CIO Apple Products and Support IDIQ Brand Name Waiver.pdf

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (J&A)

TO: Mark A. Walther, Head of the Procuring Activity – M/OAA/OD

FROM: Zack Kahn, MCIO/ITO

SUBJECT: Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition (J&A)

1. This document sets forth the facts and rationale justifying the use of other than full and open competition, in accordance with insert FAR 6.3:

This document was prepared by USAID Bureau for Management, Office of the Chief Information Officer, Planning and Administration Division, Acquisition Management Branch (M/CIO/PAD/AM) in coordination with the cognizant technical office, M/CIO IT Operations

Division (M/CIO/ITO).

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

This is a request to approve the Brand Name Justification for Apple products and support services. Upon approval, M/CIO will establish a new indefinite delivery indefinite quantity

(IDIQ) contract for the procurement of Apple products and support services for worldwide delivery.

3. Description of the supplies or services required, including an estimated value:

USAID requires a solution that will streamline: invoicing, billing and payment; device ordering;

delivery processes; standardized reporting; auditing; asset management; and shipping for USAID’s worldwide Apple Product and Support Services Program.

Under the anticipated IDIQ, the contractor will support the implementation, management, and maintenance of a comprehensive Apple Product and Support Services Program, utilizing mechanisms that will satisfy all related laws, standards, policies, rules, regulations, and other requirements including OMB M-16-02, FITARA, Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) principles of category management, Digital Government Strategy (DGS), HSPD-12, e-Gov Act of 2002 including FISMA, agency-related policies (ADS), Section 508, FedRAMP, and which will enhance USAID’s interaction with the Category Management Leadership Council (CMLC), Workstation Category Team (WCT).

The anticipated IDIQ will allow for award of task orders by USAID Operating Units (OU)s worldwide, for procurement of Apple products and related support services. The estimated value will be approximately $70,000,000 over a five-year period of performance.

Zecharia Kahn

Digitally signed by Zecharia Kahn Date: 2023.03.21 10:55:26 -04'00'

While USAID’s requirement includes services and brand name or equal kitting products such as phone cases, ear pods, charging devices, and screen protectors, this justification and approval is to cover only the portion of the acquisition which is brand-name or peculiar to one manufacturer. As such, this request is specific to an estimated cost of $45,000,000 (approximately 65% of the estimated $70,000,000 five-year cost estimate) in brand name items:

● iPhones, approximately $24,000,000

● iPads, approximately $2,600,000

● MacBooks, approximately $18,100,000

An estimated $25,000,000 (approximately 35% of the $70,000,000 lifecycle estimate) comprises products that are not brand specific, including kitting items such as screen protectors, protective cases, charging accessories, and ear pods. These items are rolled into the per device fixed price.

4. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

The action is accomplished under the authority in FAR 6.302-1(c), application for brand-name descriptions.

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition that requires use of the authority cited:

In accordance with USAID IT security specifications and requirements outlined in NDAA section

889 and ADS 545, USAID must establish configuration settings for operating systems, as required by the CISO based on business specific operational requirements.

Apple products can be secured more effectively: The use of Apple Business Manager within the closed Apple system and in combination with USAID’s suite of security tools allows secure configurations as defined by the CISO and the security architecture. These configurations prohibit alterations, and can be centrally managed by M/CIO. Additionally, iOS is a closed system, meaning Apple does not release its proprietary source code to outside application developers. Moreover, the users of Apple devices cannot easily circumvent this and modify th e code on their phones themselves, making it more difficult for hackers or those posing a cybersecurity threat to the Agency, to find vulnerabilities on iOS-powered devices. This ensures the security as Apple controls the hardware and software components without the risk of intermediaries tampering with or changing the system.

Apple Store controls allows USAID to standardize applications: Apple inspects all applications that run on iOS closely before allowing them into the App Store and through the use of Apple

Business Manager, USAID is able to standardize and control allowable applications. Controlling the App Store allows Apple to ensure quality and security through test-run applications manually through the use of their own staff as well as the application of a use-case simulator to detect memory leaks, security loopholes, and adherence to standards. The standardization of Apple products allows for improved efficiency, better communication, and enhanced security within specific offices or missions.

Apple’s closed system meets and exceeds USAID standards: Given that Apple is a closed system, the manufacturer provides solutions that meet or exceed USAID’s standards such as Apple Business Manager, which is compatible with the USAID third-party mobile device management (MDM) and Mobile Threat Detection (MTD) solutions to control user accessible content, manage and track devices at the user level, enable and disable features, and ensure the mobility security posture as established by M/CIO. USAID currently uses Apple Business Manager to control content distribution and identity management allowing the Agency to manage Apple IDs for its end users, and distribute apps and other configurations in bulk.

Apple products are a USAID standard: M/CIO has approved Apple products as the standard under this program in an effort to align with the Apple mobility standard provided under two other Agency-wide procurement vehicles. Apple products must, at a minimum, be no further back than two generations from the current commercial release. Following IT Standards allows all equipment to be uniform in USAID's environment. USAID performs regular reviews of all of its IT Standards at its Architecture Review Board, which results in updates to the approved standards.

Technical and functional interoperability among Apple products: Apple iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks are designed, within the closed system, to be interoperable and share information, files, configuration parameters, security settings, and various other data across devices. This interoperability of iPads and Macs with the iPhone standard provided under previous Agency -wide procurements includes the ability to access information and apps on the Apple cloud across devices seamlessly.

