The required capability will support HHS decision-making across information technology modernization, cybersecurity, acquisition, grants management, financial management, human resources and human capital, organizational transformation, shared services, and other mission-support functions. Because these areas are increasingly interconnected, HHS requires a common research and analytical foundation that can be used across organizational and functional boundaries to evaluate commercial solutions, benchmark operations, assess emerging practices, identify efficiencies, and inform modernization and consolidation decisions.

HHS Operating Divisions and Staff Divisions have historically acquired independent research, benchmarking, decision-support, and advisory capabilities through decentralized Division-level acquisition mechanisms, including General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) orders, Interagency Agreements (IAAs), National Institutes of Health (NIH) Information Systems Designated Procurement (ISDP)-supported access, and other local procurement approaches. The records reviewed demonstrate recurring demand across HHS for external research and advisory resources supporting technology, finance, human capital, organizational management, and other mission-support decisions. They also demonstrate fragmented visibility into contract references, periods of performance, funding values, quantities, user populations, and renewal dates. Collectively, this procurement history demonstrates that the underlying requirement is Department-wide and multidisciplinary rather than limited to a particular technology organization or individual acquisition. HHS components have repeatedly acquired access to external research, benchmarking, market intelligence, analytical tools, and subject-matter expertise to inform decisions involving IT modernization, cybersecurity, finance, human capital, acquisition, organizational management, and other mission-support functions. Current and anticipated requirements further extend this need to grants management, shared services, organizational transformation, and related enterprise initiatives.

The decentralized acquisition history has resulted in individual organizations independently identifying requirements, obtaining funding, establishing acquisition mechanisms, managing subscriptions and access, and tracking renewal dates.

This approach limits Department-wide visibility into utilization and expenditures and increases the potential for overlapping requirements, inconsistent pricing, administrative duplication, service interruptions, and missed opportunities to leverage HHS's aggregate purchasing requirements.

The proposed enterprise BPA addresses these conditions by establishing a common acquisition framework for independent research and advisory support while retaining Division-level control over individual requirements and funding. Centralizing the acquisition vehicle does not require every HHS organization to purchase the same services;

rather, it provides a standardized mechanism through which authorized organizations can obtain the research and advisory capabilities appropriate to their missions while HHS maintains enterprise visibility into ordering, utilization, pricing, and demand.

Description of the Supplies or Services Required to Meet the Agency's Needs

HHS requires existing, commercially available independent mission, business, technology, and management research and advisory services to support timely, evidence-based mission and enterprise decisions. The required capability must provide authorized HHS Operating and Staff Divisions with immediate and reusable access to established research, vetted data, comparative benchmarks, market intelligence, analytical methodologies and tools, and associated subject-matter expertise. The capability must provide sufficient breadth, depth, currency, and accessibility to support HHS mission research and mission-support functions, including healthcare and public health, information technology modernization, cybersecurity, acquisition, grants management, financial management, human capital, organizational transformation, shared services, and related enterprise functions.

The Contractor shall provide research subscription service, analysis, and consulting services to include executive level and subject matter expert level by way of subscriptions, for use throughout the Department. Demand is expected to increase year over year as technological changes occur and the need for strategic and operational consulting and research expand. As a result, HHS has an evolving need for an ordering vehicle for the acquisition of services to maximize HHS leveraged buying power and provide a streamlined procurement process.

The required supplies and services include subscription-based mission and business research and data access;

quantitative benchmarks and comparative metrics; market, industry, healthcare, and public-sector assessments;

analytical frameworks and decision-support tools; executive, technical, mission, and functional advisory services; direct analyst and subject-matter expert inquiry; conferences and events; and related applied research, advisory, and consulting services. Collectively, these capabilities must enable HHS to assess developments affecting its missions and programs;

benchmark costs, staffing, performance, productivity, and service delivery; support analysis of commercial product and service capabilities; assess emerging technologies and practices; validate strategies and assumptions; identify risks;

evaluate opportunities for consolidation and efficiency; and inform programmatic, acquisition, investment, workforce, grants, financial, technology, and organizational decisions.

