NOAA Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Enterprise Subscription (SES) Licenses

Notice of Intent to Sole Source

Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Enterprise Subscription (SES) Licenses

This is a Notice of Intent from the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office, Satellite and Information Acquisition Division (Government) to solicit from one source (Agility Consulting, LLC [Agility]) located at 7616 Westfield Blvd, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240-2837.  Therefore, the Government intends to negotiate with Agility, business partner of Scaled Agile, Inc. (Scaled), on a sole source basis in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(1) to procure Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Enterprise Subscription (SES) Licenses.

The NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) Office Common Cloud Framework (NCCF) is a suite of services that allows NESDIS to provide end-to-end ground service capabilities to ingest, process, analyze, distribute, and store all types of NESDIS data for faster, easier dissemination of data to NESDIS partners and consumers.  There are several projects and applications throughout NESDIS that will be migrating into NCCF.  A procurement of the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Enterprise Subscription (SES) Licenses will support the training approach for use of agile practices and the guidance on execution of several initiatives including the continued development of NCCF and the migrations of applications, algorithms development, and product generation within NCCF.  Also, a procurement will enable continued progression towards accomplishment of the NESDIS Transformation Strategic Objective to develop agile, scalable ground capability to improve efficiency of service deliverables and ingest data from all sources.  Transitioning from SES products would require significant investment by the Government across several program offices to facilitate and result in a substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition.  While it may be technically feasible to eventually utilize a different software to replace SES software products, NOAA has not initiated studies to isolate the required technical changes or timeframe required to perform such a migration.  Thus, not procuring the SES renewal would present an unacceptable impact to the Government.  No other product will meet the Government’s Requirements.

A sole source acquisition is intended to be conducted because of:

1) The proprietary nature of the SES product;

2) The acquisition history showing Government sole source awards for the same proprietary SES products; and,

3) An official sole source letter received from Scaled.

The Government’s Requirements will include a base year and option year. 

The North American Industry Classification System Code 611430--Professional and Management Development Training, is applicable to the Government’s Requirements.

This notice is not a request for competitive bids, quotes or proposals; however, any vendor that believes it can fully meet the Government’s Requirements may submit written documentation affirmatively demonstrating its ability to meet the Government’s Requirements to the Contracting Officer and Contract Specialist, listed in this notice by the closing date and time of this notice.  Vendor documentation that may be submitted in response to this notice will be considered only to determine whether to proceed with the intended sole source acquisition.  A determination by the Government not to conduct a competitive acquisition and proceed with a sole source acquisition, based on potential submissions to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.  Any documentation submitted in response to this notice is strictly voluntary; therefore, the Government: 1) will not pay for any documentation submitted in response to this notice and will not pay for vendor time used to respond to this notice; and, 2) will not award a contract solely based on documentation submitted in response to this notice.

Please direct any responses regarding this notice to Ms. Ngoc Linh Coughlin, Contract Specialist at ngoclinh.coughlin@noaa.gov, and Cc Mr. Mario Gray, Contracting Officer at mario.gray@noaa.gov