JEFO Brand Name.pdf

Justification for Brand Name Exception to Fair Opportunity Exceeding the SAT pursuant to FAR 16.505(a)(4)

S-Docs Generation Tool for the Client Management System (CMS)

1. Agency and Contracting Activity

The Pretrial Services Agency for the District of Columbia (PSA) Office of Finance and Administration (OFA)/Procurement prepared this justification for a brand name exception to fair opportunity.

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

PSA/OFA/Procurement intends to award a single delivery order under the NASA Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) pursuant to FAR 16.505(a)(4), restricting consideration to an item peculiar to one manufacturer.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s need

PSA requires a S-Docs document generation tool for 320 users to facilitate the automated generation of paper based documents within the Salesforce cloud. The tool is needed for utilization in the Salesforce platform to enable convertion of paper documents in PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. format.

4. Identify the exception to fair opportunity and supporting rationale

Only one awardee (manufacturer) is capable of providing the item at the level of quality required because the item is unique or highly specialized. PSA intends to procure a brand name specification for a S-Docs generation tool in accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4). The exception is based on FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B). The brand name shall be used because the S-Docs document generation tool will be a part of the Client Management System (CMS) currently being developed in the Salesforce cloud and the S-Docs tool inherits the FedRAMP certifications without the need for a separate authority to operate (ATO) certification. The S-Docs generation tool ensure data security as the tool never leaves the Salesforce cloud. The S-Docs generation tool utilizes standard Salesforce permission with no plug-ins or downloads required.

As part of efforts to modernize PSA’s mission-critical CMS, PSA conducted market research for a third party Salesforce compatible tool that would allow the Agency to satisfy its needs for rich document generation. Market research was conducted by reviewing the Saleforce AppExchange, FedRAMP MarketPlace, and other product websites. PSA identified four (4) potential tools: Ninetex Drawloop, S- Docs, Conga Composer, and DocuSign/SpringCM. PSA discovered that all four (4) tools would allow the Agency to generate PDF compatible documents from complex templates using data contained within Salesforce. PSA also discovered that two (2) of the tools, Drawloop and S-Docs, would support the design of web forms/data entry screens for collecting data parameters needed in the document generation process. Market rearch revealed that only S-Docs was native to the Salesforce environment, ensuring that sensitive Agency data would not be exported out of the Salesforce environment as part of the document generation process. This essential feature means that the S-Docs generation tool levearages the FedRAMP compliance of Salesforces and avoids the need for PSA to conduct separate, time-consuming and potentially costly FedRAMP and ATO certifications before the tool could be used by the Agency. This feature was not offered by alternate brands or products and procuring an alternate

Justification for Brand Name Exception to Fair Opportunity Exceeding the SAT pursuant to FAR 16.505(a)(4) brand or products other than the S-Docs document genation tool could result in increase costs. These costs include separate certifications to qualify the selected third party tools to work within the Salesforce cloud.

Based upon market reseach, the Agency has determined that the S-Docs generation tool uniquely provides the Agency with the ability to securely generate PDF compatible documents from complex templates using data contained within Salesforces and without exposing data to non-Salesforce native environments outside of the FedRAMP compliance Salesforce Government cloud sandbox. In addition, the Agency has determined that S-Doc uniquely affords the Agency the ability to operate the tool without the need to conduct additional FedRAMP and ATO certification, which will save the Agency considerable manhours and cost.

5. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The Contracting Officer (CO) will ensure the overall proposed price to the Government is fair and reasonable via comparison of competitive proposals and/or comparison with prices obtained through market research.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification

There are no other facts supporting this justification

7. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made

The only barrier that can eliminate the exception to fair opportunity is if the Salesforce platform is not utilize in CMS.