LSJ_NIAID_Beacon_Renewal_approved_Redacted.pdf

b. Project background. Within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) National Institutes of Health (NIH), the NIAID conducts and supports basic and applied research to better understand, treat, and ultimately prevent infectious, immunologic, and allergic diseases. The Office of Cyber Infrastructure and Computational Biology (OCICB) manages technologies supporting NIAID biomedical research programs.

Within OCICB, the Software Engineering Branch (SEB) provides technical and tactical cyber technology management and support for NIAID biomedical research programs. SEB designs, develops, maintains, implements, and manages software, systems, and applications that provide enhanced support to NIAID. In the past, SEB was tasked with managing and supporting Beacon. The previous licensing model was a perpetual license with an annual maintenance fee and users were tracked and assigned individual user licenses.

Beacon is the integration and reporting module for the Beacon Cloud FedRAMP– HR and Finance Modules. SEB will no longer have this license management responsibility as Beacon is moving to a SaaS solution with a subscription licensing model. The enterprise license eliminates the need for individual user license management. Beacon provides integrated and next generation solutions with cloud-based access to employee and financial management data. Beacon allows the Institutes and Centers (ICs) of the NIH to accurately maintain individual employee, contractor, and volunteer information, as well as plan for, monitor, and report on workforce staffing levels. It also provides customized tools for reporting, planning, and tracking financial data.

Assurance of data security and privacy protections are critical to the operation of this capability. To meet the needs of the broader NIAID community and to comply with government security regulations and initiatives, the Beacon cloud-based solution has and maintains Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) authorization in a secure, Government private community cloud.

NetComm is the proprietary developer of Beacon, which is available only from NetComm, Inc. This requirement is a follow-on order. Previous NIAID purchases for this project have been non-competitive acquisitions under an NIH Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), GSA Federal Supply Schedule contract or the open market:

Purchase Order No.: HHSN272201701102P Vendor: NetComm, Inc.

Award Date: 8/30/2017 Period of Performance: 9/1/2017 – 8/31/2021 Amount: $1,777,412.63

Purchase Order No.: HHSN272201700797P Vendor: NetComm, Inc.

Award Date: 6/29/2017 Period of Performance: 7/1/2017 – 2/28/2018 Amount: $147,225.84

Contract/Order No.: GS35F0564P/HHSN272201500064U Vendor: NetComm, Inc.

Award Date: 1/7/2015 Period of Performance: 1/7/2015 – 6/30/2017 Amount: $813,875.96

BPA/BPA Call No.: HHSN263201500095B/HHSN27200002 Vendor: NetComm, Inc.

Award Date: 12/15/2016 Period of Performance: 1/1/2017 – 12/31/2017 Amount: $236,072.36

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

a. Project title. Beacon Cloud Renewal

b. Project description. The Contractor will provide commercially available SaaS and optional support for the Beacon as defined in the Statement of Work. The SaaS requested is an enterprise license for the Beacon product suite – HR and Finance. The enterprise license includes a minimum 200 user licenses for Beacon Cloud FedRAMP – HR, 200 licenses for Beacon Cloud FedRamp – Finance, and access to both the Beacon Cloud FedRAMP – HR and Finance Modules. The enterprise license provides unlimited access to the Beacon Product Suite for all NIAID Employees; access to all historical data; support for NIAID's current downstream systems; data analysis and reconciliation; unlimited telephone and email support; customization and technical support requests; and Road Map product development. Each contract year also includes an option for additional enhancements to include subject matter expert hours to be utilized for custom development; data reconciliation/analysis; and report generation.

Requirement type.

Support services (non-research & development) Supplies/equipment Information technology (IT) Other (specify): ____________________

Type of action.

New requirement Follow-on Other (specify): ______________________

Proposed contract/order type.

Firm-fixed-price Time and materials Indefinite delivery (specify whether indefinite quantity, definite quantity, or requirements): ___________ Other (specify): ___________ and multiple NIH ICs collaborate to improve the product and provide additional requirements to NetComm. This collaboration allows NIH to leverage shared business processes as NetComm implements the software to support these processes.

5. Determination by the ordering activity Contracting Officer that the order represents the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d). In accordance with FAR 8.404(d), GSA has already determined the prices of supplies and fixed-prices services, and rates for services offered at hourly rates, under schedule contracts to be fair and reasonable. NIAID will consider the independent Government estimate, market research, comparison with similar items in the marketplace, and quoted process found reasonable on previous purchases as a determining factor for price reasonableness. NIAID will request additional discounts and price reductions before task order award, consistent with FAR 8.405-4.

6. Description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted. The Program Office conducted initial market research by reviewing NIAID’s existing licensed products and maintenance from NetComm and scanning the market for potential alternatives that could satisfy the Government’s requirement. Their research concluded that NetComm is the only source for the required product/service. In accordance with FAR Part 10, market research conducted by the Contract Specialist (CS) included a review of GSA schedules, government-wide acquisition contracts (GWAC), and multiple award contracts (MAC) detailing capabilities/scope, costs, and skills. Additional market research by the CS included contacting knowledgeable Government and Industry professionals and reviewing previous purchases of similar requirements. The CS contacted NetComm and learned that the required cloud-based software is not available through a reseller or through any other GWAC or MAC vehicle. The required proprietary SaaS is only available from NetComm either through their GSA contract or the open market. A review of similar NIAID purchases for non-cloud based licenses show that they were procured through NetComm’s Federal Supply Schedule contract and the open market. The CS also conducted a search utilizing GSA Advantage and NITAAC CIO-CS market research tools which revealed no additional sources for the required cloud-based software.

Additionally, NIAID did not receive any inquiries to the Notice of Intent to Sole Source that was posted on Contract Opportunities SAM.gov for this requirement.

In conclusion, the market research supports a sole source award to NetComm, Inc, as the only source available to the Government for this requirement.

7. Any other facts supporting the justification. Beacon is a proprietary product of NetComm, Inc. All product source code, database structures, technical documentation, installation instructions, sub-components, requirements specifications, design artifacts, user manuals, etc. are the intellectual property of NetComm, Inc. which reserves all rights. NetComm, Inc. is the owner and sole distributor of this software. NIAID has been researching alternative approaches for a software package that would meet NIAID’s requirements. No legitimate competitor is available now because of the upfront development costs and limited market; no company is likely to invest in such an effort for the foreseeable future.

The costs associated with transitioning to another vendor would be prohibitive,