Orbis Software J and A Award Redacted.pdf

CUI//SP-PROCURE

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JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVALS FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

Access to Analytical Software (via licensing)

1. Identification of the agency and contracting activity:

The Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) Contracting and Procurement Office (CPO) located at 27130 Telegraph Road, Quantico Virginia 22314, proposes to enter into a contract on the basis of other than full and open competition to meet the needs for a business analytical research tool required by DCSA’s Industrial Security (IS) office. This document is a justification for other than full and open competition.

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved, i.e., sole source, limited competition, establishment of a new source, etc.:

The purpose of this document is to obtain necessary approvals for a sole source acquisition in accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1(a)(2) under the authority of 41 United States Code (USC) 3304(a)(1). Competition is limited to only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 513210, Software Publishers, with a small business size standard of $47.0 million. The Product Service Code (PSC) for this requirement is 7A21, IT and Telecom – Business Application Software.

The procurement strategy is to issue a firm fixed price (FFP) sole source contract for a 12-month base period and three 12-month option periods to Moody’s Analytics Inc (Moody’s). Moody’s corporate information from SAM.gov is as follows: CAGE 1UST1; Unique Entity ID (UEID) J3ESM7FWLTK3; Size Status: Other than Small Business; Address: 7 World Trade Center, 250 Greenwich Street, New York City, New York, 10007-2140, United States. We would be acquiring Moody’s Orbis software product IAW FAR Part 15, Contracting by Negotiation, and FAR Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items. This justification and approval (J&A) will be approved by the Head of the Contracting Activity (HCA) within DCSA prior to soliciting the Request for Quote (RFQ). Moody’s Orbis software has a current waiver for compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs:

DCSA’s IS requires access to a business analytical or due diligence software capability that can search voluminous private and public company data points. These points of data must include but are not limited to financial information, real-time mergers and acquisition transactions, ownership information, corporate organization, patents, politically exposed persona and sanctions.

Additionally, and specifically, access is required to information including organizations in all legal forms: non-profit, academic institutions, sole proprietor, LLCs, LLPs, Funds, special purpose acquisition companies, joint ventures, as well as governments and sovereigns. The solution must also provide DCSA with a list of an entity’s patents and related information – i.e., who owns the patent, where is it patented, etc. The software must provide critical and emerging technologies information and information on the connections to sanctions on peoples or entities. Lastly, access to foreign owned, controlled or influenced (FOCI), cross border financial and technological flows, nefarious financial ties, socio-economic indices, watchlists and supply-chain data must be provided by the solution. Market research results showed that Moody’s is the only responsible source determined to have the ability to provide the depth of research required, at the scope, consistency, August 2021 CUI//SP-PROCURE Page 2 of 7 and quality needed by DCSA via their Orbis software offering. The full market research report is available in contract file A16.

Orbis licenses have been utilized by IS for three years (16 total licenses) through an assisted acquisition interagency agreement (IAA) between DCSA and U.S General Services Administration (GSA) under General Terms and Conditions (GT&C) number A2208-097-047-027173. The IAA was the first instance of the use of Orbis by the agency. IS has experienced significant growth in support of the facility clearance process requiring an increase to the number of Moody’s Orbis subscriptions. The current IAA expires on February 28, 2025; however, the Orbis subscription expires on January 26, 2025.

The proposed new contract is for 39 concurrent user licenses in the 12-month base year, and 52 concurrent user licenses in each of the three 12-month option years. Additional options will be added to the solicitation and resultant contract to allow up to 10 additional concurrent licenses for each option year. Due to the constraints of software purchases, additional optional licenses, if needed, would be exercised at the same time the option period is exercised. The one-year base period and three, one-year option periods will start after the expiration of the current contract for these licenses (January 26, 2025).

The estimated value for the total contract, including options is This contract will be funded with FY 2025 Operations and Maintenance (O&M) funds.

Due to uncertainties involved in the growth of the agency and the mission of IS, the Government is not able to gauge the exact level of increase that will take place at the onset of this procurement or over the life of the contract. The following table outlines the licensing needs and contract cost over the full performance period and is based upon the available pricing bands specified by Moody’s for this software:

4. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2), Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

Much of the information created by Moody’s Orbis software is proprietary. It is the only vendor in the marketplace that can provide the required information in the manner necessary for DCSA to manipulate and retrieve the relevant data.

5. A statement demonstrating the unique qualifications of the proposed contractor or the nature of the action requiring the use of the authority:

Moody’s Orbis cloud-based software is accessed through a web browser and requires a license for access to the software. Orbis is uniquely qualified to meet the needs of IS based upon the following:

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a. Orbis is a unique information service that aggregates a wide variety of financial data and news from multiple sources, domestic and international, including their own copyrighted news, analysis and proprietary risk algorithms, meeting or exceeding the capabilities required and addressed for this requirement. Orbis maintains a depth and breadth of valued archival proprietary information available only from Moody’s Orbis product.

b. Moody’s Orbis is on a cloud-based platform that includes the required analytical and research tools.

c. Switching to a less robust cloud-based product would entail the following risks: user learning curve for a different cloud-based solution, long lead time for the DCSA CPE and CRAM approval processes, potential for needing to purchase additional equipment, and negative mission impacts of not receiving adequate information for mission requirements.

6. A description of efforts to ensure that offers were solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable. Include whether or not a SAM.gov announcement was made and what response, if any, was received, or include the exception under FAR 5.202 if not synopsizing. Describe whether any additional or similar requirements are anticipated in the future:

A Request for Information/Sources Sought Notice (RFI) was released on SAM.gov from November 15, 2024 through November 22, 2024 which outlined IS requirements. The Government received 13 responses from industry. After the technical team reviewed the capability statements received, the team found that there were no other vendors except Moody’s that are capable of meeting the agency’s needs.

