70SBUR22F00000079_JEFO.pdf

CISAM 3016.505-90(b)(4) - Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity

JEFO No: FY22-0211 Page 2 of 4

RATIONALE:

As a result of changes to the Federal Travel Regulations (FTR), federal agencies were required to transition from their current travel management provider to the new ETS provider (FTR Subpart B – eTravel Service and Travel Management Service Section 301-73.100), via GSA’s E-Goverment Travel Service (ETS or ETS1) contract. At the time of DHS’s initial efforts to migrate/transition from ETS1 to ETS2, there was only one (1) awardee for the ETS2 follow-on, CONCUR. However, after several protests by CWTSatoTravel, the Court of Federal Claims ordered reevaluation after it found GSA failed to justify the exception under FAR 16.504(c)(10(ii)(D)(1)(iii) for a single award of an IDIQ contract valued greater than $103 million by failing to establish there was only one (1) source qualified and capable of performing the work. See CW Govt. Travel, Inc.

v. U.S., 110 Fed. Cl. 462 (2013). Consequently, a second IDIQ award was made to CWTSatoTravel.

Under the exception afforded by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), only one (1) awardee, CONCUR, is capable of providing the travel management services required at the level of quality required. This is because the existing travel management sytem currently in-use by USCIS is proprietary to CONCUR, and CONCUR is unique and highly specialized to provide the transaction-based services required to use, operate and maintain its own travel management system. Other contractors, such as CWTSatoTravel, cannot currently access or support the maintenance of the existing system. If USCIS needed to re-procure the Custom Interface Development and Testing Services separate from the integration to USCIS/OCFO’s financial system, this requirement would potentially increase costs to USCIS/OCFO resulting from interface development and testing with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) financial system vendor and potential additional costs to align the system to the second ETS2 contractor. This is a core component of automated travel management and planning services and would result in two (2) potential additional costs: cost to procure the services and the cost of full-service travel fees.

Due to budgetary constraints, the potential for additional costs to procure Accommodated Travel Management Service, increased costs of the travel fees, and the manual processing of travel documents is unsustainable for USCIS/OCFO. Lastly, any selection of an alternate ETS2 vendor (such as CWTSatoTravel) would not be in accordance with the ETS2 GSA master contract, which selected CONCUR as the travel service provider for the DHS components (including USCIS) after multiple tests comparing the detailed functionality of multiple travel service vendors, including CWTSatoTravel.

USCIS/OCFO partnered with DHS/ICE (its Federal Shared Services provider for financial services) to reduce ETS2 implementation, training, and integration costs. USCIS/OCFO has completed implementing CONCUR’s Concur Government Enterprise (CGE) system under a task order issued by DHS/ICE to CONCUR, GS-33-F-Y0026/HSCETE-13-F-00049. In FY2013, this task order was awarded to implement the new ETS2 system across DHS. This task order provided USCIS/OCFO, services for the implementation of CGE but the DHS/ICE task order did not include transaction-based services. Transaction-based services is needed to maintain the operational support of CGE, which is needed to use, operate, and maintain CONCUR’s CGE system. At the time of the DHS/ICE task order award to CONCUR on 06/12/2013, CONCUR was the only GSA IDIQ ETS2 contract holder. Previously, GSA conducted a full and open competitive procurement and awarded a single award IDIQ to CONCUR based-upon a best value determination for the Government.

Currently, USCIS/OCFO has a current ETS2 task order, 70SBUR19F00000198, in-place with CONCUR, but the current task order period of performance concludes on 06/15/2022. Based on the foregoing, additional market research for the purposes of seeking alternate sources beyond the ETS2 awardees, was not conducted. As explained within this document, ongoing market research reveals that no other companies’ similar products, or products lacking the particular feature, do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet, the Government’s requirement.

ConcurGov software, hosting, and support services are unique to CONCUR. DHS not only requires the supplemental support services to provide oversight of the operations and maintenance of ConcurGov, but also the transaction-based services to allow for continued mission-critical travel. It is critical that the contractor provides seamless interoperability with the current ETS2 solution and associated support tools. Only CONCUR software and associated support tools would be fully interoperable, and only CONCUR can provide supplemental support services for the continued oversight of the operations and maintenance of ConcurGov.

At this time, no other ETS2 solutions are interoperable or can meet the Government’s requirements for a solution that provides the transaction-based services and offers the ability to create reporting solutions from within, research/escalate discrepancies or other issues from within, and use the case management system.

Therefore, DHS/OCFO’s current financial system (maintained by our financial services provider, DHS/ICE) cannot support an additional travel system. Further, CWTSatoTravel, the second of two (2) contractors providing travel-based solutions

JEFO No: FY22-0211 Page 3 of 4 under the GSA ETS2 master contract, currently does not have a standard Application Programming Interface (API). This is a security risk. APIs provide physical access and authentication. This creates the potential for security breaches. If CWTSatoTravel were awarded the task order, it would take approximately two (2) years to implement; during implementation DHS Head Quarters (HQ) would have to revert back to a paper travel voucher program. Mandated cloud-migration and post-migration has tasked-out the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) support office, and there are currently not enough Full Time Employee’s (FTE) to take-on other tasks such as implementing another system. ICE is the financial service provider for DHS HQ and other components. ICE is currently supporting ConcurGov, and would not be able to support another provider.

