14-F-0003-Attain_-_JUSTIFICATION_FOR_AN_EXCEPTION_TO_FAIR_OPPORTUNITY_-_redacted_for_FBO_Posting.pdf

J&A No. 2019-19

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Orders under Multiple Award Contracts /Fair Opportunity - FAR 16.505

Requisition Number: 63000-19-0057

Contract/Order Number: SECHQ1-14-F-0003

Procurement Title: Application Management Support (AMS)

Contracting Office: Office of Acquisitions Estimated Value of Increase: $

Authority: FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C)

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

Number: 2019-19

Upon the basis of the following justification, I, as the Senior Procurement Executive, hereby approve this exception to fair opportunity pursuant to the authority of FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C).

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity.

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Acquisitions

100 F Street, NE

Washington, DC 20549

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Office of Information Technology (OIT), requires IT application software maintenance and operation support for OIT developed applications, COTS products, EDGAR application and the SEC.gov website. The scope of the requirements includes:

research; analysis; design; programming; testing; documenting and implementing maintenance changes;

correcting software errors and defects; making modifications to the applications and documentation;

writing ad hoc queries; loading and applying changes to the software language; providing corrections for production or any changes needed and participation in disaster recovery testing; planning and documentation; supporting the transition of systems to operations and other maintenance contractors;

recommending improvements to OIT software maintenance processes including quality assurance; and configuration management (including integration of best practices and standards, for example, from the

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), (see http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi)).

This justification is necessary to extend the NITAAC task order SECHQ1-14-F-0003 as an exception to fair opportunity. The task order will be extended from December 19, 2018 through December 18, 2019 with two 3-month options. This extension is required to allow sufficient time for the Office of

Information Technology (OIT) and EDGAR Business Office (EBO) in coordination with the Office of

Acquisition (OA) to determine the long-term path forward including competitively re-procuring by

December 2019 the SEC’s enterprise operations and maintenance (O&M) task order into at least three (3) separate O&M procurements for the EDGAR system support, Oracle Fusion Middleware (OFMW), and

COTS Application Management Support (AMS). This extension will ensure the applications currently supported under this task order and any new ones potentially requiring O&M support under it in the near term have the proper coverage for the short-term while allowing for a successful transition of these key

SEC programs (i.e., EDGAR, OMFW, COTS AMS) to new decentralized contracts. Additional time is also needed to properly align and coordinate scope and performance periods among other independent contracts that the SEC intends to unify in future procurements.

Not extending this contract would result in a lapse in IT application software maintenance and operational support for agency mission critical applications and COTS products, including the EDGAR system and the SEC.gov website. A lack of IT support services would adversely affect the Commission’s ability to interface with registrants and investors negatively impacting the agency’s reputation and would also disrupt internal business operations mandated by law. In addition, a lack of IT support would significantly delay the implementation of critical security vulnerability remediation across complex mission critical applications.

3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs (including the estimated value).

The intent of the extension is to ensure the continued levels of support for the AMS, OFMW, and

EDGAR programs during the planning and solicitation for new contracts for each program. Consistent with Agency and Federal goals of enterprise, shared-solution, and service-based approaches to information technology the following services will continue into the extension for each program area:

consolidation and/or integration of systems, expand the existing systems to support other program areas, transition applications to operations and maintenance, support and maintain all production applications, provide corrective maintenance, maintain all application environments, retire applications and systems, and support and participate in disaster recovery activities.

The total estimated task order value for the period of performance (12/19/2018 to 12/18/2019) and for the two 3-month option years (if executed) is $.

4. Identification of the exception to fair opportunity (see 16.505(b)(2)) and the supporting rationale, including a demonstration that the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the exception cited. If the contracting officer uses the logical follow-on exception, the rationale shall describe why the relationship between the initial order and the follow-on is logical (e.g., in terms of scope, period of performance, or value:

(a) Exception to Fair Opportunity:

This order will be extended on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order pursuant to the authority of FAR

16.505(b)(2)(i)(C).

(b) Supporting Rationale:

It is the intent to separate the EDGAR, OFMW, and AMS programs that are currently supported by the subject task order into three (3) program specific contracts that will provide more robust services with a cost improvement for each program. It is anticipated that the SEC will have competitively awarded these three programs no later than December 2019. Given the size of the existing task order, the scope of work, and a number of mission critical projects that are inflight the Office of Information Technology requires additional time to coordinate program offices, federal resources, requirements development, and the new procurements the SEC requires a one year extension to complete these efforts (with two 3-month options as insurance against any unforeseen delays).

