JA20-036 SDN FINAL_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION & APPROVAL (J&A) FOR FEDERAL ACQUISITION

REGULATION (FAR) SUBPART 16.5 ACQUISITIONS

EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Multiple Award Schedule/Multiple Award Contract (MAC)

Orders under MAC/ Fair Opportunity – FAR 16.505, Department of Defense (DoD) FAR Supplement 216.505-70, Procedures, Guidance and Information 216.505-70

Purchase Request Number: To Be Determined (TBD) Contract Number: HC1028-18-D-0010 Task/Delivery Order Number: TBD Procurement Title: Software Defined Network (SDN) Estimated Value:

Statutory and Regulatory Authority: 10 United States Code U.S.C. 2304c(b) and FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B)

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Number: JA20-036

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Head of the Contracting Activity, hereby approve this exception to fair opportunity pursuant to the Statutory Authority of 10 U.S.C.

2304c(b) and Regulatory Authority of FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B).

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE:

Requesting Agency:

Joint Service Provider (JSP) 1155 Defense Pentagon Washington, DC 20301-1155

Contracting Activity:

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA)/Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO) PL8311 2300 East Drive Scott Air Force Base, Illinois 62225-5406

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S): The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Program Support Center (PSC) advised in June 2019 that it is no longer able to comply with the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 (Public Law 110- 181), Section 801, “Internal Controls for Procurements on Behalf of the Department of Defense (DoD) by Certain Non-Defense Agencies”; thus, HHS PSC ceased contracting support to the DoD. The Defense Pricing and Contracting (DPC) subsequently issued waivers extending HHS’s contract administration authority through October 31, 2019. Despite ongoing negotiations with the incumbent contractor to transition the SDN contracting support to DITCO and avoid a break in service, the SDN program’s services lapsed on October 31, 2019 prior to the completion of negotiations and completion of SDN work. Although the SDN program’s services

Software Defined Network-JA20-036 have lapsed, substantial work has already been completed by the incumbent contractor and continuation of work with the incumbent is required for the Government to obtain a benefit from this effort. As such, JSP will continue work to transfer contracting support of the SDN program to DISA/DITCO, which will subsequently result in a sole-source task order to the incumbent contractor to continue the SDN program. The period of performance (PoP) for the task order includes a base period estimated to start February 10, 2020 and end on April 28, 2021 (approximately 14 months). The task order will be funded with Operations and Maintenance (O&M) funds, and will consist of a combination of fixed price and cost type line items.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES: The SDN task order provides Information Technology (IT) services and functions to research, design, build, test, and implement a consolidated, modernized SDN meeting JSP’s objectives. The scope of the SDN tasks include the following: program and performance management, enterprise architecture, emerging capabilities and requirements implementation, life cycle management, operations and maintenance, enterprise data management, and training. All services and functions are documented, managed and maintained within DoD and United States Cyber Command security standards and mandates.

JSP’s objective is to replace the current Pentagon network infrastructure with a modernized SDN solution. The contractor’s SDN solution must allow for rapid deployment and operation of the network, minimize impact to end users during deployment phases, and remain interoperable with the existing infrastructure until decommissioning. JSP seeks to dramatically decrease operational overhead and time to provision while increasing network efficiency, sustainability, network agility/flexibility, network performance, and responsiveness to malicious cyber attacks.

The estimated lifecycle cost of this

4. SUPPORTING RATIONALE, INCLUDING A DEMONSTRATION THAT THE

PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS OR THE NATURE OF THE

ACQUISITION REQUIRES USE OF AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY:

(a) Exception to Fair Opportunity. FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) – Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

(b) Description of the Justification. On September 10, 2018, HHS PSC issued HHSP233201850107A to fulfill the SDN requirement, using full and open competition.

Due to the above mentioned HHS PSC decertification under FY 2008 NDAA Section 801, HHS PSC could no longer administer the original SDN contract after October 31, 2019.

