N64267_50307.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER

CORONA DIVISION

PO BOX 5000

CORONA, CA 92878-5000

IN REPLY REFER TO

J&A No. 50,307 Ser 02/1645

LIMITED SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

1. Contracting Activity

The Naval Sea Systems Command, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division (Corona Division), Contracts Department, Code 0221.

2. Nature and/or Description of the Action Being Approved

This limited sources justification authorizes the award of a Firm FixedPrice, Contract on a sole source basis for the procurement of Information Technology (IT) Research and Advisory subscriptions in support of the Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) to Gartner, Inc. (Gartner)

The acquisition is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Program, identified in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.401. Approval of this Justification will authorize a limited source procurement of supplies and/or services described in Paragraph 3 under General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule Contract #47QTCA18D008L and DOD Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) Blanket Purchase Agreement

(BPA) #N6600119A0049.

3. Description of Supplies/Services

PEO IWS has a requirement to purchase the Gartner subscriptions identified below. These subscriptions will be used in support of policy and compliance, technology management, cybersecurity, and data architecture.

QTY DESCRIPTION

3 Gartner for Enterprise IT

Leadership Team Plus - Team Leader

9 Gartner for Enterprise IT Leadership Team Plus - Advisor Team Member

1 Gartner for Technical Professionals Advisor Department for up to 40 users

CUI

The Government needs access to subject matter experts across Information Technology (IT) Hardware, Software, Data manipulation (including aggregation, normalization, and visualization), and IT organization operations to provide independent, unbiased, evaluation of technology, technology trends and technical maturity, and who do not perform sponsored or commissioned research.

Additionally, government requires access to Strategic IT planning best practices and templates, IT capabilityplanning prioritization templates and evaluation methodologies, a cloud comparison webtool that enables visualization of cloud application architecture and prioritization of decisions based on performance, cost or availability, and Program/Portfolio management subject matter expert peerpartner guidance, with unlimited analyst interactions for inquiries and document review, and/or assistance in identifying relevant research for IT program portfolios. The government also requires access to subject matter experts in IT contract analysis and negotiation, peer networking opportunities with other government IT professionals pursuing similar initiatives, as well as research, best practices and talent management tools for hiring, developing and retaining an ITfocused workforce.

Gartner is the only company available through the DOD ESI, which is a mandatory source that can meet the Government's needs.

The IWS Digital Transformation project has developed multiple processes and systems based on Gartner's intellectual property including its methodologies, expertise, and research products.

Multiple PEO IWS programs are currently undergoing transformative efforts in the tools, technology, and processes for missionsystem hardware (HW) and software (SW) delivery. As they advance these efforts, continuous research and exchange is necessary to take advantage of industry lessons learned from companies, or other Department of Defense elements who have preceded them.

The government has a need for IT research and advisory support in the following areas:

o Critical implementation and adoption of Agile SW Development o Implementation of Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery pipelines into legacy SW Development efforts through the recently established program Office (PEO IWSX) led by an 06

MPM

o Modelbased Systems Engineering matter expert IT Program/Portfolio peerpartners to aid government program managers in identifying relevant technologies, enabling effective IT management processes, and hiring, training, and retaining an ITfocused workforce.

The Program Office's SE/SI RFP development is in progress now, ; transitioning to another IT research and advisement subscription that cannot provide document review and analysis to ensure governmentspecific language is translated into correct industry IT terminology, and that can provide insight into IT capability negotiation, would that could add an unacceptable delay to these efforts.

Additionally, PEO IWS is aggressively working to align a myriad of databases to be available across all IWS codes for data mining;

Gartner's knowledge of industry standards and practices is critical to this effort. Furthermore, Gartner's methods and tools were utilized to develop the technical alignment roadmap that collapsed siloed system deliveries into a common shipboard infrastructure as aService (for all surface fleet assets) and a common continuous software delivery model. The organization moved into the execution phase and has refined the technical roadmap to prioritize and execute tasking for FY23 and out. Gartner's proprietary methodology is necessary to minimize increased risk of disruption to mission essential planned FY23 efforts.

PEO IWS has continued evolution of its Digital Transformation efforts through the mandated use of the Office 365 tool suite ("Flankspeed") for tasking assignment, tracking, updates and briefings. Gartner has been critical to development of the workforce education required to enact a significant cultural change in how the organization conducts primary acquisition and Program Management tasks. The Government needs access to subject matter experts and analysis for workforce education support. The subscription provides research and advisement necessary to minimize changes to, and mature, the education roadmap, without which the entire effort could be put at risk (as studies show it is necessary to get over 20% of the early adopters fully ingrained in the new processes in order to ensure momentum across the organization).

Based on the above, the Gartner subscription services are necessary to fulfill the agency's minimum need.

6. Description of Market Research

In accordance with (IAW) FAR 13.106(b) (i), a sources sought notice was posted on the SAM website to announce the Government's intent and request interested parties submit a capability statement indicating if they can provide subscriptions meeting the Government's requirements in the statement of work. The posting was issued on 12 May 2022 and closed on 17 May 2022. Zero (0) responses were received.

PEO IWS has continued to monitor the industry, and regularly engages in discussions with technology companies through multiple venues and due to the information contained in Paragraph 5 above, no additional source has been found. There are only two mandatory sources via DOD ESI that have been identified as having the breadth and scope of technology expertise to provide analysis on the array of technology areas covered by IWS efforts (Gartner and Forrester), but only Gartner provides unlimited analyst inquiries and document review for license holders, an adequate cloud comparison tool to meet the government's minimum need, and necessary expertise in IT contract analysis and negotiation.

7. Determination of Best Value

The Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated costs to the Government for the items covered by this J&A will represent the best value consistent with FAR 8.404(d). The Contracting Officer will use price analysis, including historical cost estimating relationships from previous procurements, to determine that the final price to the Government is fair and reasonable IAW Class Deviation 201400011. This information will assist the Contracting Officer to support fair and reasonable price determination of this procurement. Additionally, the ordering activity will seek a price reduction IAW 8.4054.

8. Actions to Remove Barriers to Competition

In accordance with DFARS PGI 208.4056, the approval authority has reviewed the previous limited sources justification and determined the planned actions to remove any barriers that led to the restricted competition have been completed. As mentioned in paragraph 6 above, PEO IWS continued to monitor industry to identify potential sources. Additionally, for the reasons set forth in Paragraph 5, Corona Division, Code 0221 has no plans at this time to compete future contracts for the types of items covered by this document. If another potential source emerges, Code 0221 will assess whether competition for future requirements is feasible.