EDGAR is a mission critical, complex system supporting the Commission’s rule making activities.

Under this order, the contractor recently performed an intensive assessment of the middleware software which is no longer supported by the manufacturer, which is crucial to the functioning of the EDGAR system. After reviewing the results of the assessment, which identified critical, exploitable security vulnerabilities in the code and other limitations with the current unsupported middleware implementation, the SEC is considering its immediate replacement with an up-to-date middleware that is secure and supported, which will address the current system risks. As is, the current system is vulnerable to being compromised with the potential of exposing sensitive filing data to theft or alteration. This data is potentially market moving and its unauthorized release or alteration could adversely impact the U.S.

securities markets, which are the bedrock of the U.S. economy. In addition, the mission of the SEC is to protect investors; maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets; and facilitate capital formation. Any disruption to the U.S. securities markets would erode public trust and severely damage the Commission’s reputation. A recompete and subsequent transition of EDGAR support services would delay the remediation effort and increase the probability of a system intrusion as noted above. In the interest of expediency in order to protect agency data, leveraging the same contractor, who now has crucial knowledge of the system and issues, to perform the replacement is the most efficient and expeditious alternative.

The OFMW platform supports eight (8) complex mission critical applications. There are three (3) critical projects inflight for the OFMW platform to stabilize the applications, manage security vulnerabilities, and complete disaster recovery activities that will require a minimum nine (9) months to complete. Given the complexity of these OFMW platform projects, the skills, and the in depth knowledge required a vendor transition at this time would result in significant and costly delays that the program could not afford given the criticality of the applications on the OFMW platform.

5. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

The Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated price will be fair and reasonable based on preliminary discussions with the contractor who will be offering the same discounts to its NITAAC rates that it offered on its original competed proposal. NITAAC has found the contractor’s rates to be fair and reasonable and the contractor is offering additional discounts to the SEC.

6. Any other facts supporting the justification.

See paragraph 4(b).

7. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made.

(a) Procurement History:

SECHQ1-14-F-0003 was competitively awarded utilizing the NITAAC CIO-SP3 Small Business GWAC to Attain on December 19, 2013 for a period of performance of one (1) year with four (4) one-year option periods through December 18, 2018. Twelve (12) offers were received and award was made in the lifecycle amount of $ based on the SEC’s known current O&M requirements. The task order was awarded with all offerors aware that the level of support would increase throughout its entirety. The Scope states: “The SEC anticipates that Operation support may be added for new and/or materially enhanced applications to this task order in the future, including but not limited to the EDGAR Public

Dissemination Service.”

The following is a depiction of actions taken since task order award:

Action Start Increase/Decrease End Reason

Base

Award $4,691,956.00 N/A $4,691,956.00 Award

1 $4,691,959.00 $276,375.00 $4,968,331.00

Add EDGAR Helpdesk/Filer and

Public Dissemination System (PDS)

2 $4,968,331.00 $321,595.00 $5,289,926.00

Optional CLIN 0005 for SEC.gov

Operations and Maintenance Support

3 $5,289,926.00 $0.00 $5,289,926.00 Change Effective Date for CLIN 0005

4 $5,289,926.00 $24,950.00 $5,314,876.00 Add XBRL Arelle Validator Support

5 $5,314,876.00 $2,412.00 $5,317,288.00

Add NITAAC CIOSP3 Funding Fee in support of CLIN 0005

6 $5,317,288.00 $58,670.00 $5,375,958.00

Add 3 FTEs in support of CLIN

04007 EDGAR Helpdesk/Filer

Support

7 $5,375,958.00 $7,239,304.00 $12,615,262.00

Extend Base Period CLIN 0002 and

Exercise Option Period 1

8 $12,615,262.00 $404,771.00 $13,020,033.00

Fund 2 addt'l Test Resources and 1 developer in support of CLIN 01004

EDGAR Applications O&M

9 $13,020,033.00 $273,030.00 $13,293,063.00

Move the OCOO COTS Applications to the O&M CLINs (1001, 2001, 3001 and 4001) for the remainder of

Option Year 1 and for Option Years

2, 3, and 4.

