TOCC Equipment Upgrade

IAW with FAR 16.505(b)(2)(II)(D) notices must be published when an order does not provide for fair opportunity.

IAW FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), only one vendor is capable of providing the supplies and incidental service because at the present moment only one vendor possesses the certification necessary to perform work on a DoD based network.

The NETCENTS-2 Products contract is a mandatory source for the purchase or lease of Netcentric products for USAF customers. T-Metrics is the company that manufactured Langley's current telephone equipment and software solution for ACC and has the proprietary ownership of the equipment and software required. General Dynamics is the only NETCENTS-2 vendor authorized to obtain and perform the installation of T-Metrics equipment. T-Metrics is not a NETCENTS-2 IDIQ vendor. The required equipment cannot be obtained from another company and similar products cannot be modified to meet the needs of the Government.

Market research determined this requirement should be awarded on a sole-source basis as the equipment and service needed for this effort are only available from one responsible source on the mandatory NETCENTS-2 contracting vehicle. Presently, the T-Metrics solution is the only verified Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) approved system for the EFI&T upgrade. JITC is DoD's Joint Interoperability Certifier and only non-Service Operational Test Agency for Information Technology (IT)/National Security Systems (NSS). This certification allows products and services to operate on DoD based networks. Additional market research identified two other vendors, to include CISCO and Digium, who possessed the capability to EFI&T an upgrade of Air Combat Command's Consolidated Operator Answering System, but these systems were not presently JITC approved. The Air Force will continue to monitor different JITC approved solutions in the commercial market place in order to maximize competition.