ID02160015_-LSJ.pdf

RFQ# ID02160015

General Services Administration

Federal Acquisition Service Northeast and Caribbean Region

Limited-Sources Justification January 25, 2017

1. Description of Action:

This justification pertains to a limited-sources award of a FFP GSA FSS, IT Task Order, No.

ID02160015 to HP Enterprise Services, LLC (HPES), under BPA ID02120007, awarded under GSA FSS, contract No. GS-35F-0323J, on behalf of the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) for procurement of Middleware Support for ActivClient Middleware licenses. The order will be placed on a Firm-Fixed Price basis. The effort is to be funded with annual funds.

2. Description of Supplies or Services:

DMDC requested that GSA’s Assisted Acquisition Services (AAS) Division procure and award an order for Middleware Support Services for ActivClient middleware. The support will be provided to the Washington Headquarters Service (WHS), for its 11,300 seat licenses of ActivClient middleware. The target award date is February 22, 2017, and support would be for one year starting no later than February 27, 2017.

Estimated Costs: $40,002.00

3. Authority Cited:

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

Specifically, 8.405-6(b)(1)-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.

4. Reason for Authority Cited:

WHS currently has the middleware product ActivClient fielded across its IT environment and it has been in place for a number of years. To provide continuous vendor support of the product, the WHS is requesting purchase of support for these licenses to fulfill the annual maintenance requirement.

Since the ActivIdentity product is already fielded and operational, no other vendor product can fulfill this requirement.

No company other than the middleware manufacturer/developer is in a position to provide the services required to maintain and support these licenses. The software source code is owned and can only be modified by HID Global, the company that manufactures ActivClient middleware. A support agreement for another brand of middleware, such as Charismathics, Safenet, or AuthentXware, would not result in the successful support of ActivClient licenses. A support agreement for ActivClient middleware, similarly, would not result in the successful support of Charismathics, Safenet, nor AuthentXware middleware. Each of these middleware products is uniquely constructed and the data rights to the construction are owned by the manufacturer. Only the manufacturer of a particular middleware product is in a position to render support services for its particular product. In the case of this acquisition, the Government has already fielded 11,300 seat licenses of ActivClient to meet the merged IT requirements of WHS and OSD, and the product has been in use successfully for many years, for which only support services provided by HID Global will suffice.

Under the DMDC Multiple-Award BPA’s (issued as a result of quotes received in response to RFQ No. 02BPA97110001) through which DMDC, WHS, and other authorized agencies may acquire middleware support for ActivClient and other middleware platforms, as required, only one of four BPA holders provided a quote for ActivClient support. HPES, under BPA ID02120007, formed a Contractor Teaming Arrangement with Envoy Data Corporation to support the Government’s stated requirement for ActivClient support services.

5. Efforts to Obtain Competition

Government agencies are allowed to choose their middleware platforms, which are required to be FIPS 201 certified. Once selected, the support of those products must be obtained from the manufacturer of the middleware. The other option the Government may pursue is to forego maintenance services, but this approach inherently entails a high level of risk, in terms of maintaining security and interoperability between systems.

WHS, the intended consumer of the required support services, has successfully relied on ActivClient as its middleware since at least 2008. There is no known plan to change from ActivClient to some other platform.

There is no known effort to increase competition for the support services for a particular middleware product, as the middleware manufacturer is in the best position to provide these services.

GSA is supportive of BPA holder’s efforts to add products and services to their BPA’s and has been told by one BPA awardee, XTEC, Inc that it is pursuing the addition of ActivClient support to its BPA award, but no definitive request has been made to add ActivClient support to a BPA holder’s award, despite requests from three of the four BPA holders to modify their BPAs either for administrative reasons, or to add additional products. Requests to add items to BPAs are addressed as received, but no request has been received to add ActivClient items to one of the BPAs.

The Government is hopeful that other BPA holders, besides HPES, the holder of BPA ID02120007, are successful in their efforts to position themselves to supply the Government with ActivClient middleware support, but as of this date, no BPA holders except for HPES, are qualified to do so.

The Government has considered conducting a new acquisition, as an alternative to issuing a BPA call to HPES for the support required; however, it is unlikely that the Government will receive quotes that are as competitive in pricing as is the HPES quote, which was based on providing middleware support for multiple agencies over a five year time span.

6. Market Research

In November 2016, HPES expressed interest to provide a quote to meet the WHS requirement.

HPES was the re-seller of ActivClient middleware support services under preceding orders, including ID02140012 and ID02150026, both awarded under BPA ID02120007, which provided support from June 6, 2014 to June 5, 2015 and from September 30, 2015 to September 29, 2016, respectively Formerly, support was obtained from ITSS task number 02FL9780604, used by GSA Region 2, from 2008 to 2011, to award support services for ActivClient middleware services for DMDC and its customers. HPES was the re-seller of ActivClient middleware support services for all these orders. HPES was responsive in all cases then and as the only offeror on the BPA to respond to the Government’s stated requirement for ActivClient middleware support, remains responsive.

GSA also confirmed via market research conducted on GSA Advantage, that there were resellers of ActivClient middleware support with which other BPA holders could team, should they desire to offer ActivClient support to the Government to meet future requirements. Contractors having the specified ActivClient part on their Federal Supply Schedules include:

SOFTWARE INFORMATION RESOURCE CORP. GS-35F-0149N

ENVOY DATA CORPORATION GS-35F-0332S

Additional contractors have more generically-nomenclatured ActivClient goods and services on their FSS. It is clear that a BPA-holder that desired to compete for this requirement has a path forward to add the required goods and service to their BPA, either through their own FSS contracts, or through teaming arrangements with firms that offer ActivClient goods and services.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Pricing

The proposal is expected to match, or be better than, the rates currently quoted for support under HPES’ existing BPA vehicle, ID02120007, which have been determined to be priced fairly and reasonably. The Government will review, and use for the basis of any negotiations, previously established pricing under similar contracts for the goods proposed.

8. Interested Source

See paragraph 5, Efforts to Obtain Competition and paragraph 6, Market Research.

9. Other Facts

The previous support agreement for the WHS middleware licenses has lapsed, and this acquisition will seek a quote for the purpose of reinstating that maintenance support.

10. Contracting Officer Certification

I certify that the above information is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date: ______ Signature: ______________________ Thomas P. Corley Contracting Officer (2QSBF)