Brand_Name_Justification.pdf

SUBJECT: Brand Name Justification, Mathworks MATLAB and Toolboxes FY16 Maintenance

Renewal

SOLICITATION NUMBER: SB1341-16-RQ-0018

CONTACT POINTS: RICHARD KIM, Contract Specialist (301) 975-6219;

KEITH BUBAR, Contracting Officer (301) 975-8329

DESCRIPTION: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to compete among authorized resellers for the brand name procurement of Mathworks MATLAB and

Toolboxes FY16 Maintenance Renewal to be used at the Office of Information Systems

Management, at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD and Boulder, CO. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 USC 3304(a)(1).

***** Brand Name Justification is based on the following: NIST has been using the Mathworks

MATLAB product and tools for at least the last15 years with more than 900 users. NIST researchers in both Gaithersburg and Boulder use Mathworks products to enable them to perform high-level technical computing language and use an interactive environment for algorithm development, data visualization, data analysis, and numeric computation that serve the missions of their laboratory and the agency.

The current Mathworks licensed products are critical to the success of NIST researchers for their work. Although there may be different product and maintenance service available, the institutional knowledge that has been built using the Mathworks products at NIST will be extremely difficult to replace without substantial negative impact. The continued renewal of the maintenance contract with the Mathworks Software Maintenance Service (SMS) ensures uninterrupted and reliable support service from Mathworks. The twice-yearly general product releases via the Mathworks SMS are essential to ensure the latest software is available to the

NIST’s user community.

In addition, there are multiple current projects dependent on the past and current MATLAB runs and configurations. Terminating the use of the Mathworks MATLAB and tools licenses will significantly interrupt the flow of the output of these ongoing projects and will severely hamper

NIST research efforts. Furthermore, NIST researchers have found that comparable public domain products do not meet their requirements.

The Mathworks SMS provides:

Access to new features and a general release schedule that occurs twice per year.

Direct technical support provided by Mathworks support staff to resolve technical issues and get technical solutions through telephone, email, and Web assistance provided by specialized support engineers.

Ability of the online license management to view license details, manages user permissions, activate software, and get passcodes for previous releases, and obtain order status.

Ability to add new products to the existing license at any time. A SMS subscription allows access to the latest release to ensure compatibility with new versions of Mathwork products.

Bug fixes are received via twice-yearly general releases and periodic Web updates, as well as interim solutions from Mathworks technical support.

Purchasing new software would result in redundant costs to the government and impose a substantial learning curve for government employees. Mathworks software, maintenance and technical support are only available through software publisher approved and authorized vendors.