AWARD
R -- Unemployment Insurance Call Center Operations
- Notice Date
- 10/12/2017
- Notice Type
- Award Notice
- NAICS
- 541611
— Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Labor, Employment Training Administration, Office of Contracts Management (National), 200 Constitution Avenue, NW, N-4649, Washington, District of Columbia, 20210, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20210
- Point of Contact
- Deborah S. Campbell, , Isabelle Nguyen,
- E-Mail Address
-
campbell.deborah@dol.gov, nguyen.isabelle@dol.gov
(campbell.deborah@dol.gov, nguyen.isabelle@dol.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Award Number
- 1630DC-17-F-00017
- Award Date
- 9/29/2017
- Awardee
- Coffey Consulting, LLC
- Award Amount
- $29,698.87
- Description
- PER FAR PART 8.405-6, THIS IS THE POST AWARD OTICE LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION FAR Part 8.4 - Federal Supply Schedule 1.Identification of the Agency and Contracting Activity Contracting Activity Customer Agency Department of Labor Department of Labor OASAM/OPS ETA/Office of Unemployment Insurance 200 Constitution Avenue NW 200 Constitution Avenue NW Washington, DC 20210 Washington, DC 20210 2.Nature and Description of the action being approved This Limited Source Justification and Approval authorizes and approves the issuance of an order under the Federal Supply Service Schedules Program, Schedule Group 70, to Coffee Consulting, LLC. The U.S. Department of Labor (Department), Employment and Training Administration (ETA), Office of Unemployment Insurance (OUI), provides national leadership, guidance and direction to states in administering the unemployment insurance (UI) program, which is a partnership between the Federal and state governments. The states operate their own UI programs, under their individual laws, within broad Federal guidelines and with Federal administrative funds. During the past two years, ETA funded a project that looked at states' UI Call Center Operations. Specifically, the project was designed to look at current operations of call centers, how they compare to private sector call centers including looking at standard operating metrics, identifying key performance metrics, and capturing best practices. The project concluded on January 27, 2017, when the Final Report was published. In order to share information about Call Center Best Practices among state UI agencies in an efficient and effective manner OUI has determined it is imperative to allow states to have this information accessible through the UI Community of Practice (CoP), which is designed to promote information sharing among states. This project, which requires compiling and documenting states' best practices related to their call center operations, OUI is requesting assistance from the contractor that conducted the Call Center Study, which is Coffey Consulting, LLC. Once Coffey Consulting has identified, researched, as needed, and documented these best practices in a searchable format that is compatible with formatting used on the UI CoP, the report and compilation will be posted on the CoP for states to easily access. This approach avoids the expenditure of funds to duplicate the work already performed by Coffey Consulting. 3.A Description of the Supplies or Services required to meet the Agency's Needs (Including the Estimated Value) The contract seeks support services to complete work on a report compilation of best practices that will include contacting state for additional or clarifying information as needed. This will result in needed documentation and distribution of UI Call Centers' Best Practices for posting onto the UI CoP. Coffey Consulting, LLC, identified states' Best Practices for UI Call Centers while conducting the Unemployment Insurance Call Center Study, pursuant to Task Order DOL-ETA-14-00032 against the BPA for DOLQ131A22097. This contract seeks additional contract services to enhance and supplement information captured in the Call Center Study and develop a compilation of best practices that are well-documented and include state contact information. The compilation must be in a searchable format to enable easy access after posting onto the UI CoP, which is an integral communication method that states can use and learn about new and effective methods for proper and efficient program administration. 4.Identification of the Authority and Rationale This action is based on the authority of FAR Part 8.4 - Limited Sources. This work is a logical follow-on to previous work completed by this contractor for ETA related to a Call Center Study. If ETA were to engage a different contractor to perform these new tasks, it would require a significant amount of education on the work that was conducted in the initial contract and would be duplicative of the work already done by Coffey Consulting, LLC. The use of a different contractor would require ETA to expend resources including payments to the new contractor for its time in obtaining a foundational understanding of UI Call Center operations, which was already accomplished through work performed by Coffey Consulting, LLC. Engaging a different contractor would also result in additional costs being expended to get a new contractor up-to-speed on the best practices that were discussed with states as Coffey Consulting LLC conducted the UI Call Center Study. Use of a different contractor would ultimately delay the dissemination of this important information to the states via the UI CoP. 5.Determination by the ordering activity that the order represents the best value FAR 8.404(d) The Contracting Officer will review the Coffey Consulting LLC contract skill categories and pricing in order to determine that the price proposed is fair and reasonable. The Contracting Officer will ensure that the labor mix and hours proposed is suitable for this effort. Coffey Consulting, LLC, is uniquely positioned to perform this additional contract work. The tasks set out in the statement of work (SOW) are logical and natural progressions of the work under the initial competitively bid contract for which Coffey Consulting, LLC, was selected to perform. The initial contract work is integral and foundational to the additional effort sought in the new SOW. The prior research conducted and completion of the UI Call Center Study and Final Report by Coffey Consulting LLC over the past two years has uniquely positioned the contractor to perform this work. Coffey Consulting LLC secured subject matter expertise to facilitate the complex discussions with state staff of their UI call center operations in conducting the Study and this also uniquely positions the contractor to further research and gather more detailed information, identify, document, and develop a compilation of Call Center Best Practices to be shared with all states through the UI CoP. The UI program and its various requirements are highly complex, and knowledge of UI Call Center operations is not something that can be acquired quickly by a new contractor. Also, the contacts, experience, and understanding of each state's call center operations and other key UI contacts from all 53 state UI agencies is not something that can be quickly or readily replicated. Acquiring services through another source will cause the Federal Government to incur substantial duplication of costs that is not expected to be recovered through competition. For this reason, it is determined that only Coffey Consulting, LLC, should be used to provide this service. The service price is fair and reasonable and is in line with the prices of other contractors in similar BPAs. Engaging a different contractor would result in additional costs and delays in the project. 6. A Description of Market Research Conducted and the Results or a Statement of the Reason Market Research was not conducted No other source is practical at this time without the Government incurring significant duplication of costs and delays in the project. This justification relates to the continuation of services in support of ETA's efforts to understand the current state of UI call center operations and the role the call center plays in the delivery of timely, customer-focused UI program services. The new work is a natural progression and outgrowth of the work performed in the initial competitively bid contract. No other source is practical without the Government incurring substantial additional costs and unnecessary delays. The current pricing is in line with other contractors in similar BPAs. 7.Any Other Facts supporting the Justification There would be duplicate costs if a different contractor were selected. A new contractor would have to become familiar with the UI program and program operations along with the content of the UI Call Center Study, the Final Report. We estimate that a new contractor would need to have at least one subject matter expert spend a minimum of 80 hours reviewing and becoming familiar with the Call Center Study and its findings. It would also be necessary to obtain a general understanding of call center operations, including a basic understanding of UI call center operations to be able to fully comprehend the materials to obtain any additional needed information and clarifications to complete development of the report and compilation of the best practices for posting onto the UI CoP. 8.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 is made. The agency prefers the normal competitive procurement process. This particular action is only necessary to justify continuation of services (with a contractor originally selected through a competitive process) to avoid duplication of services and unnecessary delays and costs.
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