Limited Source Justification - NWS Web and Data Services_redacted.pdf

Version 3.0

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN ORDER EXCEEDING

THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

(AUTHORITY: FAR 8.405-6)

NWWY0000-20-00086

This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

1. Agency and contracting activity. Department of Commerce, NOAA Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), Eastern Acquisition Division (EAD), National Weather Service (NWS), Office of Water Prediction (OWP).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This is a limited source justification to award a new task order for support services previously provided under Contract number DG133W10CQ0049 task order T0028 awarded to Systems Integrated Development Inc. herein after SID. The new award will be a single task order issued against General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) GS-35F-541GA.

This task order will be a Time and Materials (T&M) type order with fixed labor rates for Web and Data Services Development and Maintenance and Dissemination support.

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

OWP requires support services to assist in monitoring, maintenance, troubleshooting, and support of the current web pages and services along with development of new functionality for its Web and Data Services Development and Dissemination services. These support services assist OWP in the provisioning of “water” information generated by NOAA’s water forecast and information program via web sites and data services. This water information is used by a wide variety of people, including water managers, emergency managers, and the public to make critical decisions on a daily basis. OWP requires contractor support in the following task activities to enhance, maintain, and support multiple web services, hosted by OWP National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), NCEP Central Operations (NCO). The support services are critical to help ensure the OWP and Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS) web services are functional 24x7x365 in coordination with other NWS support organizations. Currently the work involves coordination with the NCO and Office of Central Processing (OCP) Hydro Support Team.

Additionally, these support services are critical to OWP’s ability to develop and implement flood inundation map libraries for selected river locations coordinating with NWS HQ and field offices, Federal, state and/or local government agencies, and other contractors in support of the mission to protect life and property and to enhance the nation’s economy.

The total estimated cost of this order is and is for a six (6) month base period, one

(1) six (6) month option period, and two (2), three (3) month option period(s), which will provide for services from September 17, 2020 up to March 16, 2022.

NWWY0000-20-00086_ Web and Data Services Development

4. Authority and supporting rationale. The following circumstance justifies limiting the source as supported below:

Only one source under the authority of 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.

As stated above, SID currently provides the support for Web and Data Services Development, Maintenance and Dissemination support under Contract DG133W10CQ0049 Task Order T0028 under the Agency’s Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) NOAALink Contract Vehicle. This vehicle is a mandatory source for all Information Technology (IT) requirements.

The NOAALink Contract and all Task Orders are set to expire on September 16, 2020 and the replacement contract is not yet awarded. Consequently, due to the delays beyond the control of OWP and EAD, waiting to award the follow-on task order on NMITS Contract will not be feasible before the expiration of the current task order. Therefore, it was determined that a bridge is required to allow enough time for this requirement to be awarded on the pending NOAALink follow-on NMITS.

At this time SID is the only contractor that possesses the necessary qualifications, supplies, and personnel to satisfy the Government’s requirements, in the necessary timeframe and without significant interruption to NWS operations and mission until completion of the full and open competition for continuation of contractor support services to OWP, under the NMITS Contract.

SID provides daily support for the AHPS suite of web services at http://water.weather.gov and support for the National Water Model (NWM), which is a high-value and high-impact decision-making system comprised of a set of prediction tools used across a broad range of water-management and emergency management sectors. The support services provided by SID are instrumental to the transition of those services from legacy NWS equipment to the Integrated Dissemination Platform (IDP). This activity is highlighted as a milestone in the NWS Annual Operating Plan and the continuity of services is essential to sustaining the availability and integrity of the NWS, OWP and NWC mission. A disruption in these services could inhibit the NWS in its ability to provide weather, water and climate data, forecasts and warnings for the protection of life and property and enhancement of the national economy.

Furthermore, SID is uniquely positioned to continue to provide specialized technical support services for OWP without disruption or delays by ensuring timely support of disseminating hydrologic forecasts watches and warnings via web and data services. Having another vendor perform these critical services for a short time frame would require multiple transition periods, which substantially increases the risks that NWS web site(s) (and related data services) would not contain the timely hydrologic forecasts and warnings products from NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) and River Forecast Centers (RFCs), which are utilized to make critical decisions on a daily basis for the protection of life and property. If the bridge isn’t awarded to SID, the 24x7x365 support and the coordination with other NWS support organizations activities could also be severely impacted, as these they are critical to OWP’s ability to develop and implement flood inundation map libraries for selected river locations coordinating with NWS HQ and field offices, Federal, state and local government agencies.

A follow-on acquisition is currently in process for a longer term solution under the mandatory NMITS Contract Domain that is anticipated to be awarded in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021 to include a base period of one (1) year and four (4) one-year option periods.

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

The Contracting Officer determines that the anticipated price(s) will be fair and reasonable based on the information contained in the procurement history, comparable contracts and other available price information. Prior to the award of the task order a price analysis will be performed and documented to sufficiently determine that the price will be fair and reasonable. Additionally, the Government will be seeking additional discounts from the GSA MAS rates. The Government will be providing an estimated number of labor hours for each labor category, along with the minimum qualifications; therefore, an analysis of the level of effort and labor mix is not appropriate as described at FAR 8.405-2(d).

6. Market research conducted among schedule holders (or reason market research was not conducted).

Market research was not conducted as a limited source task order with SID is determined to be the only acceptable way to meet the Government’s needs. SID was deemed the best value when the original requirement was competed and is capable of providing the required services in the required timeframe without significant interruption to NWS operations and mission.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification.

All factors have been documented in the above sections. There are no additional factors to be reported in this section.

8. Actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for supplies and services is made.

The Government will conduct thorough market research and will seek competition of future acquisitions for the Web and Data services development support through the mandatory NIMITS Contract which is anticipated to be awarded in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021. Once available, this requirement will be competed using the fair opportunity procedures among all qualified contractors within the NMITS Domain.

9. Technical/Requirements Representative Certification.

I certify that this requirement constitutes the Government’s minimum needs and the supporting data provided herein is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Contracting Officers Representative

10. Office of General Counsel Concur.

Office of General Counsel

11.

Contracting Officer’s Certification and Approval I certify this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Contracting Officer

12. Approval for Justifications >$700k.

NOAA Competition Advocate:

NOAA Competition Advocate