Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF OCTOBER 18, 2009 FBO #2885
SOLICITATION NOTICE

70 -- Updated Order Processing Software

Notice Date

10/16/2009
 

Notice Type

Justification and Approval (J&A)
 

NAICS

511210 — Software Publishers
 

Contracting Office

Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-1640
 

ZIP Code

20899-1640
 

Solicitation Number

OPSSOFTWAREMEDIASERVICES
 

Archive Date

11/1/2009
 

Point of Contact

Michael S Scheuchenzuber, Phone: (703) 605-6116
 

E-Mail Address

mscheuchenzuber@ntis.gov
(mscheuchenzuber@ntis.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

SB1342-09-SE-0979
 

Award Date

10/2/2009
 

Description

Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition 1. Requiring Agency: Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service (NTIS) Alexandria, Virginia 22312 Contracting Agency: Acquisition Management Division National Institute of Standards and Technology 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 1640 Gaithersburg, MD 20899 2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved: The action being approved is a follow-on award of a Firm Fixed Price sole source contract to Media Services Group, Ltd. (MSGL) for the upgrade of Cispub, the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) enterprise resource planning (ERP) order processing system. In 1992, Cispub was chosen as the ERP for NTIS. Cispub is the core of the NTIS product and services ordering process and includes functions such as financial management, inventory management, order management, manufacturing management, and subscriptions management. NTIS created a team of subject matter experts (SMEs) to evaluate the known requirements and create a functional requirements document. The current version of Cispub, now called Élan is a significant functional with a more robust warehouse management component. Such an upgrade would provide the real-time inventory management and reporting required by Education and the NTIS program managers as well as meets the specific requirement to upgrade the NTIS OPS. NTIS existing data is in the current version of Cispub and its Unidata database making the Cispub/Elan upgrade unique to NTIS. The Unidata database is not a standard database and consequently to convert existing Cispub data into a non-Unidata system would require hundreds of hours to accurately extract, model, and ingest. As confirmed by the Contracting Officer, Media Services Group, Ltd. is the sole developer, sales channel and support provider for our products. The Élan upgrade for CISPUB (in use by NTIS) is provided only from Media Services Group, Ltd. through direct sales. There are no other commercially available upgrades to Cispub from other sources. NTIS has become an increasingly digital production environment. No longer can NTIS rely on their version of the product since that version has older technology that is not accessible to current Internet queries, is less secure, and generally no longer supportable by MSGL. To meet its congressionally mandated mission, NTIS must make information available to the public on a cost recovery basis. By upgrading to the latest version of the OPS, NTIS will be able to meet its mission and remain within cost parameters. 3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs, including the estimated value, inclusive of any option periods. The deliverable for this project is an upgrade to the NTIS Order Processing System (OPS) currently version 7.n to the latest version, now called Elan. The upgrade will be completed in phases to enable NTIS to mitigate technical and human relations (HR) issues. NTIS will initially deploy a limited function set with limited licensing to ensure a controlled implementation. The system will be delivered with planning, training and deployment services in addition to licensing and operations & maintenance (O&M) support. MSGL will deliver services, software and licensing to support the phased deployment. The first phase will emphasize basic Elan Book operations focusing on (1) warehouse operations, (2) inventory management, (3) customer relationship management, and basic e-Commerce order processing for 20 sessions. MSGL and NTIS will jointly plan the deployment including data analysis and upgrade of current NTIS data and functionality into the Elan environment. The estimated value of this requirement for the Base Year and all Options is $619,000 with a period of performance of September 1 2009 through 30 September 30 2010 with a single one-year option for implementation services. 4. An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition: 41 U.S.C. 253(c) (1) allows for contracting without providing for full and open competition in circumstances where services are deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it is likely that award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. Award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition, and would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling NTIS requirements 5. Describe how the proposed contractor's unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited: This is a software system upgrade of commercially available software that is only sold by Media Services Group, LTD and is not available from any other source. MSGL sells, assists with the deployment and offers operations and maintenance of the software. 6.A description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a FEDBIZOPPS notice was or will be publicized as required, and if not, which exception under FAR 5.202 applies: A notice of intent to negotiate and award a sole source contract with Media Services Group, Ltd was posted on FedBizOpps on August 19, 2009. No sources responded to that notice. 7. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable: The anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. The Contracting Officer will price analysis, comparison to commercial list prices for the upgrade and if appropriate other analysis techniques. 8. A description of the market survey conducted (see FAR Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reasons a market survey was not conducted: The Government's needs can be met only by MSGL. The market research included finding if MSGL sold the upgrade through any other party or vendor-they do not. The OPS Élan upgrade from Cispub is commercially available but only from MSGL. Consequently, a full market research study called for in FAR Part 10 was not required and was not completed. 9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition, such as: The current version of the OPS requires a hardware system and software operating system (OS) that will no longer be supportable in the near future. The security of the system will be at risk without vendor support. The operation of the system relies on vendor support and once the vendors stop maintaining spare and replacement components, the entire OPS is at risk and consequently the operation of NTIS. The decision to upgrade included the following analysis: • The NTIS staff will require far less re-training and be able to utilize more of their current technical skills with an OPS upgrade vice new system, • The services to upgrade are delivered from MSGL who understands both the current and the upgrade systems (many of original Cispub staff who implemented current version are still with MSGL) • Time to implement an upgrade is shorter than any comparable option • The OPS Élan upgrade provides a path to serve the long term needs of NTIS while at the same time providing an immediate bridge solution to support the new NTIS needs for a rapid migration to an integrated order processing, accounting and warehouse management system, operating as a single solution for high turn products. • An Élan upgrade offers a highly scalable, secure platform solution to fit the current, broader set of needs of NTIS. o Example of broader needs is the combined book and subscriptions requirements where a journal or subscription changes its frequency of issue, Élan supports the change in earned and deferred income without any operator manipulation. o Current OPS resides on a secure, industry standard hardware/OS platform. The Élan system is supported by Microsoft SQL Server providing an open platform data base with a lower cost structure compared to other data base products. • As part of the upgrade, the existing IBM Universe environment will be migrated to the current IBM Unidata system, a large savings compared to a new purchase. • An immediate need for a fully integrated Warehouse Management System and Order Processing System can be satisfied by an Élan upgrade to Élan WMS with Élan Book. • The Élan upgrade from CISPUB is delivered at a lower lifecycle cost than a new replacement solution. Certification that any supporting data which forms a basis for the justification (e.g., Government's minimum needs or schedule requirements) have been verified to be complete and accurate by the customer. I, Keith Sinner, NTIS CIO, certify that the supporting data for the upgrade to the NTIS OPS form an adequate basis for this justification. ________________________________ _____________ Keith Sinner, NTIS CIO Date 10. A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition: No other sources have expressed interest as a prime contractor in this acquisition. 11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required: NTIS is not aware of any barriers regarding this procurement 12. Contracting Officer Certification that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the contracting officer's knowledge and belief: I, Michael Scheuchenzuber, Contracting Officer, certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. _______________________________________ ________________ Signature Date _______________________________________ ________________ Competition Advocate: Date: National Institute of Standards and Technology
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/OPSSOFTWAREMEDIASERVICES/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: 5301 Shawnee Road, Alexandria, Virginia, 22312, United States

Zip Code: 22312
 

Record

SN01987158-W 20091018/091016235357-d474aced2f53a07a4afbd4f5bb320400 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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