SSJ_CIO MS 365 Renewal FY25 (CIO signed)_Redacted.pdf

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Control No: 25-009C

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APR 2021

Memorandum for Record – Limiting Competition at or below the Simplified

Acquisition Threshold

1. Contracting Activity: MICC-Carlisle Barracks

2. Description of Action: Microsoft M365 A5 Educational License Renewal FY25

Nature: ☐New Requirement ☒ Follow-on Requirement

Contract Vehicle: ☐ Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) ☒ Contract Vehicle (GSA/CHESS/etc.) SAM.gov ☐ Modification to existing action

☐ Not Applicable

Pricing/Contract Type: ☒ Fixed Price ☐ Cost Reimbursable

Funds: ☒ Operations & Maintenance, Army (OMA) ☐ Other Funds:

Brand Name Buy: ☒ Yes ☐ No

Name of Proposed Contractor(s) (and Address, if not a Brand Name Buy):

Insight Direct, Inc 2701 E. Insight Way Chandler, AZ 85286

3. Description of Services or Supplies:

Microsoft 365 A5 Education is a premium solution designed for academic institutions, integrating advanced security, compliance, and analytics to enhance both learning and IT administration.

For educators and students, M365 A5 fosters a collaborative learning environment through Microsoft Teams for Education, enabling virtual classrooms, assignment tracking, and LMS integration. OneNote Class Notebooks support digital lesson planning, while Reflect in Teams tracks student well-being. Reading Progress, Learning Accelerators, and Immersive Reader personalize learning and improve accessibility.

For IT administrators, M365 A5 offers robust security and compliance features.

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint provides proactive threat detection, while Purview Information Protection secures data. Azure AD Premium P2 streamlines identity management, and Endpoint Manager (Intune) enables centralized device management.

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With Power BI Pro and Education Insights in Teams, schools can analyze student performance, track attendance trends, and optimize resources.

Overall, M365 A5 delivers a secure, data-driven, and collaborative digital education platform, ensuring institutions can enhance learning while maintaining compliance and operational efficiency.

300 each – Microsoft 365 A5 for Faculty licenses (includes 12,000 for Students A5) – Annual Education Pricing

Delivery Date: 29 April 2025 – 28 April 2026

Total Value: $

4. Authority: Select the appropriate authority below:

☒ FAR 13.106-1(b)(1): For purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold (SAT), only one source reasonably available, urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand name, or industrial mobilization.

5. Reasons for Authority Cited:

a. For a sole-source restriction – Insight is our current distributor for M365 A5 licenses. Transitioning between distributors has historically posed challenges, and Microsoft has confirmed that they cannot guarantee data preservation if a new distributor is awarded the contract. We recently experienced a significant data loss during a transition involving another Microsoft service product. A key issue in that instance was the vendor's unresponsiveness, as they failed to act on Microsoft's requests necessary for maintaining account compliance. This resulted in unplanned, substantial compute costs and extensive CIO ESD team labor hours. Given the current state of our licenses, a similar transition now would likely result in irrecoverable data loss, posing a catastrophic risk to critical information essential for the continuance of USAWC’s core mission. Maintaining Insight as our distributor mitigates this risk and ensures continuity in operations.

b Describe the detrimental effects/serious injury to the mission of the requiring activity or to the Government, financial or otherwise, that will result if this justification is not approved and the product or service cannot be provided by the intended sole source Contractor.

From a technical perspective, it is critical to emphasize that time is of the essence.

Under normal circumstances, Microsoft 365 licenses have a grace period before service disruption and data deletion. However, due to complications with the current reseller, it remains unclear when our licenses were officially removed and at what stage of the grace period we are currently in. Even Microsoft has been unable to provide a definitive answer. As a result, sudden system failure may be imminent. This uncertainty makes transitioning to another distributor an unacceptable risk. A tenant migration would

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require multiple days, potentially exceeding the remaining grace period, leading to a catastrophic loss of access to USAWC’s primary information systems and critical data.

Historically, previous vendor transitions have resulted in significant operational disruptions. For example, when a new vendor was awarded this contract in prior years, the G6/CIO team was forced to manually reassign licenses to all US Army War College faculty, staff, current students, and alumni. The latest contract, awarded to Tech Solutions Worldwide in June 2024, has already caused two separate disruptions to M365 A5 license availability, demonstrating the risks associated with an unreliable distributor.

Incident #1 – December 3, 2024

● A service disruption occurred when M365 A5 licenses were unexpectedly deactivated.

● The vendor initially responded to the notification from Mr. Rider but failed to activate licenses until December 5, 2024.

● The root cause was a failure by the vendor—or another customer they support— to comply with Microsoft’s mandatory Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) requirement, which had a compliance deadline of October 2024 (announced in August 2024).

● Microsoft had provided a 60-day notice to all Entra Global Administrators, yet Tech Solutions Worldwide did not take action until the issue was escalated by

USAWC.

Incident #2 – January 6, 2025, Leading to February 2025 Outage

● CIO Systems Branch Manager detected that M365 A5 licenses were incorrectly coded as “does not apply” instead of “active”.

● Tech Solutions Worldwide was immediately notified, but vendor responses were sparse and vague throughout January.

● Despite multiple attempts by the vendor’s technical team, the issue remained unresolved, leading to a complete outage of A5 licenses in early February.

● A joint meeting was scheduled with Technology Solutions Worldwide, Microsoft, and CIO staff to address the issue, but the vendor failed to attend. Instead, they provided a noncommittal email response, stating:

“We recently had a lot of issues with spam and had to pull all of our relevant clients out of the filters, including yours. That is the reason for the lack of response in recent days. We are working through each client to get their licenses refreshed. Please allow us until tomorrow to resolve this issue.”

● Following this email, the vendor ceased responding to inquiries from Microsoft, Carlisle Barracks MICC, or CIO staff.

● Microsoft confirmed that Insight, the distributor supporting this contract, was paid for only one month of service at the start of the contract. By October 2024, CUI//SP-PROCURE//FEDCON

Insight was forced to disable USAWC’s licenses due to non-payment from Tech Solutions Worldwide.

● It remains unclear how USAWC’s licenses and data were not permanently deleted shortly after the status was changed to “disabled”.

The recurring failures, lack of accountability, and prolonged outages caused by Tech Solutions Worldwide demonstrate that transitioning to a new vendor introduces an unacceptable level of risk. Given that:

● Microsoft cannot guarantee data preservation during a distributor transition.

● USAWC’s license status remains uncertain, with potential imminent system failure.

● Previous vendor transitions resulted in costly, time-consuming manual interventions.

● The current vendor has repeatedly failed to meet contractual obligations, directly impacting USAWC’s ability to perform its mission.

It is imperative that USAWC retains Insight as the sole source distributor to prevent further disruptions, ensure operational stability, and protect mission-critical data.

Supporting email traffic for both incidents is available as substantiating evidence.

6. Publicizing Contract Actions:

For Sole-Source FAR Part 13 actions, the public display and synopsis requirements of FAR 5.101 and FAR 5.203:

☒ Apply and will be followed

Requirement to post Brand Name justification in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(b)(3), FAR 13.105(c), or FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)

☒ Action is a brand name restriction, over $25K. It will be redacted and posted with the solicitation.

7. Market Research:

The CHESS catalog indicates that only three approved vendors hold ITES contracts that include M365 A5 Education licenses. When exploring potential vendors for future renewal contracts, Microsoft was consulted to identify reliable options. However, due to the risk of data loss associated with changing distributors, market research was limited to this consultation.