A03_-_Redacted_Simplified_Acquisition_Sole_Source_Justification_over_ 150K.pdf

Control Number: 15-37

Simplified Acquisition Sole Source Justification Review Document

Program/Equipment: FEKO Software License Renewal

Authority: 41 USC 1901, implemented by FAR 13.501(a); The property or services needed by the executive agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the executive agency.

Amount:

[REDACTED]

Total: $164,801.66

Prepared By:

[REDACTED]

Title: Team Lead Date Reviewed: 25 June 2015

Procuring Contracting Officer:

[REDACTED]

Date Reviewed: 03 Sept. 2015 Technical Representative:

[REDACTED]

Title: Team Lead Date Reviewed: 25 June 2015

Requirements Representative:

[REDACTED]

Date Reviewed: 26 August 2015

Legal Review: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition.

Simplified Acquisition Sole Source Justification

1.a. Contracting Agency:

U.S. Army Contracting Command – Aberdeen Proving Ground, Adelphi Contracting Division, (ACC-APG-CCAP-SCA), 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland 20783

1.b. Requiring Agency:

U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), Sensors and Electronic Devices Directorate (SEDD), Antennas and Radio Frequency (RF) Technology Integration Branch (RDRL-SER-M), 2800 Powder Mill Rd., Adelphi, MD 20783

2. Description of Action:

Approval is requested to solicit for a firm-fixed price (FFP) contract in support of the ARL RDRL-SER-M on an Other Than Full and Open Competitive basis with Altair Engineering Inc., located at 1820 E. Big Beaver Road, Troy, MI, 48083- 2031. This contract action will include a Base year and two (2) option years in the total amount of $164,801.66 for the purchase of FEKO Software License Renewals utilizing Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Research and Development Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) funding for the base year. Funding for the optional years will be evaluated upon exercising.

3. Description of Supplies/Services:

Base Quantity (Qty) One (1) Maintenance FEKO Gold Sequential Node Lock License (13 months) (Part Number (PN): FE-GO-S-STD-MNT) Qty Three (3) Maintenance FEKO Gold Sequential Node Lock License (13 month) (PN: FE-GO-S-STD-MNT) Qty Three (3) Maintenance FEKO Standard Floating License Option (13 month)

(PN: FL-STD-MNT)

Qty One (1) Maintenance FEKO Gold Sequential Node Lock License (12 months) (PN: FE-GO-S-STD-MNT) Qty One (1) Maintenance FEKO Standard Floating License Option (12 months)

(PN: FL-STD-MNT)

Qty One (1) Maintenance Antenna Magus Professional Floating License (14 month) (PN: AMP-GF-STD-MNT)

[REDACTED]

Option Year One (1) Qty One (1) Maintenance FEKO Gold Sequential Node Lock License (12 months) (PN: FE-GO-S-STD-MNT) Qty Four (4) Maintenance FEKO Gold Sequential Node Lock License (12 months) (PN: FE-GO-S-STD-MNT) Qty Four (4) Maintenance FEKO Standard Floating License Option (12 months)

(PN: FL-STD-MNT)

Qty One (1) Maintenance Antenna Magus Professional Floating License (12 months) (PN: AMP-GF-STD-MNT)

Option Year Two (2)

Qty One (1) Maintenance FEKO Gold Sequential Node Lock License (12 months) (PN: FE-GO-S-STD-MNT) Qty Four (4) Maintenance FEKO Gold Sequential Node Lock License (12 months) (PN: FE-GO-S-STD-MNT) Qty Four (4) Maintenance FEKO Standard Floating License Option (12 months)

(PN: FL-STD-MNT)

Qty One (1) Maintenance Antenna Magus Professional Floating License (12 months) (PN: AMP-GF-STD-MNT)

[REDACTED]

Total: $164,801.66

4. Authority Cited: Identify the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition, followed by the FAR citation and FAR citation title.

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 USC 1901, implemented by FAR 13.501(a), using the specific authority selected below:

__X__(1) The property or services needed by the executive agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the executive agency;

____(2) The executive agency’s need for the property or services is of such an unusual and compelling urgency that the Federal Government would be seriously injured unless the executive agency is permitted to limit the number of sources from which it solicits bids or proposals;

____(3) It is necessary to award the contract to a particular source—

____(A) to maintain a facility, producer, manufacturer, or other supplier available for furnishing property or services in case of a national emergency or to achieve industrial mobilization;

____(B) to establish or maintain an essential engineering, research, or development capability to be provided by an educational or other nonprofit institution or a Federally funded research and development center;

____(C) to procure the services of an expert for use, in any litigation or dispute (including any reasonably foreseeable litigation or dispute) involving the Federal Government, in any trial, hearing, or proceeding before a court, administrative tribunal, or agency, whether or not the expert is expected to testify; or

