70RTAC24R00000016 _J.4_Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition.pdf

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION

41 U.S.C. 3304 (a)(1)

J&A No.: FY24-00182

Pursuant to the requirements of the Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.3 and in accordance with the requirements of FAR 6.303-1, the justification for the use of the statutory authority under FAR Subpart 6.3 is justified by the following facts and rationale required under FAR 6.303-2 as follows:

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Procurement Operations (OPO), in support of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), proposes to establish an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract on a basis other than full and open competition.

2. Nature and/or Description of the Action being Approved.

(a) Nature of action.

DHS has a requirement to procure a brand name specification for the procurement of Adobe software and support to upgrade and maintain the currently installed footprint of Adobe proprietary software. The initial Adobe Enterprise License Agreement (ELA) will expire on July 14, 2024 and this action is to establish a new DHS-wide Adobe ELA for enterprise software licenses and maintenance. Adobe software is fully integrated into the DHS enterprise architecture.

DHS is specifying a brand name item peculiar to one (1) manufacturer - Adobe. Adobe does not sell directly to the Government and will not compete with its resellers in the area of software sales. Therefore, DHS intends to solicit for this product to authorized Adobe resellers to ensure competition requirements are met and a fair and reasonable price is achieved. Award to a single reseller is contemplated.

The award will consist of a twelve (12) month base ordering period and two (2) twelve

(12) month optional ordering periods.

(b) Name and address of the contractor.

To be determined (TBD).

(c) Contract type.

DHS intends to award a single-award IDIQ contract.

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

Not applicable.

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

Currently, all DHS Components have Adobe products including software, maintenance, and consulting services within their architecture, using greater than 200,000 Adobe software licenses; all requiring current maintenance on each product. The use of Adobe products is essential to the DHS operations when communicating internally among the DHS Components and externally with the public and other federal, state, and local governments. Adobe is critical during a session that allows DHS Senior Leadership One and Senior Leadership Two to perform presentations and conduct meetings with several offices locally and remotely. Adobe software products are compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Deviation from Adobe products would impair the technical design and interface with many systems and enterprise functionality. As such, the use of Adobe brand name products efficiently supports the mission of DHS.

Only Adobe products can meet all of the government’s essential technical requirements for all four functional areas, including 1) Creative Media Solutions, 2) Portable Document Format (PDF) Document Management and Digital Signature Capability, 3) Digital Training/Symposium Platform, and 4) Customer Experience Software.

Only Adobe’s Creative Media Solution meets all of the following government’s essential technical requirements:

Has an existing Application Programming Interface (API) with Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 software.

Is FedRAMP certified.

Is a digital imaging software product.

Allows for merging images, overlapping layers, making fine-tune adjustments, as well as more basic adjustments such as color correction and lightening an image.

Supports vector Graphics used to create digital graphics and illustrations for all kinds of media.

Provides mobile, desktop, and online graphics.

Allows for the creation of multiple page layouts for print and digital publishing.

Is an animation and creative compositing software used for motion graphics and visual effects.

Provides a video editing tool and can import and combine most media types.

Interoperability/integration across all digital media capabilities.

Tool to make documents Section 508 compliant.

Provides enhanced technical support, allowing the Government to interact directly with the software publisher.

Provides the technical support service communication methods including phone, email, and chat with support engineers and the assigned account manager contact on tickets related to issues and problems that have been submitted or identified by the Government.

Offers named-user licensing, multi-user licensing, and off-line licensing.

Only Adobe’s PDF meets all of the following government’s essential technical requirements:

and M365 software.

Is FedRAMP certified.

Can convert scanned documents into searchable PDFs.

Can export PDFs to Microsoft Office and image formats.

Allows filing and signing forms (desktop and mobile).

Can create digital signatures (desktop and mobile).

Can add comments and highlight/markup to text (desktop and mobile).

Create technical PDFs in Autodesk AutoCAD.

Work with multiple PDF files at once through tabbed viewing.

Preview PDF files inside email.

Select chapter and heading views.

Provides enhanced technical support, allowing the Government to interact directly with the software publisher.

Provides the technical support service communication methods including phone, email, and chat with support engineers and the assigned account manager contact on tickets related to issues and problems that have been submitted or identified by the Government.

Offers named-user licensing, multi-user licensing, and off-line licensing.

Only Adobe’s Digital Training/Symposium Platform meets all of the following government’s essential technical requirements:

Is FedRAMP certified.

Has the capability to deliver multiple methods of training delivery: Training

Webinars, Learning Cafes, Symposium-style Events with built-in email capability and calendar invites, and virtual Instructor-led Training (vILT) Classroom courses.

Chat and Q&A.

Custom domain names, meeting Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

Course/Curriculum Creation and Management.

Participant tracking, certification and polling.

Rich media sharing (screen/document) for example, desktop, mobile, and tablet.

Audio/Telephone/ Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) integration.

Multiple hosts/presenters.

Recording capabilities, with full layout view and breakout room view and pod all included in the recording.

Included content manager.

Private chat during the event.

Provides enhanced technical support, allowing the Government to interact directly with the software publisher.

Provides the technical support service communication methods including phone, email, and chat with support engineers and the assigned account manager contact on tickets related to issues and problems that have been submitted or identified by the Government.

