J A_020514rs.pdf

PR No. 2114ITPMG0201

JA020514V1247 Page 1 of 5

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

(BRAND NAME)

IAW FAR Subpart 13.5

1. AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Acquisition Services Division 131 M Street, N.E., 4th Floor, OCFO/ASD Washington, D.C. 20507

2. NATURE AND/OR DESCRIPTION OF ACTION BEING APPROVED:

Approval is requested for the acquisition of brand name specific LexisNexis® Concordance® (“Concordance”) software licenses for EEOC’s Office of Information Technology (OIT), the Program Office. The Concordance software is used for e-discovery in conjunction with a suite of existing pre-discovery, e-discovery and litigation products which integrate fully and seamlessly together. The Government intends to award the proposed contract on a fixed-price basis. The base period of performance will be from March 1, 2014 to August 31, 2014. This effort will be funded with FY 2014 funds.

3. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES/SERVICES REQUIRED TO MEET THE

AGENCY’S NEEDS (WITH ESTIMATED VALUE):

Concordance discovery management software (Concordance and Concordance Image) is the required software product. According to the Commission approved memorandum (“Commission vote memo”) requesting the obligation of funds for this product in November 2013, a pilot was conducted by EEOC which included Concordance software as a part of a litigation support network that would enable document discovery processing for large case litigations in a shared environment. Over the years, this initial concept has grown into a full service litigation support system known today as CaseWorks. Case Works consists of a suite of integrated tools that enable legal staffs to more easily and effectively manage, analyze, and collaborate on cases and other legal matters. The central component of this suite of tools is the Concordance e-discovery management software (Concordance), which provides the underlying database and content management component for litigation cases. In FY 2013, Concordance maintained 120 active litigation cases, serving more than 430 legal staff users (attorneys and para-legals), and housed over 2.5 Terabytes of litigation data (150% growth over FY 2012). The Concordance software solution is a licensed product provided through LexisNexis®, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. (“LexisNexis”). Authorized resellers can provide the software but only LexisNexis supports the software.

The estimated value of the proposed contract is $166,761.00.

JA020514V1247 Page 2 of 5

4. STATUTORY AUTHORITY:

The statutory authority for the proposed acquisition is the test program for commercial items (section 4202 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996).

5. DEMONSTRATION THAT THE PROPOSED CONTRACTOR’S UNIQUE

QUALIFICATIONS OR THE NATURE OF THE ACQUISITION REQUIRES

USE OF THE AUTHORITY CITED:

The nature of the acquisition is that of a brand name requirement which requires the limitation of competition to authorized resellers of the required Concordance products.

According to the Brand Name Justification provided by the Program Office, Concordance and Concordance Image are the only products in the marketplace providing full seamless integration with EEOC’s existing pre- and e-discovery products and compatibility with current litigation software. The requested software is essential in completing the complement of tools for e-discovery and litigation document management by providing document identification, tagging, and relevance in a collaborative environment (Concordance) and commenting and redaction of confidential material on imaged files (Concordance Image). Only LexisNexis is authorized to sell or resell support services for the Software. Concordance software is proprietary to LexisNexis, who is the manufacturer of the Software.

It is therefore in the Government's best interest to award a contract for Concordance software not-to-exceed 54 months from March 1, 2014 through August 31, 2018. This will permit the continuation of services without interruption to OIT’s mission.

6. EFFORTS MADE TO ENSURE THAT OFFERS ARE SOLICITED FROM AS

MANY POTENTIAL SOURCES AS IS PRACTICABLE, INCLUDING

WHETHER A NOTICE WAS OR WILL BE PUBLICIZED AS REQUIRED BY

SUBPART 5.2 AND, IF NOT, WHICH EXCEPTION UNDER 5.202 APPLIES:

A Combined Synopsis Solicitation will be posted at www.fedbizopps.gov to ensure that quotations are solicited from as many sources as is practicable. The requirement will be synopsized utilizing the policies and procedures of the test program for commercial items (section 4202 of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996).

7. DETERMINATION BY THE CONTRACTING OFFICER THAT THE

ANTICIPATED COST TO THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE FAIR AND

REASONABLE:

According to the associated Commission vote memorandum, the Agency will save over $10K each year in licensing costs (decrease from $36K annual estimate to $25K annual estimate) by awarding a multi-year contract. The base year (2014-2015) license costs are

JA020514V1247 Page 3 of 5 estimated at $25,000. With annual out-year inflation, the estimated 5-year contract value is $166,761.00.

The Contracting Officer hereby determines that the anticipated cost for the proposed contract action will be fair and reasonable. The requiring activity has reviewed the independent government cost estimate (IGCE), historical pricing and the Contracting Officer will perform a price analysis of the contractor’s quotation in order to negotiate and document the fairness and reasonableness of the cost/prices for the proposed contract action.

8. A DESCRIPTION OF THE MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED AND THE

RESULTS OR A STATEMENT OF THE REASON MARKET RESEARCH WAS

NOT CONDUCTED:

The EEOC Office of Infonnation Technology (OIT) in coordination with the Office of General Counsel (OGC) conducted a market survey of litigation support tools for the provision and support of e-discovery specifically for the support of Document production and sharing of litigation documentation. To this end, OIT collected requirements and conducted an online survey of available products. There were ten (10) litigation support software products reviewed and analyzed. (See attached Litigation Support Software Comparison Chart). Each tool was analyzed based on our unique requirements. Key factors were the ability to share and produce documents in a remote server environment, the ability to provide collaboration among attorneys located in different office, the ability to interface with other tools used in the ligation process (CaseSoft) suite, and the ability to integrate with the EEOC's Document Management System. After careful review, the detennination was made on or about December 20,2013 that the Concordance product offering provided the best fit for the EEOC based on the satisfaction of the key factors described.

9. ANY OTHER FACTS:

10. INTERESTED SOURCES:

The following suggested vendors from the Program Office, OIT, are potential sources and LexisNexis authorized resellers/distributors:

Rosen Technology Resources U.S. Legal Support BlueStar Computer Solutions, Inc.

11. STATEMENT OF THE ACTIONS, IF ANY, THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO

JA020514V1247 Page 4 of 5

REMOVE OR OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS TO COMPETITION BEFORE

ANY SUBSEQUENT ACQUISITION FOR THE SUPPLIES OR SERVICES

REQUIRED.

dstarke Typewritten Text dstarke Typewritten Text dstarke Typewritten Text dstarke Typewritten Text dstarke Typewritten Text