KO_Determination.pdf

Control No: HNC-15-6514

CEHNC-CT 5 August 2015

MEMORANDUM FOR RECORD

SUBJECT: Non-Competitive Action under FAR 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures, (Apple and

Ancillary Equipment), solicitation W912DY-15-6514.

1. Authority: FAR 13.106-1(b)(1).

Pursuant to FAR 13.104, the Contracting Officer must promote competition to the maximum extent practicable from the source whose offer is the most advantageous to the Government, considering the administrative cost of the purchase. However, in accordance with FAR 13.106-1 (b)(1), the

Contracting Officer may solicit from one source if the determination is made that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available (e.g., urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand name, or industrial mobilization) for purchases not exceeding the Simplified

Acquisition Threshold (SAT). This memorandum addresses the Contracting Officer’s determination to award a procurement action on a non-competitive basis utilizing FAR Subpart 13, Simplified

Acquisition Procedures (SAP).

2. Description of Services & Background

This acquisition is for the purchase of Apple Equipment and is valued at $124,750.00 and therefore within the Simplified Acquisition Threshold.

These type supplies have been previously acquired using a combined synopsis/solicitation utilizing the reverse auctioning tool to increase competition. The most recent similar acquisitions, W912DY-14-P-

0182 and W912DY-14-P-0178, were set aside for small business and also utilized a Justification and

Approval for a Brand Name only based on the circumstances listed below in para 3.

No Part Number Description Qty

1 Z0P8 Apple MacPros 100% OEM Configured

Processor: 3.0GHz 8 core with 25MB L3 cache

RAM: 64GB (4x16) 1866MHz DDR3

Storage: 1TB PCIe-based Flash Storage

Graphics: Dual AMD FirePro D700 with 6GB GDDR5

VRAM

10 Brand Name Only

2 S3129LL/A AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro (3-year) 10 Brand Name Only

3 Z0RG Apple MacBook Pro 15” with Retina Display – 100% OEM

Configured

Processor: 2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7

Memory: 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM

Storage: 1TB PCIe-based Flash

Graphics: Intel Iris Pro Graphics plus NVIDIA GeForce GT

750M with 2GB GDDR5 Memory

Apple Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet

Apple Thunderbolt to Fire Wire Adapter

Mini DisplaPort to VGA Adapter

10 Brand Name Only

4 S3142LL/A AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro 15”/17” (3-year) 10 Brand Name Only

5 MB110LL/B Apple Wired Keyboard with Numeric Keypad 10 Brand Name Only

6 MB829LL/A Apple Magic Mouse 10 Brand Name Only

7 MD464ZM/A Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire Adapter 10 Brand Name Only

8 MD861ZM/A Apple Thunderbolt Cable (2.0m) 10 Brand Name Only

9 MD564LL/A Apple USB SuperDrive 10 Brand Name Only

10 MD506LL/A Apple 85W MagSafe 2 Power Adapter 10 Brand Name Only

11 HE151VC/A PROMISE Pegasus2 R4 8TB (4 by 2TB) Thunderbolt 2

RAID System

10 Brand Name OR Equal

3. Considerations & Solicitation

In accordance with FAR 13.106-1(a) and 13.104 the Contracting Officer considered the following when deciding to solicit Brand Name Only with Apple for award.

All but one of the Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) items listed above are peculiar to one manufacturer, Apple, and as such are by definition, brand name items and therefore justified and approved using the modified format at FAR 6.302-1(c)(1) to show brand name justification.

The Department of the Army, U.W. Army Corp of Engineers, U.S. Army Engineering Research and

Development center (ERDC), Information Technology Lab (ITL), standardizes on the use of

Apple Macbook laptop computers and has an immediate need to replace existing aged and failing

Macbook devices. The Information Technology Lab utilizes the Defense Research and

Engineering Network (DREN) and requires Apple brand name equipment in order for the ITL to complete their current mission of developing software and applications that will run on the

Apple, PC, and the High Performance Computing (HPC) operating systems. ITL currently utilizes their existing Apple equipment to perform this cross-platform software development on all three environments. Non-Apple devices cannot meet the agencies needs, as they are not capable of running the native Operating System (OS) X that is required for both research and software development on these multiple platforms for supporting the High Performance

Computing environment. The Apple Macbook is the only laptop that can successfully run all three software platforms, no other laptop computer can be modified to meet the Government’s requirement of running three operating systems simultaneously. Standard laptop computers are only capable of running one platform, which will not allow ITL personnel to complete their mission of cross-platform development.

The Non-Manufacturer Rule (NMR) is an exception to the performance requirements, and provides that a firm that is not a manufacturer may qualify as a small business on a supply contract set aside for small business if, among other things, it supplies the product of a small business made in the United

States. 15 USC § 637(a)(17); 13 CFR § 121.406. The Small Business Act also contains provisions that allow the Administrator of the SBA to waive this requirement when there are no small business manufacturers or processors available to supply the product to the Federal Government. A review of the SBA’s Class Waiver List, as of Jan 1, 2015, shows a class waiver has not been granted for NAICS code 334111, PSC code 7021.

The Contracting Officer has shall post a synopsis/solicitation on FedBizOpps, Full and Open, Brand

Name Only. The exception to the Brand Name Only restriction is Item 11, which is not for an Apple product and will be solicited and evaluated as Brand Name or Equal.

The proposed items will be evaluated by the government on the basis of Lowest Price Technically

Acceptable (LPTA) and compared to the Independent Government Estimate (IGE) and also as compared to applicable market prices.

4. Determination

Based upon the foregoing, the Contracting Officer determines that it is in the best interest to solicit this requirement as Brand Name Only.

Tracey Eddie Shaw

Contracting Officer