JA25-018 JPES FINAL SIGNED_Redacted.pdf

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LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION & APPROVAL (J&A)

FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) PART 8 ACQUISITIONS

Multiple Award Schedule (MAS)/Multiple Award Contract Orders under MAS/General Services Administration Schedules (GSA)/Federal Supply Schedules (FSS)

FAR 8.405-6

Contract Number: 47QTCA18D001Q Task/Delivery Order Number: HC1047-24-F-4001 Procurement Title: Joint Planning and Execution Services (JPES) Legacy Software Sustainment and Maintenance Estimated Value:

Statutory and Regulatory Authority: 10 U.S.C. 3204(a) and FAR 8.405-6 (a)(1)(i)(B)

J&A Number: JA25-018

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Procurement Activity Competition Advocate (PACA), hereby approve this limited source justification pursuant to the authority of FAR 8.405- 6(a)(1)(i)(B). The acquisition referenced herein is conducted under the Statutory Authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program, 41 U.S.C. 152(3).

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

Requiring Agency:

Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Acquisition Center, Program Executive Office - Services (SD), Command and Control (C2) Portfolio Management Office (SD4) 6910 Cooper Ave.

Fort Meade, MD 20755

Contracting Activity:

DISA/Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization National Capital Region, PS62 6910 Cooper Ave.

Fort Meade, MD 20755

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S):

This procurement action is in support of a modification for JPES Legacy Software Sustainment and Maintenance services under Contract Number 47QTCA18D001Q, Task Order Number: HC1047-24-F- 4001. This task order was issued as a sole source task order to InterImage, Inc. under the General Services Administration Multiple Award Schedule. The J&A was signed by the PACA on December 5, 2023, using the following authority: FAR 8.405-6 (a)(1)(i)(B), only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

JA25-018 Joint Planning and Execution Services (JPES) Legacy Software Sustainment and

Page 3 of 12 Pages users across the globe. It is the key Joint capability used to support military operations worldwide, enabling force planning, deployment and redeployment planning, and execution activities that support the movement of military forces and other capabilities, personnel, and equipment, as determined, within the Joint Planning and Execution Community. The mission essential time phased force deployment data is inputted, validated, processed, and stored in JOPES, informs planning and execution activities, and supports the United States Transportation Command strategic movement of forces in and out of theater, as well as in-theater movements. There is no alternate capability to fulfill the JOPES mission and there are 21 external systems across the Combatant Commands, Military Services, and Defense Agencies that are dependent on JOPES to perform their force planning and execution activities.

JCRM is a tool that takes operational plans inputted into JOPES and creates orders for those plans which in turn is sent to the Department of Defense (DoD) secretary for authorization. Once JOPES officially sunsets (estimated 1st Half Calendar Year 2026), short-term support for the JCRM capability will be transitioned to a new, separate competitive JCRM only effort. In the longer-term, JCRM will also be transitioned to JPES and therefore, the JCRM transition date is currently not known but estimated to be in the late 2020’s.

(a) The JPES PMO requirement under Task Order (HC1047-24-F-4001) currently provides Project Management, JOPES support and JCRM support. Project management consists of meeting support, risk management, quality management, and schedule management. Both JOPES and JCRM support consists of sustainment, configuration management, cybersecurity & information assurance support, software development/deployment, Tier 3 helpdesk, and preventive, corrective, & adaptive maintenance.

(1) This modification is to incorporate DISA Headquarters (HQ) lab support for JOPES, JCRM, and the core lab environment’s hardware/software. Lab support for JOPES and JCRM consists of system administration, integration, documentation, and general support. The core lab environment support consists of maintaining and configuring the hardware and other equipment that supports JOPES, JCRM, and JPES.

(2) The JPES PMO requires the continuity of services through development, integration, Contractor Integration Testing, and deployment to ensure availability, stability, and interoperability of the system. This includes System Administration, integration, maintenance, and sustainment support in the DISA HQ Laboratory for staging, integration, and testing. Currently, there are two separate contractors, one providing development and the other providing lab integration, testing, and deployment support.

The JPES PMO requires that a single contractor with a background and knowledge of the legacy JOPES/JCRM systems provide development, integration, testing, and deployment support. Having these services separate has resulted in significant program delays with Software Releases and fielding to the operational user. As a result of the separate contracts, the current version of JOPES has not had a Software Release successfully fielded in 2 years and JCRM has not had a one in 2 ½ years. These delays are primarily a result of having separate Developer and Integrator contractors. Streamlining these services will resolve any confusion and delays that have occurred during the Software handoff between development and Integration.

