A02.06 S23-0045 Geoslopes - JA - redacted.docx

Justification Review Document For Sole Source - FAR Part 13.501

Program/Equipment: S23-0045 GeoStudio

Authority: Title 41 United States Code 1901 as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation 13.501(a)(1)(ii), sole source (including brand name) under the authority of the simplified procedures for certain commercial items

Period of Performance/Delivery Date: 12 months from the date of award (anticipated 11 February 2022)

Amount: $xxx,xxx.00

E-mail: David.A.Kaplan@usace.army.mil

E-mail: Douglas.E.Pohlman@usace.army.mil

E-mail: Glenda.M.Brooks@usace.army.mil

E-mail: Glenda.M.Brooks@usace.army.mil

Controlled by: Army Controlled by: USACE CUI Category: General Procurement and Acquisition Distribution/Limited Dissemination Control: FEDCOM POC: Glenda Brooks/601-634-7184

Contracting Center Reviews

I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support the justification for an exception to fair opportunity.

Wileen J. Stokes Office of Small Business Programs Email: Wileen.J.Stokes@usace.army.mil

Randy H. Force Business Oversight Branch Team Lead Email: Randy.H.Force@usace.army.mil

Jesse C. Lee Office of Counsel Email: Jesse.C.Lee@usace.army.mil

1. Contracting Activity: The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Humphreys Engineer Center Support Activity (HECSA), located at 7701 Telegraph Road, Alexandria, Virginia 22315.

2. Description of Action: Requesting GeoStudio software subscription and maintenance support to include two years of annual software maintenance. This software is required by the GG&M CoP for use to model complex groundwater, foundation, slope, and wall design problems in support of critical Civil Works, Navigation, and MilCON missions. Annual software maintenance includes immediate access to updates and bug fixes; full licensing and installation product support; basic engineering support; no-cost upgrades to new version releases

3. Description of Supplies/Services: GeoStudio software is required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Geotechnical, Geology, and Materials Community of Practice (GG&M CoP) for use by USACE geotechnical engineers to model complex groundwater, foundation, slope, and wall design problems. Districts use the following GeoStudio suite of software products: SLOPE/W, SEEP/W, SIGMA/W, QUAKE/W, TEMP/W, CTRAN/W, AIR/W, and Leapfrog Works, each of which are used by USACE geo-professionals. Corps-wide, Districts use multiple software versions and types of licenses, creating inconsistency and potential incompatibility across the enterprise

3.1 List of Brand Name Requirements:

Table #1: Bill of Materials

4. Authority Cited: Title 41 U.S.C 1901 as implemented by FAR Subpart 13.501(a), Sole Source acquisitions.

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

Geo-Slope software has been utilized by USACE since at least 2001, with the oldest active licenses within USACE dating from 2007. Since that time, each office has procured Geo-Slope software via their District’s assigned contracting office, typically as small purchase order contracts. However, this resulted in multiple versions of the software in use across the Corps. Currently, Corps-wide districts use multiple software versions and types of licenses, creating inconsistency and potential incompatibility across the enterprise. This procurement consolidates the Corps Geo-Slope licenses enterprise-wide; creating efficiencies and cost savings for the Government.

GeoStudio provides rigorous analytical capability integrating geo-engineering and earth science considerations for dams, levees, slopes, roads, bridges, embankments, climate, groundwater, environmental protection analysis and designs. GeoStudio is a CoP-recommended, consolidated USACE Enterprise license provided by Geo-Slope – for geotechnical analysis and design software: SLOPE/W, SEEP/W, SIGMA/W, QUAKE/W, TEMP/W, CTRAN/W, AIR/W, Leapfrog Works. The consolidation licensing agreement leverages pooled local users, reduces costs, and enables more efficient management of enterprise software and a centralized billing mechanism to simplify bill-back to Divisions/Districts. The program's ultimate goal is to leverage volume purchasing power and centralized administration of single enterprise contracts to generate cost avoidance, increased administrative efficiency and a platform of cyber secure applications for the Geotechnical community.

GeoStudio has been used Corps wide as the primary finite element (FE) / finite difference (FD) seepage and limit equilibrium (LE) stability software packaged since 2005 and has been taught in Prospect 262 (Stability) since 2014 and Prospect 250 (Seepage & Piping) since 2017.

An analysis of alternatives was conducted by CIO G-6 on 24 October 2022 that determined there were no other approved products that could fulfill USACE’s requirement. Please see the table on the page below for a summary of the analysis.

