Microsoft Consulting and Premier Support

Microsoft Consulting and Premier Support JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL (J&A) FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION 1. The Office of Acquisition Management is conducting this acquisition for Microsoft Consulting and Premier Support on behalf of the Bureau of Information Resource Management, Operations Organization, Messaging Systems Office, E-Mail Division (IRM/OPS/MSO/EML). The estimated cost is $60,000,000 over a period of up to five (5) years. 2. The action being approved is a new Department-wide contract for technical services for domestic and overseas posts, including emergency services to be available within 12 hour response times. The intended Performance Based Statement of Work (PBS) is attached. The contract will be an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with provisions for the issuance of Firm Fixed Price and Labor Hour task orders. 3. The supplies or services that are required to meet the Department's mission critical applications are as follows: The Department needs expert level Microsoft consulting services and premier technical support that can be deployed securely with optimum performance to meet critical production requirements maintained correctly and securely. The vendor support must be available globally on a 24/7 basis, within 12 hours if necessary, and able to provide cleared Americans on-site at any DoS location, including hostile zones. 4. The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 USC 253(c)(1), Federal Acquisition Regulation FAR 6.302-1 Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. 5. The nature of the acquisition and the contractor's unique qualifications that require use of the authority cited are as follows: Microsoft products and services are proprietary and its applications are closed source. Therefore, only one responsible source and no other services will satisfy agency requirements. Daily Operations and Maintenance activities continue to be provided through other contract vehicles but the specific high-end efforts associated with this requirement can be performed only by Microsoft itself due to proprietary source code constraints. 6. Upon approval of this Justification and Authority, a FedBizOpps notice will be publicized as required by FAR 5.2 7. The Contracting Officer determines that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable because purchasing the required support directly from Microsoft will not include re-seller added overhead costs. The present contractual mechanisms meeting the requirement involve significant pass through costs that do not add value to the technical services needed and cannot be justified. 8. Market Survey: There is no opportunity for price competition between the reseller and Microsoft because Microsoft does not license its source code to third party vendors. Resellers lack the capability to perform Microsoft premier support and consulting services due to a lack of access to Microsoft intellectual property. They can only provide the services through the use of Microsoft employees. To propose on this procurement, the authorized resellers would have to enter into a subcontract with Microsoft to provide the services. The resellers are required to charge at least the Microsoft commercial list price. Each reseller adds its individual markup to the commercial price provided by Microsoft. 9. The facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition are that the requested support services and engineering support can only be performed by Microsoft and their technicians and only they can perform within required response times on a global scale. 10. The agency will take action to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services by continuing to pursue alternative technical solutions to Microsoft products. At present, however, the Department is dependent upon Microsoft proprietary technology. This justification and authorization for other than full and open competition will be published on FedBizOpps in accordance with FAR Section 6.305 within 14 days of award.