(3) InterImage is uniquely qualified to provide the lab support of JOPES, JCRM and core lab environment. They are the current developer for both JOPES and JCRM. They have demonstrated a strong background in securing, administering, and troubleshooting in end of life (old) software/hardware. Hardware examples include experience with StorEdge 3510 storage array, Sun Sparc T4-2, Sun Fire V890, and Sun M5000. Software examples

Page 5 of 12 Pages systems to ensure everything works properly before making changes. InterImage has demonstrated an understanding of the specialized configurations for each of the externals. Failure to provide the unique and highly specialized services required to maintain these operational Joint C2 systems places the planning and execution of global military operations at significant risk of mission failure.

Lastly, due to the age of the software and the fact that the computer language is not widely supported, as determined by market research, InterImage is uniquely positioned as the only source capable of successfully performing the required sustainment and maintenance to get JOPES and JCRM through CY 2026.

To mitigate further delays, the JPES PMO must ensure direct efforts are taken that permit continued work to provide the required sustainment, enhancements, and improvements to the JOPES-JCRM platforms.

(c) Justification:

(1) Minimum Government requirements.

The minimum requirement is to provide lab support for the JPES programs to include JOPES, JCRM. The contractor would be responsible for maintaining the core lab environment. This includes installing, configuring, maintaining, and sustaining assets such as networking equipment, virtual machines, containers, servers, and other hardware assets. In addition, the contractor would provide system administration for JOPES and JCRM. This includes integration, testing, and delivery of documentation & artifacts.

(2) Proposed sole source contractor. The proposed sole source contractor for this effort is InterImage, 4301 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 205, Arlington, Virginia 22203. The services require specialized subject matter experts and technical knowledge of the JOPES software & hardware systems and configurations.

InterImage’s subject matter expertise with these unique hardware and software components, code programming language, and highly specialized interfaces with external Government systems is required to support software development and test efforts, release future functionality and enhancements, and ensure the operational maintenance of the JOPES to meet the operational mission for joint force planning and execution activities. Failure to provide the unique and highly specialized services required to maintain these operational Joint C2 systems places the planning and execution of global military operations at significant risk of mission failure.

(3) Discussion regarding cause of the limited source situation. As stated above in paragraph 4(b), due to failure and additional market research (Section 6 below) InterImage is the only source capable of successfully providing the unique and highly specialized services required to operate and integrate the custom developed Joint C2 systems JOPES and JCRM in the lab. The JOPES and JCRM system architecture dates back 35 years and is comprised of end-of-life hardware and software components and an obsolete programming language for the software code base, Tool Command Language / Tool Kit (Tcl/Tk), that are no longer widely available in industry. InterImage’s deep knowledge of the legacy hardware and software makes them the only reasonable source.

(4) Demonstration of limited source. The JOPES-JCRM capability is closely linked and integrated with 21 external DoD C2 and logistic capabilities, as well as multiple other

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external dependencies for many common and core functions. InterImage possesses extensive and demonstrated experience with these specialized interfaces that involve a legacy architecture that dates back as far as 35 years, as detailed in sections 3(a)(3) and 3(a)(4). It was determined through market research that other contractors do not possess experience and knowledge of the EOL hardware and software required for JOPES-JCRM integration within the lab.

(5) Procurement discussion. JOPES information technology system was to originally sunset by FY 2017 as required by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Cost Assessment & Program Evaluation, but there were development delays and performance related quality issues that prevented meeting this goal. In August of 2016, the new goal became deprecating the Legacy JOPES by 4th Quarter FY 2018, however, the contractor was removed from the project due to performance and other issues. The contract was followed by another contract, which was also unsuccessful. Currently, task orders on the Global Force Management (GFM) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) are working to deliver a production ready JPES capability before the end of CY 2026 to enable JOPES to sunset. JOPES will need to be sustained, which includes integration within the lab until JPES is fielded.

