SSJ_-_IBM_LCMS_Premier_on_Cloud_Exceeding_SAT_C2_Test_Program_FAR_Part_13-5_COR__CO_CA_signed.pdf

Attachment C2

Sole Source Justification (SSJ) Test Program for Certain Commercial items for procurements exceeding the Simplified Acquisition

Threshold (> $150,000) pursuant to FAR Subpart 13.5, including Brand Name

Sole Source Justification for Simplified Acquisitions under the Test Program for Certain Commercial Items for acquisitions exceeding $150,000, including brand name for use when applicable.

SSJ No.: 18-011 -

Date: May 8, 2018 PR Number: WX0212Y2018T

Pursuant to the requirements under the authority of the test program for commercial items at 41 U.S.C. 1901 or the authority of 41 U.S.C. 1903 Special emergency authority as implemented by Federal Acquisition

Regulation (FAR) Subpart 13.501 and consistent with the content requirements of FAR 6.303-2.

1. Agency and Contracting Activity. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “sole source justification.”

Agency: Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency

(FEMA), Emergency Management Institute (EMI), Emmetsburg, MD. Contracting Activity: DHS, FEMA/NETC, Acquisition Operations Division, Preparedness Section intends to award a sole source contract.

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

FEMA intends to award a sole source contract to the following provider for continued use of IBM

Kenexa’s Learning Content Management System (LCMS):

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM)

6710 Rockledge Drive

Bethesda, MD 20817

FEMA does not intend to seek a competitive solicitation toward the ongoing IBM Kenexa LCMS and services requirement in support of Protection and National Preparedness (PNP), National

Preparedness Directorate (NPD) and the National Training and Education Directorate (NTED). This action is being taken pursuant to FAR 13.501. IBM is the only company that provides Premier on

Cloud and accompanying software upgrades upon which FEMA has relied since September 2013.

FEMA asserts that continued reliance on IBM Kenexa will best support agency needs while ensuring minimized risk in transitioning to a new contract in September 2018.

3. Description of Supplies/Services. Describe the supplies or services to be acquired. Provide the estimated total value (including options, if any).

As subordinate organizations under NTED, both CDP and EMI develop and deliver specialized training for emergency response providers and emergency managers from state, local, tribal and territorial governments, the Federal Government, foreign governments, private sector entities, and the general public. The training catalogs of CDP and EMI constitute over 600 courses delivered in residence on FEMA campuses, in the field, and online.

The Government intends to continue its use of an Enterprise-wide FEMA LCMS through an incremental acquisition of content authoring licenses and accompanying training, support and maintenance. The NTED will purchase content authoring licenses and associated support as an incremental acquisition under this proposed contract. The objective of this procurement is to retain reliable, efficient and effective services through application of a sound management and technical approach that provides the best value and meets the objectives of the Enterprise.

http://uscode.house.gov/

Sole Source Justification for Simplified Acquisitions under the Test Program for Certain Commercial Items for

SSJ No.: 18-011 -

IBM Kenexa has provided an LCMS with annual software licensing to support an organization of over

100 course/content authors across the nation. Software subscriptions are inclusive of all accompanying support, including customer training, maintenance, and version upgrades. The IBM

Kenexa LCMS has the capabilities to reduce or expand its licensed course/content authoring end user base. Additionally, the IBM Kenexa LCMS continues to provide the following general capabilities to its FEMA customer:

Note: An exhaustive list of capabilities/requirements is located within the accompanying LCMS

Performance Work Statement.

Licenses to support content authoring, quantities of which may change through option years.

Potentiality of delivering e-Learning for up to 10,000 concurrent learners.

Creation of content objects at all levels of aggregation, including raw assets, launchable resources, assignable units, and structured training packages, as in lessons and courses.

Tagging objects with default and user-defined metadata assigned to the aggregation level and retrieving objects at any level for reuse and repurposing in any Content Package.

Page layout support.

Drag and drop interface support.

Document management support.

Personalization support.

Content object search capabilities.

Ability to define, manage, and track critical training projects.

Comprehensive range of content import and content output.

Leverages FEMA customer’s Learning Management Systems (LMS).

Supports dynamic content delivery.

Hosted in a FedRAMP authorized environment.

Software application meets accessibility requirements required under Section 508 of the

Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (as amended).

