JA22-057 842267373 Forcepoint_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND

OPEN COMPETITION (OTFAOC)

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 6 Justification & Approval (J&A), Supporting Procurements under FAR Part 12, and FAR Part 15

Purchase Request Number: MIPR0010003048 Contract Number: To Be Determined (TBD) Task/Delivery Order Number: TBD Procurement Title: Cross Domain Solution (CDS) Enterprise Implementation Estimated Value:

Statutory Authority: 10 U.S.C.2304(c)(1) and FAR 6.302-1

Justification for OTFAOC Number: JA22-057

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as Procurement Activity Competition Advocate (PACA), hereby approve the use of other than full and open competition of the proposed contractual action pursuant to the authority of Statutory Authority 10 U.S.C.2304(c)(1) and FAR 6.302-1.

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE:

Requiring Agency:

United States-Army Program Manager - Intelligence Systems & Analytics (IS&A) 6580 Surveillance Loop Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland 21005

Contracting Office:

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

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S):

The nature of this action is to procure proprietary, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS), brand name Forcepoint Federal LLC (Forcepoint) software licenses, software support and professional services. The Government’s need is to procure a Trusted Gateway System (TGS) and High Speed Guard (HSG) solution. This solution will support message routing and cross domain capabilities. This procurement will be a new, firm fixed price, sole source award to Forcepoint and will be solicited utilizing North American Industry Classification System code 511210, with a sales size standard of $38,500,000.

The estimated period of performance (PoP) will consist of a 1-year base period from and four, 1-year option periods through for a total contract lifecycle of five years. The total estimated lifecycle cost of this requirement is

Fiscal year 2022 operations and maintenance funds will be used to fund the base period of this effort.

CDS Enterprise Implementation-JA22-057

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Annual Renewal for Virus Scanning Plug In - High Speed Guard McAfee, Cross Domain Transfer 2

Maintenance for High-Speed Guard 5.x (2 Networks) 2

In order to provide continuity of services and support for the software, support of the perpetual license must be renewed. The contractor shall provide all perpetual software licenses and software support to maintain the most recent fixes, patches, and versions. The COTS software must have the same functionality as the current capability used by the agencies, seamlessly integrate into the existing environment, and allow all products in the environment to maintain full performance and capability across agencies while ensuring the security of the network is not compromised. The required maintenance is in the form of procuring software and professional services to include site survey, pre-onsite engineering services, pre-onsite assessment and authorization services, TGS and HSG onsite implementation services, TGS and HSG onsite assessment & authorization test services, and post-onsite services.

4. IDENTIFICATION OF STATUTORY AUTHORITY:

Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, 10 U.S.C.2304(c)(1) and FAR 6.302-1/DFARS 206.302-1.

5. DEMONSTRATION OF CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS:

a. Description of events.

The HSG/TGS software is used for real-time tactical record message traffic routing from external feeds as well as information sharing between DCGS-A Intelligence Fusion Server (IFS) systems. These messages contain tactical entity data, sensor data, targeting data, and other military intelligence data that is crucial to real-time operations and battlefield assessment. This part of the DCGS-A program supports echelons above corps and provides the bridge between the tactical and strategic level. It ingests over 800 sources across the intelligence enterprise on Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication Systems, Secret Intelligence Protocol Router Network (SIPRN), and other Military Personnel Element networks spanning the gap between the tactical and strategic levels.

b. Justification.

(1) Minimum Government requirements. See paragraph 3 above.

(2) Proposed sole source contractor. Forcepoint.

(3) Discussion regarding cause of the sole source situation. Forcepoint is the only solution found to meet the Government’s needs. The required software products are proprietary and only available from Forcepoint. Forcepoint is the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the applicable software subscription and does not authorize any third-party software modification or patches to its software. Forcepoint owns the copyrighted source software with all legal rights, privileges, and ownership contained

Page 4 of 7 Pages therein. No other source may legally modify or change the software, nor would they have access to the source code to do so with the licenses currently installed on the network. On June 10, 2022, Forcepoint provided DITCO a sole source justification memo that stated “Forcepoint Federal LLC (“Forcepoint”) is the sole manufacturer of the Forcepoint High Speed Guard, Trusted Thin Client, Trusted Gateway System, and Simshield for development, maintenance, and sustainability. Forcepoint owns all of the associated intellectual property rights and provides no access to the source code to any reseller or other contracted entities. In addition, Forcepoint’s Professional Services are highly trained engineers that specialize in the deployment, integration, and accreditation of the Forcepoint products mentioned above.”

(4) Procurement discussion. The market analysis resulted in three responses providing either Forcepoint software or an alternate solution. Microtech, a Forcepoint reseller, responded to the RFI as the only small business. BAE systems, a large business, responded with an alternate solution other than Forcepoint software and services.

Lastly, Forcepoint, a large business, provided a response to the RFI as the OEM provider and is the only available source to meet this requirement.

(5) Impact. Failure to procure the Forcepoint products and professional services impacts the DCGS-A IFS as well as the cross-domain message routing capability. Disruption of the license agreements, Forcepoint’s IP and unique knowledge base will cause the systems to lose the ability to route messages between disparate IFS systems in the battlefield as well as route messages between disparate security domains. Without these tactical messages, the common operational picture within the intelligence platform becomes stale. This real-time intelligence is crucial for enemy threat assessment and force protection. Without it, Army battlefield commanders and their subordinate units are defenseless in the field. If these required services are not purchased, the fielded DCGS-A systems will have a licensing violation and the system should not operate in the field. Approximately five years ago, during a re-engineering study conducted to examine implementation of other products, it was found the cost to the Government to re-engineer their baseline systems would be approximately 40 million dollars and would take between 24-48 months.

