Acq_Plan_Attch_F_-_Alliant_3_J_A.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

General Services Administration (GSA)

Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) Information Technology Category (ITC)

Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) Program Solicitation: 47QTCB23Q0001

1 Identification of Requiring Activity and Contracting Activity:

a. Requiring Activity: General Services Administration

Federal Acquisition Service Information Technology Category Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) Program 1800 F. Street NW Washington, DC 20006

b. Contracting Activity: General Services Administration Federal Acquisition Service Information Technology Category Services Contracting Division 4 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) Program 1800 F. Street NW Washington, DC 20006

2 Nature and/or Description of Action Being Approved:

This sole source justification is made for solicitation and award to Apex Logic, Inc. for contract management software supporting the GSA Alliant 3 GWAC program. This award will result in a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract for Symphony Procurement Suite Licenses and customization/integration. The estimated period of performance includes one, twelve-month base period, one twelve-month option period, and one six-month option period, with an estimated total value of $828,000.00. Contract award will be made to:

Apex Logic, Inc. (Apex) 170 S Virginia St, STE 203, Reno, NV 89501 USA

UEI: N1FXKRFNDN37

3 A Description of Supplies/Services Required to Meet Agency’s Need:

The General Services Administration (GSA), Federal Acquisition Services (FAS), Information Technology Category (ITC) has an immediate requirement for Symphony Software Licenses to support the Alliant 3 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) program. Symphony is a contract management software, exclusively owned, developed, and sold by Apex Logic Inc., a Woman-Owned HubZone small business company. The Symphony Software licenses will support the Alliant 3 GWAC by allowing access to an online suite of acquisition tools to automate the pre-award proposal management and source selection and evaluation of multiple award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts. It will handle the intake, up-front validation of proposals, and evaluation of offers using an automated, self-scoring methodology that will reduce the demand on FAS personnel resource allocation and workload.

GSA has begun the substantial solicitation process to on-ramp new contractors to various GWAC and Multi-Agency Contracts (MACs). The on-ramps require a customized solution to reduce extensive man-hour requirements for evaluation of offers. Based on market research, a contract was previously

Solicitation: 47QTCB23Q0001

DocuSign Envelope ID: A5F7B6D2-B386-4510-96A1-7FF5799CEF17 awarded to Apex Logic for their Symphony contract management software for the GSA Professional Services & Human Capital (PSHC) portfolio’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) and OASIS+ program, as well as the Office of Information Technology Category’s (ITC) Polaris GWAC, to allow oversight and management of the on-ramp and solicitation process, including evaluations. Based on the government’s need for a contract management software application for GWACs and MACs and the positive feedback from industry and all users, GSA is seeking to continue its use of the Symphony software for the Alliant 3 GWAC while working towards implementing these innovative features for their Contract Acquisition Life-cycle Management (CALM) system.

CLIN Listing by Phases Supported:

CLIN Description CLIN Type

0001 Symphony Audition licenses for Alliant 3 setup and Active Solicitation phase 12

*1001 *Symphony Audition licenses for Alliant 3 Active Solicitation and Evaluation phase (CEILING) 12

*2001 *Symphony Audition license for Alliant 3 evaluation phase (CEILING) 6

Periods of Performance

Base Year January 6, 2023 - January 5, 2024

First Option Period January 6, 2024 - January 5, 2025

Second Option Period January 6, 2025 - June 30, 2025

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

FAR 6.302-5(b)(5) - Authorized or Required by Statute, Sole Source Awards Under the HUBZone Act of 1997 - 15 U.S.C. 6570. This procurement will be conducted in accordance with FAR 19.1306.

5 Demonstration that the Proposed Contractor’s Unique Qualifications or the Nature of the Acquisition Requires Use of the Authority Cited:

The Symphony software platform is a proprietary software product of Apex Logic, Inc. Through market research, it was determined that the manufacturer does not have any authorized resellers, nor are the licenses available on any existing contracts. The contractor is a certified HUBZone small business, verified via SBA Small Business Dynamic Search on November 7, 2022. In accordance with FAR 19.1306 the government is permitted to award a Hubzone Sole Source.

