DEPARTMENT JUSTIFICATION LETTER.pdf
PDF 151 KB Posted
- Attached to
- 9280-26-R-RFQI-00005
- Solicitation number
- 3140004520
- Issued by
- Jasper County, Mississippi
About this file
This is a Department Justification Letter from the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), School of Ocean Science & Engineering, supporting a single-source procurement for InnovaSea transponders and receivers. The letter, dated March 10, 2026, and authored by Dr. Michael J. Andres, Assistant Professor in the Estuarine and Movement Ecology Lab, establishes the technical and operational rationale for selecting InnovaSea as the sole vendor for passive acoustic telemetry devices used in fish tracking and monitoring initiatives across Mississippi's waters. USM, funded by state and federal sponsors, requires InnovaSea's equipment to maintain compatibility with existing infrastructure and enable collaborative tracking with partner organizations throughout the Gulf region, as the university's current systems and those of external collaborators rely exclusively on InnovaSea technology.
The justification emphasizes that while competing products exist in the market, no alternative vendor offers technology that is backward and forward compatible with USM's and its partners' current investments, nor do competitors match InnovaSea's data precision and quality standards. The letter notes that InnovaSea has maintained stable pricing over more than a decade of procurement history, demonstrated commitment to customer service excellence, and provided technical training and workshops for university staff and students. The vendor's cloud-based data storage capabilities ensure secure maintenance and accessibility of research data supporting state and federal grant obligations. The single-source procurement approach is justified based on technical compatibility requirements and the absence of viable competitive alternatives meeting the university's operational and collaborative needs.
View the file
Other files
| File | Type | Posted |
|---|---|---|
| SSP 26_019 PROPOSED SSP.pdf | ||
| USM SSP 26_019 ADVERTISEMENT.pdf | ||
| VENDOR JUSTIFICATION LETTER.pdf |
On GovTribe
Work with this file
- Download the original file
- Contacts named in this file
- Similar government files
- Ask GovTribe AI about this file
Text version
School of Ocean Science & Engineering
Division of Coastal Sciences
Department of Coastal Sciences, School of Ocean Science & Engineering, University of Southern Mississippi
703 East Beach Drive • Ocean Springs, MS • 39564
Phone (228) 872-4203
10 March 2026
To whom it may concern, InnovaSea is the premier company in passive acoustic telemetry devices for tracking of aquatic organisms. Their reputation for customer service and product quality has positioned them as the top producer of such equipment.
USM (in particular Michael Andres’ Estuarine and Movement Ecology Lab in the Division of Coastal
Sciences and the Center for Fisheries Research and Development) have been funded by state and federal sponsors to track and monitor fish populations in Mississippi’s waters and beyond. This technology ensures that we are able to detect presence/absence of telemetered species in our waters as well as those from collaborators outside of our system. All of USM’s current infrastructure for tracking fishes using passive acoustic technology as well as our collaborators across the Gulf use their technology, meaning that when our study organisms move into different systems we are able to track those movements (and vice versa) to ensure that we are addressing the concerns of the state and federal sponsors of out telemetry projects. Other companies do sell technology like InnovaSea’s but none of their competitors sell technology that is both backward and forward compatible with the investment in technology currently made by USM and state and federal partners. Furthermore, no other competitor has come close to the quality or data precision that we have seen.
The prices quoted by InnovSea are reasonable as the company has not meaningfully raised their prices in the more than a decade that we have been purchasing equipment from them. They have also been forward thinking with the advances in their technology and have hosted many workshops training students and staff in the use of their equipment at professional meetings. Their customer service is prompt and cloud-based storage options ensure that data is maintained and secure.
Please let me know if you require any additional justification, Michael J. Andres, PhD
Assistant Professor
Estuarine and Movement Ecology Lab
Division of Coastal Sciences
Phone: 228-872-4275
Email: michael.andres@usm.edu
File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated .