36C10A18C0072-001.pdf

Control Number TAC-18-51133

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center - Austin 1701 Directors Blvd.

Austin, TX 78744

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for the award of a firm-fixed-price contract for 62 AutonoME environmental control unit (ECU) tablets, including delivery, installation and configuration, demonstration, and training from Accessibility Services, Inc. (Accessibility Services).

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to deliver, install and configure, demonstrate, and provide training for 62 AutonoME ECU tablets. The AutonoME ECUs allow a patient who is quadriplegic, paraplegic, or suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), with limited functionality, to control their environment and have the ability to participate in a broad range of activities from the AutonoME ECU tablet. The AutonoME ECU tablet allows patients to control room lighting, hospital beds, television, telephone, nurse call light, internet, and communicate within the confines of their hospital bed. The AutonoME ECU shall provide the following input methods: sip and puff, eye gaze, voice, head tracker, direct touch, and switch. The contractor shall provide all components necessary to allow the ECU to function as intended, including tablets, wall boxes, junction boxes, cords and cables, and software. The contractor shall demonstrate ECU functionality and provide ECU training. The period of performance for this effort is four months from the date of award with a two year warranty period from the date of acceptance. The total estimated value of the proposed action is $869,262.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is Accessibility Services, 6241 S. Tex Pt, Homosassa, Florida 34448.

Accessibility Services is the sole provider of the AutonoME ECUs, as detailed in the market research section. Accessibility Services is the developer and owns all intellectual property of the AutonoME ECU. While other ECU products exists, none of these products are capable of satisfying the Government’s requirement for an ECU that accepts multiple input methods. VA’s spinal cord injury Veteran patient population has varying levels of disability and thus requires the ability to control the ECU using different input methods. Therefore, VA requires a single solution that offers multiple methods of input. Vendors other than Accessibility Services in the ECU market only offer one input method to control the environment, whereas the Accessibility Services’ AutonoME ECU offers multiple input methods, including sip and puff access, eye gaze, voice access, head tracker, direct touch input, and switch input. AutonoME ECUs are the only

Environmental Control Units Control Number TAC-18-51133 commercially available solution that can meet the Government’s requirement for multiple input methods. Failure to acquire these brand name items will result in a degradation of VHA’s service to SCI patients, because Veterans would not have a device that can offer the multiple input methods they need.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, the details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. It was determined that AutonoME ECUs are the only ECUs currently capable of accepting multiple input methods and Accessibility Services, Inc., is the only provider of AutonoME ECUs. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.201. Any proposals that are received will be evaluated.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted between February and July 2018 to ascertain the ability of other vendors to provide ECUs that meet VA’s needs. In addition to Accessibility Services, the VA’s technical subject matter experts (SMEs) identified several other contractors with assistive technologies that provide communication and environment control. These other potential sources included HCI, providing android bedmate offering touchscreen input; LC Technologies, providing eyegaze edge offering eye input; and Primo Touchscreen, providing Possum Primo! offering touchscreen input. The SMEs reviewed the websites for each source and determined that each source was only capable of providing an ECU that accepts one input method. The Technology Acquisition Center issued Request for Information 36C10A18Q0949 on June 29, 2018, using the FBO website, to ascertain if there were any other sources that could meet the Government’s requirement. Only Accessibility Services, responded. VA’s technical SMEs conducted further market research by contacting LC technologies in July 2018 and was informed that LC Technologies tablet would work with sip and puff if VA’s current sip and puff system was compatible with LC’s tablet; however, they confirmed VA’s assessment that their product could not provide multiple input methods. Based on this market research, VA’s technical SMEs determined that Accessibility Services, Inc. is the only source that can meet the Government’s requirements. Per the Department of Veterans Affairs Acquisition Regulation 804.1102, the Contract Specialist ran a query within the Vendor Information Pages (VIP), found at www.vip.vetbiz.gov, using the search term “AutonoME” and the NAICS code “339112.” The VIP search yielded zero contractors.

9. Other Facts: None.