Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition - Redacted.pdf

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition – FAR Part 13 Acquisitions under the SAT

V 1.2 (22 March 2018)

MEMORANDUM TO THE FILE

Subj: JUSTIFICATION FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION

FOR A FAR PART 13 ACQUISITION UNDER THE SIMPLIFIED

ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

I. BACKGROUND:

1. FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i) states for purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, Contracting Officers may solicit from one source if the Contracting Officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available (e.g., urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand-name or industrial mobilization).

2. As required by FAR 13.106-3(b)(i), this memorandum explains the absence of competition for this acquisition, as only one source will be solicited for this requirement (or for a portion of the requirement) and the requirement (or portion of the requirement to be sole-sourced) is not expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold.

II. DESCRIPTION OF ITEM OR SERVICE:

1. Background

The Marine Corps Technology Services Organization develops and maintains Human Resource (HR), Payroll and Financial Management and Accounting applications that service both active and reserve Marines. These critical applications are developed within strict CMMI level 3 standards. All application changes are estimated for effort in all phases of the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Actual hours are tracked per application change and compared against the estimated effort to provide burn reports to software development managers and customers. Non-billable hours are also tracked to include training time, holiday hours, vacation and administrative time off.

Project time reporting systems development is not a key competency of the TSO and is therefore not best suited to develop or maintain such a system. Additionally, the cyber security assessment and authorization process timeline for software installed on Marine Corps hosted systems exceeds the cost of procuring a labor hours tracking system. Procuring a Project Time Reporting system as a service is the most cost effective solution for the Marine Corps TSO project time reporting needs.

Additionally, the TSO primarily works in a Government Owned, Government Operated, and Contractor Supported (GOGOCS) Integrated Product Team (IPT) environment. In this environment contractors contribute hours toward project along with Government employees.

The time reporting system is required in order to track contractor time toward projects, provide time source reports for billing to reimbursable customers and to verify contractor billing invoices.

2. Concept of Operations

Task – The lowest level of labor hours tracking in the TSO is at the task level. Each project has a specific list of tasks assigned. For standardization the TSO has an approved task list in their Labor Reporting Guidelines. The task list will different between labor hour category types. For example a sustainment labor hour category project will have a different task list from an Operational Support labor hour category project task list. Tasks lists can vary from project to project, but they must contain the standard list of tasks from the Labor Reporting Guidelines.

Projects – The TSO uses the Labor reporting system to track effort (actual hours) toward a project. In this case a project may be a Systems Change Request (SCR), a Production Trouble Report (PTR), an SDLC support function such as Infrastructure build-out or an IT Project, such as implementing a new technology or migrating systems to a different data center. All projects are tracked by a type of funding category. Projects frequently effect more than one Automated Information System (AIS) and therefore must be able to be assigned to more than one AIS.

Automated Information Systems (AIS) – The TSO defines an AIS as a system that is developed or maintained by the TSO for example MCTFS, SABRS, MOL, UD/MIPS, etc... AIS can also be used to describe an organization, such as the TSO is the project does not effect a specific AIS.

Funding Source – The method of funding is defined by the customer toward a particular AIS or project. Customers may provide different funding sources for different AIS’s or projects.

Typically the funding source is labeled with the Fiscal Year of the funding appropriation, the customer and AIS that the funding applies, for example FY19MC(M&RA).

Customer – Customers are those organizations that fund software development, maintenance or operational support efforts with the TSO. Customers may provide funding across multiple funding sources.

Type of Funding - The type of funding categories include Sustainment, Maintenance, and Operational Support. Sustainment hours are those hours expended to develop software changes.

Maintenance hours are those hours expended to perform routine software maintenance and to trouble shoot and fix and problems found in an application developed by the TSO. Operational Support hours are those hours expended in support of sustaining and maintaining the software development efforts and any hours expended in a non-chargeable category.

Labor type – Labor hours are tracked for each type of labor, Civilian, Military, Consultant and Contractor. Labor types are assigned to employees. Employees will move between labor types within the TSO occasionally, but labor types are not typically changed within a reporting period.

Direct/In-Direct – Labor hours are tracked by direct or in-direct billing categories.

Direct labor hours are always charged to a project. In-direct labor hours, such as leave, as not charged to a project.

