Justification_for_Other_Than_Full_and_Open_Competition.pdf

Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition

Brand Name

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE:

Requiring Agency: USDA, National Organic Program

1400 Independence Ave., SW

Washington, DC 20250

Contracting Activity: USDA, AMS, Cotton and Tobacco Program

100 Riverside Parkway

Suite 101

Fredericksburg, VA 22406

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION:

The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP) is currently implementing an acquisition strategy to procure an accreditation management tool to support the internal operations of the NOP’s Accreditation and International

Activities (AIA) Division. Based on a needs assessment and requirements analysis process, the NOP proposes to enter into a sole source contract with Intact US, Inc., based in Coeur d’Alene, ID (http://www.intact-systems.com/) to procure Ecert, a commercial off-the-shelf audit and certification management tool.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

The NOP’s AIA Division is responsible for overseeing a full life cycle of accreditation management activities for approximately 80 USDA-accredited certifying agents that certify organic farms and businesses. AIA also oversees the maintenance of several international agreements, including equivalency and recognition agreements. Managing these oversight activities requires a sophisticated tracking, workflow management, and reporting tool to ensure that activities are completed when required, and to track all the auditing, review, and reporting steps required to demonstrate and document compliance with the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA).

To support these activities, the NOP intends to purchase Ecert, a commercial off-the-shelf audit and certification management tool. Built on a preexisting Customer Relationship

Management (CRM) foundation, and already customized to meet the needs of organic accreditation and certification organizations, Ecert is already designed in a way that will meet NOP’s workflow, tracking, and reporting needs; only minor user-driven configuration would be required to deploy it into NOP’s operating environment.

4. IDENTIFICATION OF THE STATUTORY AUTHORITY:

41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-

1(c) Application for brand-name descriptions.

5. DEMONSTRATION THAT THE PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE

QUALIFICATIONS:

NOP is seeking an off-the-shelf tool for organic accreditation management and international agreement oversight. Ecert will require only minimal technical configuration to deploy in NOP’s operating environment, and is already customized to include and use organic industry terminology, workflows, and reports. This includes preexisting checklists, audit tools, and certificate formats. Ecert’s design embeds a deep understanding of the organic certification domain, and includes pre-programmed workflows capturing standard business processes used by organic certification organizations worldwide.

Intact US, Inc. has over a decade of experience developing software and systems for organizations in the organic certification sector; Ecert is actively used in the organic certifier community today. Approximately 25-30% of all USDA certified organic operations are tracked and managed through Intact’s tools. Currently, 13 of the 81

USDA-accredited certifiers use Intact products, including: Australian Certified Organic, CCOF, Ecocert, OTCO, OCIA, ICS, Bio.Inspecta, Pro-Cert, and the Washington State

Department of Agriculture (WSDA). All of these organizations are regulated by the NOP

(and are therefore customers of the NOP). Based on our research, no other firm has developed an organic certification tool as widely used as Intact’s. Other organizations that Intact has provided certification technology services to (all with very similar tool needs to NOP) include the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), the Non-GMO project, and Fairtrade. Intact is also experienced in other certification schemes, such as ISO, enabling it to develop tools which are broadly used and applicable for any kind of audit/certification program.

Ecert has been fully programmed with organic accreditation-appropriate user rights and roles; electronic workflow and data management tools; electronic audit checklists;

auditing standards; automated notification systems; analytical data gathering and user requirements; report builders; customer relationship management (CRM); database administration requirements; and data structure and best delivery practices specific to the organic certification domain. Its master lists are already customized for the NOP’s certification scopes and accreditation artifacts (e.g., templates, corrective action reports).

Its structure is optimized to facilitate reporting and records management. Once populated with NOP data, Ecert would immediately improve the efficiency of internal and external audits and peer reviews, as well as FOIA requests.

6. A DESCRIPTION OF EFFORTS MADE TO ENSURE THAT OFFERS ARE

SOLICITED FROM AS MANY POTENTIAL SOURCES AS IS PRACTICABLE,

INCLUDING WHETHER A NOTICE WAS OR WILL BE PUBLICIZED AS

REQUIRED BY SUBPART 5.2 AND, IF NOT, WHICH EXCEPTION UNDER 5.202

APPLIES:

In 2014, the AMS National Organic Program actively reached out to the vendor community in its search for a vendor to develop the Organic Integrity Database, which successfully launched in 2015. A number of vendors approached NOP at the time to demonstrate their tooling to NOP, and a Request for Information invited information from vendors with related capabilities. NOP reviewed these vendor’s products in evaluating whether any existing tools discovered during that process were comparable to

Ecert. While other organizations do have tools that serve one large or a few small certifiers, none were identified that fully meet AIA’s specific needs in the way that Ecert is able to.

7. A DETERMINATION BY THE CONTRACTING OFFICER THAT THE

ANTICIPATED COST TO THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE FAIR AND

REASONABLE:

It is estimated that developing a tool similar to Ecert would require one year for a 6 person requirements and development team to build/customize, using a preexisting but not customized CRM platform. Based on available pricing information, Intact’s prices have been determined fair and reasonable.

8. A DESCRIPTION OF THE MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED (SEE PART 10)

AND THE RESULTS OR A STATEMENT OF THE REASON MARKET RESEARCH

WAS NOT CONDUCTED:

https://www.acquisition.gov/sites/default/files/current/far/html/Subpart%205_2.html#wp1107980 https://www.acquisition.gov/sites/default/files/current/far/html/Subpart%205_2.html#wp1107990 https://www.acquisition.gov/sites/default/files/current/far/html/FARTOCP10.html#wp266706

See Number 6 above.

9. OTHER SUPPORTING FACTORS:

The National Organic Program is currently using an outdated desktop database and shared drive system to manage the accreditation and international oversight activities of the fast-growing organic industry. Intact’s Ecert tool could be implemented in a short time (4-6 months from purchase to use) with minimal negative business impact given its already extensive customization for our business domain.

10. TECHNICAL CERTIFICATION:

I certify that the fact and representations under my cognizance which are included in this justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Name: Jennifer Tucker Date: 3/10/2016

Title: Associate Deputy Administrator, USDA National Organic Program

Signature:

11. CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION:

I certify that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the contracting officer’s knowledge and belief.

Name: Beverly Brown Date: 3/17/2016

Title: Contracting Officer, AMS, Cotton and Tobacco Program