Requirements for the capabilities identified herein are highly unlikely to change for the foreseeable future.

A combined synopsis and solicitation will be posted to SAM.gov IAW FAR 12.603. As required by FAR 6.305(a), the justification under FAR 6.302-1 will be posted within 14 days after contract award.

7. The anticipated dollar value of the proposed acquisition, including options if applicable, and a determination by the Contracting Officer (KO) that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

The estimated total cost of the licenses, including optional CLINs, is:

Option Period Period of Performance Qty. Cost

Base January 27, 2025 – January 26, 2026 39

Option Year 1 January 27, 2026 – January 26, 2027 52

Option Year 2 January 27, 2027 – January 26, 2028 52

Option Year 3 January 27, 2028 – January 26, 2029 52

Optional Quantity NTE 30 Additional

Licenses Life of the Contract

Total

* Estimates include 2.5% annual price increase.

**Cost for optional licenses is based on the annual cost per license during each option period.

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In determining a fair and reasonable price, the KO will perform a price analysis in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(b) by comparing the proposed price to the IGCE, and historical prices. Based on this, combined with obtaining other than certified cost or pricing data as necessary, the KO is confident that they will have sufficient information to make a fair and reasonable determination.

8. A description of the market research conducted and the results:

Market research, to include an RFI, was performed for this requirement. A summary of the market research performed is provided in this document.

During the market research phase, the program office examined two of Moody’s commercial competitors:

was not a fit for this requirement because their software specializes in cross asset pricing models and analytics to provide more transparent and market consistent valuations to identify analytics and deep market information. However, it does not provide the in-depth information on private foreign equity firms, those foreign equity controlling personnel, and the fiscal health of foreign private equity firms that the Orbis software provides.

The other competitor considered was provides business information and technology solutions in the financial services sector. However, their offering does not meet the agency’s needs and falls short in providing information for Due Diligence Unit (DDU) analysts to validate against companies that are subject to filing an SF-328, Certificate Pertaining to Foreign Interests. Nor does it identify information on foreign entities and patents. Additionally, market research revealed that another government agency was unable to analyze basic interconnected behaviors of U.S.

companies operating in the international space on issues like ownership, income shifting, intellectual property, and mergers and acquisitions because of a lack of comprehensive data from .

In at least one instance, the agency was forced to ask its Treaty partners for access to their Orbis data to support Examination cases in U.S. tax courts.

Additional market research sources included searches of the DoD ESI, NASA SEWP, GSA Advantage, and the Moody’s website. These searches did find a small business reseller of on the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP). Based upon Moody’s agreement with , the small business reseller is only authorized to resell within NASA SEWP and not in the open market. Moody’s Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) was and 2.10% less than ROM during the market research phase. The additional cost to utilize the small business reseller is related to the reseller’s markup and the NASA SEWP contract access fee (CAF); however, the additional cost of utilizing the only small business reseller exceeds fair and reasonable pricing and is not in the best interest of the Government (FAR 19.502-2(b)). The government was unable to locate any additional companies that could meet its requirement.

An RFI was released on SAM.gov from November 15, 2024 through November 22, 2024, which received 13 responses. The technical evaluation team performed an analysis of the 13 capability statements received and determined that only Moody’s Orbis cloud-based software can meet the requirements listed in paragraph 3 above. A breakdown of the responses received is shown below:

Socioeconomic Status

Number of Responding Vendors

Number of Capable Vendors

Other than Small 9 1 Small Business 2 0

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SDVOSB 1 0

WOSB 1 0

Based upon the findings of the technical team’s evaluation of the 13 capability statements, the KO has determined that it is in the Government’s interest to restrict the solicitation to the following socioeconomic category: Other than Small

Based upon the technical evaluation of the capability statements received, only Moody’s Orbis cloud-based software was found capable of meeting the requirements for this effort. Therefore, the KO is concurring with the sole source acquisition strategy recommended in the MRR.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition:

Moody’s is the proprietary owner of the Orbis software and associated licenses. Moody’s is the only provider offering the type of research and comprehensive depth of information DCSA’s IS requires through one product; otherwise, the agency would have to contract with numerous additional vendors to access all the data and reports required, making it prohibitively costly and still not completely meeting the needs of the government. Although Moody’s Orbis software is available from one reseller on NASA SEWP, it is not in the governments best interest to pay the additional markup and contract access fees as outlined in paragraph 8.

The specifications outlined in the RFI that was posted to SAM.gov (see paragraph 3 above) are those required to complete the mission. Upon evaluation of the responses received, it was evident that no other solution can meet the full mission requirements for IS. If the Government does not obtain the capability offered by the Orbis software, there is the risk of either mission failure or increased costs and complexity from dealing with multiple software vendors to patch together a solution that meets mission requirements. Additionally, funds are not available for developing the required software within DCSA;

thus, FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(ii) is not applicable to this acquisition.

10. A listing of any sources that expressed a written interest in the acquisition:

An RFI was issued on the Government Point of Entry, SAM.gov, on November 15, 2024, requesting firms to express their interest in this requirement and to submit their capabilities in writing to the KO.

The following 13 vendors submitted capability statements in response to the RFI; all responses were reviewed by the technical team, but no additional sources were identified for meeting this requirement.

Moody’s Analytics Inc

Of these 13 vendors, the government was unable to determine if were capable given they either did not meet, or did not address features or requirements as specified in the RFI.

Of the remaining nine, was determined to not meet DCSA needs because what they offer appears to be a data visualization capability and not a data source.

Of the remaining eight companies, seven of them demonstrated their ability to partially meet the requirements stated in the RFI in their submitted capabilities statements.