Redacted FY25-0383 TAB D LSJ Gartner License Renewal BPA Call.pdf

CUI

Control Number: FY25-0383

Controlled by: Defense Health Agency (DHA)

Controlled by: PS-CD

CUI Category(ies): Source Selection

Limited Dissemination Control: (FED Only)

POC: Peichang Wang: peichang.wang.civ@health.mil

Limited Sources Justification (LSJ)

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 8.405-6(c)

1. Identification of the Agency and Contracting Activity: Defense Health Agency Contracting

Activity (DHACA), Professional Services (PS) – Contracting Division (CD).

2. Nature and/or Description of Action being Approved: In accordance with FAR 8.405-6(b)(1):

“Items peculiar to one manufacturer. A brand name item, whether available on one or more schedule contracts, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer.” A brand name limited source justification approval is requested for a Firm-Fixed Price Call against Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA)

N66001-19-A-0049, under Department of Defense (DoD)’s Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI)

Enterprise Agreements, for renewal of Gartner research advisory subscription licenses.

3. Description of Supplies or Services and Estimated Value: The purpose of this requirement is to provide license renewal to Defense Health Agency, Program Executive Office Medical Systems (PEO

MS)/Chief Information Officer (CIO) (J-6) Portfolio & Resource Management (PRMD) research advisory subscription licenses.

Period Period of Performance or Required Delivery Date

Estimated Value Type of Funding

Base Period 01 October 2025 – 30 September 2026

Operation & Maintenance (O&M)

Total

4. Authority Cited: FAR 8.405-6(b)(1): Items peculiar to one manufacturer. A brand name item, whether available on one or more schedule contracts, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer.

5. Rationale Justifying Use of Authority Cited: Per DFARS 208.7402 (a), Departments and agencies shall fulfill requirements for commercial software and related services, such as software maintenance, in accordance with the DoD ESI (see website at http://www.esi.mil/). ESI promotes the use of enterprise software agreements (ESAs) with contractors that allow DoD to obtain favorable terms and pricing for commercial software and related services. On 25 March 2019, Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific awarded BPA N66001-19-A-0049 for Garter licenses and support for the purpose of aligning research, data, advisory, and consultation to its customers' agendas and helps them understand existing and potential

Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4

OCT 2024

mailto:peichang.wang.civ@health.mil http://www.esi.mil/)

CUI

Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4 impacts of technology. Gartner research licenses focus on delivering research-based support and expert guidance on a broad range of technical topics that specifically focus on industry and market trends.

During market research conducted in April and May 2025, the Government assessed the technological capabilities of Gartner’s competitor, Forrester. The assessments and test trials of Forrester’s comparable licenses yielded results indicating Forrester would not be able to meet Government requirements (See

Section 6). Gartner licenses are providing focused Information Technology (IT) Research and Advisory support across the DoD and, more specifically, across the medical IT domain. Currently, Gartner licenses assist DHA senior leadership and their support staff in their decision making by providing access to research libraries, advising partners, curated research documents, and document reviews. Gartner, as the

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of Gartner licenses, does not release product codes to the public and therefore, is uniquely capable of providing maintenance and support to Gartner products, which are proprietary. In order to maintain this support, Gartner research licenses need to be renewed.

6. Market Research: Market research was conducted in April and May 2025, products from Gartner’s competitor, Forrester, were assessed:

Users from the test group were given trial access for two weeks to leverage Forrester’s licenses that were meant to be comparable to the Gartner licenses that those users currently have. At the end of the trial, the users provided feedback indicating that Forrester’s licenses did not provide them with the depth and breadth of research and advisory needed. The trial users indicated that the advisor meetings held were professional and accommodating; however, they lacked the volume and depth of research in key subject areas for both supply chain and information technology. In addition, Forrester products did not provide viable input on document review and industry engagement for key DHA/J6 initiatives such as supply chain leadership engagement.

