Metastorm Attachment 1.doc

Justification of Sole Source (Brand Name) Acquisition under the authority of FAR Subpart 13.5—Test Program for Certain Commercial Items

FedBizOps Notice Combined Synopsis/ Soliciation

ED-FSA-09-R-0070

This brand name justification is authorized by 41 USC 253 (c)(1): Use of Noncompetitive Procedures – “the property or services needed by the executive agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the executive agency”.

Metastorm Data Integrator and PM4Data are proprietary products solely owned and licensed by Metastorm, Inc. There are no authorized resellers of this product.

During fiscal year 2008, FSA assumed ownership and right to use licenses of various products from prior data center service provider as part of a strategic software sourcing initiative. This resulted in the direct responsibility for related software maintenance renewals, licensing revisions, and product replacement due to expansion in functionality. At present, FSA has deployed Metastorm products across its information technology (IT) infrastructure .

Metastorm PM4 Data Distributed Server product is a high volume data integration platform that facilitates the access and transmission of data from files, databases, and messages across an entire enterprise.

Maintenance is required for technical support and, if maintenance is not renewed, there is an operational risk of critical, high volume not being able to be transported across FSA applications, potentially leading to an operational breakdown of FSA Central Processing System (CPS), Common Services for Borrowers (CSB), and the National Student Lending Database System (NSLDS).

Metastorm Inc. Data Integrator serves as a messaging platform that represents the EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) bus for FSA applications. An EAI bus allows systems to essentially communicate amongst each other through the exchange of data in a secure and reliable manner.

Maintenance affords FSA access to technical support and coverage, updates, and releases for these licenses, which if not renewed, would result in interruptions in the exchange of data across FSA applications. This will result in to countless other system-related issues and possible denial of service for these mission-critical applications. Federal Student Aid anticipates continued use of these products and requires ongoing maintenance support.