Notice of Intent to Sole Source (Personnel Accountability and Assessment System (PAAS))

The Department of the Navy, Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific (NIWC Pacific), hereby publicizes its intention to solicit, negotiate, and award a standalone contract with a (3) three-year base period and (1) one 2-year option period to Cognetic Technologies on an other than full and open competition basis in direct support of the Personnel Accountability and Assessment System (PAAS) suite of systems and ultimate joint PAAS (JPAAS) system. The incumbent, Cognetic Technologies, hereby referred to as Cognetic, is the original company responsible for developing PAAS from the ground up in response to DoD Instruction 3001.02 in the wake of Hurriance Katrina (2005). Since the inception of PAAS, Cognetic has been the sole development team supporting PAAS and garnering an invaluable experience and core knowledge in how the system works at every facet. PAAS is classified as a Mission Critical system, any function failure will severely cripple the Armed Forces and DoD Agencies ability to support their personnel during catastrophic real world events. PAAS is in a major developmental transition period as it is being designed and transformed into JPAAS. JPAAS will combine support for all Armed Forces and DoD Agencies in to a single joint PAAS system. Cognetic is the primary architect for the design and development of JPAAS. JPAAS is scheduled to meet its initial operating capability in the spring of 2020 with final operating capability scheduled for spring 2021. Having been the sole developer for fourteen years and being mid-transition from PAAS to JPAAS, forfeiting the knowledge and experience that is only available to Cognetic presents an unacceptable risk to the system's health and the success of the transition. If Cognetic is not able to continue their performance in service of PAAS, all progress towards JPAAS will be halted and possibly squandered, resulting in a Mission Critical project floundering and an unacceptable assumption of futility for all of the effort and progress achieved to date. No reasonable amount of experience for a new contractor starting on the PAAS effort today would accumulate to a place of equitable capability that Cognetic currently has as the architect and developer of the PAAS systems. Nevertheless, we currently estimate PAAS support at $1.5M per year. Cognetic has fourteen (14) years of experience in the PAAS system and while there is truly no replacement for the incumbent, this timeframe represents an estimated $21M of government cost invested into the PAAS system. No other contractor is capable of supporting this effort but if there was such a source, an estimated $21M cost would be required to arrive at the current operating capacity. This notice of intent is NOT a request for quote. A determination by the government not to compete based upon responses to this notice is solely at the discretion of the government. The applicable NAICS Code is 541330 - Engineering Serices and the business size standard is $15 million dollars. The point of contact for this announcement is Jon Oliveros at contact@example.gov. Be advised that the aforementioned information is anticipatory in nature and is not binding. This notice is not a request for quotes; however, any firm believing that they can fulfill the requirement may be considered by the agency. Interested parties may identify their interest and capabilities in response to this synopsis. Any comments, questions or concerns regarding this notice may be submitted via e-mail to contact@example.gov by 07 May 2020 at 0800 PST. Questions by phone or fax will not be considered.