CA_JOFOC_FBO.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (JOFOC)

1. Identification of Agency and Contracting Office:

Agency: Social Security Administration

Contracting Office: Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance, and Management

Office of Acquisition and Grants (OAG)

Office of Information Technology (IT) Acquisition (OITA)

Division of IT Support Services (DITSS)

Contracting Specialist: Darnell Harkless

DITSS, OAG

(410) 965-6764

Contracting Officer (CO): Hilton Thompson

DITSS, OAG

(410) 965-3786

Program Office: Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Systems (ODCS)

Contracting Officer’s Jennifer Strohmayer

Representative (COR): (410) 966-9534

Title: Computer Associates Technical Support Services

Proposed Contractor: Computer Associates Technologies

2291 Wood Oak Drive

Herndon, Virginia 20171

Tracking Information: Advanced Procurement Plan (APP) #: DCS-18-776B1

Requisition #: 3871-18-1001

2. Nature of Action:

Type of Action:

_X_ New award

___ Modification of existing award, number ___________________

Contemplated Contract Type:

_X_ Firm Fixed-Price, _X_ Time and materials/labor hour

___ Cost-Reimbursement

___ Combination

We request approval to issue a sole source contract award to Computer Associates Technologies (CA) for proprietary technical support services. The contract will have a five-year period of performance consisting of one base year with four one-year option periods. The contract will provide the agency with proprietary technical support services on a firm fixed-price or labor hour basis.

3. Description of Services and Estimated Value:

The CA personnel will provide technical support for a wide range of agency strategic initiatives, projects, and functions that use the CA software products. We currently utilize approximately 150 CA software products throughout our mainframe and distributed environments. These proprietary software products are an integral part of our current and future infrastructure and business processes.

CA support services are necessary to customize, implement, and integrate these software products.

The software products will improve our business processes and build a stronger IT foundation.

CA IT professional support services personnel possess highly specialized skills and an extensive knowledge base to assist us with the smooth transition of proprietary software into our complex operating environment and communications network.

CA will provide the necessary IT professional services, which may include the following labor categories:

Senior Project Manger

Senior Architect

Architect

Associate Consultant

Consultant

Senior Consultant

Project Manager

ODCS will make use of CA IT professional services when a task requires:

Advanced knowledge of strategic CA proprietary products, technology and applications

Detailed understanding of CA systems design specifications and source code

Detailed understanding of CA proprietary features with access to developers

Advanced knowledge of future plans and/or direction related to the release of new CA software products or updates to said software products

Our use of CA software is national in scope, affects all agency components, and is critical to the successful completion of the agency’s strategic priorities. The IT professional services offered by CA are unique and highly specialized in nature in order to support this proprietary software. These necessary IT professional services will allow for the continued support of our mainframe and distributed workloads. Additionally, we will aim to continually improve and modernize our existing

CA software for more efficient processing and to take advantage of current and emerging technologies.

CA IT professional services are required to:

Provide full software life cycle support

Provide technical support for software engineering and database activities

Perform analytical and research activities

Support software process improvement and software engineering management activities

Provide highly specialized skill sets related to current and advanced technologies currently not available

Evaluate, integrate and deploy new technologies

Provide increased performance and stability

Support platform and product migration

Provide disaster recovery strategies

Transfer private sector knowledge to SSA

The APP number for this acquisition is DCS-18-776B1. This contract will replace the agency’s existing BPA with CA (SS00-14-41003), which expired on May 24, 2017 when CA notified us they would not be extending the GSA schedule upon which the BPA was established.

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other than Full and Open Competition:

41 U.S.C. § 3304(a) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency

Requirements.”

5. Contractor’s Unique Qualifications:

CA is the software developer and copyright holder for all CA software products. CA also owns the rights and source codes to the many mainframe and distributed software products that interface with agency applications. There is no other source with the unique proprietary knowledge and expertise required to design, customize, optimize, and integrate these products into our complex architecture.

Therefore, no other source is capable of performing the work.

The CA resources assigned to support us are not only trained in the products they support, but also have unique access to the CA software development labs, underlying product architectures, product engineering, and source codes. CA is the only source with the unique combination of proprietary knowledge and access to the IT professional services required to optimize the integration of CA products and assets within our infrastructure. This combination of architectural knowledge, unique skill set, and access to source code is not provided by any reseller of CA products.

The following information further supports CA as the only source capable of providing the required level of support:

A. Knowledge of CA’s Proprietary Software Features

Skilled and knowledgeable CA technical resources would:

Assess how products will interface with our critical programmatic applications

Provide advanced notification of technical alerts, product announcements, and product defect reports that may impact our software environment

Inform us of product availability dates and end of service dates to facilitate software upgrade planning

Provide quicker solutions to everyday support requirements

Advise us on documented software fixes and workarounds

Reduce the time and effort required for problem resolution in critical situations

Work with developers to provide debug modules, workaround scripts, or other instruction to troubleshoot problem determinations and provide resolution

Recommend best practices for managing software

B. CA Software Products and Services Utilized at the Agency

We currently operate eight mainframes at the National Support Center (Urbana, Maryland) and the

Second Support Center (Durham, North Carolina). We use CA software products on all the mainframes to provide an interface between the operating systems and the major programmatic applications software to support our programs.

