JA16-075_JSDR_ISD_Final_Redacted.pdf

JSDR and ISD Supplemental Development-JA16-075

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND

OPEN COMPETITION (OTFAOC)

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 6 Justification & Approval (J&A), Supporting Procurements under FAR Part 12, FAR Subpart 13.501, and FAR Part 15

Purchase Request Number:

Contract Number: TBD Task/Delivery Order Number: TBD Procurement Title: Joint Spectrum Data Repository (JSDR) and Integrated Spectrum Desktop (ISD) Supplemental Development and Sustainment Tasking Contracting Office: PL63 Estimated Value:

Statutory Authority: 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (OTFAOC)

Justification for OTFAOC Number: JA16-075

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Procuring Activity Competition Advocate, hereby approve the use of other than full and open competition of the proposed contractual action pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1) and in accordance with FAR 6.302-1.

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE:

Requiring Agency:

Defense Spectrum Organization (DSO) 2004 Turbot Landing, Annapolis, MD 21402-5064

Contracting Office:

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization-National Capital Region

(DITCO-NCR – PL63)

P.O. Box 549, Ft. Meade, MD 20755-0549.

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S)

The purpose of this action is to issue a sole source, Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract to Expression Networks LLC, 1600 Tysons Boulevard, 8th Floor, McLean, VA 22102 to acquire information technology services that will ensure the successful configuration and implementation of the Joint Spectrum Data Repository version 2 (JSDRv2) and the Integrated Spectrum Desktop (ISD), both part of the Global Electromagnetic Spectrum Information System (GEMSIS) program of record. This action addresses requirements identified during the Operational Testing phase for GEMSIS Increment 2 Block 2. The contract will be funded using both Research Development Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) and Operational and Maintenance (O&M) funds from the GEMSIS budget for the associated activities.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

This requirement, while related to the ongoing GEMSIS effort is not part of any existing PWS tasks. The period of performance for this contract will be twelve months from date of contract award, with a single option year for an additional twelve months. The estimated total dollar value as per the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) for the Base Year and $ for the Option Year. This new contract will supplement the tasking being performed through the ongoing development contract also being performed by Expression Networks.

The ongoing JSDR development effort is contract is:

HC1047-14-C-4016

Expression Networks, LLC Dollar Value total:

Period of Performance (for Base and two Option Years): 5/12/14 – 5/11/17 Method of Acquisition: 8(a) Set-Aside

DSO has the responsibility to develop, collect, maintain, and distribute mission-critical spectrum data to the Combatant Commanders, Joint Staff (JS), and Department of Defense (DoD) Spectrum Management/Planning, Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3), Intelligence/Electronic Warfare (EW), and Acquisition communities. To accomplish this mission, the DSO maintains the Joint Spectrum Data Repository (JSDR), web applications, web services, and standalone tools to achieve spectrum superiority. The JSDR is the primary DoD source for spectrum related data to support spectrum management and E3 efforts. This responsibility derives from DoD Instruction (DoDI) 4650.011 (Policy and Procedures for Management and Use of the Electromagnetic Spectrum), DoD Directive (DoDD) 3222.32 [DoD Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) Program], DoDI 8320.053 (Electromagnetic Spectrum Data Sharing), and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction (CJCSI) 3320.01 C4 (Joint Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (JEMSO)). To meet these requirements, the DSO must maintain accurate, complete and current spectrum related data and ensure this data is easily accessible by spectrum operators and analysts. DSO has provided a legacy JSDR system to customers, for many years, known as the JSC Data Access Web Server (JDAWS).

Development of a modernized JSDR system (known as JSDRv2) was necessary to meet the more extensible, dynamic data needs to support Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations (EMSO) and analysis of DoD spectrum usage requirements. This new JSDRv2 has been incorporated into the GEMSIS ACAT III program of record. The GEMSIS Program Management Office (PMO) delivers capabilities through and evolutionary incremental acquisition approach, The JSDRv2 system has successfully completed the first phase of development successfully undergoing full Operational Test (OT) with the Joint Interoperability and Test Center (JITC) along with the other GEMSIS Increment 2 Block 2 capabilities. The OT involved extensive participation from the user community (MILDEPS, COCOMs), as well as a full Certification and

Accreditation review by the Security Control Assessor (SCA), with a pending Provisional Authority to Operate (ATO). The JSDRv2 has been a successful, rapid development effort yielding a robust security and technical architecture, handling complex spectrum data sets.

Due to the time and cost constraints of completing GEMSIS Increment 2 Full Operational Capability (FOC), it is imperative to acquire as an interim measure, supplemental developmental and sustainment tasking to the ongoing JSDRv2 rapid development effort to allow for completion of new items that have been identified to be necessary to prepare the JSDR program for sustainment. This will allow GEMSIS to meet other Increment 2 Key System Attributes (KSAs) within the Increment 2 timeframe that have not been able to be successfully addressed through other efforts.

