DCSOR22403_Redacted.pdf

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION; SOURCE SELECTION SENSITIVE – SEE FAR 2.101 & 3.104 1 of 6

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

CONTRACTING SERVICES OFFICE

6090 STRATHMORE ROAD

RICHMOND, VA 23237

Limited Source Justification DCSO-R2-24-03

(1) Identification of the agency and contracting activity:

Requiring Activity:

HQ Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) Logistics Operations (J3) & Technical Programs and Quality Assurance Division (J334) 8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 4240 Fort Belvoir, VA. 22060-6221

Contracting Activity:

DLA Contracting Services Office 6090 Strathmore Road Richmond, VA 23237

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

In accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) - 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. This requirement is for the Dun and Bradstreet subscription for business intelligence investigative, ownership and relationship datasets for a base year starting on February 21, 2024, and four one-year option periods for use by DLA J3, Fort Belvoir, Virginia 22060. This is a follow-on to task order SP4703-21-F-0039, which included a one-year base period and two one-year option periods. Dun and Bradstreet Inc. is the only source capable of providing the required subscriptions.

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

The requirement to meet DLA’s needs are Dun and Bradstreet Inc’s business investigative intelligence ownership, and relationship datasets for DLA suppliers, both foreign and domestic, for use in the DLA’s Business Decision Analytics (BDA) Decision Tool, which is part of the DLA Enterprise Business System (EBS). The datasets include:

Business Investigative Intelligence: This dataset includes supplier financial stress data (e.g., bankruptcy, payment index delinquency, payment trend profiles, unpaid obligations, credit profile, etc.); supplier litigation data (e.g., pending liens, outstanding judgements, etc.) and supplier demographic data (e.g., length of time in business, supplier corporate structure); and criminal activity data (e.g., money laundering, criminal proceeding, etc.).

Ultimate Beneficial Ownership (UBO): This dataset provides legally connected relationships between a business and natural person(s) who ultimately own or control a business, (e.g., subsidiary relationships, domestic parent companies, global parents, foreign ownership, foreign influence, etc.)

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION; SOURCE SELECTION SENSITIVE – SEE FAR 2.101 & 3.104 2 of 6

Corporate Tree Plus: This dataset provides relationships outside of legal connected relationships between a business and its affiliations that do not indicate legal obligations, such as franchises, dealers and cooperatives.

Business Trust Index: This dataset measures the likelihood that a business was established to obfuscate previous government debarments, suspensions, sanctions and fraud.

The Dun and Bradstreet Inc. business investigative intelligence datasets are critical to the performance of BDA. The datasets enable BDA to mitigate supply chain risks to DLA supply chains by investigating supplier risk and identifying supply chain threats, such as procurement fraud, counterfeit parts, quote rigging, national state influence and unauthorized entity access to military export-control technical data and other weapon system technical information.

BDA is DLA’s system of record for identifying supplier risk and combating supply chain threats. BDA is incorporated into the DLA’s Enterprise Business System (EBS) and used by DLA procurement personnel, quality assurance specialists, fraud attorneys, product data specialists and other DLA functional areas that have the responsibility to mitigate supply chain threats to DLA’s supply chains and to conduct supplier due diligence before awarding contracts or allowing a supplier access to critical technical weapon system parts technical data.

PoP CLIN Description Estimated amount February 21, 2024 - February 20, 2025 0001 Reports and Data Subscription February 21, 2025 - February 20, 2026 1001 Reports and Data Subscription OY1 February 21, 2026 - February 20, 2027 2001 Reports and Data Subscription OY2 February 21, 2027 - February 20, 2028 3001 Reports and Data Subscription OY3 February 21, 2028 - February 20, 2029 4001 Reports and Data Subscription OY4

(4) Authority and supporting rational and, if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractor's unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service:

The acquisition is conducted on a limited source basis pursuant to one or more of the following authorities:

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) - 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.

What makes Dun and Bradstreet Inc’s qualifications unique amongst other companies is:

Provides customized and comprehensive business intelligence datasets consisting of thousands of supplier risk data elements for over 450 million companies; and

Has the ability to match this information with companies’ supplier risk and demographic information from gov’t and DoD authoritative supplier systems of record. These systems include Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code System, GSA System of Record (SAM), Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System and DLA Internet Bid Board System (DIBBS)); and

Consolidates this discreate information into a single supplier identifier called the Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number that can be used BDA.

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION; SOURCE SELECTION SENSITIVE – SEE FAR 2.101 & 3.104 3 of 6

Dun and Bradstreet Inc’s ability to create a unique supplier identifier (i.e., DUNS number) from individually separate and unique supplier systems of records, then match this information to comprehensive and distinct business investigative intelligence datasets enables BDA to effectively identify supply chain threats, perform automated supplier risk assessments on over supplier quotes annually. BDA also uses the Dun and Bradstreet datasets to help safeguard sensitive military parts technical data from unauthorized entity access. There is no other company that can meet the above requirements.

(5) Determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d):

The contracting officer anticipates the cost to the government will be fair and reasonable, and the resulting order will represent the best value to the government by comparing the proposed prices to historical prices paid for the same or similar supplies/services, Dun and Bradstreet Inc’s General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule contract rates, as well as in comparison to the independent government cost estimate.

