Redacted JA Bentley Subscription Licenses Renewal.pdf

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JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

RFO Part 6 Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition

Control Number: CEHNC-26-0003

Program/Equipment: U.S. Army Corps of Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC), Computer-Aided Design/Building Information Modeling (CAD/BIM), Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) for the Bentley Subscription Licenses.

Authority: Title 10 U.S.C. 3204(a)(1) as implemented by Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) Part 6.103-1 - Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

Amount:-

Period of Performance (POP): Base Period: 01 April 2026 - 31 March 2027 Option Year 1: 01 April 2027 - 31 March 2028

Prepared by:

Contracting Officer:

Technical:

Requirements:

Angela Wilson Phone: 256-895-8239 Contracting Officer Date:

E-mail: Angela. M. Wilson@usace.army.mil

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Controlled by: Army Controlled by: USAGE - CEHNC CUI Category: General Procurement and Acquisition Distribution/Limited Dissemination Control:

FEDCON

POC:

Source Selection Information (See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4)

Control Number: CEHNC-26-0003

HUNTSVILLE ENGINEERING AND SUPPORT CENTER REVIEWERS

Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition.

Contracting Officer:

ANGELA M. WILSON

Contracting Officer

Phone: 256.895.8239 Email : Angela.M.Wilson@usace.army.mil

Local Advocate for Competition:

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USACE HEADQUARTERS AND SENIOR CONTRACTING OFFICIAL REVIEWERS

I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition.

II . : I •

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FAR Part 6 Justification and Approval for Other than Full and Open Competition

1. Requiring Activity: United States Army Corps of Engineers (USAGE) Engineering and Research Development Center (ERDC), 3903 Halls Ferry Rd, Vicksburg, Mississippi 39180.

2. Contracting Activity: USAGE Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville (CEHNC), 300 Secured Gateway SW, Redstone Arsenal , Alabama 35898.

3. Description of Action: USAGE Engineering and Research Development Center (ERDC) Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) through USAGE CEHNC, has a requirement for a suite of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) CAD/BIM software products to include a digital project management platform, design authoring platforms, and design analysis tools that are compatible with the current software, and resultant output data, which supports ongoing USAGE engineering design and construction projects. CEHNC requests approval to issue a non-competitive Firm Fixed Price (FFP) C-type standalone contract to Bentley Systems, Incorporated (Bentley), CAGE Code: 05FE0, Other than Small Business, 685 Stockton Drive, Exton, PA 19341 , for the identified COTS CAD/BIM software products. Projected award is 31 March 2026 for which USAGE no-year revolving funds will be used.

4. Description of Supplies/Services: This effort includes various Bentley CAD/BIM licenses which cover a vast array of engineering solution tools including but not limited to: Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, Structural, Architectural and are the industry standard as well as across USAGE users. These are design/engineering tools used throughout the life of projects across USAGE. Additionally, these Bentley licenses provide standardized practices for Army engineering enabling USAGE engineers to work efficiently and effectively while also completing successful project assignments in design/construction related missions. All Bentley licenses will be utilized in conjunction with Bentley ProjectWise subscriptions for the management and collaboration of these projects and to assist Project Delivery Teams (PDTs), including engineers, in material exchanges throughout the lifecycle of complex design, engineering, and construction projects. Bentley licenses are considered an essential component for project success and quality assurance of all construction and design contracts throughout USAGE to include design-build and design-bid-build. related projects enterprise wide. Tables 1 and 2 below outl ine the Item/Contract Item Line Number (CUN) structure, the period of performance and the associated dollar amount for each associate CUN and year.

Table 1 Estimates b CLIN CLIN Item Quantity Period of

Performance 0001 Project Wise- Base 1 01 April 2026- 31

Year March 2027 0002 Design Authoring 1 01 April 2026- 31

Platforms- Base Year March 2027 0003 Design Analysis Tools- 1 01 April 2026- 31

Base Year March 2027 1001 Project Wise OY1 1 01 April 2027- 31

March 2028 1002 Design Authoring 1 01 April 2027- 31

Platforms OY1 March 2028 1003 Design Analysis Tools 1 01 April 2027- 31

OY1 March 2028

Total

Table 2 Estimates b Year Period Period of Performance POP Base 01 A ril 2026- 31 March 2027

0 tion 1 01 A ril 2027- 31 March 2028 Estimated Overall Total Price

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Source Selection Information (See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4)

Estimated Value

5. Authority Cited: Title 10 U.S.C. §3204(a)(1) as implemented in RFO 6.103-1 (formerly FAR 6.302-1) -Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies and Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.