(6) Impact. The JOPES-JCRM capability is the singular system that enables planning and logistical support to the DoD, enabling Joint C2 for operations worldwide. The Request for Forces process, which is the mechanism by which Commander’s request support for any emergent requirements, is completely reliant on JOPES and JCRM to submit, validate, staff and order Combatant Commands requirements. The Secretary of Defense Orders Book process is reliant on JOPES to staff and generate the GFM Allocation Plan. Combatant Commanders rely on JOPES and JCRM to manage, track, change and cancel all operational requirements. Anytime there are troop movements JOPES is involved. In addition to the impact on the ability to conduct effective C2, multiple external logistical systems utilize JOPES data for their mission. JOPES provides Time-Phases Force Deployment Data that feeds the Operation Plans that describe the capabilities, timing, and transport methods to deploy the correct troops, in the correct timing, to accomplish the mission. Failure to execute this requirement in a timely manner will have a detrimental impact on the DoD’s ability to effectively execute the C2 that occurs daily, particularly in the current environment where two geographically separated conflicts are occurring.

The impact not only affects the JOPES and JCRM effort, but if InterImage does not continue to provide support, system administration, and integration within the lab for the current JOPES-JCRM capability, the loss of their expertise will have a negative impact to the JPES follow-on development. This could introduce even more developmental delays, and the sunset of JOPES will also be at risk.

5. COST/PRICE FAIR AND REASONABLE DETERMINATION:

The Contracting Officer has made a fair and reasonable price determination by utilizing one or more of the procedures found in FAR 15.404-1. Additionally, the Government has already determined that the hourly rates for the fixed priced services offered under the JPES Legacy task order (47QTCA18D001Q / HC104724F4001) were fair and reasonable at time of award. The contractor’s proposal for this additional level of effort will be consistent with the existing labor categories and rates previously negotiated and incorporated on General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract number 47QTCA18D001Q; the PMO Technical Evaluator will analyze labor skill mix and number of hours for technical acceptability and the Contracting Officer will analyze the proposed rates against the originally proposed labor rates, as well as the existing GSA MAS labor rates to determine technical

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acceptability and price reasonableness. The results of the price and technical evaluations will be used to substantiate the Government’s determination of a fair and reasonable price and best value determination.

6. MARKET RESEARCH:

Original market research was completed by the JPES PMO in September 2023. Additional market research was completed in October 2024-December 2024. The DISA Market Research Repository was queried as well as a review of recent market research results for similar or identical supplies/services and there was no relevant applicability found in the results. Additionally, a query of the Small Business Association Dynamic Small Business Search database was also conducted to determine any additional capable small business vendors and no capable vendors were identified. The PMO also reviewed existing DISA contract vehicles including ENCORE III and found that all small business vendors met the Capability Maturity Model Integration and Facility Clearance requirement, however, none of them possessed experience and knowledge of the EOL hardware and software required for JOPES-JCRM sustainment. Given the specialized knowledge and experience required to support this effort, InterImage is the only vendor that satisfies the PMO requirement. The Government did not review the Systems Engineering, Technology, and Innovation (SETI) contract vehicle as the scope of SETI is to support development and innovation, while this requirement focuses on sustainment and maintenance.

Finally, a Sources Sought Notice (SSN) was posted to SAM.gov for this requirement on 4 December 2024, with a close date of 19 December 2024. The purpose of the SSN was to determine the availability and technical capability of contractors for the maintenance and sustainment of JOPES. The SSN focused on seven specific capabilities to ensure a company would be capable of providing support for the specific EOL hardware and software needed to support the program. While the SSN was for the larger JOPES sustainment effort, the notice included general requirements for the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to support lab integration, testing, and deployment, which is being added via this J&A and subsequent modification. Specifically, having experience and knowledge of the EOL hardware and software requirements listed in the SSN is required for a contractor to perform this work. Additionally, the other requirements such as providing preventative, corrective, adaptive, and perfective maintenance apply generally to being able to operate and support the lab environment. The listed requirements cover the vast majority of the day-to-day operations and specialized knowledge needed.

A thorough review of each of the responses was completed. The two specific requirements for EOL hardware platforms (Sun/Oracle hardware) and software platforms (Solaris 10, Oracle 11g, Tcl/TK, and NIS+) are the most important. Being able to support these two requirements is, in a sense, a critical, pre-requisite to being able to perform the other requirements. For example, to perform the Cybersecurity requirement for JOPES, the contractor must have experience with and understand the EOL hardware vulnerabilities and associated impacts to the Authority to Operate. Another example, to perform Tier 3 help desk support requirement, the contractor must understand and have experience with the legacy software such as Tcl/TK, NIS+ and other associated JOPES sub-systems. So, if a contractor is unable to meet the EOL hardware/software requirements, then they would not have the knowledge, skills, or abilities to perform the other requirements for JOPES. Ten responses were received in which all were either 8(a) or small businesses. While analysis shows that six (6) of the submitted responses may be deemed capable of performing at least 50% of the required capabilities identified in the SSN, only one company (InterImage) was able to meet the capability of being able to support the EOL hardware and software (columns 3 and 4 of the table below), which is critical and foundational to all the other aspects of the requirements, as explained above. InterImage was the only company who showed current and relevant experience with the EOL Sun/Oracle hardware requirements, in addition to being determined capable of the supporting all other requirements. They provided details on specified hardware they are running at their facility supporting the current JOPES First Look Site. Furthermore, they were the only company

