NITYR7RI005_IT_sole_source_JA_Redacted.pdf

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) PART 8

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL (J & A)

Purchase Request Number: NITYR7RI005

Procurement Title: I&T Advisory and Membership Services

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as Contracting Officer, hereby approve this limited source justification in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1). The acquisition referenced herein is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

JUSTIFICATION

1. REQUIRING AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

a. Requesting Activity:

Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS)

Information Technology

4800 Mark Center Drive

Alexandria, VA 22311

b. Contracting Activity

DFAS Columbus

Contract Services Directorate

Bldg. 21/2B218

3990 E. Broad St.

Columbus, Oh 43213-1152

2. NATURE/DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION:

The purpose of this document is to obtain the necessary approvals for a limited source acquisition in accordance with FAR Part 8.405-6. “Limited source” in this case pertains to the restriction of competition to a sole source to obtain I&T advisory and membership services.

Per FAR 8.401, this acquisition is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award

Schedule Program, Title III of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (41

U.S.C. 251, et seq.) and Title 40 U.S.C. 501, Services for Executive Agencies.

The applicable exception to placing this order on a competitive basis is identified at FAR 8.405-

6(a)(1)(i)(B), only one awardee, Gartner, Inc., is capable of providing the services required at the level of quality required because the services are unique or highly specialized.

The procurement strategy is to issue a Request for Quote (RFQ) through General Services

Administration (GSA) Advantage in accordance with FAR 8.405-2.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICE:

DFAS Information & Technology (I&T) is purchasing I&T advisory and membership services to provide technology research, analysis, and advisory services to the Chief Information Officer

(CIO) and Deputy CIO. The purchase will comprise of a 12-month membership consisting of one dedicated CIO license and three advisor licenses. The CIO and Deputy CIO are responsible for defining and implementing long-term organizational IT strategies. IT advisory membership services will facilitate developing IT strategies based on industry best practices to optimize delivery of business outcomes and improve quality and value across multiple IT projects. The contract will include a base year plus two option years. The applicable North American Industry

Classification System code is 5541611 (size standard $15.0 million).

4. IDENTIFICATION OF LIMITED SOURCE AUTHORITY AND

DEMONSTRATION OF CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS:

Per FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), only one source is capable of providing the services required by

DFAS. DFAS is a large organization paying all Department of Defense (DoD) military and civilian personnel, retirees and annuitants, as well as major DoD contractors and vendors. DFAS also supports customers outside the DoD in support of electronic government initiatives.

Customers include the Executive Office of the President, the Department of Energy, the

Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services and the

Broadcasting Board of Governors. DFAS I&T is a key enabler for delivering customer financial products and services. The I&T directorate manages a $350M budget, with over 1,250 employees, managing a complex network, and 91 information systems. This requires DFAS to have a robust IT research and advisory service that provides timely access to well over 100,000 original research papers and a large network of federal and private industry CIO peers.

The license subscriptions are exclusive to Gartner. Gartner has proprietary rights to their published material, which are subject to copyright protection. No other contractors or distributors can legally obtain access nor make duplicate copies, since copyrights and patent laws protect it. Gartner, Inc. does not have authorized resellers, and is the only contractor that is capable of providing the licenses.

Gartner provides the following list of unique capabilities and characteristics that satisfy DFAS’s requirement:

Top Secret Facility

Clearance

Gartner is the only IT Research and Advisory service provider with a Top Secret level facility clearance. Any other competitor would have to rely on a subcontractor to staff this contract which translates to significant risk.

Executive Service Delivery

Team

The Gartner Executive Programs team is dedicated solely to providing support to their executive members. The member is supported by a dedicated executive peer advisor with government and commercial executive experience.

IT-Focused Research

Analysts

Gartner has 4 times more analysts than industry competitors — more than 1,100 total, including 16 analysts dedicated to government research. Gartner analysts are subject matter experts in specific areas (e.g., mobile architecture, business process management), rather than generalists.

Online Research Database

With over 120,805 research notes, Gartner has 10 times more documents in their online research database than any other competitor, and publish 5 times more documents per year. Each document has been reviewed within the last 18 months to ensure it is current and relevant to current trends.

Product and Vendor

Evaluations

Gartner has at least 7 times more product and vendor evaluations than other competitors, including: Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes that provide market analysis in 140 technology segments; Hype Cycles that track and monitor the commercial viability of 1,900 technologies in 112 markets; and 47 Vendor

Ratings that assess all the different aspects of a technology provider

IT Key Metrics Data

Gartner provides access to 2,000 IT Metrics across 96 reports through the world’s largest IT benchmarking database — with authoritative data to support staffing and investment levels as well as key technology cost and performance metrics.

Cost Optimization

Gartner provides 10,096+ research documents and tools focused on IT and business cost optimization. Their 100+ analysts covering this topic help clients understand their top five cost optimization opportunities and create a roadmap for value realization.

Events

Gartner hosts at least 4 times more conferences annually. Executives and IT managers experience information-packed sessions led by Gartner analysts. Also, Gartner Summit events are role-focused and provide depth of educational content.

The Gartner Symposium draws over 24,000 senior executives in attendance.

Educational and Networking

Activities

Gartner offers an average of 20 Webinars per month across a wide variety of topics to the entire organization. Gartner also provides local analyst briefings and networking events in the Washington, D.C. area and other locations across the

U.S.

Private Online Peer

Community

Only Gartner offers a private peer community for clients to interact with other IT peers, share best practices, learn about what similar organizations are doing and avoid possible pitfalls.

Unique Perspective

Gartner provides clients with unmetered access to their analysts. As a result, Gartner analysts engage in 240,000 one-to-one interactions with clients every year, or 15 times more one-to-one client interactions per year than other competitors.

Document and Contract

Reviews

Gartner analysts perform 20,000 reviews of strategies, proposals, policies and briefings, and 5,600 contract reviews each year. These services are unmetered and free of charge.

Number of Client

Organizations

Gartner has 5 times more clients than any other competitor, totaling 10,000 distinct enterprises in 90 countries.

5. DETERMINATION OF BEST VALUE:

Based on an RFQ issued against the GSA Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) / DoD ESI BPA and historical awarded prices, it is anticipated the pricing will be fair and reasonable. By placing an order against a GSA Federal Supply Schedule Contract using the procedures in 8.405, DFAS 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. Also, DoD ESI BPAs offer further discounts to DoD off their

GSA pricing. The Contracting Officer will determine whether the price is fair and reasonable based on:

1. Comparison of the proposed prices to historical and existing prices paid, whether by the Government or other than the Government for the same or similar items. The

Contracting Officer will conclude the prior price was valid for comparison.

2. Comparison of proposed prices with the Independent Government Cost Estimate

(IGCE).

3. A comparison of proposed prices against General Services Administration (GSA)

Federal Supply Schedule (FSS). Rates have been established on the GSA FSS and are considered fair and reasonable (FAR 8.404(d)).