B04-Consolidation Determination 23-R-0059 redacted.pdf

CONSOLIDATION OF CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS DETERMINATION

FOR BUSINESS SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE

SUPPORT SERVICES

(As prescribed by FAR 7.107-2)

RATIONALE

1. Consolidation may provide substantial benefits to the Government. However, because of the potential impact on small business participation, before conducting an acquisition that is a consolidation of requirements with an estimated total dollar value exceeding $2 million, a written determination shall be made that the consolidation is necessary and justified in accordance with 15 U.S.C. 657q, after ensuring that--

(a) Market research has been conducted;

(b) Any alternative contracting approaches that would involve a lesser degree of consolidation have been identified;

(c) The determination is coordinated with the agency's Office of Small Disadvantaged Business Utilization or the Office of Small Business Programs;

(d) Any negative impact by the acquisition strategy on contracting with small business concerns has been identified; and

(e) Steps are taken to include small business concerns in the acquisition strategy.

2. Introduction: The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP) office plans to solicit offers for Business System Development and Maintenance Support Services and has conducted market research that demonstrates consolidation of this procurement to be both necessary and justified. FAR 2.102 defines consolidation as:

(1) a solicitation for a single contract, a multiple-award contract, a task order, or a delivery order to satisfy -- (i) two or more requirements of the Federal agency for supplies or services that have been provided to or performed for the Federal agency under two or more separate contracts, each of which was lower in cost than the total cost of the contract for which offers are solicited; or (ii) requirements of the Federal;

agency for construction projects to be performed at two or more discrete sites; or

Controlled By:

Controlled By:

CUI Category:

Limited Dissemination Control:

POC:

(2) separate contract as used in this definition, means a contract that has been performed by any business, including small and other than small business concerns.

3. Description of the Procurement Action: The intention of this future contract is to provide Business System Development and Maintenance Support to the CDMRP, the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command (USAMRDC), its subordinate directorates and organizations and other Government agencies. This encompasses the Electronic Grants System (EGS) and the electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal (eBRAP), which are Government-owned, contractor-operated mission-support business systems. This effort will provide specific support for the two business systems, eBRAP and EGS, which constitute the Platform for Research Administration, a non-commercial system designed and developed over 20 years to meet the unique business processes and activities to support Government-sponsored biomedical research funding life-cycle from proposal receipt through awards management and regulatory oversight. These activities relate primarily to the USAMRDC organizations including CDMRP, the Office of Human and Animal Research Oversight (OHARO) and the United States Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) as well as other organizations within the Department of Defense (DoD) such as: the Uniformed Services University of Health Services; Naval Medical Research Enterprise; Defense Threat Reduction Agency; Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense; Special Operations Command;

Defense Health Agency; and the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering. Additional organizations within the Department of Defense are interested in utilizing one or both of these business systems. Although separate applications, these systems are interdependent, supporting end-to-end business processes. The systems utilize web-services, common data dictionaries and common data management processes that facilitate data synchronization. Support for these systems under this contract is focused on the tasks identified; however, multiple service contractors provide various support for the use and management of these systems including information assurance, data management, network and hosting services. This requirement is intended to be a competitive, small business set aside. The future contract details are provided below:

a. Proposed Contract Type:

Operations & Maintenance:

Development & Enhancements:

b. Estimated Total Value:

c. Proposed Competition: Competitive, small business set-aside.

d. Period of Performance: 1 April 2024 through 31 March 2029.

e. NAICS Code: 541511 “Custom Computer Programming Services”

f. Product Service Code: DA01 “Information Technology and Telecom:

Business Application/Application Development Support Services (Labor)”

g. Contracts being consolidated:

Contract Description

Contract Number Awardee Vendor Size Status Total Value

Electronic Grants System Support

W81XWH-21-C-0044 HORUS Technology Solutions, Inc.

8(a) Small Disadvantaged Business

$12,708,586.87f

Electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal

W81XWH-22-F-0269 General Dynamics Information Technology

Other Than Small (Large Business)

$3,024,790.02

Electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal

W81XWH-21-F-0060 General Dynamics Information Technology (formerly SRA International and changed under novation in March 2022)

Other Than Small (Large Business)

$5,271,831.32

Electronic Biomedical Research Application Portal

W81XWH-19-F-0647 SRA International Other Than Small (Large Business)

$5,224,163.06

4. Results of Market Research:

a. The eBRAP and the EGS are separate systems developed by CDMRP over 20 years; however, they are considered a single functional platform due to the end-to-end processes and the inter-dependencies they uniquely support. Over the years, the systems have grown in scope, become more complex, and diverged in their development approaches and technologies employed as a result of separate management and leadership at both the Government and Contractor levels. Divergent approaches have been taken by separate Contractors to develop, operate and maintain these systems. Development and management efforts must be consolidated in order to meet increasing demand for the use of the systems, strategically position all components and business processes for further modernization, streamline differences in technical approaches and management, which have led to quality difference, and to correct for the multiple inefficiencies.

b. Per FAR 10.002(2)(b)(2), several techniques were utilized in conducting market research. After reviewing sources, speaking to industry and reviewing Government-wide databases, a sources sought/request for information was posted to the Government point of entry, SAM.gov, on 8 February 2023 and closed on 27 February 2023. capabilities statements were received, . All of the capabilities statements were reviewed by the CDMRP subject matter expert. of the respondents were determined to be highly capable of performing the consolidated services.

