iSite_Jofoc_v.2Sgn.pdf

July 8, 2019

TO: 12/Contracting Officer, Office of Procurement

FROM: Kenny Nichols, Office of the Chief Information Officer

SUBJECT: Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC) for iSite Contract Management Portal (iSiteCMP) Center-wide License for NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC)

1. Recommendation

I recommend that NASA Langley Research Center negotiate with iSite LLC only for the iSiteCMP Center-wide License for LaRC. The total estimated cost of this effort is $5,281,134 and the estimated period of performance is 7/1/2019 – 6/30/2029. The contract will consist of a 1-year base period and nine (9) 1-year option periods.

2. Nature of the Action

The nature of the action being approved is the justification for the other than full and open competition purchase of the iSiteCMP Center-wide License for LaRC described in Item 3 below.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services

LaRC requires a center-wide license for iSiteCMP. Two iSiteCMP services are included in the base period and subsequent options as follows: 1) a site license for all configured instances within LaRC with unlimited users with help desk support and 2) full off-site management and configuration services which includes training for users, and support to stand up additional instances.

The total estimated value of the procurement is an initial base price of $430,000 with a ~4.7% escalation annually, for a total estimated contract value of $5,281,134 for a total of 10 years.

Pursuant to FAR FAR 17.204(e), the 5 year limitation on contracts for services does not apply to information technology contracts.

4. Statutory Authority

Provision for this JOFOC is made under the statutory authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), these services are available from only one or a limited number of responsible sources and no other property or services will satisfy the needs of the agency. FAR Part 13.5 procedures are used under the statutory authority of 10 USC 2304(g)(4) and 41 U.S.C.1901(e), which requires written justification for a sole source procurement.

5. Contractor’s Unique Qualifications iSiteCMP is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for contract administration owned wholly by iSite LLC, a sole architect, developer, servicer, and distributor of the iSiteCMP platform. In 2015, this commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) platform was identified through extensive market research, and was competitively acquired through the NASA Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) contract vehicle, in order to standardize LaRC’s approach to contract administration. iSite is currently employed as the contract administration system for the LITES II, STARSS III, TEAMS 3, and LAMPS 2 contracts. LaRC’s National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) contract vehicles – one IDIQ contract, one Cooperative Agreement – will begin using iSite during the base period of the ensuing Center-wide contract. Prior to the implementation of iSiteCMP LaRC required the contractor for each service contract to provide a system to manage task orders (TO) and/or technical direction notices (TDN). This approach proved ineffective as it produced no TO/TDN standardization across the Center and incurred significant development/maintenance costs for each contract. In 2015, the Center made a strategic decision to employ iSite on its service contracts that contained the use of a TO or TDN process to acquire services as part of its acquisition strategy for contract awards.

iSite’s contract management system is a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. IT security standards require that vendors offering these type of services become FedRAMP authorized, or be in the process of gaining authorization; iSiteCMP is FedRAMP authorized. Its hosting platform is within Amazon Web Services, which is FedRAMP authorized as well. LaRC currently has a moderate Authorization To Operate (ATO) for iSite and sponsored its FedRAMP certification. IT Security controls and requirements have only increased since iSiteCMP was deployed at LaRC. iSite LLC has met all IT Security requirements, effectively communicated any concerns with the NASA Information System Security Official, and maintained seamless deployment of iSiteCMP during the process.

In FY17, LaRC expanded its procured services from iSite LLC to include Management Services, which includes receiving configuration, training, iSiteCMP deployment strategy, and custom development/system configuration support for the Center. Since deploying iSiteCMP and Management Services at LaRC, the Center has realized numerous enhancements related to data capture and integrity, workflow review/approval process improvement, efficiencies in the contract funding process, submission of performance input from the technical user community, and quality and timeliness of reports.

Currently LaRC is buying a license and associated support for each individual contract, the current expenditure of iSite licenses and management services at LaRC is $309,430.31 annually for 4 instances and is acquired under a separate contracts with iSite. If LaRC were to procure two additional licenses for the NIA vehicles, to include requisite phase-in services, the total expenditure over the next 12 months would be $468,166.31 for 6 instances which raises the cost to $78,027 per instance. The purpose of this procurement is to acquire a LaRC site license for the software and services at an annual price of initial $430,000 with a credit of $127,360 for the total price of the current instances of $302,640. Also, we would be able to add additional instances at a cost of $3k per instance, avoiding an additional $21K phase-in cost for each additional instance. Further, there is administrative savings associated with moving from individual licenses to a LaRC site license, moving to one contract vehicle rather than having a purchase order for each individual license will substantially reduce the procurement transaction costs for this service.

Since procuring iSite, iSite LLC has removed the iSiteCMP software from the competitive purchasing process through SEWP and has become the sole provider and supplier of the software. Since 2015, LaRC has invested approximately $843,133.79 in iSite license costs, and the enhancements described above. To compete this requirement at this stage would be inefficient, and would require substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition.

iSite LLC is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business concern and is the only vendor with the institutional knowledge required to successfully deploy iSiteCMP at LaRC.

6. Efforts Made to Solicit Offers

Substantial market research preceded LaRC’s 2015 decision to acquire iSite’s product offerings as a means in which to standardize TO/TDN management practices. Once the decision was made, a SEWP competition was conducted and an award made to CounterTrade Products, Inc.

A Sole-Source synopsis was posted for the procurement of the iSite instance for each one of the contracts, (LITES II, STARSS 3, TEAMS 3 and LAMPS 2) with no response. A Sole-Source synopsis for the proposed site license was posted on June 25, 2019 in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2 with no response. This posting will inform potential sources of NASA’s intent to award this as a sole-source contract to iSite LLC.

Since LaRC’s 2015 procurement of iSiteCMP via CounterTrade, iSite LLC made a strategic business decision to provide iSiteCMP directly and without resellers.

7. Determination of the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable

With assistance from the NASA requiring organization, the Contracting Officer will conduct a thorough review of the proposal received to ensure that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

8. Description of the Market Research

Market research included reviewing the FedRAMP.gov website for either authorized or in process cloud SaaS contract management applications, for which iSite remains the only one.

Next, historical pricing was reviewed and found to be comparable to previous awards and advantageous for the Government. Lastly, iSite LLC was directly contacted (as the creator and owner of iSite products and services) to provide updated statements related to any potential resellers of its products and services.

9. Any Other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition:

Not /Applicable

10. Listing of Sources iSite LLC

11. Subsequent Competitive Acquisitions

There are no current plans for additional acquisitions to this requirement. However, should there be a need, OCIO will continue to seek and encourage competition.

12. Certifications

Technical Certification I certify that to the best of my knowledge and belief, the date furnished above is complete and accurate.

Kenny Nichols Date Technical Requestor

Contracting Officer Certification I hereby certify that the above justification is accurate and complete, to the best of my knowledge and belief, and the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

Joseph P. Janus Date Contracting Officer

CONCURRENCE:

Michael I. Mark Date Office of Chief Counsel

Susan E. McClain Date Procurement Officer

APPROVAL:

Clayton P. Turner Competition Advocate Date

KENNY NICHOLS

Digitally signed by KENNY NICHOLS DN: c=US, o=U.S. Government, ou=NASA, ou=People, cn=KENNY NICHOLS, 0.9.2342.19200300.100.1.1=klnicho2 Date: 2019.07.08 13:30:20 -04'00'

JOSEPH JANUS Digitally signed by JOSEPH JANUS Date: 2019.07.08 13:44:53 -04'00'