PCS_Automation_limited_sources_JA_redacted_FBO.pdf

Limited Sources Justification and Approval (J&A)

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 1 of 6

In accordance with 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.

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 2 of 6

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE

Air Force District of Washington (AFDW/PK)

This is a Limited Sources Justification to modify the existing task order for the Permanent Change of Station (PCS) Program. This requirement provides non-personal technical support services for the Secretary of the Air Force Financial Management of Operation and Comptroller (SAF/FM). The solution also provides an automated tool for integrating the end-to-end military and civilian PCS order for payment and accounting processes. The purpose of this modification is to increase labor and travel for option year one (1) and option year two (2) due to increased magnitude and scope of the requirement.

The Government procured moveLINQS as Software as a Service (SaaS) (FA7014-18-F-3145). It is a firm-fixed-price (FFP) order against GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) Contract GS33F0007U. The contractor is mLINQS, a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB).

This modification will affect option year one (1) and option year two (2). The period of performance (PoP) for option year one (1) is 19 September 2019 to 18 September 2020 and option year two (2) from 19 September 2020 to 18 September 2021.

Under the current contract FA7014-18-F-3145, the Government is buying moveLINQS, a software that automates expense management for Permanent Change of Station (PCS) travel for federal employees, as well as non-personal technical support services. The order includes one (1) Project Manager and three (3) Configuration Experts to support an Air Force wide roll out of the automated system.

Based on SAF/FM taking on the additional scope of configuring PCS orders and integrating the automated system with accounting systems for household goods (HHG), the Government identified a need for eight

(8) additional Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) during option year one (1) and four (4) additional FTEs during option year two (2). The additional scope includes unanticipated configuration of several new system interfaces. The magnitude of the effort has substantially increased because the number of users has doubled. This increases the training and communication required to ensure a successful launch.

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 3 of 6

The number of stakeholders has also significantly increased as awareness of the effort and capabilities has spread within the Air Force (AF) and across the Department of Defense (DoD). SAF/A1 leadership in the Chief Information Officer (CIO) office as well as in AF Personal Operations Agency (AFPOA) have recognized additional efficiencies gained by expanding mLINQS services and moveLINQS more broadly.

There are several existing AF wide system in the A1 portfolio involved in the PCS process and countless homemade products at each base which can be replaced by going to one central PCS automation tool. This will reduce the cost of maintaining these systems and provide leaders is all functional areas with more comprehensive and accurate information about PCS performance.

The A4, Logistics Directorate, community has also recognized several opportunities to streamline the accounting for HHG by integrating their processes with the end-to-end PCS automation effort. mLINQS will streamline HHG transportation accounting process, which is currently riddled with accounting problems. Better accounting through mLINQS will enable the Air Force to tie HHG expenses to each voucher and make the process auditable at the document level.

The Air Force Budget Office (AF/FMB) budget office has recognized significant benefits by expanding the mLINQS efforts. Due to Financial Improvement and Audit Readiness (FIAR) they have been tasked with reconciling each PCS voucher, over 200K annually, with the obligation in the accounting system which currently does not happen. This will require an entire office to be stood up to meet this requirements similar to what the Army has done. mLINQS would accomplish this automatically saving AF/FMB from creating this new organization. The additional funds required to configure the A1 and A4 functionality in mLINQS, along with the additional benefit of reconciling orders to the accounting system early in the process, are clearly justified by the improved performance, cost savings, and audibility.

Additional partners across the DoD have expressed interest in this project as well. The Defense Travel Management Office and OSD Personnel Readiness offices have joined the implementation team with the intention of using the Air Force as a pilot for the rest of the DoD. The AF program managers have worked closely with the Army and Navy to fully test the system and build the requirements broad enough to meet the needs of the other services in the near future. Based on the conversations with all of the DoD entities at senior levels it is expected the mLINQS program will be taken DoD wide and program management will move from the Air Force to a DoD entity.

The additional effort will support paragraphs 2.1.9 through 2.1.13 of the revised Performance Work Statement (PWS) dated 20 September 2019. The current tasks being performed by mLINQS do not have the labor mix needed to fully accomplish the work required. The order is performance-based and Software as a Service (SaaS). The delivery schedule shall be adhered to by mLINQS in accordance with the PWS paragraph 6.4.

The revised sections of the PWS are as follows:

2.1.9. Work with the government to develop and deliver an interface to OPM's USA Staffing. The interface will be a one-way transfer of data from USA Staffing to PCS system for the purpose of creating an Authorization/Order for a civilian PCS.

2.1.10. Work with the government to develop and deliver an interface to the MilPDS system. The interface will be a one-way transfer of assignment data from MilPDS to PCS system for the purposes of creating an Authorization/Order for a military PCS.