____(D) to procure the services of an expert or neutral for use in any part of an alternative dispute resolution or negotiated rulemaking process, whether or not the expert is expected to testify;

____(4) The terms of an international agreement or treaty between the Federal Government and a foreign government or an international organization, or the written directions of a foreign government reimbursing the executive agency for the cost of the procurement of the property or services for that government, have the effect of requiring the use of procedures other than competitive procedures;

____(5) Subject to section 3105 of this title, a statute expressly authorizes or requires that the procurement be made through another executive agency or from a specified source, or the agency’s need is for a brand-name commercial item for authorized resale;

____(6) The disclosure of the executive agency’s needs would compromise the national security unless the agency is permitted to limit the number of sources from which it solicits bids or proposals; or

____(7) The head of the executive agency (who may not delegate the authority under this paragraph)—

(A) determines that it is necessary in the public interest to use procedures other than competitive procedures in the particular procurement concerned; and

(B) notifies Congress in writing of that determination not less than 30 days before the award of the contract.

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

The Antennas and Radio Frequency (RF) Branch within SEDD of the ARL requires software license renewals for existing Government FEKO software. The Antennas and RF Branch is involved in electromagnetic modeling [REDACTED].

FEKO is a Method of Moments (MoM) based computer code that is used by the Government for the analysis of electromagnetic applications. FEKO software requires yearly renewal of licenses for periodic upgrading in addition to maintenance and technical support from the vendor in order to maintain full functionality. The renewal of software license is required by ARL in order to allow up to five (5) workstations to remain operation and thereby fulfill mission requirements.

The renewal of these licenses will mitigate any risk of downtime due to a lack of software maintenance and technical support. Downtime would cause setbacks in meeting mission requirements [REDACTED]. Furthermore, attempting to obtain licenses from a different vendor would lead to increased cost. Changing software would require purchasing new software and licenses, and regenerating all previous data files that had been created with FEKO. This would result in substantial duplication of cost, approximately [REDACTED]for just the software and one (1) year licenses. The investment of time and money already made using FEKO for programs dates back to 2006 and the monetary value of previous data files that have been created with FEKO is immeasurable. Changing to new software will cause substantial delays due to reconfiguring ongoing Government programs that have utilized FEKO software, loss of productivity, and potentially mission failure for current SEDD RF programs.

Market Research has also determined that there is no other vendor who can fulfill this requirement as no other vendor offers a software that includes hybrid methods, time domain analysis, or input from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models, all capabilities that FEKO offers which are required and are vital for current SEDD RF programs. No comparable software simulation tool has been developed.

EM Software & Systems (EMSS) is the original developer of FEKO software..

The software, licenses and maintenance are not available from any other source due to the proprietary nature of FEKO. On June 24, 2014, EMSS along with all of their Intellectual Property (IP) and all propriety data rights was acquired by Altair Engineering Inc. Consequentially, Altair Engineering Inc. is the only source that is capable of meeting the Government’s requirements for this renewal as the owner of the software proprietary rights. Altair does not provide resellers with the rights to sell the required software renewal.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:

Based on Market Research performed by the Technical Point of Contact (TPOC), [REDACTED], Altair Engineering, Inc. is the only vendor capable of fulfilling the Government’s requirements. Altair is the owner of the FEKO software code and no other source is capable of providing the required licensing and updates;

therefore, effective competition for this acquisition is not anticipated. The Government will continue to perform market research to identify new software opportunities for competition for future requirements for MoM based software capable of analysis of electromagnetic applications. Specifically reviewing software capabilities in hybrid methods, time domain analysis, and input from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models other than AutoCAD which are currently only available with the FEKO software.

7. Actions to Increase Competition:

Based on information provided in section five (5) above, competition for this action was not feasible. However, ARL will continue to search the marketplace to increase competition by attending conferences/exhibitions, reviewing trade journals, World Wide Web (WWW) research and through open discussion with industry and academia experts. In the future multiple suppliers may be able to provide comparable MoM based software for electromagnetic apps that this research requires that will then lead to increased competition. Before future acquisitions, the market will be continually surveyed to determine whether another manufacturer has emerged that could meet the Army requirements, thus justifying the need for full and open competition.

8. Market Research:

Market Research was carried out in June of 2015 and was conducted by [REDACTED] for SEDD Antennas and RF Technology Integration Branch, over 25 years of experience with ARL. [REDACTED] reviewed previous contracts listed below. The FEKO software was originally procured under contract number W911QX-08-P-0870 from EMSS. Contracts W911QX-08-P-0870 consolidated the FEKO License Agreements procured through W911QX-06-P-0451 and W911QX-08-P-0374. The most recent contract W911QX-13-P-0299 for license renewals was also reviewed where the software was sole sourced to EMSS. In 2014, EMSS was acquired by Altair, as a result Altair now owns all of EMSS’s Intellectual Property (IP). [REDACTED] also consulted with [REDACTED] And [REDACTED] to see if they were aware of other software capable of meeting the requirements. To their knowledge, only FEKO is able to meet the ongoing requirements of the Government.

