EFO Addendum_J62 GEX_Redacted.pdf

Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) Source Selection Information – See FAR 2.101 & 3.104

DEFENSE LOGISTICS AGENCY

DLA CONTRACTING SERVICES OFFICE PHILADELPHIA

700 ROBBINS AVENUE

PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA 19111-5092

CUI

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

ADDENDUM

Upon the basis of the following justification, I hereby approve the issuance of the contractual action described below using an exception to fair opportunity, pursuant to the authority cited herein.

1. IDENTIFICATION OF AGENCY AND CONTRACTING ACTIVITY:

2. NATURE AND DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTION BEING APPROVED:

Pursuant to FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), the action being approved is an exception to the fair opportunity process. This justification authorizes the use of other than full and open competition to award a firm-fixed price task order for the Defense Automatic Addressing System (DAAS) Global Exchange (GEX) in support of the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS). This acquisition will be a sole source award pursuant to the GEX Core Task Order SP4709-21-F-0007, which was competitively awarded via the J6 Enterprise Technology Services (JETS) contract vehicle. The GEX Core Task Order was awarded to Northrop Grumman Corporation on November 12, 2020.

ADDENDUM

DLA has a requirement for additional Logical and Physical Mapping sub-tasks and deliverables added to Task 3, Defense Business Systems Support, in FY24.

Controlled by: DLA DCSO Philadelphia CUI Category: General Procurement and Acquisition/ Source Selection Information see FAR 2.101 & 3.104

Distribution/Dissemination Controls: FED ONLY POC: Cecilia.Geraghty@dla.mil / 215-737-3054 who can support the GEX services required by the Government. Awarding to another contractor with no GEX experience would lead to mission failure, causing a disruption in transactional flow across the Department.

The GEX is utilized across all DoD agencies and is important in the total technical environment of the Government as it provides data translation and data routing capabilities across DoD, as well as to the Department of Homeland Security, Department of the Treasury, and the General Services Administration (GSA). The GEX infrastructure is a homogenous environment where the data translation and integration efforts run as part of the GEX infrastructure. All components of the GEX work in tandem as a single software solution, where the GEX coordinates the processing workflow across the numerous data translation maps. The data translation maps require data be provided by the GEX in order to properly and accurately translate the data. The tightly coupled design of the infrastructure allows the GEX to process extremely high data volumes in a very efficient manner. Due to the homogenous nature of the environment, the data translation and integration requirements can overlap with GEX core software changes. As a result, the Government has a need for Northrop Grumman, who is currently providing all other GEX services, to perform the data translation and integration requirements. To fulfill a customer requirement, there often has to be both a data translation map developed and a GEX core update completed, which includes items like customized data reporting, data marts, data translation and validation routines that utilize the GEX core communication functionality.

Both actions (data translation and GEX core software) must be worked via a single effort to ensure that the solution is consistently developed and delivered as a single, integrated solution. If the single developer, Northrop Grumman, is not used, then the data integration items would not work properly with the GEX core, resulting in an unusable environment and mission failure. This would result in software components that cannot be integrated together, the data integration maps would be unable to communicate with the GEX software, and the audit trails within the GEX software would be broken with negative impact to system auditability. In order to overcome these issues, the Government would need to procure additional services to integrate disconnected services into a single solution, which would negate the benefits and efficiencies of having a single, integrated software solution. These types of issues would lead to an immediate, negative impact to the Warfighter when transactions stop flowing because solutions cannot be properly integrated together into a single system.

The GEX Core Task Order was competed under the JETS contract vehicle and awarded to Northrop Grumman. The use of another contractor would lead to mission failure given they do not currently have working knowledge of GEX source code and how to integrate data translation maps into the GEX software; such knowledge would require training from current GEX personnel and is necessary to effectively support the GEX environment. GEX has been in production serving DoD systems for over 18 years and currently supports hundreds of unique Information Technology (IT) systems and over 38,000 specific data channels.

Without this support, GEX customers would have to deal with degraded production support with unacceptable downtime. Maintaining this is integrally tied into the efforts to sustain and improve the GEX itself, and thus cannot be separately competed without substantial duplication of cost and disruption to operations. As discussed above, Northrop Grumman is the only source capable of providing the GEX services in support of DFAS required for production operations of the infrastructure at the level of quality required because the GEX services are unique and highly specialized.

DIFS is integral to the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DSCA) mission of modernization. DIFS is an information system for centralized DOD wide delivery, reporting, collecting, forecasting, and billing for security cooperation cases and programs. DFAS has a requirement to modify task order SP4709-22-F-0034 to include additional Interface Logical and Physical Mapping sub-tasks and deliverables to Task 3, Defense Business Systems Support to support the DFAS-owned DIFS application.

Development support is required to ensure DIFS can meet the interface requirements related to interface controls for both Federal Information System Controls Audit (FISCAM) and Risk Management Framework (RMF), and improved processes in the DIFS system currently in production. DIFS is the lynchpin case closure system for Foreign Military Sales (FMS) cases, which talks to all other FMS systems and does both billing and case management. The additional Interface Mapping support is part of DSCA’s overall modernization strategy and supports the overall auditability of the application. The inclusion of the additional support enables DIFS to use modern, more secure, and transparent interfacing tools that align with DLA’s goals of being more auditable and reliable. The goals of the current project are to modernize the mainframe legacy interface file solution to provide completeness, accuracy and timeliness of solutions receiving and providing data to all systems platforms. Without the inclusion of the additional support, all three phases of the modernization would be put at risk. It would also put at risk the interoperability between DSCA’s newly modernized systems and the legacy Common Business Oriented Language (COBOL) DIFS. This requirement was not known to DFAS at time of the original task order award and therefore needs to be incorporated via modification.

5. A DETERMINATION BY THE CONTRACTING OFFICER THAT THE ANTICIPATED

COST TO THE GOVERNMENT WILL BE FAIR AND REASONABLE:

As the Contracting Officer, I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable. It is anticipated that the Government will use various price analysis techniques including, but not limited to: (1) Comparison of proposed prices with independent Government cost estimates; and

(2) Comparison of proposed prices obtained through market research for the same or similar items.

6. ANY OTHER FACTS SUPPORTING THE JUSTIFICATION:

N/A.

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:

The GEX Core Task Order was issued as a competitive task order under JETS, but only one vendor submitted an offer and was therefore the only source capable of meeting the Government’s requirements at that time. DLA plans to compete the follow on GEX requirement when the JETS GEX Core Task Order expires in November 2023. If another JETS vendor demonstrates their capability to support GEX requirements during the follow-on competition, DLA will award to the best value offeror. DLA will seek to award other GEX requirements competitively to the extent practicable and consistent with providing effective support to the GEX program.

The current task order for GEX DFAS support (SP4709-22-F-0034) was awarded against the previous GEX Core Task Order that has since expired. The follow-on GEX Core Task Order SP4709-24-F-0010 was awarded to Peraton on December 14, 2023 along with its Contract Teaming Arrangement (CTA) member Rainbow Data Systems Inc. SP4709-24-F-0011. The GEX Core Task Order renewal was recompeted but only Peraton, along with its Contract Teaming Arrangement (CTA) member Rainbow Data Systems Inc., submitted an offer and therefore is the only source capable of meeting the Government’s requirements at this time. If another JETS vendor demonstrates their capability to support GEX requirements during the follow-on competition, DLA will award to the best value offeror. DLA will seek to award other GEX requirements competitively to the extent practicable and consistent with providing effective support to the GEX program.