Sufficient information was received through the sources sought/request for information and other methods to establish that an adequate number of small businesses can satisfy this requirement (over the simplified acquisition threshold) at a fair market value. As a result, this requirement is a 100% small business set-aside.

c. Results of the DD2579 – The Contracting Officer coordinated this determination with the Procurement Customer Representative (PCR) via a DD Form 2579 on 4 April 2023 to ensure that a small business set-aside is still an appropriate means to procure these services that are above the simplified acquisition threshold. The PCR approved the DD Form 2579 and 100% set-aside for small businesses on 19 April 2023. For these reasons, the Contracting Officer has determined that the existing market research is in accordance with FAR 10.002(b)(1) to set aside the solicitation for small business and that consolidation of these requirements are in the Government’s best interest.

5. Alternative Contracting Approaches and Rationale for Rejection: One alternative contracting approach to this consolidation is to continue to segregate the EGS and eBRAP development and maintenance contract requirements which has been the approach these past 20 years. This results in no consolidation or status quo, a situation which will not realize the benefits outlined below:

a. Resource Sharing and Management: The resources required by separate contractors are limited to performing work only on the specific system under the contract, which results in inefficient use of staff in meeting the varying demands of each system. With eBRAP being a front-end portal for the public, the development lifecycle is vastly different therefore the workload varies throughout the year with periods of less effort required. The EGS, being an internal system, requires more frequent updates including implementation of new requirements, which are needed more rapidly utilizing staffing inadequate to meet those demands. In a consolidated effort, a shared pool of developers would allow for rapid shifting of resources based on the needs of the system at any given time.

b. Resource Skillsets: Certain positions such as business analysts, user interface designers, project managers, and system administration staff are required by each system due to the skillsets they possess necessary in the management of the systems.

This duplication of positions is not only an inefficient use of staffing, but also differs in application of their skills to the respective system. In addition, the more specialized positions such as system or database administrator, may not always require a dedicated resource for just a singular system making the resources tougher to find and retain. By consolidating, these positions can be responsible for both systems, allowing for a seamless process of managing and completing overlapping functional tasks required by both systems which operate as one, and increasing consistency between systems. There are a wide range of skillsets required to develop and maintain these systems and as a result some positions are filled by the same individuals limiting their ability to focus. By consolidating, the contractor will be able to utilize staff who can focus on key technical activities across both systems reducing time across multiple areas and allowing specialized resources to dedicate their full support across multiple systems.

c. Management Efficiencies: The Government management structure for these two systems consolidated almost two years ago and since have benefited from the approach seeing reduced overhead and task failover capability. Similarly, a single contractor management approach will result in increased collaboration and coordination of tasks and activities, many of which are the same for both systems requiring less duplication of effort. A single vision and guidance from the contractor management team will provide uniformity in oversight. This will also result in less technical coordination by the government leads who currently serve as integrators and will shift the onus onto the contractors to deliver the end-to-end functionality between systems.

d. Software Development Standardization: Software development processes vary greatly between contractors, creating a situation where the end-product for each system also varies in quality, involves extended timelines for completion of tasks and creates inconsistency within the software code which leads to greater efforts in troubleshooting issues and making changes that span both systems. A single development pipeline with consistent processes will result in quality improvements in both eBRAP and EGS.

e. Operational and Maintenance Efficiencies: Often activities such as security reviews, risk mitigation and application of security standards are similar, if not the same, for both systems. When such activities are combined, the same personnel can perform the same activities on both systems vs. requiring personnel on different teams to perform the same tasks differently. For example, a security finding that applies to both systems will require each contractor to research and develop a patch then apply it is separately.

However, with a single contractor employing similar technologies, only one solution need be developed and applied to both systems, reducing time and costs.

f. Shared code and Task Management Repositories: Currently the code that is developed by each contractor is maintained separately for each system in separate repositories. Some code and libraries which could be shared are not because during the coding process each contractor is responsible for their code for the system they manage. A shared repository for both eBRAP and EGS maintained by a single contractor promote code re-use as well as save on storage solutions on code repositories and task management systems.

g. Increased Collaboration: With different contractors working in separate environments, using separate processes and working under separate management, collaboration is difficult due to lack of visibility and ability to work on the other system. Development efforts that affect both systems are not collaborative as they could be and require extensive facilitation and additional oversight by the government.

6. Consolidation Benefit Analysis: In order to support the transition of system development and maintenenance of eBRAP and EGS into a truly singular platform, supporting future seamless end-to-end functionality, the architecture, design and development methodology must be standardized. In order provide support for the expanding end-to-end business processes, the single team must have visibility, access, and ability to change code, perform testing on both systems, as well apply the same quality control processes using the same metrics. This is extremely difficult to do with different Contractors developing software independently and differently

7. Bundling: Not applicable as this requirement is intended to be a small business set-aside.

8. Considerations, Facts, Reasoning Supporting the Determination: There are no other considerations, facts or reasons that are not covered elsewhere in this determination.

9. Summary: The consolidation of development and maintenance of eBRAP and EGS contracts will result in efficiencies for resource and management skillsets and tasks, software development standardization, collaborations, and projected operational and maintenance effectiveness. Not all aspects of the current eBRAP Task Order are being incorporated into the new consolidated contract. As is, the current eBRAP task order is a mix of use of the system to support peer review (the larger support contract) and system development, operations and maintenance. Contract consolidation is part of a larger CDMRP effort in rearchitecting the entire eBRAP/EGS platform into a more robust system positioning ourselves for future expansion and standardize IT modernization efforts.

DETERMINATION

Based on the foregoing rationale, I hereby determine, pursuant to the Federal Acquisition Regulation 7.107-2, that the consolidation of the requirements for Business System Development and Maintenance Support Services is both necessary and justified and will serve the best interests of the Government.

SIGNATURE:

NAME:

TITLE:

Attachments:

Market Research Report Approved DD 2579 Draft Acquisition Strategy