6. Reason for Authority Cited:

a) Background & Justification: The majority of USAGE Civil Works projects rely on Bentley products. USAGE user historical data has been created using Bentley products since the 1980's. It's imperative that USAGE continue to have access to data created using Bentley products to support its projects.

ERDC-ITL is considered a Center of Expertise in CAD/BIM modeling, as they have established procedures for the use of, and procurement of, CAD/BIM software. Their expertise is sought throughout the Army, and other agencies attempt to mirror ITL's success. This contract will allow the labs to assist the end users with training and setting up for their customer's existing projects. Additionally, the Army Installation Management Command, and the Army Test and Evaluation Command currently purchase their annual Bentley CAD/BIM subscription through

ERDC.

CAD/BIM software manufacturers use proprietary systems which are not compatible with any other manufacturers' products. Bentley is the manufacturer for USAGE CAD/BIM products. With no CAD/BIM open data standard, software models developed in one platform cannot be viewed or edited in another platform. No other CAD/BIM software manufacturers produce a product that is interoperable with another software product.

Additionally, models developed in one platform cannot be viewed or edited in another platform. Industry standards mandating interoperability among CAD/BIM software vendors within the competitive marketplace do not exist; as a result, each CAD/BIM vendor's software application remains proprietary in nature. Therefore, it is not feasible to mix the product line of different vendors and maintain functionality. Since the software is proprietary in nature and lacks interoperability with other vendors, the organization has invested heavily in training employees specifically on the Bentley platform. Also, because it is not feasible to mix the product line of different vendors, internal processes and workflows have been built around Bentley's software. The duplicative investment in human capital, including training time, the development of specialized skills, and development and implementation of workflows are discussed in the alternatives section below. Discontinuation of USACE's use of Bentley products is not feasible or in the best interest of the Government.

b) Alternatives: There are currently three manufacturers that supply the full spectrum of CAD/BIM products and services (Bentley, Autodesk, and Graphisoft). Autodesk and Graphisoft have an exclusive reseller agreement with a single reseller in order to gain access to the Government Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) such as Computer Hardware Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS), but there are no other resellers. Within USAGE, approximately 90% of the deployed CAD/BIM software is Bentley. Converting from Bentley to Autodesk or Graphisoft product lines would require a significant start-up investment (licenses and training required) and result in a loss of historical data and productivity without providing any tangible advantage to the Government. The cost to train users on a new software is outlined below, and the price to replace the enterprise license purchased from Bentley to one of the competitors is anticipated to either be substantially the same or more expensive should an enterprise license not be negotiated with either potential alternative and instead individual licenses need to be purchased for all users. USAGE has invested over $45 million into Bentley Software, Training and Maintenance thereof beginning 04 April 2019 and the present. Investments were made via multiple tasks and/or delivery orders against BPA No. W912DY19A0002. If either of the alternative tools were chosen, USAGE would be required to invest approximately $90M (see the next paragraph for details). The investment is not just the price of a new tool, but a multi-faceted financial commitment plus the duplicative cost of paying for two full enterprise software suites simultaneously: one for new project work (Autodesk or Graphisoft) and one for archival access and maintenance (Bentley). While the initial cost to acquire an enterprise-level agreement for Autodesk and Graphisoft would be financially similar to a Bentley license subscription, this only represents a fraction of the total financial burden. Due to the lack of interoperability, USAGE would be forced to maintain its Bentley software licenses for an extended period (at least five years, likely more), simply to access, view, and perform edits on historical project files. The switch to either Autodesk or Graphisoft would also result in a catastrophic loss of historical data and a complete

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disruption of established, mission-critical workflows. The process would require a duplicative investment in training, workflow redevelopment, and data migration with no tangible benefit, as the core functionality of the alternative platforms is, at best, equivalent. Therefore, the lack of interoperability and the certainty of data degradation make any alternative to Bentley's products technically unviable and not in the Government's best interest. Prior investments in training, file and database development would be lost. The primary barriers are the proprietary nature of competing software ecosystems, the lack of effective interoperability, and the certainty of critical data degradation during transfer while trying to leverage with these alternatives. These issues would cripple established workflows and compromise historical project data, making a switch detrimental to the Government's interest.