Despite continuing negotiations with the incumbent contractor to transfer the SDN program’s contracting support from HHS PSC to DISA/DITCO, a new contract was unable to be awarded prior to the October 31, 2019 deadline, thus resulting in a lapse in SDN program services prior to completion of the SDN program.

(c) Justification.

(1) Minimum Government requirements. Services for the SDN requirement must continue in order to support the JSP functional area (Architecture, Configuration, Engineering, and Solution (ACES) Center). These services include contract management and reporting, assessment and evaluation, test, implementation, and sustainment.

(2) Proposed sole source contractor. General Dynamics One Source (GDOS). The incumbent contractor, CSRA, is a subsidiary of GDOS and therefore will provide service under the GDOS ENCORE III contract.

(3) Discussion regarding cause of the sole source situation. As a result of HHS PSC ceasing further contract administrative support after October 31, 2019, HHS PSC advised it would terminate any contract with a period of performance extending past October 31, 2019. Moreover, HHS PSC advised it will not transfer the affected contracts to the DoD thereby preventing DITCO from assuming contract administration of the existing contract.

(4) Demonstration of unique source. This contractual action for the SDN requirement is a logical follow-on to the work already performed by the incumbent contractor, CSRA.

Under the contract with HHS PSC, the contractor has already executed tasks to transition-in personnel to execute the discovery and design of the SDN solution. As stated in the Performance Work Statement (PWS), upon completion of the discovery and design task, the contractor is then responsible for building and testing the SDN solution according to the detailed design created during the discovery and design task.

Therefore, the incumbent contractor is intimately familiar with the details as to how their proposed SDN solution will be executed, and they have identified sources for the required equipment and level of effort needed to execute the build and test task, as well as the implement task. Upon completion of this TO action, support for the SDN program will continue, in preparation of the implementation of full-scale production of the SDN solution within the JSP enterprise.

During the execution of the SDN program under the HHS PSC contract, prior to its lapse in services, the incumbent contractor completed several tasks from its integrated master schedule.

This SDN requirement is a new contractual action to continue work within the build and test task as well as the implement task areas of the SDN solution and ensure that the Government’s investment in tasks that were completed under the HHS PSC contract are not lost. The previous contractual action that executed the SDN transition-in and discovery and design task areas were acquired by the HHS PSC, and the PSC contract, HHSP233201850107A, has lapsed without full completion of the build and test and implement task areas. In order for the Government to fully reap the benefits from its investment into the SDN solution as described above, this new SDN contractual action must be awarded to the incumbent to complete the build and test and implement task areas and ensure the Government is able to see its investment fully realized. As such, the approval of this action will ensure the requirements and scope of work initially provided under the HHS PSC contract are not lost and can continue to achieve JSP’s mission.

The incumbent’s staff possesses the knowledge, skills, capabilities, certification, clearance, and experience required to continue the program. Given specific mission essential requirements and the incumbent’s familiarity with its own proposed SDN solution, the incumbent is the only contractor that is capable of immediately performing the necessary services for the DoD.

(5) Procurement discussion. The resulting task order will be for the remaining work that would have otherwise been provided by the HHS PSC task order; therefore, maintaining the same realm of competition considered prior to the HHS PSC award.

Also, the resulting task order will allow JSP to reap the benefits of its investment into the incumbent contractor’s SDN solution. Because the HHS PSC administered contract has lapsed and the contractor is immediately able to shift to supporting the resultant award associated with this contract action, it would minimize any associated transition costs for the Government and successor contractor. In addition, another contractor would not be positioned to leverage investments made to date to most efficiently meet the objectives of the task order for the anticipated PoP.

