Description
The purpose for this announcement is to inform industry of the basis of the FAA’s intent to contract using single source procedures. The FAA intends to extend the FAVES contract with General Dynamics Information Technology for up to three years. This extension and increase to contract ceiling, ending October 31, 2023, will allow the FAA to receive continued support for basic and advanced administrative telephony services until a new competitive acquisition can be awarded. This announcement is NOT A SCREENING INFORMATION REQUEST (SIR) or REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP). Furthermore, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals. All interested parties are advised the FAA will not pay for any information or any administrative costs incurred associated with any response to this announcement. Therefore, any costs associated with submissions related to this announcement will be solely at the interested party's expense. The FAVES program is the FAA’s mechanism for consolidating and centralizing the management responsibility for administrative voice services across the FAA. FAVES provides the pathway for establishing a modern, integrated administrative voice enterprise across the FAA. Under FAVES, FAA obtains support necessary to meet the user’s needs for basic telephony services. FAVES has given the FAA the capability to grow and change its administrative voice services over time as facilities grow, relocate, consolidate and/or come offline. FAVES also supports the FAA’s changing workplace by supporting telecommuting and user mobility. The FAA has a need to extend the current FAVES contract for administrative voice services with General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) for up to three years beyond its current expiration date of October 31, 2020. This contract extension will consist of a one-year base and two one-year option periods, which provides sufficient time to enable the FAVES contractor to complete the build out of the FAVES Enterprise, continue to deliver the administrative voice services described above, and allow the FAA sufficient time to plan and conduct a full and open competition for the follow-on operations and maintenance support of FAVES. The FAVES Program Office estimates that it will take approximately three years beyond the end of the current FAVES contract to complete the transition of all remaining legacy Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems to the FAVES Enterprise. The FAVES Enterprise (hereafter referred to as FAVES) provides the FAA with standardized Unified Communications (UC) via a modern, centralized FAA-wide system that integrates Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) with internal FAA networks and external commercial telephone services. FAVES is an evolutionary program for an FAA-wide transition from a Private Branch Exchange (PBX)-based environment to a modern infrastructure based upon a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IP Telephony (IPT) technologies that provide a greater degree of flexibility and opportunities to reduce operating costs. To complete transition of FAA legacy telephone systems to FAVES, the FAA must: Sustain current operations and maintenance (O&M) of all FAA administrative voice services, both FAVES systems and services and legacy administrative telephone systems and services. Enable continued time-sensitive replacement of multiple failing or obsolete legacy administrative PBX systems that are either at end of support or end of life status. Complete the transition of remaining targeted legacy telephone systems to FAVES. Since 2009, GDIT has gained specific knowledge and understanding of the myriad of types/quantities/distribution/condition/location of the FAA’s voice telecommunications equipment or with expertise in how the FAVES system works across the hundreds of FAA locations supported. The current architecture consists of two sites capable of supporting the entire FAA’s administrative dial tone needs. This is a significant operational improvement over the previous way the FAA’s dial tone requirements were met. The experience and expertise gained by GDIT over the term of the contract is unique and FAVES is the only contract for these types of services within the FAA. It is in the best interests of the FAA to issue an extension to the FAVES contract on a single source basis to GDIT. During the timeframe of the base and option years, virtually every Government Furnished Equipment (GFE)/commercial telecommunication infrastructure and connection link that FAVES relies upon will be undergoing transition to new contracts and/or transformation. The FAA must complete transition of remaining legacy sites to FAVES, to ensure that mission essential services remain stable during these related major FAA telecommunications and IT transitions planned to occur over the next 3-5 years. In determining the most appropriate FAVES contract strategy, the FAVES Program Office first assessed the market place. The FAA’s request for information (RFI) #34971 on October 23, 2019 requested industry feedback regarding development of an acquisition strategy for obtaining services to complete full implementation of FAVES. The RFI stated that the FAA currently acquires FAVES services through Contract DTFAWA-10-D-00003 with GDIT, which expires October 31, 2020, and informed industry that the completion of the transition of its remaining targeted sites to FAVES will take approximately three years beyond the end of the current FAVES contract. The FAA received and evaluated six vendor responses and determined that only one vendor could provide the full range of FAVES services required within the constraints listed in the RFI. GDIT, the current provider, is the only contractor currently capable of providing all required services within the constraints stated in the RFI. Establishing a second FAVES source prior to award of the follow-on competitive contract would involve substantial duplication of acquisition costs to the Government that would not be offset through competition, would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the FAA’s requirements for continued administrative voice services, and would present an intolerable risk to the stability of the FAA’s administrative voice enterprise services during FAA IT and telecommunications transitions. During this FAVES contract extension period, the FAA plans to conduct a competitive acquisition for a new IDIQ contract to provide sustainment, technical refresh, and operations and maintenance support of all FAVES services beyond year 2023. Award of this contract extension to the incumbent will allow FAVES Program office to ensure there will be no lapse in service while a competitive acquisition is being pursued.