SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- NG.Com - LSJ - NG.Com
- Notice Date
- 6/2/2015
- Notice Type
- Fair Opportunity / Limited Sources Justification
- NAICS
- 519130
— Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Army, National Guard Bureau, National Guard Bureau, Contracting Support, ATTN: NGB-AQC, 1411 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia, 22202-3231
- ZIP Code
- 22202-3231
- Archive Date
- 7/2/2015
- Point of Contact
- Sergio J. Molina, Phone: 7036071266, Aaron Skinner, Phone: 7036071141
- E-Mail Address
-
sergio.j.molina.mil@mail.mil, aaron.d.skinner@us.army.mil
(sergio.j.molina.mil@mail.mil, aaron.d.skinner@us.army.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Award Number
- GS-07F-0449U
- Award Date
- 4/22/2015
- Description
- Limited Sources Justifaction - NG.Com This is a Limited Sources Justification for the award of a six-month firm fizxed-price bridge General Services Administration (GSA) delivery order for Web-site and Call Center support to provide for continuity of services while the Agency competes the enduring requirement. This six-month contract provides for continuity of services of the Army National GUard (ARNG) NATIONALGUARD.com systems, which receives and consolidates 85% of ALL recruiting leades received from advertising and marketing sources. The proposed action will proide for a 5-month base Brdige contract with a one-month option beginning on or about 24 Apr 15 and continuing through on or about 23 Oct 15. At most, a sisx-month Bridge is required to provide for continuity of services while the National Guard completes the new comppetitive solicitation/award process, which is not expected to be awarded until on/about 23 Oct 15. The value of the acquisition is not expected to exceeed $3.8M. Authority Cited: FAR 8A05-6(a)(l)(i)(B) and only one source is capable of providing supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized. Reason for Authority Cited: This requirement authorizes the award of this contract on a sole source basis because current vendor is the only contractor that can meet the ARNG requirements without a lengthy and expensive interruption to this critical program. This conclusion is supported by the fact that current vendor exclusively developed the complex systems and mechanisms that manage and maintain the ARNG's Engagement and Lead education, pre-qualification and processing infrastructure based on direction guidance and needs of the ARNG. This exception is being cited to extend services for Www.NATIONALGUARD.com Program until a new contract can be awarded in accordance with applicable procurement statutes, regulations and policies. Without this bridge contract, the ARNG will lose all lead processing and be the only service without an operating a commercial public website. The Government views iostudio as the only source capable of providing these complex lead processing and Return On Investment (ROI) tasks without a significant learning curve and disruption in service while the enduring requirement completes the solicitation and award process. The ARNG has confidence iostudio will be able to perform uninterrupted services because they have been able to produce: (1) 700,000 Annual Leads processed; (2) 6,400,000 unique website visitors; (3) 1,570,000 Call, chat, forum responses; (4) 800,000 video views; (5) 9,000 Specialty Leads (Officer, AMMED, JAG, WO and Special Forces); and (6) 30,000 Email Subscribers. These numbers have allowed ARNG to reach accession mission and end-strength goals. The Government will compete this requirement to the maximum extent practicable and will document the contract file accordingly. Although, the Government recognizes that there may be other potential contractors who can perform the same services, the time and effort needed to establish a respective website that can engage through offline and online channels and track Engagements and Leads from initial contact through enlistment; deliver Lead generation to Recruiters; perform Pre-qualification screening for better qualified leads; and provide a capability to track the return on investment across all advertising and marketing programs, would be too costly and lengthy of a process. Furthermore, the time needed to become familiar with the Army Guard mission, structure, and manpower requirements at a level of necessary proficiency to provide assistance, by not hiring the current subcontractor (iostudios) would cause an unacceptable impact to the ARNG's accession mission. Because only the subcontractor is uniquely positioned to minimize the negative and unacceptable impact to mission, they are the source that is in the best interest of the Government. a. Background: This requirement is currently being performed by the subcontractor iostudio to Military Personnel Services Corporation (MPSC), which has been barred from contracting with the federal government, under contract W9133-L-09-D-0002 which expires on 24 APRIL 2015. The NGB is currently in the process of recompeting this requirement and expects to have award no later than 30 SEP 2015. b. Justification: This is also further complicated by the fact that all advertising and marketing efforts across the 54 States, Territories and District of Columbia, which are using call to actions of 1-800-GO GUARD and www.NATIONALGUARD.com. During this interim period, it is critical that the Government not encounter an additional duplicative transition process. c. Congressional Mandate. M-05-04 Executive Order (Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President), Subject: Policies for Federal Agency Public Websites (17 December 2004) articulates the following: "The efficient, effective and appropriately consistent use of Federal agency public websites is important to promote a more citizen centered government. This memorandum and attachment fulfill the requirements of section 207(f) of the E-Government Act of 2002 (Pub. L. No. 107-347). Overall, the management of agencies' public websites should be in compliance with Federal information resource management law and policy. Federal agency public websites are information resources funded in whole or in part by the Federal