CaseMap_JA.pdf

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

100 F Street, NE

WASHINGTON, DC 20549

OFFICE OF ACQUISITIONS

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

2019-125

Pursuant to the authority cited herein, the following justification to use other than full and open competition is approved.

1. The Agency and Contracting Activity is:

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Office of Acquisitions, 100 F Street, NE Washington, DC 20549

2. Nature and Description of Action Being Approved.

This is a sole source requirement for RELX Inc (dba LexisNexis) CaseMap, TimeMap, and TextMap licenses and maintenance in support of the Enforcement Division (ENF) Office of Technical Services Litigation Support Branch.

Description of the supplies or services required to meet the needs of the SEC and the estimated value.

Product LexisNexis CaseMap, TimeMap, and TextMap subscription licenses and maintenance

This justification covers an estimated period of five (5) years from September 1, 2019.

The total estimated value of this requirement is $420,000.

3. Statutory authority for other than full and open competition.

FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B)- One Source; only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

4. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

CaseMap is a database that allows attorneys to organize the facts of their case chronologically and link pertinent documents to these facts. It organizes important people and issues. Documents can be sent to CaseMap from Concordance, Recommind, and Textmap. TextMap is a transcript repository. It allows a user to search across multiple transcripts, hyperlink and search exhibits and potentially receive a live feed from a court reporter. TimeMap is used to give a demonstrative of the facts chronologically.

The SEC has used CaseMap, TimeMap, and Textmap since 2004 and currently has 1800 licenses of each application. Since 2004, the number of staff members in ENF has increased exponentially; however, the number of licenses of CaseMap TimeMap, and Textmap has not.

ENF uses CaseMap, TimeMap, and TextMap to link files from other systems such as Recommind and Concordance. These actions are performed on a daily basis. There are other products on the market such as Allegory, EverChron, FactBox, Opus2Magnum and CaseFleet.

However, none of these competing products connect to Recommind, which is an essential requirement for the SEC, since Recommind is the SEC’s main document review platform. If it was possible to develop and enhance the competing products to eventually connect to Recommind, it would cause a major disruption to the agency operations and would consume a lot of additional time and money, which would not be in the Government’s best interest to pursue.

Also, the majority of these products, with the exception of Opus, are cloud-based and not FedRAMP certified, which would also not work for the SEC’s current environment. Therefore, there are currently no other products on the market that would meet the SEC’s essential requirements.

Also, these software products require annual maintenance to ensure that necessary (1) Technical Support, (2) Product Upgrades, and (3) Software Updates are received and that the software is running optimally. Ongoing software maintenance is necessary to avoid potential security risks that come from using unsupported, out-of-date software. Furthermore, no other source can provide maintenance on the LexisNexis software.

5. Efforts to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as possible.

Market research indicates that resellers for CaseMap, TimeMap, and TextMap do not exist, since LexisNexis does not work with any resellers for this software. Therefore, this requirement will be a sole source award to RELX Inc (dba LexisNexis) via their Fedlink IDIQ contract.

A synopsis is not required in accordance with 5.202(a)(6).

6. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The Contracting Officer determined that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

7. Description of the market research conducted and results or statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

Over the last several years, the SEC has been utilizing Lexis Nexis CaseMap, TimeMap, and TextMap applications and incorporated them into the SEC’s IT infrastructure. As a part of ongoing market research, the SEC analyzed if this was a product/program that should or could be placed in a cloud environment, specifically because CaseMap and TextMap handle a large portion of our investigations, and the material is non-public information. While the competing solutions, as previously mentioned under paragraph 4, offer strong test functionality when utilized, the possible replacement applications don’t connect to Recommind and Concordance and also, with the exception of Opus, operate in cloud environments that are not FedRamp certified. Therefore, the competing products are unusable by the SEC.

8. Other supporting facts.

None.

9. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed in writing an interest in the acquisition in writing.

At such time as the requirement/award is posted, any sources that expressed an interest in this action will be maintained in the contract files.

10. A statement of the actions, if any, the SEC may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required

The Commission’s information requirements are ongoing and future acquisitions of similar services will be advertised. OIT will continue to evaluate new applications and maintenance solutions as they become available.

Furthermore, as discussed in Section 8 of this justification, the SEC will continue to conduct market research to remain informed on marketplace innovation and offerings, and also to ensure that the current technology in use provides the best value in addressing SEC requirements.

Technical & Requirements Certification (FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B)(9)) I certify that the facts and representations that form the basis for this justification, are complete and accurate.

(Signature) ________________________________ Date __________________ Carrie Holt, ENF

Contracting Officer Certification I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

(Signature) ________________________________ Date __________________

Nicholas Chung, Contracting Officer