The Symphony software suite is fully Section 508 compliant, offering solicitation, proposal management, evaluation, and source selection support. Specifically, the Symphony application streamlines the contract vehicle competition process by validating vendor proposals, managing the Q&As, managing proposal acceptance deadlines, and facilitating evaluation assignments and reviews.

The proposal management features are specifically designed to manage IDIQ contracts in accordance with the FAR, offering an organized workflow, notifications, and award decision information for

GSA acquisitional professionals and industry partners, while providing leading information to the GSA program managers.

GSA’s experience using Symphony for the OASIS, ASTRO, and Polaris programs demonstrated significant time and labor savings for staff, and reduction of risk to the program related to manually managing multiple documents from various sources. The increased labor on GSA staff would delay the release of these new contract programs and result in labor hours being redirected to manual tasks that could be automated by Symphony software, ultimately resulting in loss of productivity on other GSA strategic priorities. Symphony reduces the risk of human error related to managing multiple documents for each vendor and provides a centralized location for all GSA stakeholders to access documentation, reducing time delays responding to vendors and customer agencies, and improving the customer and supplier experience.

6 Description of Efforts Made to Ensure that Offers are Solicited from as Many Potential Sources as Practicable:

This requirement is not available for competition. Apex Logic Inc. is the manufacturer and sole proprietor of Symphony software licenses. This is a sole source HUBZone requirement. Symphony software licenses are commercially available. As such, a streamlined solicitation for commercial item procedures, in accordance with FAR 12.603 will be used to synopsize and solicit the requirement on SAM.gov and will serve as the Government’s notice of intent to sole source the acquisition. The justification for other than full and open competition will be made publicly available within 14 days after contract award, as required by FAR 6.303-1, FAR 6.305, and 41 U.S.C. 3304(f).

7 Contracting Officer Determination that Anticipated Price will be Fair and Reasonable:

GSA has determined the anticipated cost to the Government for this acquisition will be fair and reasonable and, in the Government’s best interest in accordance with FAR Part 12.209 Determination of Price Reasonableness and FAR Part 13.106-3. The Contracting Officer will use price analysis techniques to ensure a fair and reasonable price. This includes, but is not limited to market research, comparison of the proposed price with prices found reasonable on previous purchases, current price lists, comparison with similar items in a related industry, comparison of the proposed prices received in response to the Independent Government Estimate (IGE) and any other reasonable basis.

In accordance with best practices, the Contracting Officer will request a discount from commercially available pricing.

8 A Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results or a Statement of the Reason the Market Research was not Conducted:

Market research was conducted in accordance with FAR Part 10. Market research determined that there are no mandatory sources of supply for the requested Symphony Software. Therefore, in accordance with FAR Subpart 8.004 Use of Other Sources, the use of GSA Federal Supply Schedules was given first consideration as an acquisition vehicle to satisfy this requirement. A search of GSA eLibrary revealed that Apex Logic Inc. has a MAS Schedule Contract (GS-35F-0608L) for Information Technology Professional Services.

In addition, a Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Dynamic Small Business Search was conducted to find HUBZone companies having the Software Publishing NAICS Code 511210, resulting in 203 HUBZone companies being identified. A thorough search of these companies' websites found that Apex Logic, Inc. was the only company that had a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) contract management software product to handle the intake, up-front validation of proposals, and evaluation of offers using an automated, self-scoring methodology. This is not being conducted as a HUBZone set-aside because there is not a reasonable expectation that offers would be received from two or more HUBZone small business concerns.

The Symphony Licenses are not offered under Apex Logic’s GSA Schedule contract. The requested software is not available under the GSA Multiple Award Schedule Program from any vendor. An analysis of the acquisition history detailed that Apex Logic Inc. was a sole source manufacturer of the Symphony Software Licenses. On October 26, 2022, a letter was sent to Apex Logic Inc. requesting the name of any distributors, resellers, or dealers that are authorized to offer Symphony Licenses or verification that Symphony is a 100% proprietary software via Apex Logic and that there is no redistribution of any licenses, resale, etc. Apex Logic confirmed that Symphony is 100% developed by Apex Logic and are the only seller and supporter of the Symphony Software.