Table 1A illustrates description of services, required quantities and unit costs:

Table 1A

Description Quantity Unit Cost Base/Option Year Costs

IBM Kenexa LCMS Premier on Cloud Authoring

License per Annum 103 $2,760.00 $284,280.00

IBM Kenexa LCMS Premier Delivery on Cloud

(Instance per Annum) 1 $30,960.00 $30,960.00

Professional Services (Hourly) 900 $250 $225,000.00

FedRamp (IaaS) Data Center Fee (Existing LCMS architecture) 1 $159,000.00 $159,000.00

Sole Source Justification for Simplified Acquisitions under the Test Program for Certain Commercial Items for

SSJ No.: 18-011 -

Table 1B illustrates option year costs and the contract’s total cost for the performance period, inclusive of one base and four option years:

Table 1B Base and Option Year Costs Derived from Table 1A

Base year Option Year 1 Option Year 2 Option Year 3 Option Year 4

$284,280.00 $284,280.00 $284,280.00 $284,280.00 $284,280.00

$30,960.00 $30,960.00 $30,960.00 $30,960.00 $30,960.00

$225,000.00 $225,000.00 $225,000.00 $225,000.00 $225,000.00

$159,000.00 $159,000.00 $159,000.00 $159,000.00 $159,000.00

Annual Cost $699,240.00 $699,240.00 $699,240.00 $699,240.00

Total Cost $3,496,200.00

4. Identification of the authority.

This action is being taken under the authority of the Test Program for Commercial Items, 41 U.S.C.

1901 or the authority of 41 U.S.C. 1903 Special emergency authority.

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

The subject requirement will allow the FEMA Enterprise to maintain continuity within its learning content management established in September 2013 following the competitive procurement of an

LCMS that was awarded to IBM Kenexa under commercial purchase order # HSFE20-13-P-0257.

IBM Kenexa Premier on Cloud is proprietary and only IBM Kenexa may effect modifications and provide maintenance, support and services. Procurement of a competing LCMS entails far more than procuring new software and content authoring licenses. Procuring and implementing an alternate

LCMS at this juncture entails a wholesale revision of a content management strategy developed and nurtured since inception of the current contract with IBM Kenexa. Premier has been implemented in unique fashion within the Enterprise. Resultant risk and certainty of cost duplication to the

Government points convincingly toward a procurement avenue representing the best value to the

Government and aligned with FAR 13.501(a).

Duplication of costs accompanying procurement and implementation of an alternate LCMS are realized in implementation fees which could range to $700,000 or 20% of total contract cost. There are additional costs associated with migrating curriculum content presently located in the IBM Kenexa

Premier instance onto an unknown, unvetted and unestablished platform. For example, EMI has already invested nearly $2,000,000 in developing 7,205 hours of curriculum within the IBM Kenexa

Premier LCMS. Migrating this amount of curriculum into an alternate, unvetted system would require an enormous effort to thoroughly review each course to ensure a clean and flawless transition.

Resultant costs are estimated at $438,000. In the event of a flawed migration of content, the

Government estimates a worst-case cost of nearly $1,000,000 to repair data files.

Sole Source Justification for Simplified Acquisitions under the Test Program for Certain Commercial Items for

SSJ No.: 18-011 -

There certainly are competing content management systems on the commercial market. Nonetheless, the Government strongly asserts a sole source acquisition fiscally prudent and logistically reasoned.

Pursuant to FAR 13.501(a), IBM Kenexa Premier on Cloud is required to remain aligned with existing content management configurations across the FEMA Enterprise. Introducing competitors’ LCMS platforms at this point is imprudent because of the amount of time for administrator-level instruction on functionality and configuration, teaching the platform’s capabilities and limitations to over 100 content authors across the country and then applying the newly developed knowledge toward a platform wholly distinct from the system to which they have become accustomed.

Additionally, procedures related to soliciting and receiving service and support from IBM Kenexa has become standard practice at this point. Years of coordination between the FEMA customer and IBM

Kenexa’s service and support staff has resulted in a fully operational logistics support capability.

Introducing an alternate LCMS will require the creation and maturation of a services and support protocol across the Enterprise. The Government asserts the risk too great and maintains that procurement of an alternate system is demonstrably cost prohibitive.

Lastly, market research conducted from June-September 2017 revealed that the majority of content development providers have determined that their Cloud Service Provider (CSP) or inherent hosting capabilities need not be certified to and compliant with the Federal Risk and Authorization

Management Program (FedRAMP). FedRAMP is a government-wide program that provides a standardized approach to security assessment, authorization, and continuous monitoring for cloud products and hosting services. FedRAMP security assessments serve to increase confidence in the security of cloud solutions and improve real-time security visibility. Most importantly, the

Government mandates FedRAMP compliancy for all cloud solutions adopted by Federal agencies.

