eOPF_LSJ_-_Redacted.pdf

Limited Source Justification FAR Part 8.405-6

1. Agency/Contracting activity:

This Limited Source Justification (LSJ) supports a procurement action to be conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program (FAR 8.401). The procurement action is generated by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Facilities, Security, & Contracting

(FSC).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved:

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Chief Information Office (CIO), Federal Data Solutions (FDS), Data Warehouse Program (DWP) (formerly Enterprise Human Resources Integration (EHRI)) requires a variety of products and services, to include an integrated suite of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) human resources (HR) document management and work flow application (DM/WF) software products and associated development, program management, and data management support services intended to streamline and automate the exchange of Federal employee HR information Government-wide.

Most Recently, these products and services were being provided by Northrop Grumman via a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), OPM32-15-A-0006, issued against their General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Contract GS-35F-4506G in the amount of $4,358,335. The most recent BPA was issued as a logical follow on in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(C). The period of performance of the BPA is from June 24, 2015 – August 23, 2015. Prior to the most recent BPA, another BPA (OPM17-10-A-0001) was issued to Northrop Grumman on a competitive basis as a result of Request for Quote Number RFQ 397455 which covered the period of performance December 23, 2009 – June 23, 2015.

This LSJ provides the rationale for a sole source task order to be issued to Northrop Grumman against their GSA MAS Contract, GS-35F-4506G since they are the only source capable of providing the supplies or services required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized. Northrop Grumman’s e.POWER software licenses and supporting services are proprietary in nature and there are no known authorized resellers or authorized service providers available on GSA Schedule.

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value):

The task order resulting from this LSJ will provide the following services: (1) customized, proprietary Northrop Grumman’s e.POWER software licenses; (2) interment ongoing lifecycle development and support services, to include software installation, modification, integration, and maintenance; and (3) development, program management, and data management support services. The estimated value of this procurement is approximately $2,915,880 (see table included on next page), and the POP is for two months, with no option periods included.

Licenses & Maintenance $1,485,000 Development Services $495,000

Program Management Services $718,080 Data Services $214,500 Travel (NTE) $3,300

Total $2,915,880

4. Authority permitting acquisition using limited sources:

The authority for establishing the sole source task order resulting from this LSJ is 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.

The eOPF is engineered on a customized version of Northrop Grumman’s proprietary e.POWER software platform under a licensing agreement. An attempt to utilize another software at this time would require reengineering of the existing processes migrating from the old platform to a new platform. Most recently, Northrop Grumman and OPM have been engaged in the program development and deployment of a number of eOPF enhancements and releases. These enhancements include a much anticipated self-service password feature as recommended by the OPM’s Inspector General (IG) and required enhancements to ensure eOPF can continue to be accessed via Chrome, Firefox, and potentially other browsers, to reflect and keep pace with changes to browsing technology.

OPM is also charged by law in Title 5 USC to collect, maintain, and report Federal workforce information. Transitioning to a new vendor would result in a sustained inability to perform these legally required activities. There would also be increased risk to the integrity of the eOPF because a new contractor would experience a significant learning curve, understanding not only the eOPF application but becoming familiar with established best practices to sustain the applications which support the program. An award to a new contractor at this time would be costly, inefficient, and introduce a high level of risk to a mission critical system utilized by Federal agencies around the world.

If OPM had to precipitously transition to another contractor, the result would represent significant application down time as the new application is developed and implemented, which would severely impact daily operations of over 100 Federal agencies that utilize eOPF as well as OPM’s investigations, retirement processing, audits performed by Merit Systems Audit and Compliance, Merit Systems Protection Board decisions, and state court actions for divorce, child support, and bankruptcy. Additionally, operational costs would likely increase due to maintaining current operations while at the same time developing a new application to replace the existing system, since no other system exists which the current eOPF application could migrate to without a significant and prolonged development and testing effort. Additionally, there would be increased costs associated with training HR personnel in 100 Federal agencies as well as retraining technical and business staff in the Data Warehouse Program Operations Team and program management team in order to learn the new solution. Without this critical task order, the DWP is unable to ensure continuity of operations and performance without interruptions.

The most recent BPA was justified as a logical follow on in accordance with FAR 8.405- 6(a)(1)(i)(C) while the present justification indicates Northrop Grumman is the only source capable of providing the supplies or services at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized. The reason for the differing justifications is that the

Government was not previously aware that Northrop Grumman did not have any authorized service providers for the associated development, program management, and data management support services. The Government was previously under the impression that other vendors would be able to provide the services associated with the proprietary software licenses. Through the sources sought process for the instant requirement, it was discovered that there are no other authorized service providers and that Northrop Grumman is the only company authorized to provide the support services to its proprietary software product.

5. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated order will represent the best value:

Based on the nature of the requirement, the solicitation will be issued to a single source.

Competition will not be sought. In order to determine that the anticipated order will represent the best value, the contracting officer and requesting activity will review previous orders that were competitively awarded and compare the requirement to similar schedules. In addition, technical support personnel will review the level of effort and labor mix proposed.

Pricing will be evaluated to determine if it is a) realistic for the work to be performed, b) reflects a clear understanding of the requirement, c) inclusive of all required services, and d) fair and reasonable. The anticipated task order shall represent the best value to the Government because Northrop Grumman will be required to price the products as well as the labor categories and associated hourly rates within their existing GSA MAS Contract, which have already been determined to be both fair and reasonable in accordance with FAR 8.404(d). Additionally, the vendor will be requested to provide any discounts available beyond the published GSA price.

6. Description of the market research conducted and the results or statement of the reason market research was not conducted:

The most recent BPA that was awarded to Northrop Grumman also included scanning services that were capable of storing, processing, displaying, and archiving electronically digital images.

Market research for this new effort has indicated that there are other sources that can provide the scanning services, and as a result it was decided to acquire the scanning services via a separate procurement action. Therefore, the scanning services are not included as a part of this instant requirement.

The e.POWER software licenses and associated interment ongoing lifecycle development and support services, to include software installation, modification, integration, and maintenance are proprietary to Northrop Grumman and therefore, the market research has indicated that no other sources can provide these products and associated services.

Initially, it was unclear if the development, program management, and data management support services could be provided by another vendor. As a result and as part of the market research performed for this present requirement, a sources sought notice was issued via the GPE on August 4, 2015 and closed on August 10, 2015. Aside from Northrop Grumman, all other interested sources indicated that they are not authorized service providers of e.POWER. In addition, the program office confirmed via e-mail on August 10, 2015 that since eOPF is built on the ePOWER platform, any vendor providing development, program management, and data management for the eOPF program must be authorized by Northrop Grumman to work on ePOWER. Also, Northrop Grumman confirmed via e-mail on August 11, 2015 that there are no authorized service providers.

As a result, market research indicates that both the proprietary ePOWER products and associated support services are only available from Northrop Grumman.

7. Other facts supporting the justification.

None.

8. Statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made:

OPM will continue to evaluate the requirement in an attempt to separately compete efforts from the scope of work similar to its recent actions associated with the scanning service requirements, as detailed in Paragraph 6 above.

The eOPF program is currently at a crossroads at which it must decide if the current solution is the appropriate solution or if other alternatives should be considered. As it currently stands, the eOPF program is a form-based paradigm in which documents are imaged and store for retrieval.

In the future, the eOPF program plans to evolve to a data-centric approach which leverages the data warehouse and enables collection and aggregation of data which can be rendered and utilized in other applications to better support analytics and reporting.

Accomplishing this will require maintenance of the existing environment and a sustained development effort to transform eOPF from a form-based paradigm to a wholly data environment.

This can be accomplished in the following phases:

1. Investment Review Board (IRB) Approval

2. Requirements development

3. Alternatives analysis research

4. IRB Approval

5. Procurement

6. Development, data migration, and testing

7. System Accreditation

8. Deployment and training

Over the next two months OPM shall establish a more detailed timeline as to how and when it shall conduct a business case analysis (BCA) to address the future of the program requirement. The BCA will assess the program’s feasibility of continuing to leverage the existing suite of software as opposed to pursuing new commercial alternatives. This analysis will evaluate total program costs to include transition and long term maintenance requirements. The BCA will include analysis of both commercial and government shared service providers. The results of the BCA will be utilized to address the current restrictions to competition detailed in this LSJ and help identify the program path forward.

9. Certifications/Reviews/Approvals:

Contracting Officer

I hereby certify that the information provided herein to support this Limited Source Justification is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signature: ________________________________ Date: _________________________ James C. Thieme Contracting Officer

Program Office

I hereby certify that the information provided herein to support this Limited Source Justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signature: ________________________________ Date: _________________________ Victor A. Karcher, Jr.

Program Director Data Warehouse Program

I have determined that the information contained herein is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signature: ________________________________ Date: _________________________ Joy S. Fairtile Associate Chief Information Officer, Infrastructure

REVIEWED BY:

Signature: ________________________________ Date: _________________________ James Muetzel Senior Procurement Counsel

APPROVAL:

Signature: ________________________________ Date: _________________________ Dean S. Hunter OPM, Competition Advocate