Notice of intent to award a brand name contract. This is not a request for competitve proposals.

NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A BRAND NAME CONTRACT. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITVE PROPOSALS.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) intends to enter into a brand name firm fixed price contract via a Fair Opportunity solicitation amongst all USDA STRATUS Pool 3 BOA Holders under the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition, 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) and Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, for Salesforce Enterprise License Agreement for USDA. 

USDA is made up of twenty-nine (29) agencies and offices with approximately one hundred thousand (100,000) employees who serve the American people at more than 4,500 locations across the country and around the globe. The Salesforce SaaS Platform provides the critical support to multiple USDA agencies and program areas. The Salesforce software platform, which has been in production in the USDA for over 10 years, has expanded from a single application to various robust business platforms across several USDA agencies hosting more than 50 mission critical applications. Current USDA applications developed and maintained by Salesforce in support of critical mission areas include: APHIS eFile, RD Reconnect, AMS Specialty Crops, Farmers.gov and AskUSDA.

This acquisition requires the Salesforce brand name software solution that is compatible with the existing infrastructure and deployed on Certified FedRAMP Moderate environment. The Salesforce brand name software functions as the USDA’s Enterprise Software System used for engagement for end users and customers. The Salesforce brand provides and supports multiple functionalities across the USDA. In addition to the renewal of existing products, the USDA requires the flexibility to expand / upgrade future enhancements to the Salesforce application. The Salesforce platform includes ancillary products owned by Salesforce, such as Tableau dashboards and Mulesoft data management applications.

There are several unique elements of the Salesforce platform that contribute to the brand name requirement. The primary factor is the security requirement certifying that the USDA Agency using any business software platform has an active Authority to Operate (ATO), in which Salesforce is compliant. 

The testing of a Salesforce comparable software adds four to six additional months from approval to the deployment of the new software after certification. The lag time required to test and certify a replacement for Salesforce would negatively impact 82,000 current licenses across the USDA. Market research was conducted to determine if it is feasible to migrate the USDA to a platform other than Salesforce. While other vendors could provide similar offerings of the Salesforce platform, no vendor was able to provide a single all-inclusive application platform like Salesforce. Research also determined that there is no way to link the existing Salesforce applications already in production to another offering without costly outside services, integration efforts, re-training of agency staff all while not having a negative impact on mission services and interruptions.

Market research concluded that the use of a different software platform would lead to security vulnerabilities and would significantly impact the USDA’s ability to provide mission delivery requirements. Market research validated that other similar products do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet, the agency’s need for a variety of service delivery applications associated to Salesforce offerings. The unique features of Salesforce include the following: the ability to provide multi-tenant architecture, single pre-integration, built-in digital engagement channels, a hosted GovCloud FedRAMP certified environment, a mobile ready function right out of the box, upgrade processes, API driven processors, and a full lifecycle API integrated tool all included in a single application. No other vendor has the capability to provide all eight features in a single platform.

This Notice of Intent is not considered an Invitation for Bids (IFB), Request for Proposals (RFP), or Request for Quotations (RFQ) nor does it restrict the Government as to its ultimate acquisition approach. No solicitation document is available and telephone requests will not be accepted. Responsible sources capable of providing the required services may identify their interest and technical capability to meet this requirement. The Government will not reimburse firms for any costs associated with preparing or submitting a response to this notice. Any response to this notice must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government. A determination by the Government not to open the requirement to competition based upon the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. The associated NAICS code for this acquisition is 541519, with the exception for Information Technology Value Added Resellers, small business size standard of 150 employees.

All responses must be submitted to the Government by email only to Christine Wallace at Christine.Wallace@usda.gov and shall be considered by the Agency. All responses must be submitted by 3:00 pm Eastern Time on Monday, March 3, 2025.