(6) Impact. JSP has experienced a lapse in services for the SDN program, which puts the

Government’s investment of the incumbent contractor’s SDN solution at risk of being lost completely if a sole-source task order is not awarded to the incumbent. Building, testing, and implementing the SDN task order will decrease operational overhead and the time to provision the JSP network while increasing network efficiency, sustainability, agility/flexibility, performance, and responsiveness to malicious cyber attacks. Without the continued investment into the incumbent contractor’s proposed SDN solution, JSP will be required to continue its traditional and outdated three-tier network architecture at the expense of mission critical operations while it re-competes another, new SDN solution. Re-competing and investing into another SDN solution will require the Government to reevaluate multiple solutions.

5. COST/PRICE FAIR AND REASONABLE DETERMINATION: A determination that the price is fair and reasonable will be based on a comparison of the incumbent’s proposal to the independent government cost estimate and publicized labor rates and categories necessary to perform the support , as well as other historical pricing for similar services. The contracting office will also review and compare the labor rates to the ENCORE III contract labor rates, which were previously found to be fair and reasonable in a competitive environment.

6. MARKET RESEARCH: JSP conducted comprehensive market research as a part of its acquisition of SDN services. This market research included a review of the acquisition history of the previous contract, existing DISA-wide and DoD MAC vehicles, Federal Supply Schedules, and intra/inter agency contract vehicles.

The DoD identified several suites of contracts that offer cyber security services to include the General Services Administration (GSA) IT-70, the GSA 8(a) STARS II Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), and the DISA ENCORE III MAC. CSRA is the program’s incumbent and an awardee under the DISA ENCORE III MAC. The incumbent, CSRA as a subsidiary to GDOS, is the only source capable of meeting the Government’s immediate need. It is not feasible to compete the requirement without causing a significant lapse in or degradation of mission essential service nor could another company perform the program’s minimum requirements immediately following PSC’s termination of its contract. It is critical to transition institutional knowledge from the incumbent to any successor company to continue the concepts and processes of the SDN program. In consideration of the foregoing, a sole-source task order issued to GDOS under the DISA ENCORE III MAC is the prudent approach of ensuring JSP’s mission is not degraded due to HHS PSC discontinuing its administration of the current task order.

7. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: The SDN requirement will seek to improve an enterprise network that supports approximately 50,000 users, including senior DoD officials, Presidential appointees, senior executive service leaders, and flag and general officers.

8. ACTIONS THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR OVERCOME BARRIERS

THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY:

(a) Procurement History.

Contract Number: HHSP233201850107A Contractor: CSRA, LLC PoP: September 30, 2018 – September 03, 2023 (inclusive of all options) Competitive Status: Full and Open Competition

(b) A follow-on/recompete action is not anticipated for this requirement. The original SDN contract included three optional years for O&M support of SDN in the event JSP’s contract for network O&M support was unable to be awarded. JSP’s contract for network O&M support was awarded in February 2019 and transition of SDN O&M is in progress.

As such, the option years for O&M are not included with this procurement; therefore, barriers to fair opportunity in the future will no longer exist once this requirement is completed.

TECHNICAL CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the J&A are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: VERONICA S. WRIGHT SIGNATURE: See Signature Page

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: Contracting Officer’s Representative/JSP

PHONE: 703-692-2293

REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the J&A are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: VERONICA S. WRIGHT SIGNATURE: See Signature Page

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: Contracting Officer’s Representative/JSP

PHONE: 703-692-2293

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

NAME: D. CHRISTINE JACKSON SIGNATURE: See Signature Page

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: Contracting Officer/DITCO/PL8311

PHONE: 618-418-6612

HEAD OF THE CONTRACTING ACTIVITY (HCA) APPROVAL: I have reviewed this justification and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Since this justification does not exceed $93M, this review serves as approval.

NAME: DOUGLAS W. PACKARD SIGNATURE: See Signature Page

TITLE/ORGANIZATION: HCA/DITCO

PHONE: 301-225-4120

ALL QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS JUSTIFICATION ARE TO BE REFERRED TO

Megan Toennies, 618-418-6350, megan.c.toennies.civ@mail.mil.