NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION I recommend that NASA, NASA Shared Services Center limit competition to GSA Schedule 70 (General Purpose Commercial Information Technology Equipment, Software and Services) Schedule Holders for SAP Public Services products for the continued maintenance of the Agencys SAP software licenses. The total Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) effort is approximately $XXXXX which includes a base period of 12 months (October 1, 2013 through September 30, 2014); option period one (October 1, 2014 through September 30, 2015); option period two (October 1, 2015 through September 30, 2016) and option period three (October 1, 2016 through September 2017). This procurement is for new and recurring annual software maintenance services for the Agencys SAP Business Objects BI Suite and SAP Business Expert User licenses and maintenance support. as indicated below: Products/Service SAP Bus. Objects concurrent (Qty 9) $XXXXX SAP Bus. Suite Named User (Qty 60) $XXXXX Maintenance $XXXXX This Firm Fixed Price Delivery Order will provide a vehicle to procure new and recurring SAP Business Objects BI Suite and SAP Business Suite Expert Upgrade User requirements for the NASA Enterprise Applications Competency Center (NEACC) beginning in the first quarter of fiscal year (FY) 14. The establishment of this Delivery Order will offer an excellent option for NASA to conveniently and efficiently procure new products at a reduced cost. Furthermore, this Delivery Order will provide NASA with the ability to negotiate improved discounts, satisfy new and recurring customer requirements, reduce NASAs administrative costs by eliminating repetitive acquisition efforts and greatly reduce procurement lead time thus allowing the NSSC, as the sole procuring service provider, the ability to be more responsive to the Agencys needs. Additionally, this Delivery Order will enable the NEACC to leverage their buying power to obtain advantageous pricing, while simultaneously allowing the Agency to centrally track and manage all SAP Business Objects BI Suite and SAP Business Suite Expert Upgrade User software and services. This recommendation is made pursuant to FAR 8.405-6(b)(1), Items Peculiar to One Manufacturer. Alternative manufacturers are impractical for the following reasons: 1. Only one manufacturer is capable of providing the requested services due to the unique specialized nature of the work. NASAs financial system was designed using SAP software. NASA competitively selected SAP in September 2000, to be the primary commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software vendor for the Integrated Enterprise Management Program (IEMP). Any deviation from the current solution will put NASAs financial system at an unacceptable risk. Redesigning NASAs financial systems to use different accounting software is cost prohibitive and not in the best interest of the Government to do so. 2. No other manufacturer can furnish the supplies or services to satisfy the agencys requirement and no other manufacturer can supply a suitable substitution without a complete overhaul of the NASA Financial System. 3. No other manufacturer has access to detailed and timely knowledge of SAPs existing and emerging product set, especially with regard to ongoing development and product planning which directly benefits NASAs ongoing activities to improve financial management and business intelligence throughout the Agency 4. SAP is solely positioned to support NASAs implementation of its new product capabilities/enhancements due to their detailed knowledge of NASAs existing financial system configuration. This knowledge has been obtained through consistent contract instruments that have been in existence since 2000. 5. Market research conducted by ELMT confirms that no other companies offer a suitable replacement product for the SAP BEx product. Market research was conducted with SAP Public Services Inc. and International Business Machines (IBM). A cross-Agency team of BEx users evaluated both the relevant tools from the SAP Business Objects BI Suite and IBMs Cognos Business Insight Advanced (BIA). The evaluation concluded that the SAP Business Objects BI Suite tools were by far the closest replacement to the existing BEx tools, simplifying user transition to the new tool. The SAP product also offered nearly all of the critical features expected by the BEx user community. The Cognos BIA product, on the other hand, did not offer many of the critical features required by NASA analytical reporting users. IBM Cognos BIA also presented itself as a very different tool, with many user interface features that were unfamiliar to the NASA user, requiring a lengthy training and adjustment period. Pursuant to FAR 8.404(a), BPAs and orders placed against a Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) are considered to be issued using full and open competition. Therefore, when establishing a BPA or placing orders under Federal Supply Schedule contracts using the procedures of FAR 8.405, ordering activities shall not seek competition outside of the Federal Supply Schedules or synopsize the requirement. Market research conducted on 4 September 2013 by the Contracting Officer, indicates that there will be adequate competition. SAP has several Value Added Resellers (VARs) that have the ability to provide quotes for the requirements identified herein. GSA has already determined the prices of supplies and fixed-price services, and rates for services offered at hourly rates, under schedule contracts to be fair and reasonable. Therefore, ordering activities are not required to make a separate determination of fair and reasonable pricing, except for a price evaluation as required by 8.405-2(d). Since this requirement does not include a Statement of Work, the price evaluation will include a review of the GSA price list, a comparison of the proposed price with the IGCE and historical contract data that is extrapolated from previous instruments across the Agency via the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS). The Agency will continue to examine the market in the future for alternative solutions before executing any subsequent contract action for future requirements herein. Currently, there are no known actions the Agency can take to remove or overcome barriers that led to the restricted consideration to a single manufacturer. Therefore, purchase of the requirements from the manufacturer of SAP products and services, is the only practical approach.
