Amended Final Sole Source ETMS BPA LSJ Redacted.pdf

Limited Source Justification (LSJ) For orders or BPAs exceeding the Simplified Acquisition Threshold

SOURCE SELECTION INFORMATION – See FAR 2.101 & 3.104

LSJ No.: FY20-0087

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule Program, 41 U.S.C. 152(3), Competitive Procedures, and 40 U.S.C. 501, Services for Executive Agencies.

1. Agency and Contracting Activity.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Procurement Operations (OPO), Information Technology Acquisition Center (ITAC) proposes to award a DHS-wide Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) pursuant to FAR 8.405-6(a), Limiting Sources.

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

DHS/OPO intends to limit the number of sources solicited pursuant to FAR Part 8.405-6(a) for the procurement of Post Implementation Support of the DHS Performance and Learning Management System (PALMS) as software-as-a-service (SaaS) to the wholly owned subsidiary of the incumbent contractor (Visionary Integration Professionals, LLC) as follows: Meridian Knowledge Solutions, LLC (DUNS 011156705) 80 Iron Point Circle, Suite 100, Folson, CA 95630-8592.

3. Description of Supplies/Services.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer

(OCHCO) is pursuing a DHS-wide Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) to provide post-implementation Enterprise Training Management System (ETMS) support services for the Meridian Performance and Learning Management System (PALMS).

The scope of this BPA is to provide the following software-as-a-service (SaaS) services:

subscription services, training services, Help Desk support, operations and maintenance support, performance and capacity management, enhancement services, and decommission/disposal services.

This document provides justification for acquiring the necessary support via a sole source BPA directly to the wholly owned subsidiary (Meridian Knowledge Solutions) of the current incumbent (Visionary Integration Professionals) for continued post-implementation support SaaS services of DHS’ Enterprise Talent Management System (ETMS) to assist DHS in executing and accomplishing its mission until the replacement Performance and Learning Management System is awarded. Visionary Integration Professionals requested that the sole source BPA be issued directly to their wholly owned subsidiary (Meridian Knowledge Solutions) since Meridian is headquartered in Reston with 100% of the team servicing the contract employed by Meridian. In addition, the system is proprietary to Meridian as further detailed below. The estimated total price of the subject requirement is $12,940,000.00 as detailed in the chart on the following page.

http://uscode.house.gov/ http://uscode.house.gov/

Ordering Period Quantity Monthly Estimated Price

Total Extended Estimated Price

Base Period:

05/27/2020-05/26/2021

12 months $526,250.00 $6,315,000.00

Option Period 1:

05/27/2021-11/26/2021

6 months $576,833.33 $3,461,000.00

Option Period 2:

11/27/2021-03/26/2022

4 months $756,250.00 $3,025,000.00

Option Period 3:

3/27/2022-5/26/2022

2 months $69,500.00 $139,000.00

$12,940.00.00

4. Authority and supporting rationale.

The authority for establishing the subject sole source BPA resulting from this LSJ is 8.405- 6(a)(1)(i)(B) Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

The BPA will be established via Meridian Knowledge Solution’s (Meridian’s) General Services Administration (GSA) Information Technology (IT) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) 70 Contract Number 47QTCA20D004L which has a period of performance of January 20, 2020 - January 19, 2025. The issuance of the BPA is required to fulfill repetitive needs of the Department relating to the existing Performance and Learning Management System (PALMS). Components have varying repetitive requirements (such as varying number of licenses, different types of helpdesk services, and optional enhancement services) that may need to get issued at different times throughout the BPA’s ordering period. As a result, components require the ability to issue their own BPA orders for repetitive needs which is why a BPA is being put in place rather than a Federal Supply Service task order.

The Meridian Performance and Learning Management System (PALMS) is a customized proprietary software application. In addition, Meridian Knowledge Solutions confirmed that it does not have any authorized resellers. Based on the existing license agreement in place, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has already acknowledged and agreed that the Software is protected by U.S. and international copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret and other intellectual property rights and registrations. DHS acknowledged that all right, title and interest in and to the Software and all intellectual property rights thereto will be owned solely by VIP/Meridian and its licensors, as applicable.

