DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR SOLE SOURCE IAW FAR 13.106-1(b)(1) Purchase of Prephix Annual Subscription Renewal I. Identification of the Agency and Contracting Activity: U.S. Air Force Central Command (USAFCENT) A6 and the 20th Contracting Squadron, Shaw AFB, SC. II. Nature and/or Description of Action: A new, firm-fixed price purchase order will be issued for the purchase of Prephix proprietary software, to support Shaw AFB and Al Udeid AB. III. Description of Supplies/Services: 609ACOMS/SCOX requests contracting assistance through 20 CONS for the acquisition of 250 Prephix Annual Subscription Renewal - P/N 2011-5000-SC and 1,200 Prephix Annual Subscription Renewal - P/N 2011-5000-SC. Purchase will be made from Argon ST Inc. on PR F3UTA63101AC01 with an estimated cost of $72,500. Prephix Provision and virtualization software enables applications to be centrally configured, managed and allows applications to operate in a multi-user environment. The Prephix Annual Subscription Renewal - P/N 2011-5000-SC are critical to continued operations supporting the war fighter's ability to employ multiple warfighting tools across several enclaves, to include NIPR, SIPR, and Centrix-ISAF. Substitution of these items will cause a dramatic increase in man hours needed to support critical ongoing missions. In addition, these licenses are embedded in our Trusted Thin Client (TTC), Air Operations Center (AOC) Weapons System (WS), and Enterprise architecture. They have been vetted in a test environment and approved by our AOC WS Special Program Office (SPO) and Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) Designated Approval Authority (DAA). Substitutions would not be feasible without renewed testing and approval through each of the previous offices. This Prephix Software is only compatible with the current TTC equipment in use. To understand the magnitude of not purchasing the Prephix software we would need to capture the cost of returning everything to fat boxes ( which was the equipment used before the upgrade to TTC) if we don't have the Prephix Software to virtualize the AOC applications. The cost of 5,000 PCs at $2,000 each would cost the Government $10M. Man hours needed to capture the time / effort to purchase and install fat boxes would be approximately 688 hrs. at the cost of $70 / hr. would cost the Government an additional $48,160.00. Also, to date Prephix Software is the only proven solution able to solve the integration issues and challenges with existing legacy mission applications. No other software application has been able to provide the flexible frame work to resolve the spectrum of issues that Prephix Software does. IV. Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full And Open Competition: 10 USC 2304(c), as implemented by FAR 13.106 (FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)) V. Applicability of Authority: In accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b); Soliciting for a sole source brand name. (1) For purchases not exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, contracting officers may solicit from one source if the contracting officer determines that the circumstances of the contract action deem only one source reasonably available (e.g., urgency, exclusive licensing agreements, brand name, or industrial mobilization). ACC Mandatory Procedures policy letter dated January 2011, further delegates J&A signature authority for acquisitions over $25k to the Chief of the Contracting Office. VI. Market Research: Two previous purchase orders, FA4803-10-P-0076 & FA4803-11-P-0030, were awarded to Agron ST, Inc. One was solicited for full and open competition without a stated set-aside. Argon ST, Inc. was the only interested party to respond to the solicitation, FA4803-10-Q-A147. For the second requirement, a sources sought, FA4803-11-Q-A094, was synopsized on 3 Mar 11 through 10 Mar 11. Two interested parties responded with only one, Argon ST Inc, being capable of fulfilling the requirement. The most current sale of Prephix software license renewals was purchase order FA4803-11-P-0030 on 14 Apr 11. The current licenses expired on 30 Apr 2013 due to a change over in administration with in AFCENT. This has been documented via email from AFCENT and will be filed in the same tab as the J&A. VII. Determination by the CO that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be Fair and Reasonable: Compared to the Independent Government Estimate and the quote provided for market research it is expected that the price quoted in response to the solicitation will be determined fair and reasonable. VIII. Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results: Validating that their software is proprietary Argon ST Inc. has provided a proprietary statement and also indicated that there are no other distributors of the software. ESI and NETCENTS will not be used in light of this. IX. Statement of Actions the Agency may take to remove or overcome barriers to competition in the future: AFCENT / A6 will continue to conduct market surveys to identify companies that develop similar products to preclude the necessity for future sole source acquistions for the same software licenses. X. Contracting Officer's Certifications: " I certify to the best of my knowledge and belief that the information contained in this justification is accurate and complete." XI. Technical / Requirements Presonnel's Certification: As evidence by their signature, the technical and/or requirements personnel have certified that any supporting data contained herein, which is their responsibility, is both accurate and complete.