Approximately 6,500 copies of Bentley's flagship CAD product, MicroStation, is used throughout USAGE. Labor costs for training users on a new system for a two-week fundamental course is estimated at $

The typical user would not be able to achieve their current productivity level on a new system in only two weeks. There are other Bentley software products in use b a roximatel 1,500 users, who would all require a minimum two-week training course, estimated to cost Additionally, there are approximately 800 BIM users in the USAGE that would require the fundamental two-week training course, at a minimum, estimated to cost Typically, a BIM user would require an additional four weeks of training in his/her particular discipline, e.g., architectural, mechanical engineering, or electrical engineering, estimated to cost an additional i

In summary, BIM users would require a total of 6 weeks of training, which would consist of 2 weeks of fundamental training and an additional 4 weeks of discipline-specific training. Also, for most CAD users (MicroStation and other Bentley software), 2 weeks of fundamental training would be required overall. These estimates are provided as a real-world scenario estimate. No other method exists whereby the workforce could receive the required training. As such, with the cost of training alone exceeding it is determined that converting to a different product line is not a feasible alternative or in the best interest of the Government.

c) Impact if not approved: A decision not to approve the continued use of Bentley products would introduce unacceptable risks and costs to the Government. The costs for training and implementing a new software system would far outweigh any potential cost savings realized with the initial purchase of the software. The Government would also lose productivity during the downtime associated with the deployment of the new software and the training time to become familiar with the new software. Given the current extent to which Bentley CAD/BIM software is deployed within USAGE, the total cost, transition, and loss of institutional knowledge and productivity associated with changing vendors cannot be recovered using competition to drive down costs. A review of Autodesk and Graphisoft product line pricing is comparable to Bentley's, as such the Government would not gain any cost-savings benefit in switching to another CAD/BIM manufacturer. Switching from the established Bentley CAD/BIM platform would introduce unacceptable delays and catastrophic risks to critical USAGE missions for our customers including Warfighters, military commanders, and the American public (Civil Works). Beyond the significant financial costs, forcing a transition to a non-interoperable CAD/BIM platform would directly and negatively impact mission execution as all current projects with work items in Bentley products would be inaccessible without active licenses for the Benley software products. The loss of productivity would translate to project delays, increased safety risks, and a degraded ability to support our primary customers as ongoing project documentation would be completely inaccessible.

7. Efforts to Obtain Competition: The Contracting Officer published a notice of intent to sole source on 06 February 2026 satisfying the requirements of both RFO 5.101 and DFARS PGI 206.103-170 (DEVIATION 2026-00017) with no vendors responding to the notice. A Request for Information (RFI) (Reference No: 551619) was posted on CHESS from 12 December 2025 to 12 January 2026. The RFI yielded 26 no bids and two vendors did not respond. This definitive lack of capable sources on the mandatory vehicle was the basis for receiving the approved Statement of Non-Availability (SONA) received on 27 January 2026, which authorized procurement outside of CHESS. Through the combination of the targeted RFI on CHESS and the broad public synopsis on SAM.gov, the Government has actively sought competition and fulfilled its requirement to conduct thorough market research and provide public notice of this contracting action.

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a) Effective competition: Effective competition is not applicable. This contract will be with Bentley Systems Inc. to provide access to all Bentley software and products, which is proprietary. Bentley Systems Inc. is the sole provider for the Bentley CAD/BIM software and products used by USAGE.

b) Subcontracting competition: Subcontracting opportunities do not exist for this procurement. Bentley Systems, Inc.

owns the intellectual property (IP) for its CAD/BIM software. They are the sole entity that can create, license, and authorize the use of their product.