5. DETERMINATION BY THE CONTRACTING OFFICER THAT THE ANTICIPATED COST TO THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE

FAIR AND REASONABLE.

GSA has already negotiated the rates for the FFP transaction-based services with CONCUR and determined that these rates are fair and reasonable. Per the ETS2 ordering guide, no further discounts are available. Option period 2 master contract pricing will remain effect for the base period of performance of the task order and optional period 3 master contract pricing will be applied to optional period(s) I – IV of the task order until the master contract expires on 06/03/2027. As the master contract established the pricing for these services and GSA has already negotiated the prices for transaction-based services, the Contracting Officer has determined prices to be fair and reasonable. Further, as the ETS2 ordering guide will not allow for any additional discounts under the FFP transaction-based service Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs), there is no further price reasonableness action to be performed by the Contracting Officer.

6. ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE JUSTIFICATION.

ConcurGov for federal Civilian ETS2 is a travel management solution that streamlines the process from pre-trip authorization to final expense submission. Under the ETS2 contract, federal civilian agencies can manage travel transactions before and as they occur to gain visibility and increase transparency into travel spend. With ConcurGov, USCIS gains complete audit transparency and regulatory compliance; integrates travel spend with other data to analyze transactions;

and captures all travel transactions regardless of booking channel.

ConcurGov was implemented at USCIS prior to the award to CWTSatoTravel (not available for USCIS to select as an option during its implementation).

Since the implementation, ConcurGov has implemented:

Interface with the Federal Financial Management Systems (FFMS), which is owned by USCIS’ service provider, ICE;

Platinum Configuration that all ICE customers adhere to in order to ensure a standard interface is maintained; and

Numerous custom updates that specifically impact ICE customer components, which are reported to be published in ConcurGov proprietary documentation.

One (1) primary difference between CONCUR's ConcurGov and CWTSatoTravel's E2 Solutions, is that CWTSatoTravel only agreed to meet the requirements in the GSA solicitation that were mandatory, whereas CONCUR agreed to meet all of the mandatory requirements as well as all of the optional requirements that various agencies may need.

In addition, CONCUR uses an agile development methodology whereby it is on a monthly release cycle to continually improve the application, whereas CWTSatoTravel is on a traditional waterfall development life cycle and releases new updates quarterly.

Market research under the previous order indicated that conversations were held with the GSA master IDIQ contract Contracting Officer and CONCUR. These conversations stated that a re-compete of the USCIS order with CONCUR was unnecessary since the Master IDIQ contract expected and authorized all agencies, which had entered into a contract with CONCUR, to continue placing task orders with it, without seeking further competition.

Additionally, the previous approved justification (FY19-0212) stated the following: “There will be three (3) separate Task orders issued to coincide with CONCUR’s awarded option periods. Each task order will not exceed a five (5) year period (base and four (4) one (1) year option periods)”. The current expiring order (70SBUR19F00000198) is the second (2nd) of

JEFO No: FY22-0211 Page 4 of 4 the three (3) task orders. One (1) five (5) year non-competitive task order still remains to be awarded under the GSA ETS2 IDIQ contract (GS-33-F-Y0026), which will align with the expiration of the master contract.

7. A STATEMENT OF THE ACTIONS, IF ANY, THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY BEFORE ANY SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION FOR THE SUPPLIES OR

SERVICES IS MADE.

There are no further actions USCIS/OCFO may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity for the reasons described above. Switching from CONCUR’s proprietary CGE system to an alternate ETS2 provider would be impractical since the current ETS2 standard implementation software solution is based-upon highly unique software solutions specifically designed for USCIS travel requirements.

DHS/OCFO intends to continue monitoring the market for possible ICE Financial System Interface capabilities with electronic travel products offered by other vendors.

8. POSTING REQUIREMENTS.

USCIS intends to post this requirement on SAM.gov pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D).

9. TECHNICAL/REQUIREMENTS PERSONNEL CERTIFICATION.

Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(9), I certify that this requirement meets the Government’s minimum need and that the supporting data, which form a basis for the justification, are accurate and complete.

10. CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION.

Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(8), I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Amy L. Rotax Contracting Officer USCIS/OCON | Operations Division Amy.L.Rotax@uscis.dhs.gov | (802) 872-4503

APPROVAL: Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(10), I hereby determine the circumstance identified in Section 4 applies to the order.

AMY L ROTAX Digitally signed by AMY L ROTAX Date: 2022.04.14 08:06:11 -04'00'