C03_Justification_and_Approval_Redacted.pdf

Serena Software Control Number TAC-19-51912

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 1701 Directors Blvd., Suite 600 Austin, Texas 787 44

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), software maintenance and support for Serena Business Mashups (SBM) perpetual software licenses.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information Technology, IT Operations and Services, Service Operations - Infrastructure Operations (10), requires the renewal of software maintenance and support for 38 SBM Concurrent User Maintenance Support, 1 SBM Production Server Maintenance Support, 1 SBM Non-Production Server Maintenance Support, and 75 Serena Dimensions Concurrent User Maintenance Support. The Serena Dimensions Configuration Manager and Serena Business Manager software works together to provide a suite of software development management commonly referred to as Orchestrated Application Delivery. This software suite captures, prioritizes, and tracks the progress of any discovered issues with Agile based software currently deployed and helps facilitate collaborative software development by multiple teams in different locations. This procurement is for the renewal of software maintenance and support services; no new software licenses are being purchased, and no licenses are being renewed under this proposed action. Maintenance includes 24 hours per day, seven days per week telephone and live chat support, email support, access to Serena community forums, Serena knowledge bases, technical and product news, coverage for bug fixes and new product upgrades. This proposed action is only for maintenance support for existing software licensing and does not include purchasing any additional software or licenses. VA requires a period of performance of one year, to include four, 12-month options as it anticipates the use of these licenses during the next five years.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 16.505(a)(4), the following brand name requirement is being justified and approved as an exception to fair opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C.

4106(c)(2) as implemented by FAR Subpart 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled "Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized".

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in paragraph eight of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for this brand name annual

Serena Software Maintenance Control NumberTAC-19-51912 software maintenance and support service. The renewal of the Serena maintenance provides VA with the required support needed to meet the Government's requirements and ensures that the existing software remains operational. Due to the proprietary nature of the software code and interoperability of the SBM and Dimensions Configuration Management software, no other software provider has the ability, neither technically or legally, to develop patches and updates to the aforementioned software products. No other software manufacturer can provide patches and updates to Serena customers. Furthermore, since the software is proprietary to Serena, no other vendor provides other maintenance services, such as phone, email, and on-line support. In addition, any source that provides these services must have access to Serena's proprietary code in order to ensure that all services provided are properly configured. Therefore, only Serena brand name software maintenance support can meet the Government's requirements. Without this maintenance, the VA would be unable to support SBM and Dimensions Configuration Manager software patches, fixes, as well as, version upgrades released by the Original Equipment Manager. Additionally, compatibility issues and security vulnerabilities risk increase with an operating system upgrade. Without continued renewal of the SBM maintenance of the existing licenses, VA will not be able to ensure control and track application code changes to VBA applications that support Veterans claim processing. VA does not have the resources to accomplish a data migration and platform replacement effort of this magnitude.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, 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. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Serena software, maintenance support services. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(2), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all interested NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days after award on the Federal Business Opportunity website.

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

8. Market Research: VA technical personnel conducted market research in October 2018, which consisted of a review of similar software maintenance, for Serena Business Manager. As result of the market research, the technical experts determined only Serena or a Serena reseller can provide the required maintenance support due to the proprietary nature of the Serena software code as discussed in paragraph five. No other vendor has the capability of providing and issuing software updates, fixes, or upgrades for the existing Serena software without access to the code as outlined in Section 5 of this Justification.

Serena Software Maintenance Control Number TAC-19-51912

The Contract Specialist (CS) conducted market research in October 2018 by using the NASA SEWP V market research tools. Additionally, a Request for Information was posted on the NASAS SEWP V website to Groups B1, B2, C, and Don October 9, 2018 and on Federal Business Opportunities (FBO.gov) website.· Based on this market research, the CS found resellers capable of meeting the full requirement.

9. Other Facts: None.