8. Actions to Increase Competition: This action is a follow-on to call orders W912DY24F0064 and W912DY24F0071 under Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) W912DY19A0002. Under the previous Limited Source Justification (LSJ) (Control No. HNC-18-8145-F) the paragraph, "Actions to Increase Competition" stated: "Because industry standards mandating interoperability among CAD/BIM software vendors within the competitive marketplace do not exist, full and open competition is not possible. Additionally, because Bentley does not allow resellers, competition does not exist in this brand name environment. ERDC- ITL will stay abreast of future technological developments aimed at CAD/BIM platform neutrality. Once a concept is agreed upon, full and open competition will be pursued to the maximum extent practicable. Additionally, the BPA will be reviewed annually to ensure the GSA schedule terms and conditions remain the same. For any future requirements, CEHNC will ensure that if other vendors are added to the Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) agreement for Bentley Products, that a fair opportunity will be provided to all vendors. Additionally, the CAD/BIM Technology Center will stay abreast of any industry changes that will provide alternative CAD/BIM software solutions."

ERDC-ITL subject matter experts regularly monitored AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industry publications, attended virtual industry forums, and reviewed technical reports from standards bodies like buildingSMART International. The primary focus of this research was to identify the emergence of a viable, bi directional interoperability standard (e.g., a mature Industry Foundation Classes - IFC workflow) that would allow for the seamless editing and transfer of complex BIM models between different proprietary software platforms. As of the date of this justification, our research confirms that no such industry-wide standard exists that can preserve the data integrity and functionality required for USACE's mission without significant data loss or rework. The Government remains committed to pursuing competition to the maximum extent practicable. To that end, actions such as conducting formalized market research and issuing RFl's will be taken during the performance period of this action and for any subsequent requirements to increase future competition. Prior to the expiration of the next contract period, the Government will assess the capabilities from all major CAD/BIM software vendors (including Autodesk, Graphisoft, and others) detailing their solutions ability to meet certain criteria such as full data interoperability showing their ability to import, edit, and export native USAGE Bentley-format project files without loss of data, metadata, or functionality. ERDC-ITL will continue its role in actively monitoring and testing advancements in platform-neutral data formats. If a future standard demonstrates the required level of fidelity for USAGE projects, the Government will initiate a pilot program to validate its feasibility for a competitive acquisition. The contract will be reviewed annually to determine if Bentley has expanded its authorized reseller network under the DoD ESI or other government-wide contract vehicles, which could provide an opportunity for competition among resellers in the future. Since award of the previous BPA, no technological developments have been discovered, so full and open competition has not been pursued on this current requirement. It was stated in the previous LSJ that Bentley did not allow authorized resellers, but based on current information of this justification, Bentley has authorized a single reseller on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) to capture additional Government business as Bentley is not a contract holder on the GWAC. Therefore, no effective competition is available.

9. Market Research: In accordance with (IAW) Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 206.103- 170(d), and DFARS Procedures, Guidance and Information (PGI) 206.103-170 (DEVIATION 2026-00017), an RFI was posted to CHESS on 05 December 2025 for 14 days with no positive responses received. CHESS is the mandatory source for commercial Information Technology (IT) hardware and software purchases. Considering no responses were received and no Department of Defense (DoD) Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI) vehicle exists for this software; the ITAS waiver and SONA were requested and obtained to procure these licenses outside of CHESS.

In addition to the formal Request for Information (RFI) posted to the Army's CHESS portal, the Government conducted market research to identify all potential sources and evaluate their capabilities against the Government's minimum requirements. This research was led by the Project Manager between 05 December 2025 - 12 January

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2026 in conjunction with subject matter experts from the CAD/BIM Technology Center at ERDC-ITL. The Project Manager reviewed industry reports, trade publications, and market analyses from recognized sources to identify the leading vendors in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) CAD/BIM market. This analysis confirmed that the primary competitors to Bentley Systems are Autodesk, Inc. (with its Revit and AutoCAD platforms) and Graphisoft (with its Archicad platform). The technical manager performed a capability assessment of these identified alternatives. This assessment concluded that these platforms are technically incapable of meeting the Government's core requirement for data interoperability. Specifically, the alternative platforms cannot open, edit, and save files in Bentley's proprietary design file format while preserving the integrity of the embedded intelligent BIM data and object history. Based on this assessment, all other CAD/BIM providers were determined to be unable to meet the Government's minimum needs without introducing unacceptable mission risk and requiring the complete abandonment of decades of existing project data.

10. Interested Sources: To date, no other sources have written to express an interest in this acquisition through the CHESS RFI or the SAM.Gov notice of intent to sole source, nor has any source been identified in the commercial marketplace that is interested in replacing Bentley in a competitive acquisition. Only the identified Autodesk and Graphisoft have similar capabilities as Bentley, though they are not interoperable with Bentley, making them unable to compete for this requirement.

