JA_FOR_POSTING.pdf

FAR PART 8 ACQUISITIONS

Multiple Award Schedule (MAS)/Multiple Award Contract (MAC)

Orders under MAS/General Service Schedules (GSA)/Federal Supply Schedules (FSS)

FAR 8.405-6

Purchase Request Number: DeCA00005621 Contract Number: N00104-07-A-ZF30 Task/Delivery Order Number: To Be Determined Procurement Title: Gartner Support Contracting Office: Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), Defense Information Technology Contracting Organization (DITCO), Non-DISA Services and Mission Support Section (PL8312) Estimated Value: $1,500,115.00 Limited Source Authority: 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B)

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

J&A Number: JA13-106

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Procuring Activity Competition Advocate, hereby approve this limited source justification in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B).

The acquisition referenced herein is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

JUSTIFICATION

1. REQUIRING AGENCY AND CONTRACTING OFFICE:

a. Agency:

Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) Headquarters (HQ) DeCA/Governance & Workforce Management/LEIMG 1300 E. Avenue Ft. Lee, VA 23801-1800

b. Contracting Activity:

DISA/DITCO/PL8312

2300 East Drive Scott AFB, IL 62225-5406

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF ACTION(S):

a. The nature of this action is to award a Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) task order against the Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) N00104-07-A-ZF30, held by Gartner, Inc., a large business. This is an acquisition of Information Technology (IT) research advisory services for the office of DeCA’s Chief Information Officer (CIO). These services include strategic and tactical information technology, supply chain and retail research with on-going analyst advice and support.

Title of Effort: DeCA Gartner Services- JA13-106

b. The period of performance for this action will be for a base period of date of award through June 30, 2014, and four one-year option periods ultimately ending on June 30, 2018.

The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 541611. Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Defense Working Capital Funds are provided for the procurement under the Military Interdepartmental Purchase Request number MIPLSIT1316501. The estimated lifecycle of this action is $1,500,115.00.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES:

a. DeCA seeks advisory and research services of an independent organization with professionally skilled staff that can provide tailored and specific expert information in support of the Agency’s strategic and tactical plans. Research and analysis shall include strategic and tactical information technology, supply chain and retail research with on-going analyst advice and support. The contractor shall provide IT Research and Advisory Services that cover current and future state analysis of business and IT related topics and comparisons of current and future IT products, services and solutions.

b. The contractor shall also provide current state analysis and future state predictions of technology vendor offerings and financial performance, including detailed analysis of products, markets, technologies, and the competitive landscape that could impact their financial viability.

In addition, the contractor shall provide future state analysis of all IT topical areas, including strategic planning assumptions.

c. The services are required as follows:

4. IDENTIFICATION OF LIMITED SOURCE AUTHORITY AND DEMONSTRATION

OF CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS:

a. Circumstances Justifying Limiting the Source. 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.

Period of Performance Total

Base Period Date of award through June 30, 2014 $ 245,715.00 Option Year 1 July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015 $ 270,287.00 Option Year 2 July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016 $ 297,315.00 Option Year 3 July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017 $ 327,047.00 Option Year 4 July 1, 2017 through June 30, 2018 $ 359,751.00

Total $ 1,500,115.00

b. Description of Justification: The Federal Government uses Gartner extensively.

Ninety-five percent of the IT organizations at the Federal level are clients. The remaining five percent are other researchers and consultants. By definition, any effective IT advisor must know about the client, the client's organization, and the client's industry. It must have established market relationships with vendors, users, and market opinion leaders; it must also be capable of synthesizing the information gathered from these sources for delivery to clients.

Finally, it must provide a global distribution network with local support, while offering multiple delivery mechanisms in a variety of media. Gartner's IT advisory services cover the full range of IT issues from applying technology to the client's business, to following major trends and directions in IT, to managing and measuring the client's IT infrastructure.

c. Justification:

(1) Minimum Government Requirements. The agency requires a research support tool that will map projects to research and proactively disseminate the research at the critical times in the projects based on input that will save time and proactively support the agency’s top key initiatives, providing the most recent research for projects aligned to the vendors and key initiatives that clients have identified.

The membership for the research and analysis support shall include, but not limited to, the following:

• Provide CIO and Executive Management information technology strategic plan coaching, validation, and facilitation of briefing content.

• Provide support with Brand Management strategies and competitive differentiation.

• Support new approach and strategies to supply chain retail execution.