This J&A supports the sole source acquisition ensuring that the GEMSIS program does not incur the significant lag in delivering capabilities to the warfighter, that would result from trying to bring on a new contractor to establish the necessary expertise on the JSDRv2 architecture, the spectrum data, and data exchange standard that would be required to keep the program on time and within acceptable cost parameters. It also reduces risk of introducing integration, security, and interoperability issues on the nascent capability. The history of JSDRv2 development substantiates the extreme challenges associated with the combination of technical and data expertise required for success.

This sole-source contract is for newly identified supplemental development and maintenance activities in support of the JSDRv2, currently in development. The supplemental tasks will be performed over a base year and one option year to overlap with the current development effort (HC1047-14-C-4016), allowing Expression Networks to perform these tasks on a sole source basis thru May 2017- May 2018 with a potentially separate development/sustainment contractor beginning in May 2017. This overlap will assist with the primary ongoing development contract and the anticipated new contract for continuing JSDR development and sustainment.

JSDRv2 stores and provides access to DoD, national, and international spectrum-related information on the Secure Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET). JSDRv2 provides a data warehouse, and multiple methods of querying the data via a Business Intelligence and Analytics interface, a Universal Query, pre-formatted queries replicating the JDAWS capability, and through a Content Management Information System interface. The JSDRv2 also provides a service interface to facilitate machine-to-machine exchange of the JSDR data with External Systems and Applications via the spectrum data exchange formats, Standard Frequency Action Format (SFAF) and Standard Spectrum Resource Format (SSRF).

Unanticipated benefits of the implemented JSDRv2 architecture have been identified that can allow GEMSIS to address the requirement for an ISD within JSDRv2, a particularly critical benefit as the contract for ISD performed by a different small business was not able to successfully complete this capability and was terminated for convenience. The work that has been completed under the other ISD contract can be salvaged and integrated into the JSDRv2, allowing GEMSIS to address KSA 3, identified as critical which states: GEMSIS shall provide DoD access to centralized capability that enables integration, interface and federation of spectrum management critical and mission essential services. Additionally, the JSDRv2 architecture can provide a single sign on solution to allow all GEMSIS capabilities to utilize the same authentication, authorization and accounting service, further integrating the essential spectrum management services.

Supplemental requirements for the JSDR project are as follows:

• Provide Data Administration Support for JSDRv2

• Develop JSDR Administrative Interfaces for JSDRv2

• Automate Data Ingest

• Support to System Administration

• Additional User Interface Features

• Advanced Training Development

• Provide System Engineering Support

• GEMSIS Authentication, Authorization and Accounting Capability

• Integrated Spectrum Desktop Integration

• Enterprise Logging and Auditing of JSDR/GEMSIS user activity metrics

• Program Management

These supplemental requirements result from program activities from September 2015 through January 2016 to include: evaluation of additional sustainment requirements that result from expedited ability to sunset the legacy JDAWS, system and transfer data activities under that program to JSDRv2; extensive interface with the user community throughout numerous community of interest working group meetings and through feedback from Systems Acceptance Test (SAT) and OT; numerous working groups with external organizations that intend to connect systems to the JSDRv2 to obtain critical data (NSA’s E-SPACE and Army’s Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool programs); and, assessment of the ISD product received in Nov 2015 which could not be fielded, thus endangering GEMSIS ability to meet its full complement of Increment 2 KSAs. (The ISD contract HC1047-13-C-0002 with a different small business was terminated for convenience in November 2015.) To bring a new contractor up to speed on the JSDRv2 architecture and the ISD architecture at this stage of the Increment 2 development cycle in order to effectively address the technical, security, data and organizational requirements would result in substantial duplication of costs and unacceptable schedule delays to the government.

4. IDENTIFICATION OF STATUTORY AUTHORITY: Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, 10 U.S.C.2304(c)(1). (FAR 6.302-

1/DFARS 206.302-1)

5. DEMONSTRATION OF CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS:

This action requires the utilization of Expression Networks in order to meet the critical tasking requirements within the GEMSIS Increment 2 FOC timeline.

Currently, the Expression Networks contract is in the first option year of development of JSDRv2 (12 May 2015-11 May 2016), with one more option year available (12 May 2016-11 May 2017).

The GEMSIS program assesses that that the most cost and time effective way to obtain the necessary supplemental services within the Increment 2 timeframe is to contract with Expression Networks, LLC to minimize cost, schedule and capability risk to the program.

