C55_MISC_-_140D0425Q0566_Brand_Name_Justification_Redacted_1.pdf

United States Department of the Interior

INTERIOR BUSINESS CENTER

Washington, DC 20240

BRAND NAME JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

AUTHORITY: FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) 16.505(a)(4)(i)

Solicitation 140D0425Q0566

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Brand Name Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity.”

This document is a Brand Name Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity for the Department of the Interior (DOI), Interior Business Center (IBC), Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD) on behalf of DOI Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA).

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

This is a Brand Name Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity in support of a follow-on requirement for Tyler Application Platform (TAP) (formerly Entellitrak) licensing and support of the Bison File & Serve (BFS) system. OHA has a continuing need for licensing and support to maintain the BFS system to ensure continuity of services. This requirement will be solicited against the DOI Foundation Cloud Hosting Services 2 (FCHS2) Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

The BFS system, was built on the Tyler Application Platform (TAP) (formerly Entellitrak), is currently operational and supports electronic filing and service of documents across all OHA units. The system serves as a free and secure electronic filing and service platform for the public and departmental bureaus and offices. BFS is a critical legal e-filing and docket management solution that facilitates OHA's mission of conducting hearings and deciding appeals. This acquisition seeks to ensure the continuous operation and sustainment of the current BFS system while incrementally modernizing and enhancing its capabilities to meet evolving operational demands and technological advancements. This requirement is for the continued annual license support and maintenance of the BFS system.

Current licenses are 25 concurrent users for the following modules:

Entellitrak Professional Edition SaaS (Dedicated Environment) Entellitrak Report Builder SaaS Entellitrak Help Module SaaS Entellitrak eFile SaaS Entellitrak Document Management Module SaaS (Dedicated

Environment)

The anticipated period of performance (PoP) is a 12-month base period and four 12-month option periods, covering 09/22/2025 – 09/21/2030 (PoP end date 03/21/2031 if FAR Clause

SOLICITATION # 140D0425Q0566

52.217-8, Option to Exend Services is exercised). The total estimated value including FAR 52.217-8 is for licenses only). The Request for Quotation (RFQ) will seek pricing models for two period of performance options - one price for a 12-month base period and four 12-month option periods and one price for a 12-month base period and eight six-month option periods, covering 09/22/2025 – 09/21/2030.

4. Identification of the exception to fair opportunity (see 16.505(a)(4)(i)) and the supporting rationale, including a demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the exception cited. If the contracting officer uses the logical follow-on exception, the rationale shall describe why the relationship between the initial order and the follow-on is logical (e.g., in terms of scope, period of performance, or value).

FAR 16.505(a)(4)(i) – The contracting officer must justify restricting consideration to an item peculiar to one manufacturer (e.g., a particular brand-name, product, or a feature of a product that is peculiar to one manufacturer).

This requirement is for the continued annual license support and maintenance of the BFS system, which utilizes TAP. The current task order 140D0421F0647 was awarded 09/18/2021 with a period of performance ending 10/30/2025. The system has been fully operational since October 2024 and is entirely dependent on the Tyler Application Platform (formerly Entellitrak). The government has invested a total of four years on development, integration, operation and maintenance, with a total cost of for the OHA BFS. Use of alternate brands would require a complete system redesign, reauthorization under FedRAMP, data migration, extensive testing, and additional training, resulting in significant cost, schedule delays, and risk to continuity of operations. Furthermore, the system configuration, metadata, and workflows are built around Tyler-specific APIs and objects, and integration has been federally approved and customized to meet OHA’s operational and security requirements. Maintaining system compatibility and FedRAMP Moderate compliance requires continued use of these specific brand name products.

In addition, the BFS system includes numerous customizations, configurations, and workflow automations specifically designed to align with OHA’s secure electronic filing and service platform for the public and departmental bureaus and offices’ business processes. These customizations are tightly integrated into the TAP environments and were developed over several years to meet the unique operational, reporting, and compliance needs of the federal government. Transitioning to another platform would not only result in loss of these tailored capabilities but would also require OHA to re-enter the full discovery, design, testing, and implementation lifecycle. This would represent significant resource expenditure, increase the risk of implementation failure, and lead to prolonged service disruption. The current contract D13PC00020 / task order 140D0421F0647 was competed amongst the eight FCHS1 contract holders, who offered various commercial platforms as a solution to OHA BFS. It was determined as a result of the competitive procurement process that Entellitrak, now TAP was the best value to the Government. In acquiring the Minimal Viable Product (MVP) for this system, the total cost of $2.3 Million would be foregone.

SOLICITATION # 140D0425Q0566

The TAP brand name software products are items peculiar to this one manufacturer. These particular products are essential to the Government’s requirements and market research indicates other companies’ similar products do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet, the agency’s needs without significant interruption, delay and additional cost. It is expected that this action will be solicited under FCHS2 IDIQ. The justification for an exception to fair opportunity being considered is to limit the software subscriptions and maintenance on a brand name basis.

5. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The solicitation must be competed against DOI FCHS2 IDIQ contract holders, which consist of six other than small businesses (Accenture; CGI Federal; IBM; Smartronix; SAIC and Trace3 (formerly Zivaro)). The Government anticipates awarding a single hybrid Time-and-Materials (T&M) and Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) Task Order issued against the successful quoter’s FCHS2 IDIQ contract received in response of the solicitation. The government will be seeking discounts. The Contracting Officer determined that the anticipated prices will be fair and reasonable based on a comparison of the proposed prices with the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) and competitive prices received in response to the solicitation. Based on acquisition history and market research, the solicitation is likely to attract sufficient pricing competition, enabling the establishment of a fair and reasonable price.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification.

No additional supporting facts identified.

7. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

There are no further practical considerations that can be taken at this time to eliminate the Brand Name only restriction for these required software products due to the proprietary nature of software subscriptions and the need for compatible components. The Government will continue to conduct market research to identify changes in the marketplace that would allow unrestricted competition. With regards to this acquisition, the Government anticipates adequate pricing competition among TAP authorized resellers on FCHS2 IDIQ contracts.