(6) Description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted:

A comprehensive market research was conducted with like/similar companies from January 2023 through October 2023. The office of primary responsibility for the market research was DLA Logistics Operations (J3), Technical and Quality Assurance Division (J344). During this timeframe, J344 representatives conducted the market survey which consisted of internet searches, reviews of contractor whitepapers and GSA schedules. As part of the market survey, J344 representatives also held discussions with company representatives. The J344 market survey was augmented by an independent market survey conducted by a third party. The third party (Accenture Federal Services) was tasked to complete a market survey. The Accenture market survey was part of their DLA “Vendor On-Boarding and Validation Study”. A total of ten companies were investigated during the market survey, using six separate evaluation criteria (see table below). The market survey confirmed the subscriptions provided by Dun and Bradstreet Inc. is the only source capable of fulfilling the Government’s need. The table below contains an analysis of the competitors and how their products failed to meet all the Governments requirements. In addition to the market survey conduct my J344 and Accenture Federal Services, industry, J344 representatives conducted a survey of 18 different federal/DoD data sources to assess if any of these data sources could provide like services as Dun and Bradstreet. All 18 data sources failed to meet Government requirements.

Company

Datasets Mapping to

Unique Supplier

Identifiers

Comprehensive Business

Investigative Intelligence

Datasets

BDA

System Change

Required

Supplier Tier-N Relationship

Insights

Ability to Deliver Datasets

Electronically

Annual Rough Order of Magnitude Cost Based on Cost Per

Supplier

Comments

Dun and Bradstreet Inc

Y Y N Y Y Meets Requirement; Provides comprehensive datasets; Able to link datasets with gov’t, DoD & DLA system of record unique supplier identifiers; No BDA system change required; Meets data accuracy requirements; Low annual subscription cost; Most Advantageous to gov’t

Quantified N N Y Y N Unknown Does not meet requirement; Inability to match datasets to system of record unique supplier identifiers; Does not provide supplier risk datasets Provides access rights to IT platform

Interos N Y Y Y Y Does not meet requirement; Inability to match datasets to systems of record unique supplier identifiers; Subscription cost are prohibitive; Requires BDA system change

Exiger N Y Y Y N Varies

Does not meet requirement; Inability to match datasets to system of record unique supplier identifiers Does not provide supplier risk data Instead, provides access

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION; SOURCE SELECTION SENSITIVE – SEE FAR 2.101 & 3.104 4 of 6 rights to their platform; Subscription cost are prohibitive Requires BDA system change

Deloitte N Y Y Y N Does not meet requirement; Inability to match datasets to system of record unique supplier identifiers Does not provide supplier risk data; Provides supplier risk reports and analyst support; Subscription cost are prohibitive BDA system change required

LinQuest N N Y N N Unknown Does not meet requirement; Does not provide comprehensive supplier risk data;

Inability to match datasets to system of record unique supplier identifiers Provides access rights to SCRM IT platform

TealBook N Y Y Y N Does not meet requirement; Inability to match datasets to system of record unique supplier identifiers Does not provide supplier risk data; Provides supplier risk reports and analyst support; Subscription cost are prohibitive BDA system change required

Global Risk Mgmt Solutions

N N Y Y N Unknown Does not meet requirement; Inability to match datasets to system of record unique supplier identifiers Supplier risk datasets not comprehensive Requires BDA system change

Bureau Van

DIJK

N N Y N N Unknown Does not meet requirement; Inability to match datasets to unique supplier identifiers Does not provide country of origin data or foreign ownership/influence; Requires BDA system change

LMI N Y Y Y Y Does not meet requirement Inability to match datasets to unique supplier identifiers; Requires BDA system change; Annual subscription costs are prohibitive

The market survey concluded that the products provided by Dun and Bradstreet Inc. are the only subscriptions capable of fulfilling the Government’s need. The subscriptions provided by the other companies evaluated did not meet the technical requirements and were cost prohibitive to the Government.

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

An award to a company other than Dun and Bradstreet Inc, would require DLA to develop, test and deploy a new BDA Predictive Supplier Risk Model. This would incur significant and duplicative costs to DLA. To develop BDA Predictive Supplier Risk Model using another companies’ business investigative intelligence datasets would cost to (one time cost estimate to test and deploy a new supplier risk model within BDA). This is based on the cost to set-up another pilot, pay for the business investigative intelligence datasets from other companies to use in the pilot, fund the labor hours to take the results of the pilot, then develop, and test the model within DLA Enterprise Business System.

Additionally, during the time it takes to develop, test and deploy a new BDA Predictive Supplier Risk, DLA would not have an effective means to combat supply chain threats such as CAGE Compromise.

The Dun and Bradstreet data is crucial to the performance of BDA, which is used by contracting officers, technical quality personnel, product data specialists, export-controlled data managers, information operations and legal personnel to conduct supplier chain risk assessments and to safeguard export-controlled technical data from unauthorized supplier access.

DLA auto procurement systems relies on BDA to conduct supplier risk assessment on over quotes per year.

Procuring activities within DLA Major Subordinate Commands (MSC) also rely on Dun and Bradstreet Inc.

business investigative intelligence datasets within BDA to help inform their contract award decisions. Dun and Bradstreet Inc. is the only known source which provides all the necessary information required to verify the adequacy of credit and financial positions for contract responsibility determination pertaining to various DLA actions based on FAR 9.104 requirements.

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION; SOURCE SELECTION SENSITIVE – SEE FAR 2.101 & 3.104 5 of 6

(8) Statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made:

For the reasons set forth in Paragraph 4, DLA has no plans at this time to compete future contacts for the subscriptions covered by this document. DLA uses a variety of vendors, manufacturers and contracts to fulfill its requirements and will continue its practice of surveying the market to ensure full and open competition. If another potential source emerges, DLA will assess whether competition for future requirements is feasible.