JA_NGIC_Timeline_SW_Support.pdf

NGIC Timeline Software Support

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JUSTIFICATION & APPROVALS FOR FAR SUBPART 16.5

ACQUISITIONS

EXECEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Multiple Award Schedule / Multiple Award Contract (MAC) Orders under MAC / Fair Opportunity – FAR 16.505, DFARS 216.505-70, PGI 216.505-70

Purchase Request Number: MIPR3JDAJ06313 Contract Number: GS-06F-0529Z Task/Delivery Order Number: TBD Procurement Title: NGIC Timeline Software Support Contracting Office: Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO) / Information Technology (IT) Contracting Division – PL83 Estimated Value: $500,000.00 Authority: FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B)

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Contracting Officer, hereby approve this exception to fair opportunity pursuant to the authority of FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B).

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

Agency:

National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) 2055 Boulder Road Charlottesville, VA 22911

Contracting Activity:

Defense Information Systems Agency

DITCO

2300 East Drive, Bldg 3600 Scott AFB, IL 62225-5406

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S): Innovative Management Concepts (IMC) will perform support services for the Technology Watch Program via their GSA VETS GWAC by supporting software maintenance and functional improvements/modifications, analyst training to use the Technology Watch Tool software, and assistance with information assurance and software accreditation requirements. This will be a one-year firm fixed-price contract. Total value of the contract is estimated to be $500,000.00 and will use Operations and Maintenance funding. The estimated start date for this contract is no later than 30 September 2013.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES: IMC will provide information technology and analytical support to NGIC and other TechWatch User Group (TWUG) members in the creation, refinement, and analysis of various Process Visualizations and simulation output in the TechWatch Tool. In addition, IMC will provide software and systems engineering support

Page 2 of 5 Pages services to the NGIC and all other TWUG members in support of new releases of the TechWatch Tool and ensure the continued operation of the software, including functional and security testing.

Services to be provided to the Technology Watch Program include the following:

• Maintenance and functional modification to the Technology Watch Tool software

• Training and operating support for users of the Technology Watch Tool software

• Assistance in the Information Assurance and software accreditation processes

The Technology Watch Tool software supports a variety of customers within the Department of Defense as well as Department of Energy national labs and is a critical resource for analysis of emerging and disruptive technologies. The Technology Watch Tool software supports both U.S.

Research and Development decision strategy and threat analysis.

4. SUPPORTING RATIONALE, INCLUDING A DEMONSTRATION THAT THE

PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS OR THE NATURE OF

THE ACQUISITION REQUIRES USE OF AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY:

(a) Exception to Fair Opportunity. Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

(b) Description of the Justification. IMC is the creator of the software. The Technology Watch Tool software is a Government off-the-shelf (GOTS) product that was a written based upon NGIC specifications and is specialized to address U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) needs. There is no comparable software within the IC, the U.S.

Government, or the commercial market. Given that there is no similar software available, The Tech Watch Tool is the only software that will meet NGIC requirement. IMC developed the Tech Watch Tool software and as such is the only possible contractor that can fulfill the tasks. This has been continually researched over the last decade by frequent interactions with academia, national labs, government and industry R&D facilities, intelligence community colleagues (domestic and foreign), and prediction methodologists/experts. These interactions have shown that there is no other contractor that possesses the institutional knowledge of this specific software or possesses similar software that could meet the NGIC’s requirement. As a program manager and subject matter expert in predictive methodologies, I have actively pursued discovery of any similar software throughout the last decade and I have found none. I have talked to/briefed thousands of people across the broad spectrum of expertise mentioned above, and no one has ever indicated that something similar is being done or has been written anywhere else.

(c) The original software development (GOTS) contract was awarded via full and open competition to IMC in 2002. Since that time, three sole-source awards to IMC were completed from 2004-2011 using the GSA VETS GWAC contract vehicle. In 2011, the contract was sole-sourced to IMC through the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command contracting office, with the first option year of the contract ending on 31 March

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2013. The second option year of the contract was not exercised because of sequestration.

There were no contract funds available at that time.

(d) Justification:

(1) Minimum Government requirements. NGIC is responsible for providing timeline estimates for the emergence of new capabilities, and the Technology Watch Tool is the key enabler for NGIC’s timeline analysis. The previous contract expired during the height of sequestration, preventing NGIC to apply contract funds to exercise an option year on the previous contract. Lack of contractor support for the software since 31 March 2013 has hindered NGIC’s ability to fully satisfy its organizational mission requirements.

(2) Proposed sole source contractor. IMC (via their GSA VETS GWAC) is the proposed contractor for this effort. IMC has been the only contractor for the past 11 years developing, writing, and refining the Technology Watch Tool software and is thus in a unique position to fulfill the requirements of this contract. IMC is the only contractor with the institutional knowledge of this software. This institutional knowledge is necessary in order to operate and maintain the Technology Watch Tool.