Only Expression Networks LLC is capable of successfully completing this requirement, as it has the specific in-place expertise with the following combination of technologies and software components, integration of these technologies and software components in a unified architecture on SIPRNET, the associated security requirements, and also with the spectrum datasets integrated within the JSDRv2:

Technologies:

• MongoDB schema-less database

• Elasticsearch search and index engine

• Pentaho business analytics engine

• R and Weka analytics engines

• Alfresco content management information system

• JBoss business process management system

• IBM Tivoli Federated Identify Manager

• Trustwave mod_security

• Custom user interface for pre-configured data queries

• OZONE Platform

• Customized Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) procedures

Spectrum specific data sources that are being integrated within the JSDRv2:

• Frequency Resource Record System (FRRS)

• Government Master File (GMF)

• Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

• Canadian Data File

• International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

• Radiocommunication Bureau International Frequency Information Circular (BR IFIC) –

Terrestrial Services

• International Frequency Information Space Services

• Radio Astronomy File

• Spectrum Certification System (SCS)

• Equipment Location – Certification Information Database (EL-CID)

• Host Nation Spectrum Worldwide Database Online (HNSWDO)

• Joint Equipment, Tactical and Space (JETS) Database

• Electronic Order of Battle (EOB) database

(a) Description of events.

The supplemental tasking requirements could not be identified ahead of time because the integration of these capabilities was so new to the government, not every requirement could be anticipated. A series of activities uncovered these requirements: introduction of the capability to the user community through the Operational Test as well as numerous working group meetings; a study of actions required to speed up the sunset of the legacy JDAWS capability; the need to address the KSA associated with the ISD, and the unanticipated ability to absorb that functionality within the JSDRv2 architecture and leverage the architecture to provide common single sign on.

The GEMSIS program is at a critical juncture. The program is preparing for an acquisition Milestone (MS) C decision and Full Deployment (FD) of its Increment 2 Block 2 capabilities, and preparing to begin Increment 2 Block 3 which will result in FOC. Loss of these additional services at this time would result in unacceptable delays and the inability to achieve these critical milestone schedules, and fully address the Key System Attributes (KSAs).

(b) Justification.

(1) Minimum Government requirements. The tasking needs to be accomplished in order to meet GEMSIS Increment 2 FOC completion specifically to meet the data and ISD related KSAs, and to implement required additional features for sustainment. Time currently is not available to have a new contractor learn the suite of JSDRv2 technologies, and associated spectrum data sources required to implement the additional features and integrate ISD into the JSDRv2 architecture in the required timeframe. The tasking identified will allow fielding of the Integrated Spectrum Desktop capability which was partially developed (separate contract and different contractor, recently terminated for convenience due to not being able to field the product) within the JSDRv2 architecture. This will enable GEMSIS to meet the ISD associated KSA to “enable DoD access to existing enterprise collaboration services.”

(2) Proposed sole-source contractor. Expression Networks possesses expert knowledge of the data sources, the technical components of JSDRv2, and technical requirements for integration of the ISD. Contract award to another vendor would result in unacceptable project delays, and substantial duplicative government expense, as there will be a need to duplicate a large portion of the work that has taken place over the past year and ½ due to the steep learning curve to understand the complexity of the requirements.

In order to correctly analyze, and process the data for integration in JSDRv2 Expression Networks had to painstakingly work with subject matter experts to understand the very detailed data idiosyncrasies, relationships between the particular data elements, and correct representations of the data.

(3) Discussion regarding cause of the sole source situation.

An award to any other source would involve at least a 6 month learning curve which would preclude delivery of needed capabilities before the GEMSIS Increment 2 Block 3 Milestone C fielding Only Expression Networks can perform the supplemental work within the required timeframe due to its unique possession of expert knowledge of the data sources, the technical components of JSDRv2, and technical requirements for integration of the ISD Documentation captured during the ongoing JSDRv2 development contract as well as the new contract for supplemental work will help to enable future competition.

(4) Demonstration of unique source. Expression Networks is the only source that can provide the required services in the time required due to the extensive learning curve and complexity of the technical and security architecture and the spectrum domain data. The technologies and software components (identified in section 5 above) have been integrated, configured to allow both user and machine based access to spectrum data, and adapted for the secure SIPRNET environment. Since JSDRv2 is still in the process of being deployed and still undergoing information assurance evaluation, it is critical to leverage the expertise on the unique integration of these particular software components.

The complex configuration of each software component for operation on SIPRNET, the JSDRv2 security infrastructure, and the highly complex ETL processes necessary to ingest the various spectrum data sets into the JSDRv2 data store. This unique expertise is needed to address the supplemental development and sustainment tasking necessary to integrate ISD and enable efficient sustainment within the GEMSIS program Increment 2 timeframe.

(5) Procurement discussion. The purpose of the contract is to allow the original developer of the application to perform the newly identified supplemental development tasks.

Allowing the original vendor to perform the supplemental tasking will avoid duplicative substantial learning curve effort, avoid developmental delays, reduce the probability of integration problems, and potentially the introduction of cyber security vulnerabilities.