A critical characteristic of the requirement is that the research and analysis be independent and objective. This applies both to research supporting HHS's mission responsibilities and to research used to analyze commercial products, services, technologies, providers, operating models, and market alternatives. The Government requires research based on established analytical methodologies, relevant data and evidence, comparative information, and objective evaluation so that HHS can make informed decisions without relying primarily on information supplied by parties that may have a direct financial or commercial interest in those decisions.

Additionally, the Government requires an existing commercial capability rather than development of a Government-unique research solution. The underlying mission research, business research, data, benchmarks, market intelligence, methodologies, and analytical resources must be developed and maintained on an ongoing basis and available before individual HHS questions arise. This enables Government personnel to obtain current, decision-ready information when mission, programmatic, or operational needs arise without independently developing equivalent research, assembling comparable datasets, or recreating the underlying analytical resources for each requirement.

Additionally, associated advisory services must provide access to analysts and subject-matter experts with relevant mission, industry, technology, and functional expertise who can assist Government personnel in interpreting available research, evaluating alternatives, testing assumptions, understanding emerging developments and leading practices, and applying relevant information to specific HHS decisions. The value of the required capability therefore derives from the combination of pre-existing mission and market research, analytical resources, and associated expert insight that can be applied as Government needs arise. Thus, the need is not only for a pre-existing and continuously expanding repository of data or for standalone subject matter expertise on its own, but for a solution which combines both a data repository with subject-matter experts who maintain familiarity with the data and who can build on analytical results over time.

Moreover, the requirement is distinct from acquiring primarily discrete, project-based consulting services. While individual consulting engagements may require the Government to define a specific scope and a contractor to conduct new research, collect information, perform analysis, and develop a customized deliverable, HHS requires recurring, on-demand access to an established commercial mission research and advisory environment that can be repeatedly used across organizations, programs, functional areas, and decisions. In this regard, the Government is also seeking to reduce reliance on costly, highly customized solutions when existing commercial products and services can satisfy mission requirements. To support this objective, Government decision-makers require timely access to objective, market-based research and analysis that provides visibility into commercial practices, emerging technologies, industry trends, comparative benchmarks, risks, and proven approaches. Such information enables HHS to analyze alternatives based on independent evidence rather than relying primarily on information supplied by vendors that may have a direct financial interest in the Government's acquisition, technology, or investment decisions.

The enterprise approach will provide HHS with a common acquisition framework and shared analytical foundation while allowing individual Operating and Staff Divisions to order and fund capabilities appropriate to their specific mission and mission-support requirements. This structure is intended to improve access to decision-quality information, reduce duplicative research and acquisition activity, promote consistent use of external mission research, comparative benchmarks, and market intelligence, improve visibility into Department-wide utilization, and support programmatic decision-making, modernization, consolidation, shared services, and efficiency initiatives.

Accordingly, HHS seeks to leverage existing commercial mission research and advisory capabilities rather than develop or recreate comparable resources within the Government. The required capability must provide the breadth, depth, independence, continuity, and accessibility necessary to support HHS's missions as well as enterprise-wide mission-support decisions, while enabling Government personnel to focus resources on evaluating evidence, alternatives, and outcomes rather than recreating research and analytical capabilities already available in the commercial marketplace.

This capability is particularly important as HHS evaluates opportunities to consolidate and standardize technologies, contracts, administrative processes, shared services, and mission-support functions. Decisions involving modernization and centralization can have significant downstream effects on cybersecurity, acquisition, workforce requirements, financial operations, grants administration, organizational structures, and service delivery. Access to multidisciplinary research and advisory expertise enables the Government to evaluate these dependencies before making significant investments or implementing enterprise-wide changes.

