36C10A18Q9096-007.docx

North52 Software Maintenance

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement Acquisition & Logistics 1701 Directors Blvd Austin, TX 78744

2. This requirement will be accomplished via:

[ X ] New Purchase Order

Purchase Order will be:

[ X ] Firm Fixed Price [

Type of Funds (e.g., Supply Fund, Franchise Fund, IT, etc.):

[ X ] Information Technology

3. Description of Supplies or Services.

[ X ] Supplies

This requirement is to procure one-year of software maintenance for one existing Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)-owned North52 Business Process Activities (BPA) software license, with two 12-month option periods. This maintenance provides access to all software updates and patches, which includes maintenance releases and major version releases for the North52 BPA software license. This requirement is for VA Office of Information and Technology, Enterprise Program Management Division, Benefits, Appeals and Memorials, Enterprise Access Products. This action is an North52 brand name requirement. The total estimated price of the proposed action is $79,565.21, including option periods.

Estimated total cost (including options): $79,565.21

4. Authority Cited.

[ X ] FAR 13.106-1(b)(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.

5. Reason for Authority Cited.

The proposed source for this action is: Pax Advisory, Inc.

1695 Abbey Oak Drive Vienna, VA 22182

[ X ] Explain need for brand name:

The existing VA-owned Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program infrastructure includes North52 software licenses, and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. Due to the proprietary nature of the software, there are no other support services that meet the requirements to satisfy the Government’s needs; therefore only North52 software maintenance can meet the Government’s needs. Only North52 or its resellers have access to North52’s proprietary software source code needed to provide the required software maintenance support and ensure that the services provided are properly configured. This code is also required to develop and push updates and upgrades to the existing software. Without the renewal of the North52 BPA software maintenance services for the existing licenses VA will not be able to receive critical software updates, enhancements, software corrections, and technical support; posing an immediate risk to VA’s operational capability across twelve production systems under the CRM program. Renewal of the North52 BPA software maintenance will continue the automated end-to-end testing needed so that the CRM platform and its applications continue to enable data sharing and facilitate informed and complete responses across three administrations and business lines, optimizing desktops to improve VA customer service, shorten call length, wait times, etc. for Veterans in crisis, health benefits, health eligibility services, and Community Care.

North52 has been able to provide the necessary workflow capabilities that successfully meet the architectural and application requirements for the VA CRM program. Test and implementation of another product cannot be performed in a live production environment. Use of an alternate product would require downtime for the existing solution, which would delay the processing of Veterans benefits and critical support services to Veterans in crisis. To avoid downtime additional cost would be incurred for hardware, software resources and training to establish an alternate test environment. It is not anticipated any savings achieved by competing the requirement would offset the costs of switching software platforms, and the purchase of North52 brand name software maintenance is more advantageous to the Government.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition.

[ X ] There is only one responsible source for this item. Efforts made to locate additional sources are described under the “Market Research” paragraph of this document. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Procurement data does not include any unnecessary requirements that may inhibit competition.

7. Actions to Increase Competition.

[ X ] Other actions that will be accomplished to increase competition

The Government will continue to conduct market research to learn if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research.

VA technical personnel conducted market research in May 2018, which consisted of a review of the similar software maintenance, including InRule and Microsoft CRM software. As a result of the market research, it was determined that no other software was found to be compatible and interoperable with the existing VA software. No source other than North52 can provide the required software maintenance due to proprietary constraints. Specifically, no other source has access to North52’s proprietary data and software code to ensure that the services provided are properly configured and implemented. This code ensures that the services provided will enable the North52 products to remain fully operational to support the existing VA environment. Therefore, no other contractor has the capability of developing and issuing software updates and fixes for North52 BPA software necessary to support existing VA CRM requirements.

9. Interested Sources.

[ X ] Solicitation covering this procurement will be synopsized in the Federal Business Opportunities Page and any bids/proposals received shall be evaluated.

Sole Source Justification Checklist Template_MAY_19_2014

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