Labor Hour type – Types of labor hours are defined in the Labor Reporting Guidelines.

The labor hours types will match the DoN time and attendance Type Hour Code found the SLDCADA system.

Reporting Period – Labor hours are reported within a two week period. The labor reporting periods coincide with the Federal Government’s pay periods for federal employees.

Reporting periods are discrete sets of hours. Labor hours reported during a reporting period must be validated prior to closing out the reporting period. Once the reporting period has been validated labor hours during that period can’t be changed.

Organization – The employees are assigned within the TSO organizational structure.

The organizational structure includes the Organization (TSO, MCPRD, MCDOSS, etc..), Directorate, Division, Branch, and Section or Team. Projects can be assigned at any level of the organization. Projects are typically assigned to AIS’s, but project responsibility is typically assigned by Division. Projects that impact multiple AIS’s can be assigned to multiple Divisions.

Additionally, project responsibility is sometimes assigned to Organizations, Branches, Sections, Teams or individual employees. The ability to report labor hours against a project can also be assigned at any level of the organization from an entire organization to the individual employee.

User – Defined as an employee of an organization that reports labor hours against Projects. The user must be associated with the organization and with their corresponding project list. Attributes of the user include their labor type, organization, division, branch, section or team.

3. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE

The Brand Name SAAS currently providing this service is Replicon Time Bill. The effective date of end of the current Period of Performance (PoP) is Nov 30th, 2019.

III. THE DETERMINATION FOR USE OF OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN

COMPETITION IS BASED ON THE FOLLOWING (select all that apply):

A. _X_ ONLY ONE RESPONSIBLE SOURCE (select all that apply):

1. _ _ RESTRICTIVE RIGHTS. The source has established proprietary rights, limited rights in data, patent rights, copyrights or secret processes in the item or service required.

2. _X__ EXCLUSIVE LICENSING AGREEMENTS. The item or service is only available from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), or there is only one authorized distributor or technical representative for the OEM.

Currently the only product configured to meet the TSO’s labor reporting standards in paragraph II above is the Replicon Timebill product. While other products may be able to be configured to meet this requirement they will not be able to meet the December 1st, 2019 PoP start date. Without a configured SAAS on Dec 1st, 2019, the TSO will have a gap in reporting labor hours, thereby leaving the TSO managers without the crucial data required to validate $22M in contracted labor invoices, track $1.2M of reimbursable labor hours or track critical paths for the Marine Corps Total Force (MCTFS) and the Standard Accounting, Budgeting and Reporting System (SABRS) software development, and crucial operational support projects. This will cause delays in software changes that support the Marine pay, promotions, reenlistments and other critical human resource functions. Additionally, the lack of a labor reporting system will delay software projects that support the Marine Corps’ financial accounting causing accounting inaccuracies and delays in the Department of the Navy’s Clean Audit Initiative.

The TSO has sunken costs into Replicon Timebill SAAS which will need to be reinvested if another product is chosen. The Replicon Timebill required approximately 6 weeks and $10K to configure it’s SAAS to meet the TSO’s labor reporting requirements. Additionally, the TSO spent approximately 4 hours of training for each employee to learn the Timebill system. This cost today would be 4 hours * 550 users * Average Fully Burdened Hourly Rate of $62/hour = $136,400. The total sunken cost to configure and train users on Replicon Timebill is six weeks and $146,400.

3. ___ OTHER REASONS.

B. ___ BRAND NAME

Item required must be a brand name, product, or feature of a product, particular to one manufacturer.

C. ___URGENT AND COMPELLING. The supplies or services are of such unusual and compelling urgency that the Government would be seriously injured unless the agency is permitted to limit the number of sources from which it solicits bids or proposals. Urgent requirements are supplies or services that will result in a work stoppage, or are mission critical and the routine processing time would result in injury to the Government. The determination that the procurement for the above item/service is an urgent and compelling requirement is based on the following:

1. Date on which the requirement was first identified:

2. Required delivery date/period of performance:

3. Explanation of why delivery/commencement of services by the date mentioned above is required:

V. CERTIFICATIONS:

A. Technical / Requirements Certification: I certify that the facts and representation under my cognizance which are included in this justification are complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signature Name (Printed)/Phone # Date

B. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signature Name (Printed) / Phone # Date