The Department of the Interior (DOI), Interior Business Center, Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), Division 1, Branch 1 on behalf of the DOI, Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), intends to award a noncompetitive procurement to Zivaro, Inc. of 3900 E. Mexico Ave., STE 1000, Denver, CO 80210 as specified in the Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity information below. The noncompetitive action is a logical follow-on bridge extension to existing Geospatial Information System (GIS) Support Services Task Order D15PD00500 pursuant to the procedures and authority under Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C) - The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order, to have the incumbent contractor, Zivaro, Inc., continue existing GIS Support Services for the period of, May 28, 2023 through October 27, 2023, to include 12 one (1)-month option periods, that could carry efforts through October 27, 2024, if all options are exercised. The NAICS code is 541519 ¿ Other Computer Related Services. Questions or concerns may be addressed to the Contracting Officer, Julie Englehart at
[email protected] and Contract Specialist, Emily Mendel at
[email protected] by 10:00 AM ET, Thursday, May 25, 2023. Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity 1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a ¿Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity.¿ This Justification is for an Exception to Fair Opportunity is for the Department of the Interior (DOI), Interior Business Center, Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD), Division 1, Branch 1 on behalf of the DOI, Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), as DOI plans to contract by means other than full and open competition. This justification and approval is to award a sole source logical follow-on bridge extension to existing Geospatial Information System (GIS) Support Services Task Order D15PD00500 pursuant to the procedures and authority under Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C) - The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order. 2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. This action is for the issuance of a modification to existing GIS Task Order D15PD0050 to execute a short-term sole source logical follow-on bridge extension pursuant to the procedures under FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C) to have the incumbent contractor, Zivaro, Inc. continue existing GIS support services for the base period of, May 28, 2023 through October 27, 2023, to include 12 one (1)-month option periods that could continue services through October 27, 2024, if all options are exercised. Zivaro, Inc. was the only vendor to be considered for this procurement as they are the only vendor capable of continuing such services without disruption or a lapse in services until the new ten-year competitive follow-on procurement effort is awarded and transition and migration is complete. 3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency¿s needs (including the estimated value). The DOI, OCIO requires continued cloud-based GIS support services currently being provided under Task Order D15PD00500. The Contractor, Zivaro, Inc., will be responsible for the continuity of services for Geospatial Cloud Hosting and Infrastructure to support the National Geospatial Platform (GSP). The DOI, OCIO, and GSP services the needs of various entities including 32 organizations that comprise the Federal Geographic Data Committee. As the Managing Partner for the GSP, DOI requires computing products and services and the accompanying support from a third-party contractor to continue to maintain the common hosting GeoPlatform in support of multiple missions. Currently, the GeoPlatform and GIS Task Order D15PD00500 supports 40+ customer agency projects. This short-term logical follow-on bridge extension to D15PD00500 will prevent a lapse in services and provide uninterrupted and continuous support to the DOI GIS Support Service efforts in an identical fashion to the current Task Order¿s scope and will allow for successful transition and migration of existing customer projects to the new long-term ten-year competitive follow-on Order once it is awarded. 4. Identification of the exception to fair opportunity (see 16.505(b)(2)) and the supporting rationale, including a demonstration that the proposed contractor¿s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the exception cited. If the contracting officer uses the logical follow-on exception, the rationale shall describe why the relationship between the initial order and the follow-on is logical (e.g., in terms of scope, period of performance, or value). FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A) - The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays. FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B) - Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized (to include brand name in accordance with 16.505(a)(4)). X FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C) - The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order. FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(D) - It is necessary to place an order to satisfy a minimum guarantee. FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(E) - For orders exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, a statute expressly authorizes or requires that the purchase be made from a specified source. The current GIS Task Order, D15PD00500, is scheduled to end May 27, 2023. A seventeen (17)-month logical follow-on bridge extension modification to D15PD00500, which will include a five (5)-month base period and twelve (12) one (1)-month option periods, is needed to ensure there will be no lapse in the GIS support services, which are currently being performed by Zivaro, Inc. until the new competitive follow-on Order for the continuation of existing GIS services can be awarded and transition and migration of the over 40+ efforts can be executed. Due to programmatic delays in determining the acquisition strategy and submission of the requirements document for the long-term ten-year competitive follow-on Order, DOI/AQD has been unable to execute timely award of the competitive follow-on Order for the continuation of existing GIS efforts. In order to prevent a lapse in services and provide a reasonable period for the transition and migration of a substantial amount of data from the predecessor contractor to a new successor contractor, a short-term logical follow-on bridge extension modification to current GIS Task Order D15PD00500 is needed. Zivaro, Inc. is the current contractor that provides the GIS support services and is able to ensure required continuity of services, so there is no disruption of service to DOI and its agency customers. If the Government sought competition for this short-term logical follow-on bridge extension, a lapse in service would be an absolute certainty due to the time required for transition and onboarding of contractor personnel and the migration of data of the over 40+ projects to another contractor. The existing Task Order D15PD00500 with Zivaro, Inc. was a competitive Order against the multiple award DOI Foundation Cloud Hosting Services Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contracts where a sole source logical follow-on bridge extension is permitted pursuant to the procedures of FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C). The continuous nature of these services is essential to the operations and maintenance of the GeoPlatform and the 40+ customer projects it supports. There are current positions in direct support of the efforts under the existing Task Order awarded to Zivaro, Inc. in which the individuals filling these positions are in possession of credentials that allow access to DOI¿s internal systems. Transition and onboarding of contractor personnel is a time consuming and costly process. Replacing Zivaro personnel would require a considerable amount of time (roughly 30-60 days). It would also require an estimated $210,000.00 expense to onboard, train, and credential new contractor personnel. Additionally, there is a substantial amount of data housed on the GeoPlatform that would require migration to a new contractor's cloud platform solution. Depending on the new platform solution, migration of data currently housed on the GeoPlatform from the existing solution could take anywhere from 6-months to a year and cost the Government upwards of $450,000.00. It should also be noted that even if it were feasible to compete the bridge extension, doing so during the execution of a recompete for the follow-on IDIQs and GIS Support Services day-one use case would create an unnecessary duplication of onboarding and migration expenses because the new Task Order would require another contractor to execute onboarding and data migration. Additionally, duplication of onboarding and migration costs for this short-term logical follow-on bridge extension and the competitive follow-on Task Order, would not be a responsible use of tax-payer dollars. To prevent a lapse in services, and to be mindful of the use of tax-payer dollars, the Government requires the execution of a short-term logical follow-on bridge extension to Zivaro, Inc. under Task Order D15PD00500. The bridge will continue the GIS support services until award, transition, and migration can be achieved under the more permanent competitive ten-year procurement solution, as Zivaro is the only vendor capable of providing continuity of service without a lapse. 5. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the exception to fair opportunity before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made. There are no envisioned barriers to competition for the ongoing recompete for the FCHS2 IDIQ contracts and the GIS Support Services day-one use case. The bridge extension described there allows adequate time for that ongoing competitive process to be completed. 6. A written determination by the approving official that one of the circumstances in FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A) through (E) applies to the order. For reasons provided in Part 4 above, Zivaro, Inc. is the only vendor capable of providing the GIS support services required by the OCIO during the short-term logical follow-on bridge extension as authorized by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C). Zivaro, Inc. is the only vendor considered for this logical follow-on procurement as they are the only vendor capable of continuing such services without disruption or a lapse in services until the new competitive ten-year follow-on procurement effort is awarded and transition and migration is complete. Additionally, the authority under FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C) allows issuance of a sole source logical follow-on vehicle on the basis of interest of economy and efficiency where all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original Order.