Justification for Exception to Fair Opportunity.pdf

and mappings between them, and to support the NCI Cancer Research Data Commons (CRDC) via the caDSR II.

NCI issued a contract for its core requirement in Fiscal Year 2020. The original contract did not include a mechanism for acquiring additional licenses as the NCI’s needs grew, and so NCI issued several other contracts to accommodate its needs. These contracts all end 09/18/2024:

Award No.: HHSN316201500044W / 75N91020F00003 Vendor: Countertrade Products Inc.

Base Period of Performance: 09/19/2020 – 09/18/2021 End Date: 09/18/2024 Total Dollar Value: $2,156,030.70

Award No.: HHSN316201500044W / 75N91021F00001 Vendor: Countertrade Products Inc.

Base Period of Performance: 05/26/2021 – 05/25/2022 End Date: 09/18/2024 Total Dollar Value: $127,225.43

Award No.: HHSN316201500044W / 75N91022F00001 Vendor: Countertrade Products Inc.

Base Period of Performance: 02/11/2022 – 05/25/2022 Option Periods: 3, 1-year periods ending 09/18/2024 Total Dollar Value: $223,310.79

The contracts were issued after a competitive solicitation for brand-name items. For each contract, the NCI Contracting Officer determined that a procurement for brand-name items was in the Government’s best interest in order to ensure continued maintenance and operability of caDSR II.

webMethods software was recently acquired from Software AG by IBM.

IBM is continuing to offer webMethods software through resellers established by Software AG.

Additionally, NCI has historically utilized a “per-license” price basis for OneData objects – OneData objects are customizable digital resources within the software that are linked to the data tables and perform functionality in the front end. NCI will be moving to to an “unlimited use” basis for these licenses, which will allow NCI to better accommodate any future growth in its needs.

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value).

a. Project title. Procurement of webMethods OneData MDM Bundle and Integration Platform Software Licenses and Remote Mission-Critical Support

b. Project description.

The Contractor shall provide four (4) sets of webMethods OneData Multi- Domain Metadata Management (MDM) Bundles, including the metadata registry (MDR) ISO/IEC 11178 Template; remote mission-critical support to maintain and facilitate use of these software bundles; and ongoing maintenance and updates for the software licenses.

• Requirement type.

❑ Research & development (R&D) ❑ R & D support services

❑ Support services (non-R&D)

❑ Supplies/equipment

Information technology (IT)

❑ Construction

❑ Architect-engineer (A & E) services

❑ Design-build

❑ Other (specify): ____________________

• Type of action.

New requirement ❑ Follow-on

❑ Other (specify): ______________________

• Proposed contract/order type.

Firm-fixed-price ❑ Other fixed-price (specify, e.g., fixed-price award-fee, fixed-price incentive-fee): __________ ❑ Cost-plus-fixed-fee ❑ Other cost reimbursement (specify, e.g., cost-plus-award-fee, cost-plus-incentive-fee): ___________ ❑ Time and materials ❑ Indefinite delivery (specify whether indefinite quantity, definite quantity, or requirements): IDIQ

❑ Other (specify): ___________

❑ Completion Form ❑ Term form

• Acquisition identification number. Requisition No. 6938029

c. Total estimated dollar value and performance/delivery period.

Contract Period

Period Start Period End Estimated Price

Base 09/19/2024 09/18/2025

Option Period 1 09/19/2025 09/18/2026

Option Period 2 09/19/2026 09/18/2027

Option Period 3 09/19/2027 09/18/2028

Total

4. Identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition.

This acquisition is conducted under the authority permitting an exception to the fair opportunity process found at FAR 16.505(a)(4), following the procedures prescribed at 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(B). Restricting consideration to an item peculiar to one manufacturer (e.g., a particular brand-name, product, or a feature of a product that is peculiar to one manufacturer).

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor(s) unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

a. Name and address of the proposed contractor(s).

IBM

6710 Rockledge Drive Bethesda, MD 20817

b. Nature of the acquisition and proposed unique qualifications of the contractor(s).

webMethods is the only software which meets the following salient characteristics:

• Conforms to ISO/IEC 11179 Metadata Registry standard. The NCI caDSR system is built to this standard, requires software with a database schema which supports existing functionality and business rules in order to avoid unnecessary, risky, and expensive data migration.

• Supports complex metadata relationships and hierarchies.

• Includes built-in functionality for the creation and maintenance of new content.

• Can support multiple business entities within a single system, which allows the database to accommodate different organizational entities within NCI and external research stakeholders.

• Includes history and lineage tracking to support metadata provenance and ensure data integrity. This enables the NCI to track all changes to the system and identify when data was changed, what data was changed, and who changed the data.

• Built with Open Pluggable Architecture, which provides NCI with the ability to configure and customize the software at multiple software layers to meet NCI needs. This software architecture also allows for built-in rules-based data acquisition and validation, allowing NCI to implement customized business logic to the data that will produce user-defined error messages.

• Allows configuration of action rules to support a customized workflow that can be used to augment or modify data as it’s being acquired. This allows the end-user to customize data for each business or research scenario to ensure high-quality metadata.

• Includes interchange mapping, which allows content to be exported in custom formats to meet each individual NCI stakeholder system requirements. Also allows integration with Medidata Rave and REDCap, which are clinical data collection systems used extensively by NCI’s clinical trials and research communities.

• Allows import of content and data in any standard format that can be described in XML schema, including RDF used extensively by the NCI community.

6. Description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable. Indicate whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by FAR Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR 5.202 applies.