The Government also requires information that is current and immediately usable. Technology markets, cybersecurity threats, commercial offerings, workforce practices, financial and administrative operating models, and industry practices evolve rapidly. Independently developing equivalent research, assembling comparable datasets, or reconciling fragmented information from multiple sources could delay Government decision-making and increase the resources required to obtain decision-quality information.

Accordingly, HHS requires established research and advisory capability that provides a consistent combination of independent research, comparative data and benchmarks, market intelligence, analytical resources, and associated expert advisory support. The required capability must support evidence-based decisions, appropriate use of commercial products and services, reduction of unnecessary customization and duplication, identification of consolidation and efficiency opportunities, mitigation of acquisition and implementation risk, and improvement of Government operations.

Identification of Authority and Demonstration of Contractor's Unique Qualifications

a. Authority

Authority of the Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) Program: 41 U.S.C. § 152(3), Competitive Procedures, and 40 U.S.C. § 501, Services for Executive Agencies, as implemented by RFO FAR 8.401 and GSAR 538.7104-3.

GSAR 538.7104-3(b)(1)(ii) – Only one source is capable of providing the products, services, or solution required at the level of quality required because the products, services, or solutions are unique or highly specialized.

As described above, the Government requires access to independent data, research, reports, analytical tools, benchmarks, market intelligence, and associated advisory services that can be readily applied to mission-critical and enterprise decisions involving information technology modernization, cybersecurity, acquisition strategy, grants management, financial management, human capital, organizational transformation, shared services, and other HHS mission-support functions. These capabilities are particularly important as HHS continues efforts to centralize functions, standardize operations, reduce duplication, identify efficiencies, and improve enterprise-wide decision-making.

Market research was conducted to determine whether commercial sources could satisfy this complete enterprise-wide requirement at the level of quality required by HHS. The research considered the availability of independent research, benchmarking, market intelligence, analytical resources, multidisciplinary coverage, and associated expert advisory services. Based on that market research, the Government determined that Gartner, Inc. is the only source capable of providing the complete combination of capabilities at the level of quality required. Only Gartner provides an established commercial research and advisory environment spanning technology and HHS mission-support functions, including human capital, grants management, acquisition, financial management, cybersecurity, organizational transformation, and shared services. Gartner's research and analytical capabilities also extend beyond traditional IT requirements as required by HHS. Specifically, the capabilities support human capital decisions involving workforce strategy, organizational design, talent management, workforce technology, service delivery, employee experience, skills requirements, automation, and artificial intelligence. They also support grants management and other mission-support decisions involving operating models, process modernization, automation, data and analytics, governance, risk management, commercial technologies, customer experience, and organizational change. For grants management in particular, these capabilities are required to assist HHS in evaluating how commercial technologies, operating models, automation, data, and leading management practices can improve grants administration and oversight while reducing manual processes, duplicative systems, and unnecessary customization. The same research environment can inform related acquisition, finance, cybersecurity, data management, program integrity, workforce, and enterprise service-delivery decisions. Attempting to assemble the required complete capability from multiple providers would require HHS to acquire and reconcile separate datasets, benchmarking methodologies, market assessments, functional research, analytical frameworks, and advisory services. This multi-pronged approach to meeting the need would introduce inconsistent assumptions and methodologies, reduce comparability across HHS organizations and functional areas, increase administrative burden, and delay access to decision-quality information.