We have made a significant investment to purchase CA software licenses and maintenance, which includes version upgrades of CA mainframe and distributed proprietary software products. The cost involved, to acquire, new licenses and maintenance from another contractor would not be in the best interest of the agency.

C. Additional Cost, Risk, and Delays

We utilize CA software products throughout our entire infrastructure, which directly supports our core mission to serve the public. Proprietary support services from CA provide the installation, integration, and customization of these software products into our infrastructure and are required to accomplish the goals identified in our 2017 Annual Performance Plan and in the agency’s Strategic Plan 2014 –

2018.

CA software products are embedded in a wide range of our legacy systems and touch all batch applications on the back-end all the way up to, and including, all web applications on the front-end that interface with the public and our business partners. With approximately 150 CA software products deployed, CA’s proprietary support services will be used in the development of system design specifications, source code modification and customization, and the integration and implementation of most, if not all, of these products within our systems environment.

There are many risks associated with replacing the existing CA product base with different software products from other contractors. We have approximately 1,489,730 programs on the mainframes and distributed systems, running 120 million lines of code, excluding the millions of lines of code in JCL, Batch, and Scripts. Based on the depth and breadth of the embedded CA software products, if the agency were to replace the existing CA line of products and obtain other IT professional services to support those products, we would literally have to re-engineer nearly all of our existing systems. This would also include re-tooling the installed non-CA software products, most of which impact the CA software in some fashion.

Furthermore, we estimate it will take five years to replace existing embedded CA software products with new software products should a new vendor solution be implemented.

Typically, replacement products require several years to integrate, with the first two years spent in planning, budgeting, and conducting the procurement, and between 18 to 24 months for the actual implementation. The timeline may be extended further by the amount of re-coding that software developers (both internal and contracted) may need to perform.

It is not technically feasible to replace CA’s software products in the near term, nor is it in the best interest of the government financially, as this would be both impractical from an implementation standpoint and costly. Therefore, it is determined to be in the best interest of the government to obtain

CA IT professional services to support our requirements with respect to CA software products for the next five years.

6. Efforts to Solicit Offers from Other Potential Sources:

We will synopsize the requirement on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website as a sole source procurement in accordance with FAR 5.2, Synopsis of Proposed Contract Actions.

Although prior knowledge indicates there is no private firm or organization with the necessary experience and/or access to proprietary CA source code in the commercial marketplace to meet the agency’s needs, the notice will instruct interested parties to submit a capability statement for consideration.

7. Determination That the Cost Will Be Fair and Reasonable:

The CO will perform a final price analysis as required by FAR 15.101-2 to determine that the final price is fair and reasonable and represents the best value to the Government.

8. Market Research:

OAG will synopsize the requirement on the FedBizOpps website to determine if there are any other sources in the marketplace able to provide the required services.

9. Other Facts:

CA has been determined to be a responsible contractor in accordance with FAR 9.104. Based on the company’s past performance, our records indicate that they have the corporate ability, access to technical resources, knowledge, and unique skill set necessary to perform this requirement.

10. List of Sources Expressing Interest in the Acquisition:

No other sources have expressed an interest in this acquisition.

11. Action Taken to Remove Competition Barrier:

ODCS will implement enhanced scrutiny of all requisition packages for CA proprietary support services. We will require an additional justification document to accompany the requisition that fully explains the necessity of the intended technical support services, the level and type of support services needed, and the technical or commercial characteristics, uniqueness, operational compatibility, or other pertinent information that makes it impractical or impossible to have another contractor perform the tasks. Reasons of convenience or expediency will not be sufficient for bypassing the competitive process and/or using another qualified IT consulting contractor. This contract vehicle will only be used to fulfill requirements that require access to, and knowledge of, proprietary CA source codes and developers.

13. CERTIFICATION BY THE CO AND OTHER CONTRACTING OFFICIALS

The CO and other contracting officials hereby certify that the information provided in support of this justification for other than full and open competition is accurate and complete to the best of their knowledge and belief.

RECOMMEND: __ _____ ________________________ _11/15/2017______

Darnell Harkless, Contract Specialist Date

DITSS, OITA, OAG

CONCUR: _ _______________________ _12/04/2017_______

Hilton Thompson, CO Date

CONCUR: _____ _____ ________________________ ____12/04/2017____

Syreeta Gay, Division Director Date

CONCUR: ___ ______ ________________________ ___11 December 2017_

Pamela J. Kontz, Acting Office Director Date

OITA, OAG

12/28/17

CONCUR: ________________________________ ________________________ _______________ for Christian Hellie Date

Deputy Associate Commissioner, OAG

12/28/17

CONCUR: ________________________________ ________________________ _______________

Seth Binstock Date

Associate Commissioner, OAG

1/22/18

CONCUR: ________________________________ ________________________ _______________

John Simermeyer Date

SSA Competition Advocate

APPROVE: ________________________________ ________________________ ___1/23/18____________

Michelle A. King Date

Senior Procurement Executive

Competition Advocate Review Board (CARB)

Project Title: Computer Associates Technical Support Services

Estimated Amount: $32,000,000

Review and discussion occurred: Electronically

For a

_____ Limited Source Justification (LSJ)

__X__Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)