(6) Impact. If an exception to full and open competition is not granted, the GEMSIS program will not be able to perform the full complement of sustainment activities required for the Increment 2 FOC capability, and not fully meet the Increment 2 KSAs.

This will impose delay in the Increment 2 Block 3 Milestone C Fielding Decision, putting the entire program at long term risk, impacting the Acquisition Program Baseline and the Integrated Master Schedule. The major spectrum management capability deficiencies that GEMSIS is addressing would be in jeopardy, imposing the need to have continued sustainment and payment for maintenance of legacy systems, to sustain and maintain the status quo for degraded legacy systems beyond FY 2017.

Delay would be experienced in providing capability to the warfighter at a particularly critical time in spectrum operations when spectrum is a diminishing resource while spectrum requirements are increasing, and spectrum operations are just beginning to be integrated with Electronic Warfare, Intelligence and Cyber operations.

On-boarding of a new contractor includes hiring, training, conducting background checks, gaining access to Government and military facilities and gaining access to Government systems which will further delay the current program schedule. The estimated impact to the program is that there would be an additional cost to the Government of and a schedule slip of six months. This cost estimate is based on the JSDRv2 contractor's current burn rate of per month for six months. The time estimate of six months is based on the amount of time to establish expertise for the JSDRv2 technology and software components, the ETL processes, the data sources, and the Information Assurance configuration, as well as the ISD components to be integrated to JSDRv2.

In summary, a delay past mid-May 2016 on awarding this contract will result in adverse effects on the GEMSIS Program's ability to develop and deploy an integrated suite of spectrum capabilities in a timely manner. Specifically, it will significantly delay the schedule to incorporate the Integrated Spectrum Desktop (ISD) into the Joint Spectrum Data Repository (JSDR) required for its Increment 2 Block 3 release. Numerous other dependencies will be negatively impacted including the schedule of a key Operational Test (OT) conducted by Joint Interoperability test Command (JITC) prior to fielding these capabilities. The overall negative effect is a delay in the fielding of critical spectrum capabilities designed to enhance the Warfighter’s ability to effectively and efficiently manage the electromagnetic battlespace to enable the DoD's information superiority.

6. FEDBIZOPPS (FBO) ANNOUNCEMENT/POTENTIAL SOURCES: A synopsis was posted on FBO on April 7, 2016 announcing the intended sole source. The J&A will also be posted on FBO in accordance with FAR 5.3

7. DETERMINATION OF FAIR AND REASONABLE COST:

An evaluation of Expression’s proposed technical approach and prices will be performed. In order to determine whether the proposed prices are fair and reasonable, the Contracting Officer will use analysis techniques described in FAR 15.404-1, specifically, through a comparison and analysis of negotiated prices on the current Expression contracts and with the IGCE. DCAA will be contacted to provide any recommendations on current labor and burden rates, if necessary.

8. MARKET RESEARCH:

Limited market research was conducted due to time constraints. The Government's GEMSIS PMO technical experts stay current with marketplace developments, which are relative to support services through reviews of available technical documentation, determining the sources that can meet the Government's requirements. The acquisition history along with market research for both the JSDR and ISD was reviewed, and performed during January and February 2016 by the JSDR Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and the Alternate COR, along with input from DSO’s Business Management Office. Multiple presentations from vendors, including small businesses, have taken place over the past year in support of DSO acquisition efforts involving similar scope, magnitude and complexity. These meetings were attended by DSO technical personnel and the Business Management Office. Presentation material was reviewed in support of this effort, and Electromagnetic Spectrum Engineering Services research showed no other vendor has been identified to have the necessary in-place complement of skills, and experience. Consequently, the market research shows that no other company has the capability to provide the required services in a timely, and cost effective fashion for the immediate need. Contracting these services using the JSDRv2 development contract through Expression Networks LLC, is the only viable approach for meeting the mission requirements at this time. They have the unique expertise necessary to address the specific requirements for the supplemental development, sustainment activities, and ISD integration.

9. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: None

10. LISTING OF INTERESTED SOURCES: The previous Market Research Report (signed in March 2014) developed prior to the HC1047-14-C-4016 award identified two other potential sources for the JSDRv2 development work, in addition to Expression, and other interested sources will be researched for the follow-on competitive procurement.

11. ACTIONS THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME BARRIERS

THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION:

There are no data rights restrictions which would preclude the use of a competitive procurement.

Unique circumstances due to another contract (ISD) being terminated for convenience, and new emphasis on expedited sunset of a long standing legacy system due to unanticipated benefits of replacement system, are not expected to preclude competition for the follow-on procurement planned

12. REFERENCE TO THE APPROVED ACQUISITION PLAN (AP): In accordance with the exceptions under DARS 7.103(S-91)(1)(viii), an AP is not required.