Messaging interoperability among Apple products: Apple iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks are designed, within the closed system, to share a common messaging platform that enables seamless messaging worldwide through iMessage and FaceTime and between iPhones and iPads/Macs.

6. Description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was publicized as required by FAR 5.2

[AIDAR 705.2].

This solicitation will be posted as a small business set-aside and competed amongst qualified Apple resellers in accordance with FAR Part 15.

7. A determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

Proposed prices will be based on adequate price competition and will be compared to market rates offered to the public and M/CIO’s independent cost estimate, ensuring that pricing is fair and reasonable.

8. Description of the market research conducted, and the results or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted:

This is a critical agency-wide requirement and M/CIO conducted significant market research.

Apple products are currently the only approved standard under this program. These products are essential to the Government’s requirements, thereby precluding consideration of a product manufactured by another company. Without access to these products, the Agency would not be able to function effectively.

While the IDIQ includes a requirement to provide Apple iPads and Apple Macbooks, these are not agency-wide brand name requirements. We are offering these products to the agency under this IDIQ as an option to compliment the equivalent tablets and laptops that are available to the agency under M/CIO’s Endpoint Device and Hardware (EDH) Blanket Purchase Agreement (72MC1019A00001/72MC1019F50002) that was competed and awarded under

GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule (MAS). These Apple products are not available under any Category Management GWACs.

Market research on GSA MAS and NASA SEWP V was conducted to determine availability of sources through the market research tools offered by each supply schedule, as well as internet research to determine other Government-wide sources that might be available to the Agency.

Apple products are not offered on any GSA schedule or other Federal Supply Schedules.

Lastly, M/CIO met with Apple Government representatives in January 2023 to reassess the requirements and identify resellers to fulfill this requirement. Per the Apple representative

“Apple has a tightly managed reseller program” and identified five (5) capable small business resellers. M/CIO verified the reseller certifications in the System for Award Management (SA M) and found all five to have active registrations.

Given these facts, the Agency has chosen to conduct the competition among the capable resellers and award under FAR Part 15, as a small business set-aside.

9. Other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition:

Given that this is a worldwide program, USAID end users are globally dispersed. USAID has approximately 6,500 Apple devices in various states of deployment. Migrating to a different, non-Apple solution for this program would cause the Agency to experience both unrecoverable costs as well as unacceptable delays.

Specifically, the migration from Apple products to non-Apple products would require a migration of device data, configuration settings, applications, and more, as well as training on the process for conducting the migration. (And in some cases, certain Apple applications do not exist in non-Apple platforms such as Android OS and Windows. As a result, application data in these applications would be lost permanently.) This transition cost would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that would not be recovered through competition. The users of the estimated 6,500 devices would require between ten (10) and twelve (12) hours per device for migration training, migration planning, migration itself, and validating successful migration. This initial migration would likely require an estimated 65,000 to 78,000 hours of labor excluding an estimated failure rate of 10% for a total of between 71,500 to 85,800 hours.

At a typical cost per hour of $44.10 per hour (GS13, Step 5), the total cost of the migration would be between $3.15M and $3.78M. This represents approximately 5.4% of the total contract value. Based on market research, it is unlikely that competition would result in a greater than 5.4% savings due to competition as a result of the extremely thin profit margins experienced by product resellers. This estimate excludes the cost of M/CIO personnel and others in planning, preparing, executing, and supervising the migration.

Additionally, a migration from Apple products to non-Apple products would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling USAID’s requirements. The effort and time to plan and execute a successful migration would delay deployment by several months with the consequence that

Apple product users would be delayed in receiving the latest technology and therefore would lack the latest security patches, increasing security risk to USAID. These products and services are essential to the Government’s requirements, thereby precluding consideration of a product manufactured by another company.

10. Sources, if any, that expressed an interest, in writing, in the acquisition:

No sources expressed an interest in this acquisition.

11. The actions the Agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

USAID periodically reviews its EA standards and may, as a result of these analyses, determine if and how products align with USAID's strategic goals. New technologies must also be capable of integrating with USAID's holistic IT architecture.

12. Technical Personnel Certification:

In accordance with FAR 6.303, I hereby certify that the technical statements included above and which form a basis for the justification are complete and accurate.

Gregg Russo Date

13. Contracting Officer Certification:

In accordance with FAR 6.303, I hereby certify that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Joseph W. Lentini Date

14. Head of the Procuring Activity Approval:

Pursuant to FAR 6.304(a)(3), I hereby approve this Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition.

Mark A. Walther Date

Joseph Wayne Lentini (affiliate)

Digitally signed by Joseph Wayne Lentini (affiliate) Date: 2023.03.16 19:12:56 -04'00'

GREGG ANTHONY

RUSSO (affiliate)

Digitally signed by GREGG ANTHONY RUSSO (affiliate) Date: 2023.03.17 07:00:10 -04'00'

MARK ANTHONY

WALTHER (affiliate)

Digitally signed by MARK ANTHONY WALTHER (affiliate) Date: 2023.03.30 08:34:34 -04'00'

Internal Agency Clearances:

____via email__________________________ ____3/16/2023___________ Andrew Victor Date Legal Counsel

Deborah Broderick Date Agency Competition Advocate

DEBORAH RYAN BRODERICK

(affiliate)

Digitally signed by DEBORAH RYAN BRODERICK (affiliate) Date: 2023.03.30 08:11:35 -04'00'