10 $13,293,063.00 $355,583.00 $13,648,646.00

Add additional FTE resources and funding in support of CLIN 01003 for

Tier 1 TCR Transition for the remainder of Option Period 2

11 $13,648,646.00 $168,511.00 $13,817,157.00

Add resources and funding in support of the SEC Business Impact Analysis

(BIA) Initiative under the Transition

CLIN 01003 for the remainder of

Option Year 1 and Option Years 2, 3, and 4.

12 $13,817,157.00 $9,403,679.81 $23,220,836.81

Consolidate CLINs for Option Years (OY) 2, 3, and 4. and Execute Option

Period 2

13 $23,220,836.81 $149,000.00 $23,369,836.81

Incorporate Business Impact Analysis

(BIA) Initiative under Option Year 2, 3 and 4

14 $23,369,836.81 $598,928.00 $23,968,764.81

Modify section H.18 Government

Furnished Property and Incorporate Unanticipated EDGAR System

Maintenance Initiatives

15 $23,968,764.81 $693,695.23 $24,662,460.04

Execute and partially fund BIA CLIN

2003 (Option Year 2), Transfer the

Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS)

O&M support and resources, CIOSP3 Funding fee and Add EDGAR

Production Control Task Transition

(EDGAR PCTT) and Emergency

Support

16 $24,662,460.04 $68,485.00 $24,730,945.04

Add funding for BlueSheet

Modernization and BIA Initiatives.

17 $24,730,945.04 $363,630.93 $25,094,575.97

Add funding for Additional COTS

Transition Support for the remaining period of performance under Option

Year 2

18 $25,094,575.97 $13,391,946.34 $38,486,522.31 Exercise Option Period 3

19 $38,486,522.31 ($539,108.64) $37,947,413.67 De-obligation

20 $37,947,413.67 $2,234.56 $37,949,648.23

Add Blue Sheet Modernization

Additional Support

21 $37,949,648.23 $0.00 $37,949,648.23

Add Attain's updated labor categories and rates

22 $37,949,648.23 $1,480,162.78 $39,429,811.01

Incorporate Initiatives under Option

Years 3 and 4

23 $39,429,811.01 $4,161,224.00 $43,591,035.01

Add Oracle Fusion Middleware

(OFMW) Platform Production

Transition Project under Options

Years 3 and 4

24 $43,591,035.01 $1,405,538.39 $44,996,573.40

Incorporate DPS Data Migration and continued support for OFMW

25 $44,996,573.40 $479,210.57 $45,475,783.97 OFMW Continuation Support

P0001 $45,475,783.97 $14,635,048.22 $60,110,832.19 Extend Option Year 3 CLINs and Exercise Option Year 4

P0026 $60,110,832.19 $0.00 $60,110,832.19

Change EDGAR System Response Time Language in SOW section

C.4.4.2

P0027 $60,110,832.19 $8,337,050.00 $68,447,882.19 Add funding for OFMW Support under CLIN 4109 and 4110

P0028 $68,447,882.19 $1,024,873.33 $69,472,755.52

Add Incremental Funding under CLIN 4002 (Option Year 4:

Consolidated Labor Hours - LH).

P0029 $69,472,755.52 $393,839.81 $69,866,595.33

Add funding for EDGAR Security

Architecture/Design and FISMA Compliance Support under Option

Year 4

P0030 $69,866,595.33 ($140,305.76) $69,726,289.57 Deobligation

P0031 $69,726,289.57 $183,722.84 $69,910,012.41

Add funding for Corp Fin Application

Transition and O&M Support

P0032 $69,910,012.41 $795,463.57 $70,705,475.98 Add funding for Phase 1 Planning for the EDGAR EAServer Migration

Support

P0033 $70,705,475.98 $65,823.14 $70,771,299.12

Add Funding in support of XBRL

Support Services (CLIN 4017).

P0034 $70,771,299.12 $0.00 $70,771,299.12 Admin mod to change BPAC

P0035 $70,771,299.12 $386,748.32 $71,158,047.44

Add funding for Full Text Search

Solutions

(b) Subsequent Acquisitions:

The SEC intends to use competitive procedures for any future support needed at the completion of this task order. The current acquisition plan is to execute at least three (3) separate operations and maintenance (O&M) procurements for the EDGAR system support, COTS applications, and Oracle Fusion Middleware (OFMW).

ALL QUESTIONS REGARDING THIS JUSTIFICATION ARE TO BE REFERRED TO:

John Bova, Contracting Officer (bovaj@sec.gov) and Julia Jones, Contract Specialist (jonejl@sec.gov) mailto:bovaj@sec.gov mailto:jonejl@sec.gov