(3) Discussion regarding cause of the sole source situation. Multiple factors have contributed to this sole source situation:

IMC created software (GOTS) specifically for NGIC/IC needs. The previous contract expired during the height of sequestration, preventing NGIC to apply contract funds to exercise an option year on the previous contract. Replacing IMC would entail a lengthy and costly process. There are hundreds of thousands of lines of code, if not over a million lines that are specific to this software in which a new contractor would have to learn. Presuming a line-by-line review of the software, the time estimate for gaining knowledge and understanding of the software is 4-8 years, with an estimated cost of $800K - $1.6 million. In addition, the contractor would need to assist the government in re-accreditation of the software, which was interrupted when the contract ended. The software would likely have to be pulled from the network (defined as a mission failure) due to the inability to complete re-accreditation of the software in a timely fashion (i.e., within the next 4 months) because the new contractor would still be trying to learn the code. Thus they would be unable to assist government information assurance personnel in understanding the inner workings of the software. The information assurance personnel at NGIC tried to continue the re-accreditation effort for the software after IMC left at the end of March, and they are still nowhere near a deep understanding of the inner workings of the software. The estimate of time and cost (i.e., 4-8 years) is conservative, but there is no industry benchmark that exists to further define the challenge NGIC would face by going to someone other than the original developer. It would be a long and expensive process. Given the size of the software program, the monetary cost for a new contractor to be conversant/knowledgeable with the software would be $1 million or more and would take 4-8 years of effort. The time cost associated with such an action is unacceptable to NGIC’s mission requirements. NGIC is responsible

Page 4 of 5 Pages for providing timeline estimates for the emergence of new capabilities, and the Technology Watch Tool is the key enabler for NGIC’s timeline analysis.

(4) Demonstration of unique source. IMC created this software. The Technology Watch

Tool software was written based upon NGIC specifications and is specialized to address U.S. IC needs. There is no comparable software within the IC, the U.S.

Government, or the commercial market, as already described above. IMC has participated in the design of the process and software implementation from the beginning of the program and is the only contractor that possesses this unique institutional knowledge and NGIC’s analytic forecasting process. IMC has created a training program, supported training on using the software, and provided customer support to realize the operational capability of the software.

(5) Procurement discussion.

• Support for the software ended on 31 March 2013 due to the inability to secure funds in the middle of sequestration. In addition, the software provides unique enabling capabilities to NGIC’s mission responsibility to assess future capability emergence, so it is critical that the appropriate software support is obtained quickly.

• The initial contract to develop the Technology Watch Tool software itself was a full and open competition. The maintenance follow-on support of the Technology Watch Tool Software has since been sole sourced to IMC due to IMC’s status as a Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and the extreme high time/cost associated with getting another contractor up-to-speed.

(6) Impact: Replacing the current contractor, IMC, would entail lengthy and costly process. It would cause undue delay and administrative costs. The learning curve for a new contractor would be steep as there are hundreds of thousands of lines of code within the software that would have to be learned by any new contractor, which would cause a significant delay for this mission-critical capability. Given the size of the software program, the monetary cost for a new contractor to be conversant/knowledgeable with the software would be $1 million or more and would take 4-8 years of effort. The time cost associated with such an action is unacceptable to NGIC’s mission requirements. NGIC is responsible for providing timeline estimates for the emergence of new capabilities, and the Technology Watch Tool is the key enabler for NGIC’s timeline analysis.

5. COST/PRICE FAIR AND REASONABLE DETERMINATION: The Contracting Officer will obtain certified cost or pricing data, in accordance with FAR 15.403-4 and will use this information to determine fair and reasonableness. After completion of negotiations, a Certificate of Current Cost or Pricing Data will be obtained.

6. MARKET RESEARCH: Market research for this proposed contract was conducted and provided no evidence that any other contractors exist that could maintain and service the Technology Watch Tool software. The market research conducted looked at three widely-used

Page 5 of 5 Pages contract vehicles--ITES 2S, Encore II, and GSA VETS GWAC. These vehicles were researched because they contain the categories of labor that are appropriate for this task. The research was conducted in November 2012. The GSA VETS GWAC was chosen since IMC is a contractor under this GWAC and that it is a vehicle for service-disabled veteran owned small businesses.

Further, it is the same contract vehicle that has been used previously for this effort. In order to establish other possible vendors to support the Technology Watch Tool software, NGIC is continuously searching for any other software that is similar to Technology Watch Tool. NGIC has not found a software capability that performs the unique, specialized functions found within the Technology Watch Tool or that has similar functionalities that would be of value to the NGIC in timeline calculations, e.g., explicit sourcing capture/linking, triangular time calculation, probability distributions and cumulative probabilities, Technology Readiness Level mapping, and collaborative analysis enabling features. As such, NGIC’s experience and market research indicates that IMC is the only vendor that is currently capable of performing the functions required in a timely, cost-effective manner for the government.

7. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: Not applicable

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

THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY: The initial contract to develop the Technology Watch Tool software itself was solicited via full and open competition.

The maintenance follow-on support of the Technology Watch Tool Software has since been sole sourced to IMC due to, IMC’s status as a SDVOSB and the extreme high time/cost associated with getting another contractor up-to-speed. NGIC will continue to perform market research with the goal of conducting full and open competition in the next contract award.

9. REFERENCE TO THE APPROVED ACQUISITION PLAN (AP): Not applicable.