CA_LSJ_(redacted).pdf

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

1. IDENTIFICATION OF AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE

Agency: Social Security Administration

Contracting Office: Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Budget, Finance and Management

Office of Acquisition and Grants

Contracting Officer: Kevin P. Muñiz

Division of IT Support Services

(410) 966-3297

Program Office: Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Systems (DCS)

Office of Telecommunications and Systems Operations

(OTSO)

Contracting Officer '''''''''''''''' ''''''''''''''''''''''

Representative (COR): ''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''

Title: CA Technologies Proprietary Technical Support Services

Proposed Contractor: CA Technologies

2291 Wood Oak Drive

Herndon, Virginia 20171

2. NATURE OF ACTION

We seek your approval of a non-competitive, single-award, commercial-services, and agency-wide Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with CA Technologies, hereafter referred to as “CA,” under its General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS)

Contract Number GS-35F-0823M. The BPA will allow CA to provide commercial

Information Technology (IT) Professional Services on its proprietary software to us for a period covering one base year, with four, 1-year options for a total of 5-years in duration.

Per GSA’s FSS 70, General Purpose Commercial IT Equipment, Software, and Services, “IT

Professional Services” includes “resources and facilities management, database planning and design, systems analysis and design, network services, programming, conversion and implementation support, network services project management, data/records management, and other services relevant to 29 CFR 541.400.”

The BPA will provide only for firm-fixed price orders, which are based on services priced at fixed hourly rates, as allowed for under the Contractor’s GSA FSS Contract.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES AND ESTIMATED COST

CA will provide support for a wide range of agency strategic initiatives, projects, and functions. We currently utilize approximately 150 CA software products throughout our mainframe and distributed environments. These proprietary software products are an integral part of our current and future infrastructure and business processes. CA support services are necessary to customize, implement, and integrate these software products. The software products will improve our business processes and build a stronger IT foundation.

CA will provide the necessary IT professional services, which may include the following labor categories:

Senior Project Manager

Senior Architect

Associate Consultant

Consultant

Senior Consultant

Project Manager

Architect

Each of the above CA IT professional services labor categories possess specialized skills in their respective area of expertise and provides an extensive knowledge base to assist us with the smooth transition of proprietary software into our complex operating environment and communications network.

The Office of Systems (OS) will make use of CA IT professional services when a task requires:

Advanced knowledge of strategic CA proprietary products, technology, and applications;

Detailed understanding of CA systems design specifications and source code;

Detailed understanding of proprietary features with access to developers; or

Advanced knowledge of future plans, direction related to the release of new, or upgrades of, CA software products.

Additionally, we will aim to continually improve and modernize our existing CA software for more efficient processing and to take advantage of current and emerging technologies. Our use of CA software is national in scope, affects all SSA components, and is critical to the successful completion of the agency’s strategic priorities. The IT professional services offered by CA provide a high level of quality required to support the proprietary software due to the services being unique and highly specialized. The necessary IT professional services will allow for the continued support of our mainframe and distributed workloads.

CA IT professional services are required to:

Provide full software life cycle support;

Provide IT support for software engineering and database activities;

Provide support for software process improvement and software engineering management activities;

Provide highly specialized skills related to current and advanced technologies not available at SSA;

Evaluate, integrate, and deploy new technologies;

Provide increased performance and stability;

Support platform and product migration;

Provide disaster recovery strategies; and

Transfer private sector knowledge to SSA.

The estimated total value of the BPA over the total 5-year period of performance per fiscal year (FY) is as follows:

4. AUTHORITY AND JUSTIFICATION RATIONALE

Per Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.401, we are conducting this acquisition under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule Program. Equally as important, per

FAR 8.405-6(c)(2)(iv), we seek approval of establishing a BPA for CA IT professional services consistent with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) where “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.”

In addition, per FAR 8.405-3(a)(3)(iv), use of a single award BPA is determined to be appropriate for this requirement because there is only one schedule contractor (i.e. CA) that possesses the technical qualifications to perform the requirements.

CA is the software developer and copyright holder for all CA software products and owns the rights and source codes to the many mainframe and distributed software products that interface with SSA applications. There is no other source with the knowledge and expertise required to design, customize, optimize, and integrate these products into our complex architecture. Therefore, no other source is capable of performing the work.

The CA resources assigned to support us are not only trained in the products they support, but also have unique access to CA Software development labs, underlying product architectures, product engineering, and source codes. CA is the only source with the unique combination of knowledge and access to the IT professional services required to optimize the integration of

Fiscal

Year Amount

FY 2014 ''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''

FY 2015 ''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''

FY 2016 ''' ''''''''''''''''''''''''''

FY 2017 ''' ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

FY 2018 ''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Total ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

CA products and assets within our infrastructure. This level of architectural knowledge, unique skill set, and access to source code, is not provided to, or by, resellers of CA products.

The following information further supports CA as the only source capable of providing the required level of support:

A. Knowledge of Proprietary Software Features

Skilled and knowledgeable CA technical resources would:

Assess how products will interface with our critical programmatic applications;

Provide advanced notification of published technical alerts, product announcements, and product defect reports that may impact our software environment;

Inform us of product availability dates and end of service dates to facilitate software upgrade planning;

Provide quicker solutions to everyday support requirements;

Advise on documented software fixes and workarounds;

Improve time to problem resolution in critical situations;

Identify planned changes to software products that may impact existing applications and projects or programs, as well as the implementation of new projects or initiatives;

Work with developers to provide debug modules, workaround scripts, or other instruction to troubleshoot problem determinations and provide resolution; and

Recommend best practices for managing software.