11. Other Facts:

a. Procurement history: The first large-scale deployment of Bentley CAD/BIM technology in the Army and USAGE resulted from a competitively awarded USAGE-wide contract in the mid-1980's. Subsequent contracts resulted in a sole source environment. No further information is available regarding the contracts issued prior to September 2008 when the contracting authority was transferred from Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC) to CEHNC. Previous BPA, W912HZ-08-A-0032, was issued on 19 Sep 2008 with a $35M ceiling for a five-year ordering period and BPA W912DY-14-A-0001 was issued on 04 April 2014 with a $40M ceiling for a five-year ordering period.

The BPA directly preceding this requirement, W912DY-19-A-0002 was issued on 03 April 2019 with a ceiling of $45M and a five-year ordering period. The previous call orders, W912DY24F0064 and W912DY24F0071, off of BPA W912DY19A0002 were awarded on 01 April 2024 for $SM and $7. 7M respectively. Two separate call orders were issued previously, one for the Bentley product ProjectWise and a second for the enterprise license of the Bentley suite of design authoring platforms and design analysis tools. The previous BPAs also established a call order ceiling of $8 million making it impossible for these requirements to be combined on a single call order. These requirements have been combined into a single requirement to reduce administrative burden. USAGE is planning to phase out the use of Bentley and does not want to commit to a long-term contract, hence the shift from a BPA with a five-year ordering period to the proposed stand-alone, c-type contract with a two-year period of performance.

1) Call Order numbers and dates of all orders for these same requirements using the previous BPA, W912DY- 19-A-0002 are detailed in table 3 below:

Contract Number

W912DY19A0002

W912DY21F0041

W912DY19A0002

W912DY22F0156

W912DY19A0002

W912DY22F0157

W912DY19A0002

W912DY24F0064

W912DY19A0002

W912DY24F0071

Table 3 Procurement Historv Description Contractor Procurement Amount

Method Bentley Enterprise Bentley BPACall $4.9M License Systems, Inc Order Subscription Bentley ProjectWise Bentley BPACall $6.7M

Systems, Inc. Order Multi-Bentley Bentley BPACall $5.SM Subscription Systems, Inc. Order Licenses ProjectWise Bentley BPACall $8.0M Recompete Systems, Inc. Order Bentley Easy Power Bentley BPACall $7.7M

Systems, Inc. Order

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Source Selection Information (See FAR 2.101 and 3.104-4)

Period of Performance

31 December 2020 - 31 March 2022

01 April 2022 - 31 March 01 April 2022 - 31 March

01 April 2024 - 31 March 01 April 2024 - 31 March

2) The competitive status of these actions: Each of the previous acquisitions were call orders under a sole source BPA which was established using a LSJ.

3) Authority previously cited if less than full and open competition was used: The authority previously cited was 41 U.S.C 152(3), Competitive Procedures, and 40 U.S.C, 501, Services for Executive Agencies, as implemented by FAR 8.401.

4) If any prior contract for this requirement was accomplished using full and open competition or full and open competition after exclusion of sources, include a detailed explanation of the changed circumstances causing this action to now limit the sources: Not applicable. No previous contract was accomplished using full and open competition.

5) An explanation of any unusual patterns that may be revealed by the history, e.g., several consecutive, urgent buys: Not applicable. Historically the licenses from Bentley were purchased separately, but for the sake of administrative efficiency these will be included under one requirement without impact to competition.

6) An explanation of protests received, if applicable, and actions taken in response to the protest. No protests have been received.

b. Other facts. All other facts have been previously stated regarding the need to limit competition.

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12. Technical Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and com lete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

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

14. Fair and Reasonable Price Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. Basis for fair and reasonable price determination will be conducted through historical prices, a price analysis comparison of commercially available prices and the independent government estimate. In accordance with RFO 15.403-2(b) certified cost and pricing data will not be required as a commercial item is being acquired.

ANGELA WILSON

Procuring Contracting Officer

15. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

ANGELA WILSON

Procuring Contracting Officer

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Approval

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the sole source procurement of Computer-Aided ~uilding Information Modeling (CAD/BIM) Licenses directly from Bentley Systems Incorporated in the amount of-on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of RFO 6.103-1 - Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. The approval is subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and property herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

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