The FEMA Enterprise has been using the IBM Kenexa Premier LCMS for over four years and asserts the intention to retain those services. A significant supporting argument is IBM Kenexa’s ongoing and unwavering FedRAMP compliancy.

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

A FedBizOpps notice of intent to sole source was publicized on October 27, 21017, for a period of 15 days, as required by FAR Subpart 5.301, 6.305(a). Any capability responses to that notice would have been taken into consideration prior to solicitation. No capability statements were received in response to the notice of intent.

7. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. (Use information such as commercial pricelists or prior acquisition history that will help the

Contracting Officer determine the anticipated cost is fair and reasonable or discuss the application of any of the techniques described at FAR 13.106-3(a)(2) and/or 13.106-3 (b)(3)).

The contracting officer determines that the anticipated price will be fair and reasonable based on commercial pricelists as well as acquisition history.

8. Description of market research. (Market Research is required by FAR Part 10 and HSAM 3010, and the

DHS Market Research Guide. Describe the results of your market research or provide a statement of the reason why market research was not conducted).

Sole Source Justification for Simplified Acquisitions under the Test Program for Certain Commercial Items for

SSJ No.: 18-011 -

In accordance with the FAR, Part 10, this office conducted market research to gain insights into the availability of products and to obtain feedback from industry. Five vendors, apart from IBM Kenexa, were solicited for descriptions of capabilities using the following market research tools:

Free and open, direct telephonic exchanges, required by the FAR.

Internet research utilizing multiple search engines.

Vendor brochures.

Contact with Subject Matter Experts (SME) for required expertise.

Note: Refer to accompanying Market Research Report.

9. Any other facts supporting the justification.

Implementation of an alternate LCMS requires the Government to retrain its LCMS instructor base and its content authors across the nation. Additional requirements include a new logistics and support base, establishment of alternate protocols and usage procedures, and wholesale revisions to Standard

Operating Procedures (SOP) developed and vetted since September 2013. Moreover, procurement of an alternate LCMS demands the FEMA customer begin anew with its learning content management, a certain disruption of continuity in its curriculum development and a portent of disruption as competing

LCMS providers come and go with each multiyear contract. Such a cost prohibitive option is neither fiscally prudent nor logistically reasoned. As regards the subject requirement, the Government firmly asserts that utilization of an alternative to the IBM Kenexa Premier on Cloud LCMS is wholly cost prohibitive and a course that provides unacceptable risk to the FEMA Enterprise, its curriculum development and its training operations.

10. A listing of the sources, if any that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

A synopsis was issued in the FedBizOpps on October 27, 2017, for a period of 15 days, requesting that parties express their interest in writing to the contracting officer. No responses were received that expressed an interest in this acquisition.

11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for supplies or services required. (Include a statement of actions taken or will be taken to increase competition for future acquisitions of the same item/service).

The Activity POC will continue to monitor the availability of comparable products in efforts to determine if such products prove better, more efficient, and more cost effective. However, as it presently stands, the subject requirement is the best reasoned and most fiscally prudent option available.

12. DHS intends to post the requirement pursuant to FAR 13.501(a)(1)(iv) and 5.102(a)(6).

13. Technical/Requirements Personnel Certification. I certify this requirement meets the Government’s minimum need and that the supporting data, which forms a basis for this justification, is complete and accurate.

Sole Source Justification for Simplified Acquisitions under the Test Program for Certain Commercial Items for

SSJ No.: 18-011 -

Technical Representative/COR Date

14. Contracting Officer Certification and Approval*

Contracting Officer: Not exceeding $650K Date

*Note: In accordance with FAR 13.501(a)(2)(i), for contracts exceeding $150,000 but not exceeding $650,000, the contracting officer’s certification that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the ordering activity contracting officer’s knowledge and belief will serve as approval.

15. Approval:

Competition Advocate Date

$650K to not exceeding $12.5 mil

HCA: Date

$12.5 mil to not exceeding $62.5 mil

HCA approval in addition to that of the Component Competition Advocate is not necessary if the Component

Competition Advocate meets the criteria at FAR 6.304(a)(3)(ii).

CPO: over $62.5 mil Date

HCA: Date

$12.5 mil to not exceeding $62.5 mil

Sole Source Justification for Simplified Acquisitions under the Test Program for Certain Commercial Items for

SSJ No.: 18-011 -

HCA approval in addition to that of the Component Competition Advocate is not necessary if the Component Competition Advocate meets the criteria at FAR 6.304(a)(3)(ii).

CPO: over $62.5 mil Date