[REDACTED] reviewed the capabilities from [REDACTED] as they were identified as the closest alternatives to FEKO in 2013. Review of these software capabilities revealed that they still lack hybrid methods, time domain analysis, or input from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models other than AutoCAD that are vital for current SEDD RF programs and are available on FEKO. No comparable software simulation tool has been developed since the initial procurement of FEKO. These license renewals are not available from outside sources and must be procured from the the owners of the software, Altair, Inc.

9. Interested Sources:

A Synopsis was posted to the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website on 20 August 2015 with a closing date of 04 September 2015 to announce that the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source for this requirement and to provide the public an opportunity to review the requirement and respond. To date, no other sources have written to express interest. The notices required by FAR 5.201, shall be published and all bids or proposals shall be considered.

10. Other Facts:

a. Procurement history.

(1) Contract numbers and dates of the last several awards.

- W911QX-08-P-0870 – 09/29/2008

- W911QX-06-P-0451 – 06/29/2006

- W911QX-13-P-0299 – 07/31/2013

(2) Competitive status of these actions.

- All awards were noncompetitive and Sole Sourced to EM Software & Systems (USA), INC.

(3) Authority previously used for less than full and open competition.

- FAR 6.302-1 “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.”

(4) If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, a summary of the contents of paragraph 7 of the justification for that procurement and an explanation of the results.

The following justification was given on D&F under Contract Number W911QX-13-P-0299 as follows:

The Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate (SEDD) requires the renewal of licenses originally procured under contract number W911QX-08-P-0870 from EM Software &Systems (USA) Inc.

W911QX-08-P-0870 consolidated the FEKO License Agreements procured through W911QX-06-P-0451 and W911QX-08-P-0374.

FEKO is a Method of Moments (MoM) based computer code used for the analysis of electromagnetic applications. It utilizes advanced hybrid techniques which results in a combined code suite that are not available from any other source.

The renewal of these licenses will mitigate any risk of downtime due to a lack of software maintenance and technical support. The FEKO software supports electromagnetic modeling [REDACTED]. Downtime would cause setbacks in meeting mission requirements [REDACTED]. The software, licenses and maintenance are not available from any other source due to the proprietary nature of FEKO. Changing software would require purchasing new software, licenses for the new software, and regenerating all previous data files that had been created with FEKO which would result in substantial duplication of cost [REDACTED] for new software and one year license). This estimate does not include the amount of time invested using this software in various programs such as the [REDACTED] which requires the development [REDACTED]. The investment (time and money) already made using this software for programs dating back from 2006 far exceed the cost of obtaining new software.

(5) If any prior award was accomplished by full and open competition, a detailed explanation of the changed circumstances.

- NA, Sole Source

(6) An explanation of any unusual patterns which may be revealed by the history; e.g., several consecutive, urgent buys.

- NA

(7) If a justification was prepared to support the procurement made before this one, include a copy of the previous J&A as part of this approval package, and briefly describe the circumstances justifying the buy and whether there have been any significant changes (the previous J&A just needs to be easily available to the reviewers/approvers. It does not have to become a material part of this J&A. Also, it should not be part of this J&A when it gets redacted and posted publically). Also describe the Section 7 Actions to Increase Competition that were planned in the previous J&A, and discuss whether or not those actions were taken for this current procurement. If the Section 7 actions from the previous J&A were not taken with this procurement, the J&A must be approved at one level above the previous J&A approver (insert the appropriate signature block below).

A copy is on file of pervious justification see A03 - Previous DnF for OTFOC under $150k -W911QX-13-P-0299. There has been no significant changes to the market place since W911QX-13-P-0299 was awarded. The required software is still owned and sold only by Altair Engineering Inc. and no other substitute or equivalent is available. The previous justification was issued for $150,000.00 or lower and did not address actions to increase competition.

b. Other Facts.

Follow-on Contracts - NA

11. Technical Certification:

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signer’s Title: Team Lead

[REDACTED]

12. Requirements Certification: Branch Chief

I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Signer’s Title

[REDACTED]

13. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination:

I hereby determine that the anticipated cost to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. The basis for this determination will be a price analysis of prior invoices where the same FEKO software sold in the past 12 months and published price list.

[REDACTED]

14. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification:

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

APPROVAL

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the procurement of FEKO Software on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of 41 USC 1901, implemented by FAR 13.501(a), subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services and property herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

(End of J&A)