Special Notice - Sole Source for IBM Z196. The Department of the Interior, National Business Center, in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) (Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized) and FAR 5.301 awarded on a sole source basis, under GSA Schedule, an Order to IBM as follows: 1. IBM Z196 This procurement is a sole source requirement and is not a solicitation or a request for competitive proposal. A determination not to compete is solely within the discretion of the Government. The Sole Souce Justification is attached hereto. Any response to this notice must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government. Responses must be received no later than 4:30 pm Mountain Time, Tuesday, July 26, 2012 by sending an e-mail to
[email protected]; however, any technical data received will be for the sole purpose of market research for future proposes. Point of contact for this announcement is Roberta Truax, Contract Specialist, DOI National Business Center, National Business Center, 7301 W. Mansfield Avenue, Room 200, Lakewood, CO 80235-2230 Sole Source Justification: LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR ORDERS UNDER FEDERAL SUPPLY SCHEDULE (FAR 8.405-6(g)) At a minimum, each justification shall include the following information. Note: Evidence that any supporting data that is the responsibility of technical or requirements personnel and which form a basis for the justification have been certified as complete and accurate by the technical or requirements personnel. 1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity. Agency: National Business Center, Department of Interior, Information Technology Directorate Contracting Activity: NBC, AQD, Branch II, Division IV 2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. The National Business Center, Information Technology Directorate and the Human Resources Directorate requires a tech refresh to rightsize the current mainframe Z9 environment. The current mainframe system has been in the National Business Center (NBC) for four (4) years and is at the end of its last maintenance period. The NBC will be retiring FFS in 2014. This change in business requirements also changes the requirements of the Human Resources Directorate's Federal Personnel and Payroll System to a smaller more efficient and automated mainframe with specific and unique characteristics. The NBC will obtain a tech refresh with the (Z196) and acquire the software, installation, and specific training to utilize the Z196 advanced features and optimization. This will allow the NBC to save budget dollars with a more efficient smaller advanced hardware option to run and maintain the current FPPS/FFS environment. 3. A description of the supplies or services required to meet the agencys needs (including the estimated value). Migration Offering Upgrade of z9EC to z196 2817-M15 Model 503 With the Migration Offering, IBM ships a brand new zEnterprise system to NBC. NBC has 60 days from the ship date of the new zEnterprise to migrate it into production, decommission the z9EC and return it to IBM. This provides an extended window to test out the new system while continuing to run production on the existing system. 4. Identification of the justification rationale (see 8.405-6 (a) and (b)) and, if applicable, a demonstration of the proposed contractors unique qualifications to provide the required supply or service. The National Business Center has engaged IBM experts to perform a capacity analysis study to "right size" the mainframe. The specific expertise that they offered analyzed the workload with the current MIPS configuration and the chip capacity of the current server. Due to the unique expertise of IBM and their mainframe consultants, they recommended the installation of the smaller mainframe in a specific configuration to support the current workload on the mainframe. This smaller more efficient configuration downsizes the MIP capacity of the mainframe. The specific experience of IBM and the specific configuration recommended by IBM experts is required in the purchase, installation, and configuration of both the refreshed hardware and proprietary IBM software. In addition the expertise in installation required by the manufacturer, IBM is the only provider for the required specific operation and hardware training which is required to utilize the unique features of the new tech refreshed platform in maximizing its use during operations. 5. A determination by the ordering activity contracting officer that the order represents the best value consistent with 8.404(d). More than 15 cost models for different scenarios and lifecycle costs were completed and this single solution is the lowest cost option in all cases. The specific IBM hardware optimizes the current MIPS configuration and lowers it. Most software on the current mainframe is licensed in MIPS. The tech refresh on this specific hardware will allow the NBC to save costs in software to the specific hardware configurations and optimizations provided by IBM. IBM has provided a discount below GSA pricing. Market research was conducted for specific load capacity analysis capabilities, installation, and training of the proprietary environment. Due to the unique features of the refreshed platform, the manufacturer is the single channel of delivery of training and hardware. 6. A description of the market research conducted among schedule holders and the results or statement of the reason market research was not conducted. The market survey was conducted exploring different hosting alternatives, different hardware alternatives, and different software and payroll delivery models. More than fifteen different business case scenarios were conducted and resulted in additional costs to the NBC ranging from $11m to $90M dollars. An initial hosting RFI was also released in 2011 and a final market analysis on hosting was conducted. 7. Any other facts supporting the justification. IBM has specific knowledge regarding the current installation configuration and optimization of the Z9 environment. They have conducted specific capacity analysis testing and have provided IBM mainframe specific expertise for capacity analysis configuration and optimization of the environment to provide the same throughput in a smaller mainframe and to provide the most cost effective solution to the NBC. IBM has unique manufacturing, configuration, and operational expertise due to the propriety nature of both the hardware and software configurations and their expertise and training is required in the tech refresh of this project. 8. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that preclude the agency from meeting the requirements of 8.405-1 and 8.405-2 before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made. Market research will periodically be conducted to assess the availability of alternate sources. Identified alternate sources will then be considered for competition of any future requirements.