JA Unsoliciated Proposal 15Jul20.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS SERVICES

ACQUISITION DIRECTORATE

1155 Defense Pentagon

Washington DC 20301-1155

Control No. WHS-2020-WHS-145

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

Agency:

The Department of Defense (DoD), The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)

Personnel and Readiness (P&R)-Close Combat Lethality Task Force (CCLTF)

Contracting Activity:

The Department of the Defense (DoD)

Washington Headquarters Services (WHS)

Acquisition Directorate (AD)

2. DESCRIPTION OF ACTION: Military Wellness Initiative (MWi) submitted an unsolicited proposal to WHS/AD to provide an innovative and unique concept to support

The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), Close Combat Lethality Task Force

(CCLTF). The unsolicited proposal was contained in two volumes; an initial proposal dated October 25, 2019, an Addendum dated December 20, 2019, June 15, 2020, and July

03, 2020. The proposal and addendums are considered the unsolicited proposal that is the subject of this J&A.

WHS/AD proposes to issue a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract to the Military Wellness

Initiative (MWi) without using full and open competition in the total amount of $18M utilizing Fiscal Year (FY) 20 funds with a period of performance of a base period of twelve months with two-twelve month option periods, totaling thirty-six months from contract start date. Based on the submitted proposal, the base year award is expected to be $6M.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES: The Close Combat Lethality Task Force

(CCLTF) is focused on improving lethality and survivability for the Department’s Close

Combat forces at the lowest tactical level. Upon investigation, it was found that 90 percent of the casualties in the Department occur in only 4 percent of the force and they receive less than 1 percent of the funding of the Department. To improve their lethality and survivability, a thorough sensing of current problems experienced generally by force members was undertaken. During that sensing, it was discovered that both the Army and the Marine Corps struggle to keep their infantry squads manned to levels that would ensure overmatch against a peer competitor on the modern battlefield. CCLTF established an effort to better care for close combat Soldiers and their families to help keep their squads fully manned and ready for battle. This requirement focuses on the individual’s personnel’s mental, physical and fiscal health to ensure the individual

Soldier and Marine is resilient, thereby helping squads to be fully manned with ready

Soldiers and leaders.

Therefore, the Military Wellness Initiative (MWi) has created a platform capable of building community, measuring engagement, and generating expert content establishing the conditions for sustainable behavior change and creating a complete digital ecosystem that enhances and extends the efforts and resources of other organizations like the

Department of Defense (DOD). By leveraging mature technologies, proven solutions and existing infrastructure, MWi proposes to serve as a complete digital ecosystem that is both responsive and adaptive to community needs and desired outcomes. Ultimately this will lead to the increased utilization of existing resources, improving military readiness, and reducing expenditures on behavior-related health issues.

DOD’s Close Combat Lethality Task Force (CCLTF) is focused on human factors and how improvements to a service member’s capacity and resiliency can translate into reliable competitive advantage on the battlefield. Effective implementation of MWi’s platform and community would not only improve recruiting and readiness, but also contribute to more effective utilization of eligible resources and help individuals and groups better understand the benefits of service.

Furthermore, MWi proposes to establish 54 unique State and territory online communities of military and veteran (milVet) members, their family members and their support networks. Each community will have unique website landing pages and unique social community pages. These communities will be connected through various digital technologies that will allow for tailorable content to be provided to the milVet customers at a time, place and modality of their choice. Content will be generated, data will be collected and analyzed to understand and provide better service to the needs of the individual milVet community.

Period of Performance Performance Period Dates Amount

Base Period 17 July 2020-16 Jul 2021 $6M

Option I 17 July 2021-16 Jul 2022 $6M

Option II 17 July 2022-16 Jul 2022 $6M

Base + All Options $18M

4. AUTHORITY CITED: This action is authorized under provisions of 10 U.S.C.

2304(c)(1)as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1(a)(2)(i)(A).

When the supplies or services required by the agency are available from only one responsible source, or, for DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard, from only one or 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 Supplies or services may be considered to be available from only one source if the source has submitted an unsolicited research proposal that- Demonstrates a unique and innovative concept, or, demonstrates a unique capability of the source to provide the particular research services proposed.

5. REASON FOR AUTHORITY CITED:

MWi’s proposal demonstrates an innovative concept that provides a unique ability to link and integrate milVets to the more than 45,000 organizations that exist to support them.

MWi is built on an adaptive, technology-agnostic system architecture to facilitate integration with all systems and service providers, drive real-time feedback, and intelligently build a digital engagement platform that meets members on their own terms.

The ecosystem generates curated content and information of the deepest relevance possible to both the community and individual member, and provides a means for public and private sponsors to design campaigns to achieve specific outcomes and monitor progress toward those objectives. MWi would establish 54 state- and territory-based communities, driving a level of digital engagement that does not currently exist within

DOD. The result is improved behavior-related outcomes for members and an entirely new and continuously growing and evolving data set to better inform future policy and programmatic decisions for public sponsors.