Estimated equivalent costs for each of the similar alternatives:

If the entire solution was replaced, the entire workforce would need to be retrained on new software. There were approximately 400 unique USACE GeoStudio users last year and 10,000 user days use of the software. Depending upon the complexity of the software replacement, the workforce could probably be retrained in 20 weeklong training sessions at a cost of about $x,xxx,xxx to $x,xxx,xxx.

Additionally, it is vital that the Corps continue to purchase Geo-Slope software in order to continue working and viewing ongoing and completed projects within Geo-Slope because no other software is compatible with projects initiated within Geo-Slope software. As this has been the standard from within the Corps since before 2007, the Corps has extensive file libraries of previous analyses and training the Geoslope software is the only sustainable option for meeting mission critical operational requirements. Analyses produced by the software will be required to be reviewed during the agency technical review processes with access to the same version of the software needed in order to review files across multiple districts. This is particularly necessary for any drilling program reviews which include hydrofracture analysis as the files may be required in order to adequately review plans in order to comply with Engineering regulations put in place to protect dam and levee safety.

If USACE do not procure GeoStudio this year, we would stop getting upgrades on software. Eventually (maybe in 2 to 3 years) there would be security vulnerabilities with use of the software that could not be fixed or incompatibility with operating systems, and the older version of software could not be used. If the end of life of the GeoStudio software was not properly planned for, there could be a significant period of time when analyses could not be performed that were in accordance with USACE guidance. That period of time would likely be on the order of 12 to 18 months, unless administrative

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:

a. Effective competition: Effective Competition: In accordance with (IAW) Army FAR Supplement (AFARS) 5139.101(S-90) (a), CIO-G6 conducted market research on the Computer Hardware Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) website to determine if the requirement could be procured through CHESS. One Request for Information notice (RFQ), RFQ # 425876 was posted on CHESS from 11 Oct 2022 to 14 Oct 2022. Additionally, RFI# 252360 was posted on NASA SEWP from 24 Oct 2022 to 27 Oct 2022. A CHESS Statement of Non-Availability no. 216791436 was approved on 16 November 2022.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: Additional actions to increase competition are not feasible. Seequent/Bentley Systems is the only authorized seller of the required software.

8. Market Research: The Requiring Office is aware of numerous known sources that offer similar software for the individual components of the Geostudio suite (Rockscience, Itasca, Soilvision, etc.) in the marketplace; however, none of these software products offer the range of features that the Corps requires and none offer the complete range of integrated geotechnical evaluations on one common platform, saving significant labor dollars and leveraging existing evaluations.

9. Interested Sources: Seequent/Bentley is the only authorized reseller of Geostudio software.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement history.

· W912HQ22P0037, awarded to Bentley Systems on 11 Mar 2022 for the amount of $215,720.00 for GeoStudio software maintenance.

· W912HQ19P0021- P00002, awarded 11 Feb 2021 for the amount of $147,420.00 for GeoStudio software maintenance.

· W912HQ19P0021- P00001, awarded 11 Feb 2020 for the amount of $147,419.04 for GeoStudio software maintenance.

· W912HQ19P0021, awarded 04 Feb 2019 for the amount of $393,699.04 for GeoStudio software floating licenses and maintenance.

(2) The competitive status: Each of the aforementioned purchase orders was issued on a sole source basis.

(3) The authority previously cited was FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), soliciting from a single source under the simplified acquisition threshold.

(4) Justification summary:

Based on the needs of the Government, USACE found no alternative products for this software maintenance (COTS or G6 Approval List).

(5) If any prior contract for this requirement was accomplished using full and open competition, include a detailed explanation of the changed circumstances causing this action to now limit the sources.

Not applicable.

(6) An explanation of any unusual patterns that may be revealed by the history, e.g., several consecutive, urgent buys.

Not applicable.

(7) If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, briefly describe the circumstances justifying the procurement and whether there have been any significant changes.

a. There were no significant changes in the marketplace in order for the Program Office to consider software and maintenance support from vendors other than Bentley Systems, the only authorized reseller of GeoStudios Geoslope software.

b. Other facts. Not applicable.

11. Technical Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Glenda M. Brooks Software Licensing Specialist

12. Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Glenda M. Brooks Software Licensing Specialist

13. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable.

Certified cost or pricing data will not be required as the estimated cost of the contract action is less than the threshold for certified cost or pricing data and the software is commercially available, IAW FAR 15.403-1(b)(3)

Douglas E. Pohlman Contracting Officer

14. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of Geoslope software on an other that full and open competition basis in the amount of $xxx,xxx.xx pursuant to the authority of 41 U.S.C 1901 as implemented by FAR Subpart 13.501(a), Sole Source acquisitions, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and property herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.