Brand Name Justification for Jaggaer-20200123.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL & OPEN COMPETITION

BRAND NAME JUSTFICATION

FAR 6.302

I. Identification of Agency and Contracting Activity

Customer Agency: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 1400 Independence Ave, SW

1406-S, Mail Stop 0239 Washington, DC 20250

Contracting Activity: United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 100 Riverside Parkway Suite 100

Fredericksburg, VA 22406

II. Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Approved

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a requirement to procure Jaggaer Advanced Sourcing Optimizer (ASO) as part of the Bid Evaluation and Optimization System (BEOS) component of the Web-Based Supply Chain Management (WBSCM) System. This software package is a customized solution available only for USDA and only via an open market purchase. The software solution is comprised of several components including access technology fees, maintenance fees, and support labor. Travel may be necessary during the contract as well and is an option. The Jaggaer ASO solution is currently provided to USDA via AG-32KW-C-15-0019 and is due to expire September 29, 2020.

The proposed contract will be for a one-year base period, and four optional years. The estimated value of this action is approximately $5,796,154. These estimates are based upon historical information and discussions with Jaggaer.

III. Description of the Services Required to Meet Requirements and Estimated

Value

This sole source order is estimated $5,796,154 over a five-year period of performance and is necessary to provide continuous, critical BEOS support. Without this integral piece, USDA cannot evaluate the bids received by over 400 vendors who provide food commodities to foreign and domestic food-aid programs schools via the WBSCM System.

The WBSCM system is an integrated, Internet-based commodity acquisition, distribution, and tracking system, built on SAP commercial software, for the mission objectives of the USDA and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This system allows USDA to purchase food commodities for food and nutrition programs both domestically and internationally. Via WBSCM, USDA releases Request for Quotes (RFQs) for vendors to purchase food commodities, receive proposals, make awards, ensure delivery, pay vendors, and close-out documentation.

The benefit of the Jaggaer BEOS solution is to allow buyers to select the set of vendor bids which allows USDA to realize the lowest landed cost of procurement while respecting vendor and port capacity constraints, federal regulatory requirements such as small and disadvantaged business set aside rules, and other USDA defined parameters and constraints.

Although Jaggaer, Inc. has a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) version available on its GSA Schedule, for WBSCM, the Jaggaer software is customized to such a level that it is not available to any other agency at this time, nor is it available via Jaggaer’s GSA Schedule. The WBSCM SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) system is integrated directly with the Jaggaer BEOS system to deliver optimization for bid evaluation and award decisions for commodities and freight. Additionally, ASO provides comprehensive functionality to support USDA’s bid evaluation process, including standard reporting and analytic capabilities, pre-populated procurement best practices, and extensive flexibility in modifying and updating optimization rules/constraints through use-friendly interfaces across each category of Procurement: Domestic, International, and Long-Term Contracts (LTC). The level of customization is due to the highly integrated nature of the WBSCM System.

IV. Identification of the Justification Authority and Rationale

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 (c) Application for brand name descriptions. Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. An acquisition that uses a brand name description or other purchase description to specify a particular brand name, product, or feature of a product, peculiar to one manufacturer does not provide for full and open competition regardless of the number of sources solicited. It shall be justified and approved in accordance with FAR 6.303 and 6.304.

The Jaggaer BEOS renewals required by USDA are essential to the Government’s requirements, thereby precluding consideration of a product manufactured by another company.

Jaggaer’s Unique Qualifications:

The USDA WBSCM System currently uses the Jaggaer solution and was designed to replace legacy systems with COTS software in the procurement, fulfillment, and finance functional areas to the greatest extent possible. Jaggaer provides a solution and associated services that will meet and exceed USDA WBSCM’s optimization modeling, integration, and operations requirements. Jaggaer’s BEOS solution enables a unique and optimized solution for WBSCM because it accomplishes all of the following important objectives:

o Meets USDA’s requirements for domestic, international, and long-term contract (LTC) procurement.

o Adapts scenario rules and changes them from one optimization run to the next, thus providing very dynamic and flexible optimization and analysis capabilities.

o Integrates effectively with customized SAP solution and also provides a positive end-user experience.

o Ensures that BEOS security practices meet relevant National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines.

V. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the Order Represents the Best

Value

The Contracting Officer (CO) will determine the anticipated costs to be fair and reasonable prior to award, based on a comparison of all the proposed prices and the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE). The price will be accepted as long as the CO determines the proposal to be in the best interest of the Government and will make the award based on technical factors (acceptable or unacceptable) and on the overall total price as determined fair and reasonable.

VI. Description of the Market Research Conducted

In 2019, market research was performed to determine the commercial availability of competing solutions. That research found no vendors with a product that could replace the Jaggaer BEOS solution. The research did identify 32 companies with products in the sourcing optimization marketplace. The researchers then reached out to vendors with products broadly similar to the Jaggaer ASO product and asked vendors to provide additional product information and demonstrations. Some vendors declined to participate. The following eight vendors responded:

COUPA

GAMS

GEP

GUROBI

IBM (ILOG)

Jaggaer Keelvar

SAS

The researchers then evaluated the remaining eight vendors based upon their responses and scored each on the following nine key criteria:

1. Architecture of the Solution

2. User Management

3. Data Import and Export Capabilities 4 Template / Default Settings 5 "Invitation / Optimization" Management

6. Rules and Constraint Management

7. Optimizer / Solver

8. "Pre" and "Post" Optimization Reporting

9. Data Archiving

Jaggaer was chosen because its BEOS solution was comprehensive and unlike any of the other products researched and provided for all of the following:

• A hosted application that offers packaged bid optimization functionality. Jaggaer is different from the other responding vendors in that their software (per their response to the RFP) “is not a generalized MILP platform in which a bid evaluation and optimization application may be developed. It is specifically a hosted, COTS bid collection, evaluation, and optimization application.”

• An SME Team with significant experience dealing specifically with procurement bid optimization (as opposed to optimization in other business contexts) and in delivering sourcing optimization, or procurement bid optimization, solutions for clients.

• A solution already in place that requires no additional customization to work in the USDA WBSCM environment.

It has been demonstrated above that there are no other contractors, other than the incumbent, that can provide the customized software and continuity of service USDA and WBSCM require while the follow-on effort is conducted.

VII. Other Facts Supporting the Justification

Rationale— Jaggaer solution is currently provided under AG-32KW-C-15-0019.

The current Task Order is no longer appropriate to extend because it lacks an option to extend services beyond September 29, 2020. Award of a sole-source contract to Jaggaer is the most efficient and economical means of providing the required continuity of service. If there is any period of downtime, its cost will far outweigh any savings that might be gained through a full and open competition which is estimated to take over a year to award plus another year to design, build, test and deploy a new tool. Also, without this continuation of the BEOS tool, the USDA would not be able to fulfill its mission of delivering food aid to domestic and international recipients at current levels.

X. Effort to Remove/Overcome Barriers to Competition

There are no known viable alternatives to using Jaggaer’s BEOS.

XI. Technical Certification

I hereby certify that the supporting data that is the responsibility of technical requirements personnel and which form a basis for the justification is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Craig Watson Date Branch Chief, Program Manager

XII. Contracting Officer’s Certification

Award of a sole-source contract is the most efficient and economical acquisition strategy. The contract to Jaggaer should be authorized.

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

Beverly Brown Date Contracting Officer

XIII. Approval

On the basis of the above justification, I hereby determine that award of a five-year (one base year with four optional years) contract is justified as an exception to fair opportunity in accordance with the applicable regulations at FAR 6.302. Award of this contract is in the Government’s best interest.

Larry Nelson Date Competition Advocate