Brand_Name_Justification_MacBook.pdf

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

I. IDENTIFICATION OF AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY

Agency:

Contracting Activity:

General Services Administration

Office of the CIO

1800 F Street NW Washington, DC 20405

General Services Administration

Central Office Contracting Division

1800 F Street NW

Washington, DC 20405

II. NATURE AND DESCRIPTION OF ACTION BEING APPROVED

In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1(c) for items peculiar to one manufacturer, the General Services Administration (GSA) intends to award a purchase contract for items peculiar to one manufacturer. The basis for limiting the sources for this acquisition is due to the brand name requirement of Apple/Mac.

III. DESCRIPTION OF REQUIRED SERVICES

In accordance with agency objectives and its unique purpose compatibility with existing GSA equipment, the government has a need to procure the following items:

Part No. Description Qty

MD761A3 MacBook Air, 13.3-inch 1.7GHz dual-Core Intel Core i7 15

S3141LUA AppleCare for/MacBook 15

MB570A Mini displayPort to DVI adapter (MB57OZ/B 15

IV. IDENTIFICATION OF STATUTORY AUTHORITY

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is implemented by FAR

6.302-1. The rationale for this justification is based on FAR 6.302-1(c), which pertains to limiting sources for items peculiar to one manufacturer. A brand name item, whether available on one or more schedule contracts, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer. Brand name specifications shall not be used unless the particular brand name, product, or feature is essential to the

Government's requirements, and market research indicates other companies' similar products, or products lacking the particular feature, do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet, the agency's needs.

V. DEMONSTRATON THAT THE ACQUISITION REQUIRES USE OF THE AUTHORITY

CITED

The White House initiative, Project Storm, that GSA has the responsibility for has solicited and hired 47 people known as leaders in their respective fields to solve specific problems that are well known within the Federal Government. This group falls under a Federal Program known as the

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Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIFs). GSA's role is to manage and support this group with resources such as office space, clearances, and electronic equipment to include a development environment and software.

Some of their work involves process changes and application development for new web and mobile apps. The web applications and mobile apps will need to be accessed by all devices-smartphones, ipads, iphones, computers, etc. The purpose of this waiver is specific to the development platform. The Dell windows platform was considered, but does not offer the same capability and functionality as that when compared to the Mac OSX platform. The Linux platform was also considered, but is limited in tools to support cross-platform development. The same limitation applies to the Windows platform.

The nature of the development work to be done by the PIFs involves the creation of web applications and smart phone apps that can be created only on the Mac OS X platform. These web applications and smart phone applications must be compiled, tested, and delivered in final form on Mac OS X devices and on iOS which are Apple/Mac proprietary products. No other operating system other than the Mac OS X can support this effort.

The Mac OSX is the only platform that meets the requirements for the development environment for the Presidential Innovations Fellows.

VI. DESCRIPTION OF EFFORTS TO SOLICIT AS MANY OFFERS AS PRACTICABLE

Fair opportunity will be given to Apple resellers with the specific product. The requirement will be posted to FedBizOpps in an effort to increase competition among the authorized resellers.

VII. DEMONSTRATION THAT THE ANTICIPATED COST WILL BE FAIR AND

REASONABLE

The price will be determined fair and reasonable based on competition among the Apple resellers.

VIII.DESCRIPTION OF MARKET SURVEY CONDUCTED

Apple products are not Trade Agreement Act compliant and are not available on GSA Schedules.

The Trade Agreements Act (19 U.S.C. 2501, at seq.) provides the authority for the President to waive the Buy American Act and other discriminatory provisions for eligible products from countries that have signed an international trade agreement with the United States, or that meet certain other criteria, such as being a least developed country. The value of the acquisition is a determining factor in the applicability of trade agreements and this acquisition is far below the $203,000 threshold for the WTO-GPA. TAA does not apply to this acquisition because it is below the $203,000 threshold.

An independent market survey was completed by the Government to determine the potential retail price of the equipment. Reference IGE:

IX. OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION

None

X. LIST OF SOURCES THAT EXPRESSED AN INTEREST IN THE ACQUISTION:

Sterling Computers 1508 Square Turn Blvd Norfolk, NE 68701 Phone: 800-916-1030 Fax: 402-379-2855

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MNJ Technologies 107E Busch Parkway Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 (877) 665-4681

Mac Business Solutions

9057 Gaither Road

Gaithersburg, MD 20877

(301) 590-2555

XI. STATEMENT OF ACTIONS TO OVERCOME THE BARRIERS TO COMPETITION

None

XII. CONTRACTING OFFICER'S CERTIFICATION

I hereby certify that the information contained in this Justification and Approval for Other Than Full and Open Competition for acquiring Oracle products for the GSA is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief and is in the best interest of the Government.

APPROVAL:

Date 7/26/2013 Carolyn U Turner

Contracting Officer (H1E)

PROGRAM OFFICIAL:

Signature and Print Name:

Date

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