The continuation of these services by Meridian is required to prevent a stoppage in the current systems and services from occurring and to fully transition to the replacement Performance and Learning Management System. If DHS had to precipitously transition to another solution at this time, it would potentially lose valuable data that will be transferred to the Department once PALMS is appropriately decommissioned. It is vital that the decommissioning phase be appropriately executed and completed which will consist of Decommission Planning and Scheduling, coordination between DHS and the vendor, data extraction, data transformation, data load and data inspection to ensure no data is lost during transition activities. Additionally, operational costs would likely increase due to maintaining current operations while at the same time developing a new application to replace the existing system. In addition, no other system exists which the current application could migrate to without a significant and prolonged development and testing effort. Without this critical BPA, DHS is unable to ensure continuity of operations and performance without interruptions. DHS would be negatively impacted if the subject LSJ is not approved because DHS would lose an integral part of the eLearning design and development process. DHS would not be able to store the eLearning materials in one location, which would increase hard drives and/or other storage devices costs and increase the risk of losing important data. DHS would not be able to do away with instructor travel costs, online training site rentals, and printed eLearning materials, which would increase learning and development costs. DHS would not have the ability to keep track of learner progress and ensure that they are meeting their performance milestones, which would decrease the workforce performance and learning behaviors. DHS would not have the ability to add new compliance standards to the online training course within a matter of minutes, which would be a time-consuming effort otherwise. DHS would not be able to add additional online modules to its eLearning course in order to update information based on new trends or scientific evidence, which would result in DHS having to redo its entire eLearning course.

As the wholly owned subsidiary of the incumbent and the owner of the proprietary software, Meridian Knowledge Solutions (Meridian) has the necessary experience, personnel, and security clearances to continue to perform services while the new competitive, multiple award BPA is being solicited and awarded. Failure to continue performance of these services would be highly disruptive to DHS as the current Performance and Learning Management System would cease to operate as required.

5. Determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the anticipated order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d).

The contracting officer has determined that issuing the proposed General Services

Administration (GSA) schedule solicitation directly to Meridian for the continued post-implementation support SaaS services of DHS’ Enterprise Talent Management System (ETMS) will result in a BPA award which represents the best value and will result in the lowest overall cost, considering price and administrative costs, to meet the Government’s needs. This BPA will be placed in accordance with FAR 8.404, “Use of Federal Supply Schedules”. GSA has already negotiated fair and reasonable pricing rates. Further discounts to these GSA schedule rates will be requested within the solicitation. Additionally, prior to BPA award, the ordering activity will evaluate the Meridian solicitation response to ensure represented level of effort and labor mix, for example, are appropriate in successfully performing all tasks included within the solicitation, in order to determine that the total price is reasonable.

6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

While market research conducted identified firms that provide similar services, none of them would be able to perform the required post-implementation support services required to support the proprietary PALMS system by the current BPA expiration dates by May 2020.

Market research associated with the competitive effort is being finalized. Specifically, DHS has been conducting research for a competitive Department-wide vehicle, Strategic Improvement Opportunity (SIO) 3.2.3 Talent Development and Training, which will replace the existing Performance and Learning Management System. DHS anticipates releasing a solicitation to industry for a competitive multiple-award BPA in May 2020.

7. Any other facts supporting the limited-sources justification.

There are no additional factors supporting the subject LSJ.

8. A statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to restricted consideration (i.e., limited-sources) before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

Changes are ongoing within the OCHCO program office which will remove barriers to competition in the near future. A Request for Information (70RTAC19RFI000005) was issued and an Industry Day was held in August 2019 for the competitive requirement that will replace the existing proprietary system. In addition, an update to industry was published on March 24, 2020 which notified them of the subject LSJ and also detailed DHS’ estimated timeline for the competitive effort which included an anticipated pre-solicitation conference in April 2020 as well as an anticipated solicitation release in May 2020. As previously detailed in this document, DHS/OPO is requesting the subject sole source BPA to allow for continued service of the critical ETMS system while a competition is conducted and an implementation completed for a replacement Performance Management and Learning Management System at which time, PALMS will be decommissioned.

9. DHS intends to post this requirement on the GPE (beta.SAM.gov) pursuant to FAR 8.405- 6(a)(2)(i).

10. Technical/Requirements Personnel Certification.

Pursuant to FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(x), I certify that this requirement meets the Government’s minimum need and that the supporting data, which form a basis for the Limited-Sources Justification, are accurate and complete.

Alvin Holt Date Technical Representative/COR

Donna Seymour Date Executive Director Human Capital Business Solutions

11. Contracting Officer Certification and/or Approval

Pursuant to FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(ix), I certify that the Limited Source Justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Kristin Blackmore Date Contracting Officer

12. Approval.

Juan Arratia Date Procuring Activity Advocate for Competition