2.1.11. Work with the government to develop and deliver an interface between PCS system and the

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 4 of 6

Air Force financial accounting system (DEAMS). The interface will be two-way shall be able to pass transactional data from PCS system for initial obligations (Authorization/Order), amended obligations (Amendments) and invoices (Vouchers) to DEAMS. The interface shall be able to return confirmation or rejection notification for each transaction type as well as advice of payment data from DEAMS. All transactions from PCS system shall comply with the Standard Financial Information Structure (SFIS) format for accounting data.

2.1.12. Consult with external organizations (e.g., TRANSCOM) regarding future integration efforts to determine solution for ingesting HHG data into the PCS system, thereby creating one fully integrated and comprehensive PCS record.

2.1.13. Deliver and maintain a solution to produce complete and accurate tax accounting including W-2 production where applicable.

The delivery schedule in accordance with the PWS is as follows:

6.2 Delivery Schedule.

6.4.1 The Contractor shall provide deliverable according the following schedule unless changes to type and date of deliverables are agreed on by the Contractor and the Program Manager.

The additional FTEs needed are as follows:

FOR OPTION YEAR 1

Additional Program Manager (PM ) with Air Force Personnel (A1) and/or Financial Management (FM) experience - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Senior Consultant.

Senior FM/A1 Subject Matter Expert - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Senior Consultant.

Mid-level FM Experts - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Consultant.

A1 Subject Matter Experts - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Consultant.

Change Manager (CM) - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Consultant.

Training Specialist - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Consultant.

Software Engineer - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Developer.

Quality Assurance Engineer - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Developer.

FOR OPTION YEAR 2

Additional Program Manager (PM ) with Air Force Personnel (A1) and/or Financial Management (FM) experience - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Senior Consultant.

Mid-level FM Experts - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Consultant.

Software Engineer - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Developer.

Quality Assurance Engineer - mLINQS GSA Schedule LCAT: Developer.

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 5 of 6

The cost associated with this additional work is estimated by the Government to be for option year one (1), and for option year two (1). The additional work will increase the order by from to , which is a 24% increase to the total contract value.

FAR 8.405-6 requires an ordering activity to justify its actions when restricting consideration of schedule contractors to fewer than required in FAR 8.405-2.

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), "Only one source is capable of responding due to the unique or specialized nature of the work."

mLINQS is the only source capable of providing the services to fulfill the Government's need due to the unique nature of the work. moveLINQS software is specifically designed for relocation management and is the only comprehensive, fully functional system designed expressly for Government agencies to manage employee relocation according to the parameters discussed in paragraph III. moveLINQS has been in use since 2004 by more than 40 federal agencies to process thousands of employee moves.

A case study is being conducted by AF/FMF to determine the cost benefits and the human effort required to implement the fully automated PCS process provided by mLINQS, versus the current semi-automated process. The study is a deep dive business case analysis of FM and A1 portions. Initially, FM only wanted to make improvements to the vouchering system. However, the study has demonstrated that sweeping changes should be made to fully integrate the entire PCS process. This includes automating the entitlement determination process, writing orders, integrating house hold good accounting, and providing a mobile capability.

The initial findings are that the mLINQS process is roughly half the cost of the current process, and it eliminates thousands of man-hours each year. In addition, moveLINQS allows the ability to de-obligate funds with the click of one button, thus MILPERS and O&M funds could be recaptured in the year of execution.

With the increased scope and magnitude described above, mLINQS does not have the varied stakeholders and data owners (e.g., A1 community), quantity of trainers, Subject Matter Experts, Change Managers (CM), and developers to fully implement the changes. This presents a risk that deployment and end user adoption by the summer of 2020 will be unsuccessful. Further, this risk has the potential to impact the efficiency, rapid deployment, and success of mLINQS development processes.

This modification supports mLINQS in managing change, training and technical integration of their PCS software throughout the Air Force. The mLINQS model of using their Software as a Service (SaaS), as demonstrated across several Federal Government agencies, has the potential to save the Air Force tens of millions of dollars. Most importantly, it has the potential to positively affect mission readiness as Airmen will be able to receive their PCS orders sooner and be able to receive payment for their incurred PCS

March 2018 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Page 6 of 6 expenses much faster.

Although GSA has already negotiated fair and reasonable pricing, the Contracting Officer will determine the acquisition cost to be fair and reasonable after receipt and evaluation of the contractors proposal using Price Analysis techniques IAW FAR 15.404-1.

Market research was not conducted since this is a modification to an existing sole source contract award that had market research conducted within the last 12 months.

N/A

After the PoP ends on this order, it is expected that SAF/FM will no longer be the requirement owner and that the management of the requirement will be taken over by a Department of Defense (DoD) entity.

As evidenced by my signature above, I have determined this document to be both accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

As evidenced by my signature above, I certify that any supporting data contained herein, which is our responsibility, is both accurate and complete.