JA NEC Face Enterprise-wide Software - PAAC Approval 9.8.2023_Redacted.pdf

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition

Office of the Chief Procurement Officer Version 3.4

Justification No. FY23-00231

(f) Year of funding: Fiscal Year 2023

(g) Solicitation number: 70RDAD23R00000016

(h) Background information about the requirement: NEC Advanced Identity Manager (AIM) Perpetual Face Enterprise-wide Software and two years of annual software maintenance were purchased under Task Order No. 70RNPP18FR0000069 that was issued to CSRA, LLC under Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) No. HSHQDC-16-D-00001 with a period of performance of September 30, 2018 through September 29, 2020. Contract No.

70RCSA20C00000006 was subsequently awarded to NEC Corporation of America on sole source basis, under Justification No. FY20-00324, for the annual software maintenance on September 30, 2020, and will expire on September 29, 2023.

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

OBIM requires renewal of the NEC Face Enterprise-wide Software Maintenance for AIM- XM and AIM-ES products and assessment tools currently operational within the Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) production and non-production environments and professional services in support of the DHS, OBIM and OBIM’s stakeholders.).

The renewal of maintenance for the NEC AIM-XM product is available for large gallery implementations and AIM-ES for smaller galleries, this service will include the assessment tools. The DHS perpetual license includes both AIM products for unlimited biometric quantities, on unlimited hardware platforms, and at unlimited locations.

4. Identification of Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition.

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C.3304(a)(1) implemented by the FAR Subpart 6.302-1 entitled “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

5. Identification of Exception to the Buy American Statute

N/A

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

Pursuant to the FAR Subpart 6.302-1, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements,” NEC Advanced Identity Manager software maintenance is essential to the continued proper functioning of the NEC NSS AIM software, which DHS uses to perform its essential tasks of biometric identification in support of

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition

Justification No. FY23-00231 screening, vetting, and credentialing of individuals seeking immigration benefits, employment, or entry/exit to the United States.

Only NEC NSS can provide the annual software maintenance to the existing NEC AIM Software currently operational within IDENT, because no other firm can interconnect with and perform the necessary customized maintenance of the NEC NSS AIM software. The NEC NSS AIM software itself is customized, with the algorithm having been developed and fine-tuned by NEC NSS over the years to where only NEC NSS can provide the maintenance for such an application. If the Government were not able to procure the necessary annual software maintenance, the system would be at risk for potential security vulnerabilities and system malfunctions. Additionally, these systems will naturally experience degradation in system performance, negatively impacting the ability to make operational decisions such as, but not limited to, national security and public safety, identifying known or suspected terrorists, supporting enforcement actions, granting, or denying benefits such as immigration benefits or trusted traveler status for OBIM, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) who are currently using the NEC AIM product. OBIM procured perpetual licenses for the above stated DHS component organizations for facial matching capabilities to perform biometric identification in support of screening, vetting, and credentialing of individuals seeking immigration benefits, employment, or entry/exit to the United States. A DHS wide license enables continuity of efforts across multiple system implementations and allow for cost savings associated with future implementations. As a result, if OBIM were not able to procure the annual maintenance for the NEC Face Enterprise-wide Software, at a minimum, each component would need to separately procure that annual maintenance support from NEC at a cost of $8M per DHS component, for a total of $40M for the one-year period of performance as compared to OBIM procuring the annual maintenance support from NEC on behalf of the entire department for a cost of $8M over the one-year period of performance.