• Support the Retail Business Suite Initiative to mitigate risk and avoid costly mistakes, which shall include:

o Validate strategy to select single vendor solution o Analysis of requirements o Evaluate retail vendor landscape o Review of pricing to ensure DeCA receives fair market value

• Support Business Process Management (BPM) and Re-engineering phase-by-phase efforts, which shall include:

o How to assess readiness o Create a BPM strategy and charter o What to do in the first 100 days o Best practices and customizable tools for achieving BPM success, involving organization, people, technology, methodology, governance, measurement, motivation and communication to gain wide support o Capabilities to identify and prioritize DeCA’s top business processes that need to be established and/or re-engineered to ensure the success of the Retail Business Suite implementation

• Identify and advise on emerging trends and technologies to include: Cloud, Mobile, Social and Big Data to ensure that the CIO and IT organization are aware and can adapt to changing business requirements and identify best practices for implementing these technologies for DeCA to remain competitive in the marketplace. It is imperative that DeCA is alert and responsive to Social Media tactics and techniques.

• Provide toolkits and templates to improve project timeliness and quality, portfolio prioritization, reduce the risk of cost and schedule overruns, improve project productivity, establish appropriate metrics for project/program success, and select program management tools.

• Support strategic and tactical plans to address the customer relationship management lifecycle.

• Provide support with the execution of Electronic & Mobile Commerce Strategy, the Most Valuable Customer facing and internal mobile applications.

• Incorporate a best practice approach to implementing the latest in retail grocery technologies and advise throughout the lifecycle.

(2) Proposed sole source contractor. DeCA has determined that Gartner, Inc. is uniquely qualified to provide the required services to the Government. Gartner provides a variety of targeted research products through subscription. The research provides information on key areas important to DeCA operational and strategic IT decisions, such as enterprise architecture, strategic planning, governance and oversight, project management, portfolio management, infrastructure trends, and security risk management and compliance. Gartner has established a research package that meets DeCA’s needs, as follows:

• To have access to independent research that provides analysis of key IT and business issues

• To have the ability to consult directly with IT industry experts to validate understanding and clarify assumptions

• To have access to research and analysts to support technology investment decisions

• To have unrestricted access to research that will support DeCA’s key initiatives

(3) Discussion regarding cause of the limited source situation. Gartner is the only organization that DeCA found during market research that provides the comprehensive breadth and depth of advisory, research, and comparative measurement services, to include the Supply Chain Research and Advisory services required by DeCA for its Supply Chain Division; and, no other research and advisory organization reflects the capability to provide Supply Chain research and advisory services. DeCA researched publications from CIO Council, IDC Government Insights, Yankee Group, and Forrester websites all of which did not reflect specific Supply Chain research. DeCA has invested more than four years building a repository of research through Gartner’s membership. The services provided by Gartner far exceed any other that could possibly be recouped and utilized to the extent DeCA has achieved thus far. Gartner analysts surpass any other competitor with an average of 17 years of IT management experience. There are 753 Gartner analysts, focused on IT and Business Management of IT, separate from the Research Analysts. Other companies researched use their analysts for consulting, which limits research time and introduces conflict of interest issues, especially with vendor clients. Gartner is the only organization among its competitors that has identified 45 Key Initiatives and related supporting initiatives that are shaping the IT industry (i.e. Cloud Computing, Customer Experience Management) and has mapped Gartner’s research and resources. Finally, as identified through Market Research, the other sources researched do not meet the key parameters and attributes necessary for the research and advisory services, as required by both the DeCA IT and Supply Chain stakeholders.

(4) Demonstration of limited source. Gartner is the world's leading IT advisory service organization. Gartner's primary focus is on interpreting the dominant and underlying trends that are important to the buyers and end-users of information technology products and services. Through in-depth analysis of IT progress and developments, Gartner provides its clients with a variety of advisory and decision-support resources that enable them to implement strategic and tactical computing initiatives more effectively.

(5) Procurement Discussion. This effort is a continuance of DeCA’s current task order with Gartner, Inc., N00104-07-A-ZF30-KH08, which expired June 30, 2013. This continuation will ensure continuity throughout DeCA’s IT transformation. Gartner shall provide DeCA with the continuity of progressing throughout its IT transformation while eliminating the costs associated with an initial assessment of another vendor. Gartner’s current service has played a valuable role in DeCA’s recent IT transformation through consolidation and streamlining of activities within the organization. Gartner has supported DeCA from both a strategic and tactical perspective. DeCA has enlisted Gartner on numerous initiatives, to include DeCA’s best use of Microsoft software and licensing options to obtain best value from the vendor. In another instance, when DeCA was moving forward with a large scale central catalog system contract, DeCA enlisted Gartner’s retail and technology expertise and found the system ultimately would not meet the Agency’s longer term requirements. Hence, the procurement action was cancelled, which provided the opportunity to re-capitalize the budget for higher value projects.

(6) Impact. The extensive research and analysis completed up to this point is vital to the organization. Gartner’s advisory and research services, to include strategies, processes, technologies, best practices, and analyst support, through their professionally skilled staff provides tailored and specific expert information in support of the Agency’s strategic and tactical plans. By continuing with Gartner, DeCA will benefit from the previous 42 months and $430,458.85 already invested into this project. If DeCA were to begin with a new source for future research and analysis at this point in the transformation, the Agency could exhaust greater than the $400,000.00 already invested in efforts to reach the level of competency of a new contractor, in order for them to understand DeCA’s needs. DeCA requires the capability to access credible, fact-based retail management strategies, processes, technologies, best practices and analyst support from a single, organized resource. Time and effort to research quality retail management topics maintains government efficiency and effectiveness.