On November 7, 2022, an SBA Dynamic Search confirmed Apex Logic Inc. as a certified HUBZone firm under the Small Business Administration.

9 Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other Than Full and Open Competition:

As outlined in the GSA Acquisition Letter MV-19-04, a security controls assessment of the Symphony Express information system was conducted at the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) in accordance with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-37 Revision 1, “Guide for Applying the Risk Management Framework to Federal Information Systems'', and the General Services Administration (GSA) IT Security Procedural Guide CIO-IT Security-06-30, “Managing Enterprise Risk”. As a result, an Authorization to Operate (ATO) letter was issued by GSA on March 24, 2020, with a formal declaration that the Symphony platform has adequate security controls which provide a satisfactory level of security in the system. The current ATO is in effect for three years and will require renewal after March 24, 2023.

The CALM system is planned to be the enterprise solution for acquisition lifecycle management, but since the time of the Phase 2 go-live/production in FY22, it does not yet provide full functionality to support the MAC and GWAC program needs. Specifically, Alliant 3 requires robust proposal management and source selection/evaluation support for multiple award IDIQ contracts to handle the intake, up-front validation of proposals, and evaluation of offers using an automated, self-scoring methodology. CALM has these features on their Phase 3 roadmap. However, these enhancements will not be completed, tested, and proven before the Alliant 3 solicitation is scheduled to be released.

Therefore, GSA is seeking Symphony license support for this interim period, to meet the requirements of the Alliant 3 GWAC program, while the agency rolls out and builds out the full functionality of CALM to the enterprise.

10 A Listing of the Sources, if any, That Expressed, In Writing, An Interest in the Acquisition:

To date, the Contracting Officer has not received any statements of interest regarding the proposed HUBZone sole source effort.

11 A Statement of the Actions Taken to Remove or Overcome Barriers to Competition:

GSA is in the process of putting in place an enterprise-wide end-to-end contracting tool CALM, which will eventually offer front end proposal and enhanced evaluation management capabilities.

However, in the meantime GSA is seeking to continue its use of the Symphony software to meet the required schedule for the Alliant 3 GWAC while the agency is working to complete these innovative features and implement the full functionality of the CALM system to the FAS enterprise. In an effort to remove or overcome barriers to competition in the future, the commercial market will continuously be scanned by the Government for new, open technologies that can satisfy future software requirements. GSA will continually revisit the software currently being used and will conduct research for technology manufacturers and products that will be in the Government’s best interest for future replacement at the agency’s site and at sites the agency supports. As technology evolves technology requirements will be re-evaluated for its ability to support mission critical requirements and provide the best value to the Government. Since there is a continual revisit to the software applications currently being used by the agency, if/when alternatives to the requested items become available, they will be reviewed for approval to use.

The government will also research the expansion of government developed software tools. If it is determined at any time that there are more capable contractors or products that could fulfill the Government's requirement, GSA will conduct a competitive acquisition.

As outlined in the GSA Acquisition Letter MV-19-04, a security controls assessment of the Symphony Express information system was conducted at the Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) in accordance with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-37 Revision 1, “Guide for Applying the Risk Management Framework to Federal Information Systems”, and the General Services Administration (GSA) IT Security Procedural Guide CIO-IT Security-06-30, “Managing Enterprise Risk”.

As a result, an Authorization to Operate (ATO) letter was issued by GSA on March 24, 2020 with a formal declaration that the Symphony platform has adequate security controls which provide a satisfactory level of security in the system. The ATO is in effect until March 24, 2023 and will require renewal.

12 Requiring Agency Certification I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which form the basis for this justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Laura Chase Date Contracting Officer’s Representative

13 Contracting Officer Certification:

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief and determine based on the findings above that an exception to full and open competition is in the best interest of the Government. Further the undersigned has determined that the anticipated cost to the Government for this acquisition will be fair and reasonable.

Isaiah Wilcox Date Senior Contracting Officer

14 Approval:

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Jamie Kee Date Contracting Activity Competition Advocate

Solicitation: 47QTCB23Q0001

DocuSign Envelope ID: A5F7B6D2-B386-4510-96A1-7FF5799CEF17

11/15/2022

11/15/2022

11/15/2022