On 14 September 2020, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) awarded a single, firm fixed price, follow-on contract to HireVue, Inc., a Small Business. The award consists of a Base Year and three (3) Option Years, and has a total contract value of $28,431,439.00 (including all options). The Period of Performance for the Base Year is 15 September 2020 through 14 September 2021. Among other things, this Online Interview Service contract will provide the Intelligence Community (IC) with the ability to have an on-demand and live video interview capability, as well as candidate assessments that will enable the IC to perform faster interviews and predict top performers. Using these capabilities, the IC will increase the ability to attract and recruit talent, reduce processing time by eliminating the need to schedule onsite interviews and provide more consistent interview practices through the use of pre-recorded and structured interview questions and assessments for all candidates. All contractor services will be performed from an off-site, non-Government location. As previously stated in the Government's Notice of Intent to Sole Source, an IC pilot contract was previously established with HireVue for its Software as a Service (SaaS) on-demand and live video interview capability. During the pilot contract, HireVue's SaaS was specially tailored to meet the IC's on-demand and live video interview needs and implemented by certain IC elements. The purpose of the follow-on contract is to provide the resulting highly specialized SaaS to the entire IC to meet an initiative from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to develop more robust processes for the IC to collaboratively recruit and hire. This action was conducted in accordance with FAR Part 6.302-1 - Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. This exception was applicable due to the fact that award to any other contractor would have likely resulted in unacceptable delays, as well as a duplication of cost that was not expected to be recovered through competition. Additionally, HireVue, Inc. is the only known contractor that is capable of meeting all of the Government's essential requirements. Establishing an IC-wide contract for this capability has been an initiative that ODNI has been working towards for many years. The IC pilot contract with HireVue was established to assess the potential benefit and feasibility of these services. Given the positive results and the benefits gained from the pilot contract and HireVue's specialization of its SaaS offering for the IC, the Government was ready to implement the final stage of its initiative where this capability was made available to the whole IC. Award to any other source for an online interview SaaS would have likely resulted in duplication of costs and unacceptable delays. HireVue had already been proven during the pilot contract. If a follow-on IC-Wide contract had not been awarded to HireVue at this stage of the initiative, then the Government would have had to conduct a source selection and award another similar pilot contract before that SaaS could be made available to the entire IC. Going through the pilot process again would have been necessary for any new contractor as their services would have needed to be determined beneficial and feasible, and their SaaS offering customized, before making it available to the entire IC. This approach would have resulted in unacceptable delays considering the amount of time that would have been required to plan and conduct a source selection, and the period of performance of a new pilot itself. Such a competition and award of a new pilot contract would have cost the Government a lot of time and money just to get back to the same point it was already at. Also, the current pilot contract expires in September 2020, so an extension would have been necessary in order to prevent a break in service while the Government conducted a source selection. This approach would have also resulted in a duplication of cost. It would have cost the Government a duplication of costs for personnel salaries to plan and conduct the source selection; the cost associated with the new pilot itself; and the cost associated with the extension of the current pilot contract. Separately, market research revealed that HireVue, Inc. is the only known contractor that is capable of meeting all of the Government's essential requirements, which includes but not limited to; compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, FedRAMP certification, providing separate instances of the online interview tool for each IC element, 24x7x365 helpdesk support for both external and internal interviewers, ensuring that each IC element only has access to its own applicant records, and usage reporting on all IC elements. Although there were similar offerings in the marketplace, none of those offerings had all of these unique and essential characteristics required by the Government. The Government will continue searching the marketplace for competitive alternatives. Following the conclusion of this follow-on effort, the Government will compete future requirements to the extent practicable. This notice does not constitute a request for proposals, quotations, or bids and does not commit NGA to contract for any supplies or services.