Of note, certain elements of Gartner's solution are also proprietary and cannot be obtained from another source in substantially identical form, including Gartner's IT Key Metrics Data, Magic Quadrant research and methodology, which is a proprietary body of research, and access to Gartner analysts and the knowledge developed through its inquiry ecosystem. Relative to analytical service capabilities, Gartner maintains policies and organizational controls designed to preserve the independence and objectivity of its research activities from its commercial activities. This characteristic is particularly important for Gartner's Magic Quadrant and related market research. These assessments use defined inclusion criteria and structured methodologies for evaluating participating providers against specified criteria. The resulting analysis provides HHS with an independent third-party market perspective distinct from vendor-generated marketing materials, demonstrations, proposals, and other information supplied by companies seeking to sell products or services to the Government. These resources provide complementary forms of decision support in tandem with each other. Gartner's research independence, structured analytical methodologies, and internal research review processes therefore satisfy important characteristics of the Government's requirement for independent, objective, and decision-ready research. When combined with Gartner's research, data, benchmarks, and analyst inquiry capability, these safeguards provide HHS with an independent source of evidence for validating assumptions, challenging vendor representations, benchmarking Government operations, evaluating commercial alternatives, supporting acquisition planning, and making defensible enterprise decisions.

Additionally, quantitative benchmarks permit comparison of spending, staffing, performance, productivity, service delivery, and operating models; market research provides structured analysis of commercial markets and providers; and analyst inquiry enables Government personnel to obtain context, test assumptions, and apply available research to particular decisions. While these proprietary characteristics do not themselves represent the Government's requirement, they are distinguishing characteristics of Gartner’s commercial solution which meet those requirements which market research determined are available only from Gartner.

Gartner's commercial research environment also provides the continuously maintained, on-demand resources supplemented by access to analysts and subject-matter experts who assist users in interpreting research, evaluating alternatives, testing assumptions, understanding market developments and leading practices, and applying relevant data and benchmarks to specific decisions. The value of the capability derives from the availability of pre-existing research and analytical resources combined with associated expert insight rather than the development of a new research product for each Government question. This model is distinct from acquiring primarily project-based consulting services.

Discrete consulting engagements may require the Government to define a specific scope and a contractor to conduct new research, collect information, perform analysis, and develop a customized deliverable. HHS instead requires recurring access to an established commercial research and advisory environment that can be repeatedly used across organizations, functional areas, and decisions.

Market research was conducted among relevant GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contractors and other commercial market sources to determine whether the Government's requirements could be satisfied through competition or by an alternative source. The Government reviewed HHS data calls; current and anticipated Operating Division and Staff Division requirements; current and historical user information; CIO-approved requirements; grants management and other mission-support requirements; applicable GSA MAS pricing; reseller information; the consolidated pricing and requirements attachment; and information concerning alternative commercial research, advisory, consulting, and professional services providers.

The Government's market research found that a commercial market exists for research, advisory, strategy, management consulting, transformation, implementation, and program support services generally. However, the research also found that no other sources could provide the specific integrated capability required by HHS: viz., immediate and continuing access to an established body of proprietary, independently developed research and vetted data; proprietary benchmarks and analytical methodologies; market and vendor assessments; subscription-based portal access; direct access to analysts and subject-matter experts informed by and associated with that research; and related advisory and applied research services utilizing the same underlying intellectual property and analytical framework.

This distinction is material because the Government's requirement is not principally for a contractor to conduct a discrete study, perform implementation activities, or develop a customized analysis based primarily on Government-furnished information. HHS requires a turnkey, subscription-based research and advisory environment in which authorized personnel can obtain decision-ready research, benchmarks, tools, market intelligence, and expert insight on demand. The underlying research and data are developed, vetted, maintained, and updated before an individual HHS requirement arises, enabling users to address emerging issues without establishing and funding a separate consulting engagement for each business question.

Consistent with HHS policy for acquisitions above the Simplified Acquisition Threshold (SAT), the Government considered whether at least two capable, certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) could reasonably be expected to submit offers satisfying the requirement at fair market prices and whether an SDVOSB set-aside or sole-source award is practicable. Market research identified SDVOSBs capable of providing various consulting, technical, research, and program-support services. However, the Government did not identify at least two certified SDVOSBs capable of providing the complete enterprise-wide requirement at fair market prices, including the necessary breadth of pre-existing research, benchmarking data, multidisciplinary market intelligence, analytical resources, and on-demand expert advisory support. The Government also did not identify a certified SDVOSB capable of satisfying the complete requirement on a sole-source basis. Accordingly, the Government determined that neither an SDVOSB set-aside nor an SDVOSB sole-source award is practicable for this acquisition. This determination is based on the breadth, depth, continuity, independence, and enterprise-wide nature of the required capability and does not preclude consideration of SDVOSBs for separable consulting, implementation, or program-support requirements where market research demonstrates adequate SDVOSB capability.