Assessment: Forrester licenses could meet some of the DAD IO/J-6 requirement, but they do not have the capability to meet the entirety of the requirement. Specifically, no Forrester product is available for DHA technical professionals to focus their attention at the tactical level. Although Forrester’s offering is available as a potential substitute, it lacked the capability to provide the depth of research needed by the customer. Furthermore, Forrester does not have licenses available to provide supply chain leadership support to our leaders within the DAD IO/J-6.

Additional market research for Gartner License was conducted on 22 August 2025 in Ability One, Interagency Contract Directory, SBA – DSBS, and SBS – Quick Market Search, no results were found. A public notification for the Gartner action was posted full-and-open on SAM.Gov on 22 August 2025. One

(1) company, Hugana LLC, added their contact information in the “Interested Vendor List” under the posting. Hugana LLC was contacted twice on 26 August 2025 and 28 August 2025 regarding what types of Gartner and/or Gartner-equivalent research licenses they can offer. By posting closing date on 31

August 2025, the company never responded. On 27 August 2025, another company, RAZR Wing Inc, sent an email expressing interest in becoming a Gartner Subcontractor performing support functions such as seat onboarding/training, adoption analytics, governance materials, briefings, and secure user-access management for Gartner. Considering this is a business proposition for Gartner and not the Government, the Government forwarded the company’s information, capability documents, and expressed interest to

CUI

Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4

Gartner. In addition, the Government informed the RAZR Wing Inc point of contact that they will need to conduct discussions directly with Gartner to pitch their business idea. By posting closing date of 31

August 2025, the Government did not receive any additional input from the industry.

Although continuing efforts will be made every year to identify potential alternatives to Gartner, the

Gartner BPA under DoD ESI, N66001-19-A-0049, remains the only source to support renewal of Gartner licenses at this time.

Other Facts:

a. Procurement history.

(1) Is this a new requirement? No.

(2) If 7.a.(1) is No, was the action just prior to this one competed? No.

(3) If 7.a.(2) is Yes, what has changed where this action cannot be competed?

b. Additional Information. N/A.

7. Actions to Remove or Overcome any Barrier to Competition:

(a) Efforts to Obtain Competition. Market research including test trials of potential alternative solutions and posting the requirement on SAM.Gov were conducted to identify possible alternatives.

(b) Actions to Increase Competition. The Government is limiting the procurement of Gartner

Research licenses renewal to one year while continuing efforts to identify possible alternative product(s).

(c) Follow-on Order. The Government will continue to conduct market research each year to assess whether the conditions in the marketplace will change to enable future actions to be competed.

8. Technical Certification:

I certify the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Contracting Officer’s Representative

PEO Medical Systems/CIO (J-6)

Defense Health Agency (DHA)

9. Requirements Certification:

I certify the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

CUI

Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4

Contracting Officer’s Representative

PEO Medical Systems/CIO (J-6)

Defense Health Agency (DHA)

10. Best Value Determination:

Consistent with FAR 8.404(d) Pricing and supplemental Department of Defense requirements, I hereby determine the action described herein represents the best value to the Government.

Basis for Determination: The Contracting Officer will determine that the anticipated cost to the

Government will be fair and reasonable through a comparison and analysis of proposed prices with historical prices paid, the Contractor’s BPA price list, and the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

Supervisory Contracting Officer

PS-CD

DHACA

11. Legal Review:

I have reviewed this justification and have found it to be legally sufficient.

Associate General Counsel, Contract Law

Office of General Counsel

12. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify this justification pursuant to the authority of FAR

8.405-6(b)(1): “Items peculiar to one manufacturer. A brand name item, whether available on one or more schedule contracts, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer” is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Supervisory Contracting Officer

PS-CD

Defense Health Agency Contracting Activity (DHACA)

CUI

Source Selection Information - See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4

Review

I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support limited sources.

Concurrence

Chief, PS-CD

Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve limiting sources in the acquisition of Gartner

License Renewal in the amount of pursuant to the authority of FAR 8.405-6(b)(1): “Items peculiar to one manufacturer. A brand name item, whether available on one or more schedule contracts, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer” subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and property herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Competition Advocate