Procuring an alternate product other than NEC NSS AIM would not enable continuity of efforts across multiple system implementations and not allow for cost savings associated with future implementations. The IDENT infrastructure (Transaction Manager I (TM) and Matcher Interface Service (MIS)) have been designed around the NEC NSS AIM product for facial and iris recognition. The TM and MIS architecture would need to be rebuilt for both IDENT and HART in order to accommodate a different manufacturer’s matching product, which would increase the cost by at least $50M per system, for a total of $100M, which was estimated based on the previous costs required to build each system. DHS network architecture, maintenance platforms, and configuration systems require the use of NEC NSS’s product to ensure interoperability with other DHS systems at all data centers. The NEC NSS Facial Software must be configured in accordance with DHS OCIO system architecture requirements. The use of other products would result in interoperability, compatibility, interface issues that would preclude the system’s support team from providing efficient and effective customer support.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition

Justification No. FY23-00231

There are many steps that must occur before any new technology can be utilized, and it is overly simplistic and unrealistic to suggest that adding a new cloud instance of a product would be close to providing a completely operational product in a DHS production environment. If OBIM were to replace the NEC Face Enterprise-wide Software, it would be new development and OBIM would have to contract for the entire lifecycle of the work to install, build, integrate, test, and compute face matching templates for the new system. The templates regeneration alone previously took six months when OBIM transitioned to the NEC software.

The Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology System (HART) will replace IDENT system upon Initial Operation Capability (IOC). A transition to another contract mechanism without critical disruptions to system operational availability would be very difficult and cost prohibitive due to the size and complexity of the IDENT system requirements. Replacing the vendor at this time would be synonymous with the cost and time associated with the initial development and testing for the HART face matching capability but multiplied by a factor of two to account for replacing the face matching capability in both the HART and IDENT systems to include retesting with all +55 interfacing stakeholders for each system. There are over 1.2 billion face images that have been feature-extracted for use with the NEC AIM XM product in both OBIM/IDENT and OBIM/HART systems that would need to be re-extracted for a replacement face matching product. The timeframe to complete such an endeavor is a minimum of 6 - 12 months for both HART and IDENT. It is anticipated that the other four DHS components would have to undergo a similar feature extraction endeavor for every system that the AIM-ES/XM product is implemented in.

7. Description of Efforts Made to Ensure that Offers are Solicited from as Many Potential Sources as is Practicable.

The notice of intent to sole source, as required by FAR 5.203, was published on SAM.gov on 19 July 2023. The notice described the requirement as maintenance of the NEC NSS AIM software for a period of 5 years, with the base-year period of performance beginning on September 30, 2023 and the 4th-option period of performance ending on September 29, 2028. The notice requested interested vendors submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the requirements in writing to the Contracting Officer no later than August 3, 2023.

Two vendors responded, Pangiam and Rank One Computing (ROC). Pangiam and ROC asserted their capabilities to provide the underlying requirement (biometric identity management software), but neither Pangiam nor ROC asserted that they are capable to perform maintenance of the existing NEC NSS AIM software. Upon review of Pangiam’s and ROC’s information, the DHS technical team determined that more information is necessary to determine whether Pangiam or ROC are capable to provide the underlying requirement. As a result, DHS decided to reduce the period of performance of the maintenance contract to one-year (instead of 5 years) to keep the current essential system functioning while DHS conducts further research, to include engaging with both ROC and Pangiam, in order to better assess their capabilities to provide the underlying requirement. A

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition

Justification No. FY23-00231 one-year period of performance is the shortest duration that can be procured as this is a requirement for annual maintenance and NEC NSS indicated that they do not provide these services for less than a one-year period.

8. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable.

The Contracting Officer has determined that issuing a contract directly to NEC NSS to continue critical operations of the IDENT system represents the best value and will result in the lowest overall cost alternative, considering price and administrative costs, to meet the government needs. The unit price for the NEC Face Enterprise-wide Software Maintenance will be determined to be fair and reasonable after a comparison of the proposed price to the historical prices paid under Contract No. 70RCSA20C00000006 for the same items in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(b)(2)(ii).

9. Description of Market Research.

Only NEC NSS can provide the customized maintenance of NEC NSS AIM software.

