JA for KT FileShare_Redacted.pdf

Justification and Approval (J&A) for Other Than Full and Open Competition

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 2 of 5

I. Agency and Contracting Activity.

771st Enterprise Sourcing Squadron, 1940 Allbrook Dr., Bldg 1, Room 300, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433

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

The 771st Enterprise Sourcing Squadron (771 ESS) is seeking the approval of a J&A for the issuance of multiple task orders off GSA over the next three years to Vana Solutions, LLC ("Vana") for the continued development of the KT Fileshare (KTFS) contract filing system. This action is a follow-on to the procurement strategy to FA800317D0001, an IDIQ. Issuance of task orders over the next three years will provide flexibility and support for both software development and Helpdesk services for the KT FilesShare tool. The Helpdesk support will be firm fixed-price and the development effort will be Time and Materials in accordance with VANA's GSA contract 47QSWA18D008C. Both efforts support Air Force contracting offices in both CONUS and OCONUS locations for the period of 24 August 2020 through 20 August 2023.

III. Description of supplies/services required to meet agency needs (including the estimated value).

KT FileShare is an electronic contract management system which allows access to contract files from remote locations (vital to teleworking arrangements). Utilized by over 200 contracting offices throughout the AF, it shortens the acquisition time-line by enabling electronic coordination on critical documents from all parties involved in the acquisition process. In conjunction with our contract writing systems it allows for the obligation of billions of dollars in contract actions to stay on schedule even when Acquisition personnel are not able to be in the office.

The effort consists of both Help desk support and low-rate development. Help desk support will keep the tool up and running for over 5000 users and address issues the users encounter. The development piece will bring additional features to the tool to include system wide searches to support Business Intelligence and Category Management.

In addition Air Force Installation Contracting Center will begin initial interfaces with CON-IT to automatically pull documentation from the contract writing system into the Official Contract.

With the period of performance for this requirement being 3 years, with an estimated inflation rate of 2.5%, that brings the estimated value to . The original value was but an additional was added to the development Independent Government Estimate to factor in future help desk support that will be needed as the rest of the AF (additional 1500 users) migrate to KTFS. Those number factored together is the sum of the estimated contract cost valuing .

IV. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

The Competition in Contracting Act (CICA) at 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2) and required by FAR 6.303-2(b)(4), states when supplies or services required by the agency are available from a limited number of responsible sources and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for.

V. Demonstration that the contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited above (applicability of authority).

The incumbent contractor, Vana has been the sole developer of KTFS from proof of concept and product development to initial fielding and cloud deployment under the 8(a) program. For the past five (5) years, Vana has developed KTFS and has the unique knowledge and skills required to support thousands of current users around the globe while also bringing additional capability and integration with other systems without degrading mission performance. The contractor's highly specialized skills and unique knowledge span four (4) key areas; 1) KT FileShare system and domain knowledge; 2) SharePoint client-side development; 3) AF Cloud environment; and 4) DevSecOps processes.

As the developer of KTFS, the contractor not only has a deep technical understanding of the system, but specialized knowledge of the electronic contract file requirements and significant insights in the contracting domain gained over several years working with the users. KTFS has multiple business workflows built into it and many of them are just starting to

March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 3 of 5 be further refined. The contractor has been involved with the creation of the backlog and has a detailed understanding where the AF intends to go with these workflows and what changes need to be made to the application to implement the new workflows. In addition, KTFS is a centralized single application site that manages multiple SharePoint features, capabilities, and multifaceted security structures across hundreds of sites; the complexity requires highly specialized skills.

The contractor has specialized skills in developing SharePoint client-based application in the USAF environment as well as the unique implementation of AF Office 365 (O365) to include security, restrictions, and limitations.

KTFS will begin integration with the AF Contracting Information Technology (CON-IT), the Air Force's contract writing system, in October 2020 in order to provide a complete, fully integrated, contract management solution throughout the Air Force. Integrating KTFS with other systems requires knowledge and expertise of not only KTFS, but AF Cloud environments, and data. Vana is the only business with detailed knowledge of KTFS and expertise in AF O365 and the AF CloudOne environments. Vana has successfully migrated and developed in these complex AF environments. System knowledge and cloud expertise are critical to successfully integrating with other systems and developing and deploying new capabilities.

Vana's DevSecOps framework for KTFS includes unique processes such as epicAgile ™ and highly specialized tools such as vTumia ™ that gives them the ability to implement continuous integration and continuous development efficiently. The KTFS government team has experienced this first-hand as Vana's has successfully demonstrated rapid capabilities development and deployment with consistent battle rhythm. The contractor's unique set of experiences along with their DevSecOps framework has been one of the key reasons for the rapid advancement of the solution in the AF.

Losing the highly specialized skills and productivity enabled by Vana's technologies and tools would result in a significant impact to the government in terms of both cost and schedule (estimated at 6 months) and capabilities that would not be recovered by the benefits of competition. These estimates are based on the capabilities of the companies that responded to the sources sought, but would also hold true for any new contractor taking over in the middle a software development program.

KTFS Development: development cost for KTFS to date is approximately . It is estimated that a new contractor would take approximately six months to learn the code as it is currently built, and come up to speed on contracting processes (this delay is valued at ). Additionally, it is estimated that a new contractor could potentially re-write up to 20% of the current code to fit within their processes and way of development which is estimated to cost an additional for a total cost avoidance amount of in terms of Cost and Schedule.

KTFS Help Desk: A new contractor would be required to issue, at a minimum, a six-month subcontract to Vana for reach back support for Level III help-desk issues until the new contractor was able to fully support the 5000 KTFS users. The estimated cost of the subcontract is .

It is anticipated that KTFS will be integrated with CON-IT by the summer of 2023, at which time it is assumed that the CON-IT program office will take ownership of any future costs.

Approval of this J&A would allow the AF to meet the Office of Management and Budget directive M-19-21 requiring the transition to electronic records with the goal of filing all temporary records electronically by 31 Dec 2022.

VI. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under

FAR 5.202 applies.

A Sources Sought was posted on 2 July 2020 to BetaSam.gov. The Sources Sought requested the capability statements of 8(a) vendors and also requested information on whether they possessed highly specialized skills and unique knowledge in the following key areas; 1) KT FileShare system and domain knowledge; 2) SharePoint client-side development; 3) USAF Cloud environment; and 4) DevSecOps processes. Capabilities statements from 7 vendors were received. None of the vendors possessed an in depth knowledge of all four areas. See section VIII, for further information and results of the market research/sources sought.

A Notice of Proposed Contract Action (NOCA) is required and was posted on 12 August 2020.

March 2020 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 5 of 5

XI. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required.

Once KT FileShare is fully developed and integrated with CON-IT, the organization will work to combine Level 1 and 2 help desk support for KTFS with the CON-IT help desk to drive cost savings. Once combined, the scope of the work will be broad enough that we will be able to look for other possible sources of help desk support to include possible in-sourcing with Government Personnel. Level III help desk support would continue to be provided by the developers of both systems.

XII. Certification by the Contracting Officer.

As evidenced by my signature above, I have determined this document to be both accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

XIII. Certification by the technical/requirements personnel.

As evidenced by our signatures above, we certify that any supporting data contained herein, which is our responsibility, is both accurate and complete.