12 equivalent employees over approximately 10 weeks at a fully burdened rate of $90 per hour) for engineering, redesign, integration, testing, certification, and documentation updates.

• Licensing: $60,000 for additional enterprise licensing and management tools required to support alternative platforms.

These costs represent only the initial transition. Additional long-term costs would result from increased training, expanded support requirements, maintaining multiple technology standards, larger spare parts inventories, ongoing documentation updates, and more complex troubleshooting.

Alternative equipment would also increase operational risk by introducing potential interoperability issues, service disruptions, and conference room outages that could adversely affect mission-critical communications among IRS employees, leadership, stakeholders, and customers.

Maintaining a consistent technology baseline across conference room environments reduces operational risk and helps ensure reliable, predictable performance for users throughout the IRS enterprise.

Restricting this requirement to HP/Poly, Crestron, Q-SYS, and AVer is therefore necessary to maintain compatibility with the existing IRS enterprise video conferencing infrastructure, preserve prior Government investments, comply with established security and operational standards, avoid unnecessary costs, minimize technical and operational risk, and ensure reliable support of mission-critical collaboration services.

B. DESCRIBE THE EFFORTS TAKEN TO ENSURE OFFERS WERE SOLICITED FROM AS MANY

POTENTIAL SOURCES AS IS PRACTICABLE, INCLUDING WHETHER A NOTICE WAS OR

WILL BE PUBLISHED AS REQUIRED BY RFO PART 5 AND, IF NOT, WHICH EXCEPTION

UNDER RFO PART 5 APPLIES.

All Potential Vendors identified provide these brands as a part of product range.

A Sources Sought notice was posted on December 11, 2025, with responses due December 18,2025. The IRS received 19 submissions, of which 7 small businesses were unanimously deemed technically capable by the technical evaluation team.

The CO also performed market research to determine equipment already installed within the IRS system, the requirements for replacements, servicing and maintenance and revealed that to support this requirement multiple Brand items are part of the infrastructure, i.e. HP Poly, Aver, Crestron, etc., all requiring qualified technicians to add, remove, replace, service the current equipment and ongoing refresh services.

In the past we used multiple single contracts to procure the services and equipment, to streamline requirements that are similar and to minimize duplicative requirements the MACIDIQ will award to at least 3 small businesses to expedite requirements via Task Orders and to provide continuity in procuring support services for the IRS.

To ensure the widest possible response from small business we have gained approval from the Category Management Section to bypass mandatory use of GSA Schedules to post the solicitation on SAM.gov. This allows all small business to propose or respond to the RFP who would not have the opportunity via GSA Schedules alone.

C. DETERMINATION THAT THE ANTICIPATED COST TO THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE FAIR

AND REASONABLE.

The portion of the IGCE amount that is for brand name requirement appears below, inclusive of the five ordering periods. Refer to the IGCE for additional details.

D. DESCRIBE THE MARKET RESEARCH THAT WAS CONDUCTED AND THE RESULTS OR A

STATEMENT OF THE REASON MARKET RESEARCH WAS NOT CONDUCTED. IF ACTIONS

WERE TAKEN BY PROCUREMENT PERSONNEL TO SATISFY THIS REQUIREMENT (SUCH

AS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE), PLEASE SPECIFY.

Market Research for using other brands was not conducted because the Program provided multiple reasons for not seeking products from other brands. See Section B.

E. DESCRIBE ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING USING OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION.

The IRS currently maintains VCR environments built around Crestron control systems, Q-SYS digital signal processing and audio networking, HP/Poly conferencing endpoints, and AVer intelligent camera systems. These platforms operate as an integrated ecosystem in each VCR by utilizing proprietary software, firmware, control modules, APIs, and configuration environments. Existing room-control programming, Digital Sound Processor (DSP) designs, device configurations, and interoperability workflows have been developed, tested, and deployed to support mission-critical communications throughout the enterprise.

Also, these four brands all use Audio Visual (AV) over IT protocol, making them more compatible with each other and ensuring smooth VCR operations. Many other brands do not use AV protocol.

Order Period

Brand Name requirement

Brand name requirement

1-5 Aver $4,379.96 1-5 Crestron $6,403,563.29

1-5 HP $847,400.17

1-5 Q-SYS $1,107,164.46

Please note that the planned contract of a MAC IDIQ includes awarding to at least 3 small businesses.

F. LIST SOURCES, IF ANY, THAT EXPRESSED, IN WRITING, AN INTEREST IN THE

ACQUISITION.

G. LIST THE ACTIONS THE BUREAU WILL TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS

TO COMPETITION ON ANY SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITIONS FOR THE SUPPLIES OR

SERVICES REQUIRED.

The Programs (Video Conferencing Rooms & Smart Conference Rooms) will continue, as always, to research new products and technologies in the marketplace that can satisfy VCR and SCR requirements.

H. STATEMENT THAT REQUIREMENT DOES NOT RESULT FROM A LACK OF PLANNING OR

THE EXPIRATION OF FUNDS.

This JOFOC requirement does not result from a lack of planning or the expiration of funds.

11. ADDITIONAL APPROVALS

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A. BUREAU CHIEF

INFORMATION OFFICER

(for IT only) (Name & Title)

(Note: The Bureau CIO may delegate their authority for proposed contracts over $5 million, but not exceeding $20 million to the Associate Bureau CIO(s).)

[ ] APPROVE

[ ] DISAPPROVE

(Signature) (Date) O

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0, B. BUREAU COMPETITION

ADVOCATE (Name & Title)

[ ] APPROVE

[ ] DISAPPROVE

(Signature) (Date)

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C. HEAD OF THE

PROCURING ACTIVITY OR

AUTHORIZED DESIGNEE

(Name & Title)

[ ] APPROVE

[ ] DISAPPROVE

(Signature) (Date)

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D. TREASURY CHIEF

INFORMATION OFFICER

(for IT only) (Name & Title)

[ ] APPROVE

[ ] DISAPPROVE

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N E. SENIOR

PROCUREMENT

EXECUTIVE (Name & Title)

[ ] APPROVE

[ ] DISAPPROVE

(Signature) (Date)

NOTE: Each review must be preceded by lower-level approval(s). For example, actions over $90 million require all approvals.

IN NO CASE CAN AN INDIVIDUAL SIGN MORE THAN ONE APPROVAL LEVEL.