70 -- Renewal of Matlab computation/programming suite to meet both mission and customer program requirements under CHESS Contracts - Brand Name Specific J&A

Human Research and Engineering Directorate's (HRED) requests renewal of its Matlab computation/programming suite to meet both mission and customer program requirements for the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) network. The following are required in the described systems: License Group 30981588 License Group Item Description Quantity MATLAB Group: Forty eight (48) Simulink One: (1) Control System Toolbox: One (1) Curve Fitting Toolbox: Two (2) DSP System Toolbox: One (1) Data Acquisition Toolbox: Three (3) Econometrics Toolbox: One (1) Image Processing Toolbox: Six (6) Instrument Control Toolbox: Five (5) MATLAB Compiler: Two (2) MATLAB Compiler SDK: Two (2) Neural Network Toolbox: One (1) Optimization Toolbox: Two (2) Parallel Computing Toolbox: Forty eight (48) Partial Diff Equation Toolbox: One (1) Signal Processing Toolbox: Forty eight (48) SimBiology: One (1) Simulink Control Design: One (1) Spline Toolbox: One (1) Stat and Mach Learning Toolbox: Forty eight (48) System Identification Toolbox: One (1) Wavelet Toolbox: One (1) License Group 30719322 License Group Item Description Quantity MATLAB Distributed Computing Server: Two hundred fifty six (256) Simulink: One (1) Control System Toolbox: One (1) Curve Fitting Toolbox: Two (2) DSP System Toolbox: One (1) Data Acquisition Toolbox: Three (3) Econometrics Toolbox: One (1) Image Processing Toolbox: Six (6) Instrument Control Toolbox: Five (5) MATLAB Compiler: Two (2) MATLAB Compiler SDK: Two (2) Neural Network Toolbox: One (1) Optimization Toolbox: Two (2) Parallel Computing Toolbox: Forty eight (48) Partial Diff Equation Toolbox: One (1) Signal Processing Toolbox: Forty eight (48) SimBiology: One (1) Simulink Control Design: One (1) Spline Toolbox: One (1) Stat and Mach Learning Toolbox: Forty eight (48) System Identification Toolbox: One (1) Wavelet Toolbox: One (1) License Group 30049442 License Group Item Description Quantity Signal Processing: Five (5) Communications System: One (1) Curve Fitting: One (1) DSP System: One (1) Data Acquisition: One (1) Fixed-Point Designer: One (1) MATLAB Compiler: One (1) MATLAB Compiler SDK: One (1) Spreadsheet Link: One (1) Statistics & ML: One (1) System Identification: One (1) Wavelet: One (1) MATLAB Groups: Five (5) 2. PROPOSED CONTRACTOR/MANUFACTURER: Four Inc. 12930 Worldgate Drive, Suite 125 Herndon, VA 20170 [REDACTED] Phone:703-850-2283 Fax:703-563-9652 [REDACTED] "8(a) Certified Woman-Owned Small Business" 3. MULTIPLE AWARD CONTRACT NUMBER: W52P1J-15-D-0006 4. ESTIMATED TOTAL VALUE: Basic contract: $ [REDACTED] ____________ TOTAL $ [REDACTED] 5. STATUTORY AUTHORITY PERMITTING EXCEPTION TO THE FAIR OPPORTUNITY PROCESS FAR 16.505(a)(4) - Restricting consideration to a service peculiar to one manufacturer (e.g., a particular brand-name, product, or a feature of a product that is peculiar to one manufacturer). 6. JUSTIFICATION FOR THE AUTHORITY CITED ABOVE: The ARL's Human Research and Engineering Directorate's (HRED) requires renewal of its Matlab programming suite to meet both mission and customer program requirements for ARL-HRED. Matlab is the primary computation/programming suite used by scientists in the Neurosciences, and is used commonly among researchers in HRED for large-scale data analysis. [REDACTED]. While other matrix-based programming and analysis environments are available (such as Mathematica, R, or Maple), no other programming suites indentfied are supported by existing in-house and partner-derived toolboxes. [REDACTED] As a result of the requirement, prohibiting use of varying brands of this programming type linked into the ARL network, the Government requires the specific brand name MatLab primary computation/programming suite that is compatible with existing Government-owned technology that is already being utilized by the ARL HRED Directorate. Matlab, produced by The Mathworks Inc, operates on a per-year licensing structure to continue support and version changes. Changes to the bi-annual release of Matlab, which are typically mirrored in toolboxes used in the scientific community, necessitate the Branch to maintain the most current version. The MathWorks software is used for continued research efforts needed to meet HRED's Neuroscience mission program requirements. [REDACTED] has been performed using the existing software and these [REDACTED] will not interface with any other software package as they are proprietary to The MathWorks, Inc. and are only compatible with the MATLAB family of products. [REDACTED]. The MathWorks, Inc are the owners of the software code for the MATLAB family of products and their licensed software is only offered to a few sources for resale. Therefore, The MathWorks, Inc. brand is the only brand capable of providing their proprietary MathWorks software for continued algorithm development, The MathWorks, Inc. patents for the MATLAB family of products can be found at the following web address: http://www.mathworks.com/company/aboutus/policies_statements/patents.html The Government, therefore, requires purchase of renewal of the previously referenced licenses and updates to support Mission research, as well as continuing support ("maintenance") on existing licenses. The procurement of any other software besides MatLab and Simulink would require a complete re-writing and re-coding of the existing system used by the HRED TNB and ARL. 7. MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED/EFFORTS TO OBTAIN COMPETITION: Market research was conducted during June 2017 [REDACTED] with more than 3 years of experience in the area of computation/programming via vendor product catalogs, [REDACTED], and descriptions provided under the CHESS ITES- 3W contract vehicle. [REDACTED]. [REDACTED] research was limited to finding sources (Four, Inc) that could propose MatLab licenses via U.S. Army CHESS website, therefore the extent of [REDACTED] market research resulted conducting searches for the MatLab brand name services on the U.S Army CHESS website, as it is the mandatory source for commercial IT products per AFARS 5139.101. Since these services are available via the CHESS program, CHESS must be utilized as a mandatory source for this procurement. The Mathworks Inc. is the sole manufacturer and provider of any updates or support within North America, which represents the majority of the proposed procurement. CHESS is a mandatory source. One CHESS and 8(a) Women Owned Certified Small Business, Four Inc. can fulfill the governments requirement. The Army CHESS website is the mandatory source for commercial Information Technology (IT) products per AFARS 5139.101. A notice of this requirement will be published to seek competition on CHESS in an effort to find potential sources that are authorized re-sellers of the aforementioned MatLab primary brand name computation/programming suite. The Government will give fair opportunity to any associated CHESS vendor(s) that meet the requirements. The intent of this procurement is to limit competition among the MatLab authorized resellers in an attempt to assure the Government that MatLab specific brand of computation/programming licenses will be purchased at a fair and reasonable price.