Offers named-user licensing, multi-user licensing, and off-line licensing.

Only Adobe’s Customer Experience Software meets all of the following government’s essential technical requirements:

Is FedRAMP certified.

Ability to create, manage, optimize, and deliver content across channels

(including across web, mobile, and apps).

Integrated content management platform.

Digital asset manager that includes automation and tools to rapidly source, adapt, and deliver assets across audiences.

Quick site creation features — from site templates to drag-and-drop components

— that let content teams quickly create stylized web experiences.

Offers multiple mechanisms for developing customer experience and marketing-related profiles: on-line collection via web forms, manual or automatic import of text files, replication with company databases or other information systems.

Offer advanced tools, such as Artificial Intelligence to assist in creating automated workflows; personalize customer experiences, evaluating marketing efforts, and analyzing digital asset performance.

Allows content created with Creative Media Solutions software to be integrated into customer experience software without any integration, or effort by the end user.

Provides advanced tools for Attribution to identify how different interactions throughout the customer journey affect customer experience.

Provides workflow automation capabilities for streamlining content creation, review, approval, and publishing processes.

Provides a Digital Asset Management function to store, organize, search, and retrieve a wide range of media files, including images, videos, and documents.

The Government also considered if any portion of the work can be segregated to allow for more competition. Segregating any portion of the work does not meet the government’s requirement because procuring these software products from more than one source would not allow DHS to obtain streamlined invoicing, billing, and payment services and standardized reporting and to achieve cost savings and program efficiencies.

Adobe software is integrated into mission critical systems at DHS Components, replacing it would be both disruptive and expensive. The DHS Components are using Adobe software, either to support a mission critical function, or to support operations.

Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) uses Adobe software in the development of citizen-facing and employee-facing forms. The PDF must be used in forms per DHS policy. Other PDF software cannot integrate into ICE applications, and therefore, Adobe Designer must be used for forms development. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) uses Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) software in its Electronic Immigration System 2 (ELIS 2) system, which is an electronic immigration system that processes all immigration requests. Replacing AEM with another software could cause this critical system to not function properly due to integration issues.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) uses Adobe Acrobat for CBP forms, and some of these forms are for mission crucial requirements. Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FELTC) uses Adobe software to develop training materials and media for classes. DHS HQ uses Adobe’s Creative suite in the development of PDF files/presentations for senior leaders to include graphics and maps. DHS HQ and Components uses Adobe Connect in the Homeland Security Information Network (HSIN), which is the trusted network for homeland security mission operations to share Sensitive But Unclassified information. Using another software suite could have negative impacts on the ability of these critical systems to function – hampering DHS’s ability to meet its mission.

If a new IDIQ contract for Adobe ELA is not awarded, costs will rise because individual Components do not have the combined buying power that exists at the Department-level.

In addition, Components will not have access to the favorable terms and conditions that will be included in Adobe ELA, such as:

Co-termination of existing maintenance orders, which helps Components budget and track renewals.

Ability to upgrade current Adobe products to the latest version allows

Components’ access to additional functionality and capabilities.

Platinum Adobe license support services (maintenance) ensures that the contractor has the ability to provide the level of services that DHS needs.

Accurate tracking of licenses through an online portal by component, assist

Components in tracking their hardware, software, and maintenance spending.

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

Efforts to identify potential sources were made by issuing Requests for Information (RFIs) on November 17, 2023 (targeting Adobe resellers) and December 5, 2023 (targeting commercial software). A draft Statement of Work (SOW) and/or draft Request for Proposal (RFP) will be posted on SAM.gov in May 2024. A combined synopsis/solicitation along with this justification will be posted on SAM.gov in June 2024.

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

As this requirement will be competed among authorized small business Adobe resellers, it is expected that adequate price competition will establish a fair and reasonable price. The contracting officer will also compare the proposed prices received in response to the solicitation to commercial pricelists to determine that the anticipated price(s) is fair and reasonable.

In addition, order-level contracting officers will be responsible for making separate fair and reasonable determinations on any subsequent orders issued against the IDIQ contract.

Description of Market Research.

Market research was conducted by reviewing previous Adobe ELA, General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS), and Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), meeting with a Component working group, and issuing RFIs. The market research was conducted from May 2023 to April 2024. DHS issued RFI #70RTAC24RFI000002 to Adobe resellers on SAM.gov on November 17, 2023 to ascertain what Adobe resellers may respond to the recompete. DHS issued a technical RFI, #70RTAC24RFI000003, on SAM.gov, on December 5, 2023 to find out what software publishers could potentially meet DHS requirements. The market research showed that only Adobe products are able to provide all of the requirements listed in Section 6 of this document. he

Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other Than Full and Open Competition. None.

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

A Request for Information (RFI) was issued in SAM.gov on November 17, 2023, requesting that Adobe resellers provide a response to the RFI questions.

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.

The Government evaluated various non-Adobe products, as summarized in the market research report, to determine whether this requirement or any portion of the requirement can be brand name or equal. However, the market research shows that only Adobe products meet all of the government's requirements.

The Government will solicit this requirement from small business Authorized Adobe resellers and continue to conduct market research to determine if there are other viable and cost-effective solutions in the market that meet the needs of DHS.

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