B. CA Software Products and Services Utilized at SSA

We currently operate eight mainframes at the National Computer Center and the Second

Support Center. We use CA software products on all the mainframes to provide an interface between the operating systems and the major programmatic applications software to support our programs.

CA proprietary software products are heavily used and deeply embedded in our mainframe and distributed software infrastructure. Similarly, we have made a significant investment in the purchase of software licenses and maintenance, as well as version upgrades of CA mainframe and distributed proprietary software products.

C. Additional Cost, Risk and Delays

We utilize CA hardware and software products throughout our entire infrastructure, which directly support our core business service to the public. Proprietary support services from

CA provide the integration, customization, and installation of these software products into our infrastructure and are required to accomplish the goals identified in our 2013 Annual

Performance Plan and in our Agency Strategic Plan 2013 – 2016.

As previously stated, CA software products are embedded in a wide range of our legacy systems and touch all batch applications on the back-end all the way up to, and including, all web applications on the front-end that interface with the public and our business partners. With approximately 150 CA software products deployed, CA’s proprietary support services will be used in the development of system design specifications, source code modification and customization, integration, and implementation of most, if not all, of these products within our systems environment.

There are many risks associated with replacing the existing CA product base with other software products and contractors. We have approximately 223,000 programs on the mainframes and distributed systems, running close to 90,000,000 lines of code, excluding the millions of lines of code in Job Control Language, Batch, and Scripts. Based on the depth and breadth of the embedded CA software products, if caused to replace the existing

CA line of products, and obtain other IT professional services to support those products, we would literally have to re-engineer nearly all existing systems. This would also include re-tooling the installed non-CA software products most of which touch the CA software in some fashion.

Furthermore, it is estimated it will take 5 years to remove existing embedded CA software products with new software products should a new vendor solution be implemented.

Typically, replacement products require several years, with years 1 to 2 spent in planning, budgeting, and conducting the procurement; and, between 18 to 24 months for the actual implementation. The timeline may be extended further by the amount of re-coding that software developers (internal and contracted) would be required to perform.

It is not technically feasible to replace CA’s software products in the near term, nor is it in the best interests of SSA, and certainly would not result in the best value. Therefore, obtaining CA IT professional services to support our requirements for 5 years is considered to be the best value.

5. DETERMINATION OF BEST VALUE

As provided in FAR 8.404(d), GSA has already determined the fixed-price rates for services offered at hourly rates under schedule contracts to be fair and reasonable. By placing an order against a schedule contract using the procedures in FAR 8.405, the Contracting Officer (CO) has concluded that the order represents the best value and results in the lowest overall cost alternative to meet the Government’s needs. Although GSA has already negotiated fair and reasonable pricing, the CO will seek additional discounts before placing an order

(see 8.405-4).

Furthermore, before placing any order, the CO will follow the procedure outlined in

FAR 8.405-3(c)(3), which calls for considering the level of effort and mix of labor proposed to perform a specific task being ordered, and for determining that the total price is reasonable through appropriate analysis techniques. Finally, the CO will document the file accordingly.

6. MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED

The Office of Systems researched various GSA FSS and found no vendors, except CA, are capable of completely providing these resources due to the unique and specialized nature of the work.

Per FAR 8.404(a), when placing orders under contracts using the procedures of FAR 8.405, ordering activities shall not seek competition outside of FSS’s or synopsize the requirement.

Therefore, the field of qualified vendors was limited to those under GSA FSS.

As part of market research, we published a Sources Sought Notice in GSA’s E-Buy on

February 14, 2013, and subsequently received eight responses. Technical staff in DCS and

OTSO performed an evaluation of the vendor’s technical capabilities.

Our findings are as follows:

Vendor Name Comments

1 DatamanUSA, LLC. The responses received from vendors 1 through 5 did not meet the defined criteria. The responses did not address the critical requirements and provided no additional documentation.

2 Full Visibility, LLC.

3 Vigilant Services Corp

4 Saxon Infotech

5 Practical Solutions, Inc.

6 Securely Yours, LLC.

The response received from this vendor did not meet all of the defined criteria. The response was lacking supporting documentation for 3 of the 11 critical requirements.

Price Waterhouse Coopers

(PwC)

The response received from this vendor did not meet all of the defined criteria. The response was lacking supporting documentation for the critical requirement of understanding source code modification and customization.

8 CA Technologies (CA, Inc.) Successfully meets all stated requirements.

Vendors 1 through 7 clearly indicated they could not provide the technical resources with the expert level skill set and knowledge base to perform successfully under the new BPA. They did not explain nor demonstrate their corporate ability to have immediate access to highly trained CA professionals who possess advanced knowledge of strategic CA proprietary products, technology, and applications, nor a detailed understand of CA systems design specification and source code. Furthermore, they did not show they have knowledge of or access to current and/or future CA offerings. Thus, due to the unique and specialized nature of the proposed work, only CA is capable of providing the appropriate technical skill sets and knowledge.

7. OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS

CA has been determined to be a responsible contractor by GSA per the standards outlined in FAR 9.104. The company’s past performance records indicate that it has the corporate ability and access to technical resources with the knowledge and skill sets necessary to perform this requirement.

8. REMOVING OR OVERCOMING BARRIERS

The Office of Systems will institute enhanced scrutiny of all requisition packages for CA proprietary support services. We will require an additional justification document to accompany the requisition that fully explains the necessity of the intended technical support services, the level and type of support services needed, and the technical or commercial characteristics, uniqueness, operational compatibility, or other pertinent information that makes it impractical or impossible to have another contractor perform the tasks. Reasons of convenience or expediency will not be sufficient for bypassing the competitive process and/or using another qualified IT consulting contractor.