D -- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT ASSURANCE

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is presently in its last year of a five year contract (currently expiring on December 31, 2003) to Galaxy Scientific for the Information Technology Product Assurance (ITPA) services covering Quality Assurance (QA), Configuration Management (CM), Requirements Management (RM), and Independent Testing of USPTO Automated Information Systems and for Data and Records Management. The ITPA contract provides critical product assurance support to the USPTO/CIO during the entire lifecycle of each AIS project, from project initiation through the delivery of the capabilities into production. The following narrative accurately describes the Government's minimum needs and rationale justifying a six-month contract extension to contract number 50-PBPT-9-00001 with Galaxy Scientific Corporation (Galaxy), (through June 30, 2004). This extension is required to accommodate the need for product assurance support before deployment of several major AIS initiatives. These initiatives, which are currently underway, include the implementation of new requirements for e-government, mandated in USPTO's 21st Century Strategic Plan, and the migration of the entire USPTO user community to a new operating system. The initiatives are scheduled for product assurance support during the 3rd quarter of FY 03 and in the 1st quarter of FY 04. The projects supporting the key business and AIS initiatives cited above are on an aggressive timetable. The projects' ability to meet schedule commitments and minimize risks of disruption to the USPTO mission is dependent upon sustained, uninterrupted, and consistent support from the ITPA contractor. It is not possible for the CIO to plan for and transition the ITPA support functions while simultaneously providing the level of ITPA support needed to ensure the timely, reliable implementation of these critical system initiatives. The confidence that our systems will adequately support USPTO requirements is based on consistent and sustained ITPA support. The USPTO has determined that there is only one responsible source available [i.e., the ITPA contractor, Galaxy Scientific] at this time. Continued contract performance by Galaxy for QA, CM, RM, and independent testing support is imperative to the Government; in order to meet the major mandatory changes including the new requirements of electronic patent examination and processing via the use of ePhoenix and the requirements for electronic trademark processing. The estimated cost of this contract extension is $4,200,000.00 for the period January 1, 2004 through June 30, 2002. The support areas on the current ITPA contract for Data and Records Management are being competitively solicited separately and are not part of this six-month extension.