SkillSoft_JOFOC.pdf

Control No. 2019-WHS-0173

JUSTIFICATION FOR LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION (LSJ)

UNDER FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION FAR SUBPART 8.4

1. AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY: The Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), Human Resource Directorate (HRD).

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION: WHS is currently using the Skillsoft Content Library to provide Government standard courses and training to the WHS Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) service population. HRD is seeking to renew their existing Skillsoft Content Library Licenses for the WHS Learning Management System (LMS). This will be a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract on the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS). HRD is seeking approval to allow WHS to purchase Skillsoft Content Library Licenses from Skillsoft. This purchase will allow WHS to provide ongoing training and support including mandatory compliance training to their employees via LMS. The type of funds that will be used will be O&M.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

The Skillsoft Complete Courseware Collection includes courseware is a suite of learning assets that will provide WHS employees with powerful tools to support formal and informal learning, allowing them to keep pace with the constant changes in business and technology.

This procurement will maintain the total number of active SkillSoft courseware licenses available to WHS for 5,000 users.

• Business Skills - Containing more than 900 learning assets, the Business Skills Courseware Collection provides learning assets for professionals, offering support for the broad variety of skills that organizations need to develop internal competencies. Business skills courses employ a variety of instructional strategies to engage learners with high levels of interaction.

This collection also addresses key business certifications, including PMI's Project Management Professional. In addition to Courses recommended to prepare for a Certification, a curriculum will include Online Mentoring for immediate assistance and Testpreps, which mirror Vendor Exams. Many Skillsoft courses are also eligible for Professional Development Units to maintain popular certifications such as PMI, Six Sigma.

Many Skillsoft courses are also eligible for academic credit for University of Phoenix, George Mason University, and Drexel University.

• IT Skills - Containing more than 1,900 courses, this collection facilitates the creation of specialized solutions around leading technologies, IT initiatives, and evolving job roles and competencies. Skillsoft has forged partnerships with leading IT companies to develop content covering the industry’s most popular products and technologies. The IT Skills courseware collection encompasses award winning courseware, reference tools, simulations, live mentoring, assessments, and test and certification preparation. The IT solution accommodates varying IT training requirements including functional solution approaches or vendor-specific hardware and software training and allows organizations to validate knowledge by supporting the attainment of key industry certifications. SkillSoft’s IT solution supports more than eighty different professional certification exams from leading software, hardware, networking, and web service companies.

• Productivity and Collaboration Collection -This collection provides on-the-spot and in-depth training for the applications, operating systems, and devices most used by today’s organizations. It is designed to meet different learning styles through multi-modal assets, including video-based courses and eBooks. Realistic examples facilitate learning and aid in task demonstration. Course exercises support the application of key concepts while end of course assessments evaluate retention of key concepts.

• Legal Compliance - Legal Compliance Collection provides over 200 courses with subject matter that focuses on the specific information that employees need to meet the intent of the applicable law, statute or case precedent. It includes federally focused topics for all of the Federal Government Curricula.

Performance of Performance

Performance Period Dates

Amount

Base Period 9/25/2019 - 9/24/2020 $144,450

Option Period I 9/25/2020 - 9/24/2021 $148,050

Option Period II 9/25/2021 - 9/24/2022 $151,750

Base Plus All Options $444,250

4. CIRCUMSTANCES JUSTIFYING LIMITED SOURCES : This action is authorized under provisions 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.

Sole sourcing the development and hosting support for iCompass LMS is the best approach for the following reasons:

Currently, WHS has an contract with SkillSoft Corporation to provide user licenses for the Skillport 8i OLSA Content Deployment Platform, Complete Courseware Collection, Business, IT, Productivity/Collaboration courseware collections and Skilport Legal Compliance Collection.

a) SkillSoft is the developer of the content and library and is the current provider of said content to the federal government.

b) SkillSoft content has been mapped to the DoD Leadership Competencies to assist in developing a competent DoD Leadership team.

c) The software content that SkillSoft offers is proprietary.

This courseware collection is essential to WHS as it is used to support all Federally mandated e-learning and training requirements. Furthermore, this would cause a disruption to e-learning and training activities currently underway or planned for the near future.

5. BEST VALUE DETERMINATION: The Contracting Officer hereby determined this action represents the best value to the Government in that

6. MARKET RESEARCH: Market research revealed the following competitors to SkillSoft:

Pluralsight, Linkedln Learning, Oracle Talent Management Cloud, Udacity, Infosec Flex, CBT Nuggets, Coursera for Business and Cornerstone Content Suite.

None of the above mentioned competitors offers the a courseware package that’s works in conjunction with the LMS system.

7. OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: N/A

8. ACTIONS TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS THAT LEAD TO THE

RESTRICTED CONSIDERATION BEFORE ANY SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION

FOR THE SUPPLIES OR SERVICES IS MADE: : In the future we can solicit these other vendors and see if any other courseware can work with the LMS system for a seamless transition.

9. If this acquisition if for new work as a logical follow-on to on original Federal Supply Schedule (FSS), was the original order was placed under the FSS ordering procedures?

☐Yes, the original acquisition was issued on a competitive basis.

☒No, a copy of the previous justification is attached18. The actions to remove any barriers to competition cited on the previous justification ☐ were ☒ were not completed19. Since the courseware package is proprietary to SkillSoft and no other manufacture could satisfy the governments need.

CERTIFICATION

I, hereby, certify that the supporting data under my cognizance included in this justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.