Sole_Source_Only_Justification.pdf

Justification for other than full and open competition

OMGS/OGVFB/NEI/NIH requires a service contract for maintenance of two Life Technology 3130

DNA Analysis Systems. Life Technologies does not authorize any third party service provider to perform maintenance and repair on Applied Biosystems instruments. Life Technologies is the only manufacturer authorized service provider for AB instruments. Life Technologies maintains IP rights to its collection software and service tools software. Third party resellers and service providers are strictly prohibited from accessing, using or selling this software. Life Technologies has not entered into any agreement with any Asset Management or Insurance company. In addition, Life Technologies is the only company who is in a position to fulfill our requirements for these critical pieces of equipment for the following reasons:

A. Only Life Technologies service engineers, who had gone through a multi-step process to obtain factory certification to work on your AB products, will touch your instruments. AB service engineers are required to renew their certification every two years to maintain their standard of excellence. In addition, they remain certified on Class IIIB Lasers.

B. O n l y Life Technologies certified service engineers have full and exclusive access to

Life Technologies' latest technical developments, repair procedures, software application updates and planned maintenance procedures. This support includes:

1. Priority Territory and Regional specialist support

2. Escalation support network for broad based support and solutions to any issue. The network's sole purpose is to bring together a team of qualified personnel across the Life

Technologies organization to drive and resolve situations quickly that go beyond the support of our local teams. In addition to local personnel, our team members include:

Service Product Managers, Product Managers, R&D and Staff Scientists

3. Instrument specific knowledge databases with substantial information captured over the lifetime of the platforms

4. Annual calibration of tools to maintain optimal performance

C. Only Life Technologies provides replacement parts certified to manufacturer's OEM specifications with Life Technologies. In addition, Life Technologies service engineer are the only source who can order major sub-assemblies such as, circuit boards, polymer pumps, lasers, ovens, CCD cameras, auto-samplers, motors and major wiring harnesses.

D. Only Life Technologies provides audit-quality qualification services with Life Technologies inc lud ing the broadest range of compliance and validation services ranging from risk assessment to hardware/software qualification to full system validation.

E. Only Life Technologies provides unlimited access to the Life Technologies global technical assistance center (TAC). TAC is staffed by senior service engineers and provides the highest level of expertise for troubleshooting AB's instruments, which w i l l helps

OMGS receive speedy call resolution and maximizing productivity at your lab.

F. Only Life Technologies provides exclusive access to a Remote Diagnostics service (for applicable Applied Biosystems instruments). This includes:

1. Remote Diagnostics, a real-time monitoring system that pro-actively alerts Life

Technologies support staff and the customer when an instrument or instrument component function falls below pre-set operating parameters.

2. Life Technologies field service engineers carry a full complement of service spares.

This local inventory, managed on usage and instrument density, assures that L i f e

T e c h n o l o g i e s engineers have the proper service spares to maintain a high percentage of first visit call completions. This is necessary for efficient functioning of

OMGS as the DNA sequencers are an absolute requirement for much of our work.