CCLTF requirement to improve readiness of close combat units and create a way to identify, track, inform and improve the lives of the milVet community from cradle to grave. MWi is the only organization the CCLTF was able to identify that is developing the capability to reduce suicide through a holistic approach which leverages mature technologies, proven solutions, and existing infrastructure which can be provided at scale.

Access to MWi provides substantial and immediately available data to target members of the milVet community at risk and provide them the tools to survive their current circumstances. Task and Purpose recently reported that an average of 22 Veterans commit suicide every day. MWi has already begun to develop the milVet Ecosystem and provides access to over 16 million people in the milVet Ecosystem and the government currently doesn’t have access. This data as well as future data collected will provide the government behavior based information that would otherwise require much more funding and time to develop independently. Every day MWi is not resourced represents 22 lives that might have been saved.

During research into approaches to improve the resilience and thereby retention of close combat forces. MWi presented the results of a pilot program they conducted in 2019.

The CCLTF recognized the results were a success. MWi’s innovative approach of creating milVet communities and providing them targeted content in a variety of modalities resulted in a larger data source than they anticipated. It identified a way to improve the readiness and manning of close combat units by providing a better understanding to service members and potential service members of the benefits of service. Improving access within their communities creates a better understanding of the local milVet community. This also allow for surveying the communities to better target readiness, retention and recruiting opportunities. MWi’s system provides the ability for the communities to build up the resiliency of its members by reducing isolation and promoting social interaction amongst the communities. The end result of this is improved readiness in close combat units.

In its supplemental proposal dated December 20, 2019, the offeror represented, among other things, that it will keep all client data secure, that it has no financial interest in the organizations that might be referenced to users and that the information sought from users will be limited and used only for purposes authorized under the unsolicited proposal and eventual agreement. The agreement will expressly incorporate the unsolicited proposal dated October 25, 2019 and the Addendum dated December 20, 2019.

Furthermore, any other addendums updated in the proposal will be incorporated into the contract, as well.

6. EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION:

On December 11, 2019, the Government issued a Synopsis Notice on www.beta.sam.gov to inform industry of the Government’s intent to award a sole source contract to MWi for their unsolicited proposal. The synopsis was posted on the website for 15 days and closed on December 26, 2019. Based on the synopsis posting, the Government did not receive any responses from vendors challenging the notice to issue a sole source contract to MWi or otherwise expressing an interest in the procurement.

7. FAIR AND REASONABLE COST DETERMINATION: The Government will ensure the price proposal is fair and reasonable in accordance with FAR 15.404-1, “Proposal Analysis Techniques.” Specifically, the proposed price will be compared to similar services where the contractor acts as a clearinghouse for services that meet similar agency health-related needs. These services include web-based platform, mobile application platform, content development and program management. The Government will also compare the proposed prices with prices obtained through reviewing proposed prices that MWi has proposed and provided for same/similar services.

8. MARKET RESEARCH:

Market research has been limited to the synopsis notice that was described above for 15 days seeking for potential sources.

9. OTHER FACTS: Building milVet communities across the country by MWi will increase the number of citizens willing to serve, increase the performance and resiliency of soldiers while they serve and reduce the chances of suicide before, during and after service. Additionally, the impact of not resourcing the MWi contract will also continue to undermine manning and performance of close combat squads in the Army and Marine

Corps. The contract is for a base year plus options. If the Government is dissatisfied with the services or results the Government’s liability is limited to the base year only.

http://www.beta.sam.gov/

10. INTERESTED SOURCES: There are no interested sources. As previously mentioned above, no vendors challenged the Synopsis Notice to issue a sole source to MWi.

11. ACTIONS TO INCREASE COMPETITION: This effort is an unsolicited proposal that was submitted to the Government by MWi for review and consideration of a potential sole source contract award in accordance with FAR

Subpart 15.6-Unsolicited Proposals.

Is this acquisition for a non-competitive follow-on acquisition previously awarded on a non-competitive basis?

☐Yes. A copy of the previous justification is attached. The actions to remove any barriers to competition cited on the previous justification ☐ were ☐ were not completed

[Must include explanation of why the answer is “no”].

☐No. The original acquisition was conducted on a competitive basis.

☒Not Applicable. This is a new requirement.

CERTIFICATION

CONTRACTING OFFICER: 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.

July 07, 2020

Contracting Officer Date

CONTRACTING OFFICER REPRESENTATIVE: I certify that the facts and representation under my cognizance which are included in this justification and which form a basis for this justification are complete and accurate.

July 08, 2020

Contracting Officer Representative Date

CONCURRENCE

Base on the foregoing, I hereby concur with this justification and recommend for approval.

Digitally signed by KAO.DAVID.HOBERT.1112172870 Date: 2020.07.15 14:44:47 -04'00'

David H. Kao, Competition Advocate Date

APPROVAL

Based on the foregoing, this justification is, approved.

Digitally signed by

SANDERS.DAVID.DELANO.10583

LANO.1058391596 91596

Date: 2020.07.17 14:30:37 -04'00'

David D. Sanders, Director

Acquisition Directorate

Date

KAO.DAVID.HOBERT.1112172870

SANDERS.DAVID.DE