SSJ_Redacted.pdf

Single Source Justification (Simplified Acquisition)

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION

April 2021 CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION Page 2 of 3April 2021 CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION Page 2 of 3 equipment is considered very specialized in nature and National Instruments Corp., calibrating equipment is required to be used while performing the calibration. This National Instruments Corp., equipment is unique from other brands, in that they are assembled as a set of cards instead of a stand alone unit. For this reason, the set of cards needs to be calibrated as one unit which further complicates the calibration equipment/setup, because the cards need to be mounted in a system with the compatible hardware and software. A search was conducted, and no other brand of calibrating equipment/calibrating service company was found to be capable of preforming this calibration to fulfill the requirement.

When the equipment was originally purchased five (5) years ago, most of the 519 SWES test equipment was calibrated through the local Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratories (PMEL) shops here at Hill Air Force Base (AFB). At that time, the Hill AFB, PMEL shop determined that they did not possess the right equipment to properly calibrate the equipment, and that they would need to establish a contract with National Instruments for the calibration of this equipment utilizing 519 SWES funds.

Unfortunately, specific contract information from that time has not been able to be located. Later, when the equipment was sent out to the individual sites, it was assumed that their local PMEL shops would be capable of calibrating the National Instrument equipment as well by establishing their own contracts with National Instruments, but for unknown reasons, they were unable to do so. The Program Office directed the 519 SWES to establish a single source contract through National Instruments to have them accomplish the calibration.

Section D: Efforts to Obtain Competition

The DoD, Enterprise Software Initiative (ESI), General Services Administration (GSA) Advantage 2nd Generation Information Technology (2GIT) and National Aeronautical and Space Administration, Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (NASA SEWP) catalogs were all searched with no results found.

RFI #1735916 was posted to GSA 2GIT from 6 December 2024 to 16 December 2024. There were no responses received from vendors.

RFI #330471 was posted to NASA SEWP from 6 December 2024 to 16 December 2024. There were two (2) responses received from vendors indicating they were interested in responding to an official solicitation from the Air Force once posted under NAICS code #541519.

1. CounterTrade Products, Inc. (Cage: 0J699) - Woman Owned Small Business

2. OGIS Communication Group, Inc. (Cage: 5SH59) - Minority Owned, Small Disadvantaged Business

While two responses were received from the RFI posted to NASA SEWP, an email obtained from a National Instruments Senior Account Operations Customer Service Representative indicated that National Instruments, "does not grant quotes for hardware services to resellers since more than a business opportunity, this is a chance for NI to provide direct support to their existing products." A copy of this email will be included with the requirement's document package.

Both CounterTrade and Ogis were contacted to determine how they would be able to fulfill the requirement. There was no response from Ogis, however, CounterTrade did respond saying, "The normal process has been as follows. NI issues a prepaid shipping label. The end user ships to NI, they then complete the calibration and return them to the end user on the NI shipping account."

Section E: Steps to Preclude Future Single Source or Brand Name Awards

It is anticipated that future purchases will still require a single source justification due to the proprietary nature of the requirement. The government will continue to explore other viable support options if there are ever significant changes to the salient characteristics of the SRS systems.

Single Source Justification (Simplified Acquisition)

CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION

April 2021 CONTROLLED UNCLASSIFIED INFORMATION Page 3 of 3

Section F: Contracting Officer's Determination

I have determined, in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), that the circumstances of this contract action deem only a single source is reasonably available.

Date

06-Mar-2025

Typed Name and Rank/Grade of Contracting Officer

Ashlee Hawkings

Signature of Contracting Officer

HAWKINS.ASHLEE.MICHELL

E

Digitally signed by

HAWKINS.ASHLEE.MICHELLE

Date: 2025.03.06 10:32:40 -07'00'