Market research therefore determined that the complete combination of capabilities required by HHS is not available from another source at the level of quality required. Although other commercial sources may provide research, advisory, benchmarking, consulting, or related professional services, the Government did not identify another source providing the required breadth and integration of continuously maintained multidisciplinary research, comparative data and benchmarks, structured market analysis, established analytical methodologies, and associated on-demand expert advisory access necessary to satisfy the complete enterprise-wide requirement. Accordingly, based on the Government's defined minimum requirements and the market research conducted, Gartner is the only source determined capable of meeting HHS's requirement for independent, multidisciplinary research, benchmarking, market intelligence, analytical resources, and expert advisory support for enterprise-wide mission decisions at the level of quality required.

Gartner's independence from vendor-specific implementation and product resale models is also relevant to the Government's requirement. Gartner does not serve as the systems integrator or product reseller for the technology vendors it evaluates. This model enables Gartner to provide market research, vendor analysis, benchmarking, and decision support without linking its recommendations to the sale or implementation of a particular technology product or to a reseller relationship. Further, in written correspondence dated August 21, 2026, Gartner's Director of Government Contracts confirmed that Gartner has no authorized resellers for the required offerings as contained in the government’s requirements. Accordingly, no other Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contractor is authorized to provide the Gartner subscriptions and associated entitlements required by HHS. These include Gartner-branded subscriptions, Gartner portal access, Gartner analyst inquiry and advisory access, Gartner events, Gartner proprietary tools and benchmarks, and continuity of applicable HHS and NIH legacy entitlements. These capabilities cannot be obtained from another FSS contractor through a reseller arrangement.

Actions to Foster Competition for Future, Similar Requirements:

Although the Government has determined that a sole-source approach is appropriate for the current requirement, HHS will continue to take affirmative steps to promote competition for future, similar requirements. The current determination is based on the Government's present minimum needs and the results of market research conducted for this acquisition and will not be presumed to apply to subsequent acquisitions.

Prior to establishing a follow-on vehicle, as applicable, HHS will reassess its requirements and conduct market research to determine whether changes in the commercial marketplace, available research and advisory offerings, acquisition vehicles, reseller arrangements, or small business capabilities provide opportunities for increased competition. The Government will evaluate the requirement based on the capabilities necessary to support HHS mission and enterprise decision-making, rather than unnecessarily limiting future requirements to a particular brand, provider, methodology, or existing solution.

HHS will take the following actions, as appropriate, to foster future competition:

Conduct recurring market research to identify new or expanded commercial sources capable of providing independent research, vetted data and benchmarks, market intelligence, analytical tools, and on-demand advisory support across HHS mission-support areas.

Engage industry before future acquisitions, when practicable, through Requests for Information, Sources Sought notices, industry engagement, GSA market research tools, or other appropriate methods to better understand available capabilities and potential alternative solutions.

Reassess minimum requirements to distinguish capabilities that must remain integrated from those that could reasonably be competed separately without creating unacceptable duplication, inconsistent methodologies, operational disruption, or additional Government burden.

Evaluate opportunities for modular or separable competition, particularly for discrete consulting, implementation, program support, research, or advisory requirements that do not require access to the complete enterprise research environment.

Assess small business participation, including whether market conditions support competition among small businesses or socioeconomic categories, including certified SDVOSBs, and whether set-aside or sole-source authorities are practicable for future requirements.