A pre-solicitation notice will not be issued, as the exception at FAR 5.202(a)(6) applies. The NCI intends to issue a competitive solicitation for brand-name items pursuant to the authority permitting an exception to the Fair Opportunity process at FAR 16.505(a)(4). The Contracting Officer will provide the Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity (JEFO) with the solicitation via the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center (NITAAC) electronic-Government Ordering System (e-GOS), to all GWAC holders under the Chief Information Officer – Commodities and Solutions (CIO- CS) small business contract awardees.

7. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost/price to the Government will be fair and reasonable. The NCI anticipates competing this opportunity among all small business authorized resellers under the NITAAC CIO-CS vehicle. Fair and reasonable pricing is performed at the IDIQ level for the CIO-CS vehicle, and thus NITAAC has determined pricing is fair and reasonable for items included in this requirement. The Contracting Officer will request additional discounts as part of the solicitation.

8. Description of the market research conducted (see FAR Part 10) and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted.

The NCI Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) contacted the original software publisher in December 2023 to determine if any alternative resellers – especially small business resellers – are available or if the OEM sells licenses directly to federal clients. The TPOC determined that the software publisher sells licenses to federal clients through Value Added Resellers (VAR), including the incumbent, Countertrade Products Inc. The TPOC also discovered that the original software publisher, Software AG, had sold webMethods software to IBM and that IBM would be preserving the existing relationships with Software AG’s VARs. IBM began acquiring webMethods in December 2023, and the TPOC confirmed that IBM would complete the acquisition of webMethods by July 1, 2024.

On April 30, 2024 the NCI Contract Specialist issued a Sources Sought Notice on to all NITAAC CIO-CS contract holders, to identify any alternative software solutions. The sources sought notice closed on May 7, 2024 and no responses were received as a result of this request.

On May 22, 2024 the NCI Contract Specialist issued a Request for Information (RFI) to identify alternate solutions and to obtain additional industry feedback on the requirement. The RFI closed on May 29, 2024 and no responses were received as a result of this RFI.

In May 2024, the NCI Contract Specialist conducted an internet search for “webMethods competitors” and “webMethods OneData competitors” using the Google search engine to identify commercially-available competitors for the webMethods software. While the CS identified several competitors, the solutions were either (1) not comprehensive enough to fully meet the requirement, (2) a legacy product no longer available and in the process of being phased out, (3) had no evidence of availability to federal customers, or (4) some combination of all three limitations. All competing products identified are supplied by large businesses including Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. No responses from these businesses or their resellers were received in response to the SSN or RFI, potentially indicating that these solutions cannot meet the requirements of the NCI for this project.

In June 2024, the Contract Specialist conducted a search on the Federal Procurement Database System (FPDS) for “webmethods.” This search yielded results for multiple orders for webMethods Onedata products issues in 2024, including orders from Countertrade Products and Enterprise Technology Solutions. The search also yielded results for active orders for these products from other vendors, which included Paragon Micro Inc and Software Information Resource Group. Both vendors are small businesses. These orders were issued as Task Orders against either a NASA SEWP or NITAAC GWAC as small business set-asides, which is consistent with the acquisition strategy to be used by NCI. The Contract Specialist did not identify any contracts issued directly to the original publisher, Software AG.

Market research demonstrated that this software solution is commonly sold to Federal customers via Value-Added Resellers and not directly from the original software publisher. Thus a set-aside for small businesses is appropriate for this procurement.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) acquired and installed webMethods OneData software and infrastructure to transform the Government-owned and maintained NCI caDSR infrastructure. This caDSR infrastructure encompasses web-based tools for creating, maintaining, and browsing metadata content and application programming interfaces (APIs) and supports the NCI Clinical Trials Network (NCTN). The newly-transformed caDSR received an NIH Director’s Award in 2023 for Customer Service and is critical to ongoing NCI clinical trial research.

NCI requires continued access to the brand-name software in order to maintain the caDSR infrastructure. Transitioning to a new software would introduce significant schedule risks to the NCI. No comparable software exists which meets all of the needs of the NCI, therefore any new software would require significant NCI investment in development and customization to meet the needs of the NCI.

The commercially-available version of webMethods’ software was built to be customizable and configurable and, despite this feature, NCI required approximately four years to fully integrate the software into its systems. An alternate software which does not already meet NCI’s needs and is not built to be customizable and configurable would take longer to fully implement. During the transition period, NCI would need to maintain the existing infrastructure using the current software at least partially, which would lead to duplicative costs and an increased burden on NCI technical personnel.

10. Listing of sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

Countertrade Products – small business, third-party value-added reseller (VAR) listed on NITAAC CIO-CS GWAC

This vendor is eligible to submit a quote under the NITAAC CIO-CS GWAC if this solicitation is issued for brand-name items.

11. Statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the required supplies or services.

In October 2023, Software AG announced that the webMethods software would reach End of Life (EoL) and no longer receive support after October 31, 2028.

IBM began its acquisition of webMethods in December 2023. While it is not clear if IBM will proceed with Software AG’s original lifecycle plans for these products, NCI anticipates that it will need to identify a new software solution following completion of this contract if the webMethods software does reach EoL.

Additionally, NCI technical personnel continuously assess their programmatic needs and the ability of the current and alternative commercially-available software to meet those needs. NCI adjusts and adapts required salient characteristics as necessary, based on its changing needs and advancements in technology.

Prior to issuing a new order for these services, the NCI will conduct market research to determine whether to reinstate or replace the brand-name solution based on the availability of alternatives. This market research will include opportunities for industry feedback.