Preventative Maintenance and Service Agreement for the Leica SP8 Confocal/Multiphoton Microscope

This contract action was not awarded competitvely. 

Rationale:
The essential characteristics of the annual preventative maintenance and service agreement for the Leica SP8 Confocal/Multiphoton microscope that limit the availability to a sole source are the ability of this contractor to provide authorized on-site service, use of replacement parts from the original manufacturer, prioritized on-site response time scheduling for remedial services, unlimited direct access to expert applications and technolgy support to include targeted 24hr on-site response time and unlimited access to remote technical support services. The contractor provides proprietary firmware and any necessary software updates for the microscope in question. Furthermore, the software support provided can only be obtained from experts in Leica software. Field service representatives are experts in the hardware components, their functionality, and connections; and thus, are capable of quickly diagnosing and correcting any errors in performance.

Additionally, the SP8 confocal/multiphoton microscope was purchased in 2017 and is utilized routinely in the NIMH Systems Neuroscience Imaging Resource and requires routine preventative maintenance. The current maintenance and service contract expires on December 11, 2022. The current service contract number is HHSN271201700048C. Furthermore, it is standard in the field to obtain service contracts from the original manufacturer.

Only this suggested source can furnish the requirements, to the exclusion of other sources, because only this source is able to satisfy all procurement requirements.

Awarded contract 75N95023C00003 to LEICA MICROSYSTEMS INC. for 124480.00 on 2022-12-09.