5. BEST VALUE DETERMINATION:

This planned task order represents the best value in accordance with FAR 8.404(d). By placing an order against a schedule contract using the procedures in Part 8, the ordering activity has concluded that the order represents the best value (as defined in FAR 2.101) and results in the lowest overall cost alternative (considering price, special features, administrative costs, etc.) to meet the Government’s needs, as described in the performance work statement.

GSA has already determined that prices of supplies, fixed price services, and rates for services offered at hourly rates are fair and reasonable; therefore, no additional fair and reasonable determination is required when using Part 8.

6. MARKET RESEARCH:

a. In accordance with FAR Part 10, market research was conducted for this acquisition.

Market research was previously conducted by the DoD and the Navy at the award of the DoD ESI BPA. The DoD ESI Agreement was competed and a BPA was awarded to Gartner, Inc.

December 5, 2006 and expires March 31, 2018. The BPA Ordering Period became effective December 1, 2006 and is for the term of the GSA FSS Schedule. The BPA will be reviewed annually and is contingent upon Gartner maintaining or renewing GSA Schedule GS-35F- 5014H. The Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) conducted market research in April 2013 and was unable to find another BPA to utilize for this requirement. Market research conducted by the COR included a review of acquisition history, a review of possible competitors, and reviews of professional journals, catalog and product literature.

b. The results of the market research found that all previous acquisitions for this service, since FY 2010, have been awarded to Gartner, Inc. Other competitors researched did not meet the key parameters and attributes necessary for the research and advisory services, as required by the IT and the Supply Chain stakeholders. The other competitors researched included CIO Council, Yankee Group, Forrester Research, and IDC Government Insights. The CIO Council archives had 27 publications in 2009 to 150 publications in 2011; IDC Government Insights boasted 110 IT initiative publications for 2012, to include “Go-To-Market Services” and IT Advisory Tools; Yankee Group was undeterminable within the 200-plus articles posted as to the extent of research provided; and, Forrester exhibited over 200 articles over the last 18 months for retail solutions and e-Business initiatives.

c. Market research found that no other company can provide the depth and breadth of traditional IT/CIO related research and analyst support, and also provide retail supply chain and retail grocery specific research and ongoing analyst support. Gartner’s ability to provide a knowledge base of DeCA’s operations is vital to the restructuring of our new organizational model. Although other contractor’s hold ESI BPA’s for similar service, the use of another contractor would not be in the best interest of the Government as it would cause a loss of current investment in time, money, and other resources.

d. Research was also conducted to determine viable small business resources, and possible contract vehicles for use. As demonstrated, no small businesses were found to provide these services, as all possible competitors were large businesses. Also, DFARS 208.7402 requires the use of the DoD ESI BPA to the maximum extent possible. According to DFARS 208.7402, “Departments and agencies shall fulfill requirements for commercial software and related services, such as software maintenance, in accordance with the DoD Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) (see website at http://www.esi.mil/). ESI promotes the use of enterprise software agreements (ESAs) with contractors that allow DoD to obtain favorable terms and pricing for http://www.esi.mil/ commercial software and related services. ESI does not dictate the products or services to be acquired.”

7. ANY OTHER SUPPORTING FACTS:

Gartner has provided support and guidance from both an IT strategic planning perspective, as well as having supported the roll out of our Enterprise Program Management Office, which is an instrumental office to support the fielding of our future programs. This initiative enabled DeCA to save a significant amount of time in defining where the PMO should reside, roles and responsibilities, how to staff and identify the governance structure. Without Gartner’s tools, templates and analyst support, this effort would have easily taken the Agency approximately 2 months longer to stand up this office.

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

THE RESTRICTED CONSIDERATION:

a. Procurement history.

Contract Number: N00104-07-A-ZF30-KH08 Contractor: Gartner Services, Inc.

Period of Performance: January 29, 2010 - June 30, 2013 Total Contract Value: $430,458.85 Contract Type: FFP Objective: Procurement of Gartner Services

b. DeCA continues to perform market research for products that are available and designed to meet its requirements. DeCA continually communicates and works with other DoD agencies, its business partners, and attends trade and industry shows, in efforts to stay abreast of this evolving technology. As legislation and regulatory changes mandated by DoD change and influence the DoD information technology requirements, the commercial marketplace’s ability to stay abreast of those changes and provide viable solutions will also change.

9. REFERENCE TO THE APPROVED ACQUISITION PLAN (AP): Not applicable, as this specific procurement does not require an AP.