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who provided current examples justifying their experience with the EOL Solaris 10, Oracle 11g, Tcl/Tk, and NIS+ software requirements. They also listed personnel on their team who have developed for JOPES and its backend software since the 1990’s. Both did show limited experience working with a portion of the EOL software. However, it was rated as marginal for both companies as they did not have current experience and only with a portion of the required software. Additionally, they did not provide enough justification to meet the EOL hardware requirements. As a result, neither have the critical foundational capabilities as it relates to the EOL hardware/software requirements and therefore neither are considered viable or capable sources. Table of condensed version of the reviews on the following page.

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7. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS: None

8. ACTIONS THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE BARRIERS THAT LED TO THE

RESTRICTED CONSIDERATION:

(a) Procurement history.

The current task order, HC1047-24-F-4001, provides continued maintenance and sustainment support for the DISA JPES PMO to ensure system availability, stability, and interoperability of JOPES-JCRM until the follow on JPES capability is available. This required a limited source justification pursuant to the authority of FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B).

Under the current contract, JOPES was planned to be sunset in the 4th quarter of Fiscal Year 2024, with a ready JPES follow-on capability provided by the GFM IDIQ task orders. The current contract and the previous contract were established due to delays with the JPES follow-on capability’s development, the JPES PMO requires further support to maintain the JOPES-JCRM platforms. It was determined that continued work to provide the required sustainment, enhancements, and improvements to the JOPES-JCRM platforms were necessary until JOPES was sunset. Therefore, there were no actions or barriers the JPES PMO could complete to expand competition.

Current Contract: HC1047-24-F-4001 Vendor: InterImage, Inc Business Type: Women-Owned Small Business Contract Value:

Basis of Award: Sole Source via GSA Multiple Award Schedule Contract Type: FFP Period of Performance: 07 March 2024 - 06 September 2025

Previous Contract: HC1047-22-F-0018 Vendor: InterImage, Inc Business Type: Women-Owned Small Business Contract Value:

Basis of Award: Sole Source via GSA Multiple Award Schedule Contract Type: FFP Period of Performance: 07 August 2022 - 06 March 2024

The prior contract, HC1047-17-F-0040, combined portions of requirements from two previous task orders that provided continued maintenance and sustainment support for the DISA JPES PMO to ensure system availability, stability, and interoperability of JOPES and JCRM until the follow-on JPES capability was available.

Contract: HC1047-17-F-0040 Vendor: InterImage, Inc Business Type: Women-Owned Small Business Contract Value:

Basis of Award: Small Business Set-Aside via GSA Alliant Small Business Contract Type: FFP Period of Performance: 07 August 2017 – 06 March 2022

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The JPES Sustainment and Maintenance effort (HC1047-17-F-0040) was a consolidation of a prior requirement consisting of two separate task orders:

Contract: HC1028-08-D-2015 / VC35 Vendor:

Business Type: Large Contract Value:

Basis of Award: Full and Open Competition via ENCORE II Contract Type: Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) Period of Performance: 30 September 2013 – 29 September 2017

Contract: HC1028-08-D-2010 / VC19 Vendor:

Business Type: Small Business Contract Value:

Basis of Award: Sole Source Follow-on via ENCORE II Contract Type: CPFF Period of Performance: 30 September 2013 - 29 September 2017

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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: SIGNATURE/DATE: See separate signature page

TITLE/ORGANIZATION:

PHONE:

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: SIGNATURE/DATE: See separate signature page

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

NAME: SIGNATURE/DATE: See separate signature page

PROCURING ACTIVITY COMPETITION ADVOCATE (PACA) 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: SIGNATURE/DATE: See separate signature page

ALL QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS JUSTIFICATION ARE TO BE REFERRED TO

Michael Pirone, 667-891-1523, michael.e.pirone.civ@mail.mil