6. FEDBIZOPPS ANNOUNCEMENT/POTENTIAL SOURCES:

A combined synopsis/solicitation for this requirement will be published on the Contract Opportunities (sam.gov) website, as required by FAR 5.2. A redacted copy of this J&A will also be posted to the Contract Opportunities (sam.gov) website.

7. DETERMINATION OF FAIR AND REASONABLE COST:

A determination will be made by the contracting officer that the contract represents the best value to the Government, as defined in FAR 2.101, and results in the lowest overall cost alternative (considering price and administrative costs) to meet the Government's needs. The contracting officer will also determine the pricing information valid for comparative purposes.

Certified cost and price data is not required for this commercial item acquisition, in accordance

Page 5 of 7 Pages with FAR 15.403-1(b) (3). The contracting officer will determine whether the price is fair and reasonable, based on one or more of the following:

(a) Comparison of proposed prices received in response to the solicitation;

(b) Comparison of the proposed prices to historical and existing prices paid, whether by the Government or other than the Government, for the same or similar items;

(c) Comparison with competitive published price list, published market prices of the same commodities;

(d) Comparison of proposed prices with the independent Government cost estimates.

8. MARKET RESEARCH:

a. Market research was conducted for this procurement from November 21, 2021, through June 2022. Market research included conducting an internal analysis of alternatives against another competing solution, gathering data from previous acquisitions, reviewing current contracts, internet searches, exchanges with knowledgeable individuals in industry/Government (to include the OEMs and authorized resellers), conducting internal discussions, reviewing existing DISA-wide contract vehicles and other Government-wide acquisition contract (GWAC)s, issuing a request for information beta.sam.gov (Contract Opportunities), and determining potential sources.

b. The first step taken in conducting market research in support of this requirement was to determine if other brand names of software could meet the Government’s needs. An RFI was posted to sam.gov and three responses were received. Two responses proposed the Forcepoint software and the third proposed an alternative. The alternative proposed is not Raise the Bar (RTB) compliant while the Forcepoint solution meets that criterion. As such, the alternative proposed cannot meet this requirement. Additionally, the alternative software solution system would be incapable of working properly due to a new operating system needing to be installed and functional with proprietary software, thereby inhibiting the requiring agency and its mission.

Market research reviewed commercial software solutions and determined that only the Forcepoint software meets the needs. Based on market research, it is determined that there are no competitor products that exist in the market capable of meeting the Government’s need.

Government market research concluded that the brand name product and product support, Forcepoint, is essential to the Government’s requirements; and other companies’ similar products, or products lacking particular features, do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet, the Agency’s needs. Furthermore, Forcepoint owns all of the associated intellectual property rights and provides no access to the source code to any reseller or other contracted entities. In addition, Forcepoint’s Professional Services are highly trained engineers that specialize in the deployment, integration, and accreditation of the Forcepoint products. Therefore, of the three responses received, Forcepoint is the only source that can provide both full software and services as required by the requesting agency. This procurement will be sole source due to Forcepoint providing a sole source letter stating that as the OEM, they are the only capable business able to meet the requested need.

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c. The second step in conducting market research was to determine a method of procurement.

Market research confirmed the required Forcepoint solution is not available through the DoD Enterprise Software Initiative blanket purchase agreements. The market research revealed that only Forcepoint is capable of fulfilling this requirement. The software solution was not found on National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement V GWAC or any other Multiple-Award Schedule/Multiple-Award Contract. On June 21, 2022, a sole source request for quote was posted to GSA Ebuy for the items listed above. The contracting officer discovered that many of the required items in the solicitation were not available on Forcepoint’s GSA schedule. Therefore, the software solution procurement method was altered from a GSA schedule order to a sole source open market contract utilizing FAR 12/13 procedures.

d. Based on current market research, it was determined that only the aforementioned brand name product and/or product support, Forcepoint, can fully support the Government’s need. At this time, no competitor functional replacement products exist in the market to meet the Government's need. The Government will continue to conduct market research to determine if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future competitive actions, e.g., there are similar products and/or product support in the marketplace that provides the same functionality, the OEM releases ownership rights of product, or it is economically feasible to procure a new system.

9. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS:

None.

10. LISTING OF INTERESTED SOURCES:

Forcepoint.

12950 Worldgate Drive, Suite 600 Herndon, Virginia 20170

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

THAT LED TO THE EXCEPTION TO FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION:

No prior procurement history exists for this new solution. If Forcepoint elects to surrender their legal ownership, copyright, and/or intellectual property software rights and move toward providing an open-source solution for the product support being procured or if the Government moves to an entire new baseline in the future, the Government will seek a competitive acquisition approach. Regardless, the Government will continue to search the marketplace to determine if alternative software solutions exist. If similar requirements arise, every effort will be made to compete it to the maximum extent practicable.

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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: Jess Stock SIGNATURE: See separate signature page

TITLE/ORGANIZATION:

PHONE: 443-986-8878 DATE:

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: Alejandro Angel SIGNATURE: See separate signature page

PHONE: 443-861-3731 DATE:

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

NAME: Tricia L. Singler SIGNATURE: See separate signature page

TITLE/ORGANIZATION:

PHONE: 618-418-6378 DATE:

PROCURING ACTIVITY COMPETITION ADVOCATE 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 $15M, this review serves as approval and my written determination that the aforementioned FAR circumstances apply.

NAME: Gay Arnold SIGNATURE: See separate signature page

PHONE: 618-418-6517 DATE:

ALL QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS JUSTIFICATION ARE TO BE REFERRED TO:

Nathan Sterling, nathan.l.sterling3.civ@mail.mil, 618-418-6050