Authorized resellers of NEC NSS AIM software are unable to provide the customized maintenance of NEC NSS AIM software. On 6 September 2023, NEC NSS, the software manufacturer, confirmed there are no authorized resellers for the annual software maintenance required for DHS’ NEC NSS AIM perpetual software license. Additionally, OBIM previously emailed NASA SEWP contract holders on 17 April 2023 to determine if there were any authorized resellers for the NEC NSS AIM software maintenance. Only one vendor responded that they can provide a non-customized software maintenance and if procured from the reseller OBIM would have to repay the license fee of $33.8M which was previously paid in 2018 when the perpetual licenses were procured under Task Order No.

70RNPP18FR0000069.

Additionally, OBIM reviewed the two submissions submitted in response to the notice of intent to sole source and could not determine if the two vendors could meet the current requirements with the documents that were submitted. OBIM requires additional time to conduct market research to further evaluate each vendors capabilities.

10. Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other Than Full and Open Competition.

Only NEC NSS can provide the required customized software maintenance. The continued use of the current NEC Software guarantees the continued availability of the IDENT operational system and keeps OBIM customers from being negatively impacted by lack of biometric identification services used by OBIM stakeholders to perform biometrically based validation and provide actionable information that uniquely identifies individuals who may pose a threat to national security.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition

Justification No. FY23-00231

Issuance of a sole source contract to NEC NSS will ensure the operational availability of IDENT while OBIM conducts additional market research, and support stakeholder and customer requests for biometric identity services through the purchase of software maintenance to be deployed in the OBIM operational environments at Data Center 1 (DC1).

11. A Listing of the Sources, if Any That Expressed, in Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition

Two vendors, Pangiam and Rank One Computing (ROC), submitted responses to the notice of intent to sole source. OBIM reviewed the responses which resulted in the following findings:

ROC is an artificial intelligence (A.I) software company provides face recognition search platforms, biometric algorithms, and computer vision technologies. ROC is also in the “process of developing their own iris recognition algorithm” using cutting edge A.I and modern computer vision techniques. Pangiam developed Traveler Verification Service (TVS), CBP’s cloud-based facial recognition system. The agile software development effort produced the first cloud-native software application hosted by CBP and laid the technological groundwork and security apertures necessary for authority to operate CBP’s new commercially hosted virtual private cloud (VPC). Pangiam’s Trueface Matcher has the capability to perform a one-to-many (1:n) match against the entire IDENT facial gallery .

NEC NSS currently provides face matching, iris license maintenance, bug fixes, and security patches required for OBIM’s system to interconnect NEC NSS and functions with the current DHS network architecture, maintenance platforms and configuration. Based on what ROC and Pangiam submitted in response to the notice of intent, the Government cannot determine at this time if either vendor is capable of meeting all of the Government’s underlying requirements for biometric identity management software. ROC indicated in their response that they are in the process of developing their iris recognition algorithm, which OBIM needs now. While both companies do have facial recognition algorithm, there is not enough evidence to determine if all the requirements can be met. A one-year contract award to NEC NSS would provide OBIM with the additional time necessary to conduct additional market research, to include engaging with both ROC and Pangiam in order to better assess their capabilities.

12. 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.

OBIM, along with the support of OPO, will continue to conduct market research to review available technology and products for facial and other biometric identification systems to promote competition in future acquisitions. IDENT, DHS’s legacy Automated Biometric Identification System, is not a long-term solution. OBIM is currently developing IDENTs replacement system, HART, obtain IOC, and subsequently retire IDENT. OBIM’s market research will consider the next iteration of face matching algorithm/licenses for HART after

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition

Justification No. FY23-00231

IOC is obtained, which is currently estimated for the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2025. If it is determined that there are technology solutions available in the market that are beneficial to the DHS, action may be taken to plan, test, and migrate the infrastructure and systems.

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U.S. Department of Homeland Security Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition

Justification No. FY23-00231

13. Contracting Officer’s Certification. I certify that the data supporting the recommended use of other than full and open competition is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Leslie Kenser Date

Contracting Officer Office of Procurement Operations

14. 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.

Technical Representative Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM)

APPROVAL:

Date

Date Procuring Activity Advocate for Competition