DCAA Handshake JA Other Than Full and Open Competition (redacted).pdf

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION; SOURCE SELECTION SENSITIVE – SEE FAR 2.101 & 3.104 1 of 4

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

CONTRACTING SERVICES OFFICE

6090 STRATHMORE ROAD

RICHMOND, VA 23297

DCSO-R2-24-14

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

(1) Identification of the agency and contracting activity:

Requiring Activity: Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) Headquarters, Fort Belvoir, VA

Contracting Activity: DLA Contracting Services Office – Richmond 2 (DCSO-R2)

(2) Nature and/or description of the action being approved:

Approval to solicit under the authority of FAR 13.501(a), sole source acquisitions for commercial items.

(3) Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value):

DCAA requires the Handshake college recruiting platform commercial software, which is only available from the manufacturer, Stryder Corp (CAGE 83KM1). Handshake is a platform that connects students, colleges, and employers for job opportunities and career advice. Handshake partners with more than 1,500 colleges and universities and more than 900 employers and has more than 15 million active student users.

The resulting supply contract will be for one base year and four option years for an estimated total of

DCAA will provide FY24 operations and maintenance funding in the amount of the base year.

(4) Identification of statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

This requirement is being solicited in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(2) and FAR 13.501(a).

(5) Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited:

DCAA requires an internet-accessible university platform capability that bridges the recruiting gap for students and employers by allowing communication between students and recruiter in a “one stop shop” environment. DCAA’s outreach and recruitment team must be able to post and promote recruitment events, company information, and job announcements in one place, while students must be able to view announcements and interact with DCAA recruiters in one place. The university platform website must also recommend jobs and events to students based on student profiles and academic transcripts.

DCAA requires a commercial software platform that specializes in identifying college students and allowing DCAA to mass market to these students specifically as well as allowing for direct two-way communication with identified students. Additionally, no other identified products have the direct outreach and partnership capacity as offered through the Handshake platform. Based on the market research conducted by the customer and the results of the sources sought posted by the contracting

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION; SOURCE SELECTION SENSITIVE – SEE FAR 2.101 & 3.104 2 of 4 officer (summarized in number 8 below), only the Handshake platform provided by Stryder Corp can meet DCAA’s needs.

(6) Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies:

This procurement will be conducted under the authority of FAR 13.5, Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Products and Commercial Services, and the contracting officer intends to post a combined synopsis and solicitation following the procedures in FAR 12.6, Streamlined Procedures for Evaluation and Solicitation for Commercial Products and Commercial Services.

This redacted justification and approval will be posted with the solicitation.

As there are no other sources that can supply the required software, and no other software solutions that meet DCAA’s requirements, the contracting officer intends to procure the required Handshake software platform as a sole source award to Stryder Corp.

(7) A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable:

The contracting officer determines the anticipated cost to the government will be determined fair and reasonable by comparing proposed prices to the independent government cost estimate (IGCE), using previous pricing data provided by other government agencies (see number 8 below), or using commercial other than certified cost and price data from the vendor if necessary.

(8) Description of market research conducted and results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted:

Market research was conducted by both the customer and the contracting officer as summarized below.

The customer conducted online market research and identified only two potential products that will meet DCAA’s requirements; however, only Handshake provides the required outreach and capacity for reaching a multitude of college students.

The contracting officer conducted market research using SAM.gov starting with a search for similar products. As a result of this market research, the contracting officer identified six other government agencies that had recently posted notices of intent to sole source to Stryder Corp for the handshake platform including the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Interior (DoI), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Peace Corps. The contracting officer reached out to all six agencies with five responses received (from all agencies except the Peace Corps whose email came back undeliverable), which included estimated costs that the contracting officer intends to use to negotiate as necessary to ensure that fair and reasonable costs are paid.

In addition to the SAM.gov search conducted by the contracting officer, in accordance with DFARS PGI 206.302-1, the contracting officer posted a sources sought to SAM.gov on May 22, 2024 with responses due by noon on May 29, 2024. The sources sought included the draft purchase description (PD) and requested that interested vendors with experience/capabilities as outlined above provide a capability

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION; SOURCE SELECTION SENSITIVE – SEE FAR 2.101 & 3.104 3 of 4 statement with basic company details as well as examples of past experience providing the required software.

In response to the sources sought notice, the contracting officer received information from five companies; however, only four companies followed the basic instructions and provided sufficient information for the customer to evaluate.

Although five responses were received to the sources sought notice, none of the companies appear to offer products that meet DCAA’s requirements as identified in the PD. One of the companies did not even provide the required capability statement so that company was ruled out as non-responsive. Of the four remaining companies, two offered organic software solutions – one of which is not as expansive as DCAA requires, and the other is not tailored to college students, which is DCAA’s specific requirement.

The remaining two companies are offering commercial software solutions that seem to streamline the hiring process; however, DCAA is not looking for this type of product. DCAA requires a commercial software platform that specializes in identifying college students and allowing DCAA to mass market to these students specifically as well as allowing for direct two-way communication with identified students. Additionally, no other identified products have the direct outreach and partnership capacity as offered through the Handshake platform. Based on the results of the sources sought, only the Handshake platform as offered by Stryder meets all of DCAA’s requirements.

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

As previously stated within this document, based on the extensive market research conducted including the results of the sources sought, only the Stryder Corp Handshake platform can meet DCAA’s requirements.

(10) Listing of sources that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition:

Based on the results of the sources sought, the following companies expressed interest in the acquisition:

Accenture Baker Tilly

BHPE

SteerBridge Teamworks

As noted in number 8 above, although these five companies expressed an interest in this procurement, the customer and contracting officer have determined that the offered products will not meet DCAA’s requirements.

(11) Actions, if any, the agency will take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

Based on DCAA’s specific requirements, there are no current plans to compete future contracts for this particular college recruiting platform software; however, if another potential source emerges, DCAA and DLA will assess whether competition for future procurements is feasible.