CAO-23-0338 FAR 13-5 JA 3 Aug 2023 Redacted 508 Compliant Final.pdf

Control Number:

FAR Subpart 13.5 Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items – Sole Source Justification and Approval

1. Contracting Activity: U.S. Army Contracting Command – New Jersey

2. Description of Action: United States Army Criminal Investigation Division (USACID) requests a new Firm Fixed Price (FFP) purchase order with Navigate360, LLC, 3900 Kinross Lakes Parkway, Suite 200, Richfield, OH 44286. The Government projects award for August 2023 and fiscal year will be used.

An acquisition plan is not required because this procurement does not meet the threshold at Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement 207.103(d)(i)(B).

This action is a follow-on to contract W15QKN-18-C-0076. That contract was not competed under authority FAR Part 6 Paragraph, “Actions to Increase Competition” of the previous justification, stated: “In an effort to increase competition, the requirement was reviewed to determine the capability of other vendors, aside from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), to supply tip software. It was determined that the OEM holds the proprietary source code for their software and does not authorize sharing or resale of their proprietary information to any vendors. As part of Market Research, this requirement was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities website on 25 April 2018 seeking out potential interested and capable sources for the enhancements needed.

The posting yielded no responses.

The USACID will continue to conduct market research for future requirements on existing and new technologies as it becomes available on the commercial market and other manufacturers will be considered if the product is compatible, significant risk of product utilization can be avoided and the product will not void any existing warranties.”

Since June 2018 when the previous Justification was signed, USACID has continued to perform market research via internet searches, meetings with iWatch, discussions with other Military Criminal Investigative Organizations regarding what software they utilized, and queries of General Services Administration and Army Computer Hardware, Enterprise Software and Solutions (CHESS) databases. To date, no new software technology meets the requirements of the USACID. Market research confirmed that P3 Crime Tips Intel is commercially available and can only be purchased through the Software Developer, Navigate360, LLC.

to USACID. Other competitors' offer similar software applications, but their applications generally require a tipster to select the correct agency via a drop-down menu. Any tipster inadvertently selecting the wrong agency from the drop-down menu would increase the reaction time by USACID as the tips would be routed to the wrong agency.

The P3 application allows unlimited lengths (characters) in tips submitted and a tipster can include images, video, audio files and supporting documentation. P3 is the only tip software company that offers the ability to upload video and audio files in their software.

This is a critical requirement for USACID to obtain the best evidence in the actual tip.

Two-way communication can also be done via the application in real-time or via push-notification from approved USACID admin users. The application allows an individual to view USACID's Most Wanted and see receive alerts signing up on a public platform.

P3 has a fully functional and customizable reports platform that can provide a host of tip data to include specific date-time stamps and whether a tip was reviewed and managed in a timely manner. P3 software is the only tip software that has an audit trail that provides USACID the ability to observe what words/characters a tipster previously typed. This will provide USACID investigators additional investigative insight not previously available to investigators.

Navigate360, LLC is the only provider who can provide the P3 software which is a cloud-based website with independent secure server offering full access to and management of tips via any web enabled computer or mobile device. The functions of P3 allow for USACID to meet its requirements; P3 tips can be anonymously submitted by phone call or via the mobile app, mobile browser or from a desktop computer.

Software allows anonymous two-way dialogue with tipster and has the ability for tipster and administrator to interchange from web and application on same tip.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: The Contracting Officer shall publish the notices required by FAR 5.201 and any bids or proposals received shall be considered. A Pre-solicitation notice was published in Federal Business Opportunities on 19 July 2023 and no vendors replied to the notice.

a. Effective Competition: Effective competition is not anticipated for this requirement as the P3 Intel software is proprietary to Navigate360, LLC. Navigate360, LLC does not have authorized resellers, nor have they historically formed teaming arrangements with subcontractors.