government and operated by an agency, contractor, or other organization on behalf of the agency. They present government information or provide services to the public or a specific non-Federal user group and support the proper performance of an agency function. Federal agency public websites are also information dissemination products as defined in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130." d. Impact to Immediate Effort. In the event the www.NATIONALGUARD.com/Call Center contract lapses, we are high risk of losing the unique URLs (www.NATIONALGUARD.com/www.GXonline.com/www.1800GOGUARD.com) and unique specialty phone numbers (1800GOGUARD (1-800-46-48273)). The unique URLS have the potential to be hosted on a current contract, but the risk is high due to firewalls and the requirement to have the current contract sight have authority to host a non.mil environment. This process will take up to 7 days to transfer the ownership o the domain name to new host and 3 additional days for this information to propagate across the Internet. The unique specialty phone numbers (11 different phone numbers) have the potential of being picked up by outside sources. This process takes up to 30 days to transfer phone numbers with a cost per line. This would result in the ARNG to be required to pay for the rights to use the number from the new owner. If unique specialty phone numbers are lost, once again it will be devastating to the Army National Guard brand recognition and popular use of 1-800-GO-GUARD and www.1800GOGUARD.com. e. Impact to Overall Mission. Without a contract to provide www.NATIONALGUARD.com services, the loss of leads generated from this program will directly contribute to accessions mission failure which will affect the 54 States and Territories in meeting their recruitment goals. Should www.NATIONALGUARD.com goes off-line, the ARNG will be the only service without an operating a commercial public website. If potential leads are unaware of the ARNG, they will not decide to learn more or join. The www.NATIONALGUARD.com Recruiting website is critical for visitors to learn more about the ARNG by seeing relative content, Soldier stories, watching videos focused on equipment and training; and engaging in online tools like "My Guard Timeline" which is a robust and scalable tool that is valuable to both prospective recruits and recruiters as the anchor project for contract initiatives. Each facet of this tool is tracked and monitored to maximize and ensure clear ROI. This exception is being cited to extend services for www.NATIONALGUARD.com /Call Center Program until a new contract can be awarded on or about 23 October 2016. Without these continued services the ARNG will be unable to process and generate leads for recruiters that originate from all advertising and marketing programs. The government must continue these critical services for a reasonable time to award a new contract and allow for a reasonable transition period to the awardees. f. Additionally, delays in the procurement process will have a direct and significant impact on meeting the end strength mission goals of the ARNG. The www.NATIONALGUARD.com website is also for public dissemination of information related to job and career opportunities in each State and Territory. The ARNG has two opportunities to engage the American public using one of two "call to actions": 1-800-GO-GUARD (toll-free phone line) and www.NATIONALGUARD.com. The www.NATIONALGUARD.com recruiting website accounts for: (1) 700,000 Annual Leads processed; (2) 6,400,000 unique website visitors; (3) 1,570,000 Call, chat, forum responses; (4) 800,000 video views; (5) 9,000 Specialty Leads (Officer, AMMED, JAG, WO and Special Forces); (6) 30,000 Email Subscribers. Continuity of services is needed to prevent the interruption of daily generation of Leads sent to recruiters. g. Duplication of costs. Transitioning these services from the incumbent to another contractor requires significant transition efforts and start-up costs. Costs include the opportunity costs that would be incurred during a lapse in support. The expertise and knowledge of utilizing an enterprise-wide, automated approach results in: (1) The ability to engage through offline and online channels and track Engagements and Leads from initial contact through enlistment; (2) Lead processing protocols to generate and delivery to Recruiters and ARISS; (3) Ensure an understanding of Pre-qualification screening and applicable regulations to deliver better qualified leads; (4)The ability to track the return on investment across all advertising and marketing programs. The (4) points speak directly to the level of continued services that would be lost, if the contract expires. These points also highlight the areas of training required of a new vendor for only 6 months of service. The result would be a duplication of cost given the complexities of this program and unacceptable delays to the requiring activity (lead processing). Furthermore, the required areas of training take a significant amount of time for a vendor to learn and perfect, which cannot be reasonably achieved by a new vendor in the allocated time prior to the end of the current contract. It would not be cost effective or realistic to expect a new contractor to not encounter a significant learning curve and incur start-up costs during this brief interim period. Further, the duplicative costs associated with these efforts would not be worth any benefits incurred through competition. h. Proposed Vendor: Limited Sources Acquisition for this sole source bridge contract is iostudio, LLC, DUNS 071139666, 565 Marriot Dr. Suite 100, Nashville, TN, 37214. Iostudio was the subcontractor in the previous award that performed 98%-99% of all work.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/809349a7aa2abb9dcca3060ba313bfda)
- Place of Performance
- Address: 111 S. George Mason Drive, Arlington, Virginia, 22204, United States
- Zip Code: 22204
- Zip Code: 22204
- Record
- SN03750809-W 20150604/150602235702-809349a7aa2abb9dcca3060ba313bfda (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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