NNG15SD18B-016.pdf

Control Number TAC-19-56155

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics

Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: This proposed action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order (DO) to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name International Business Machines Corporation Cognos (IBM) software subscription (maintenance) and technical support.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Information Security (OIS) has a requirement for the procurement of brand name Cognos software subscription (maintenance) and technical support for its present Cognos application infrastructure. The required software subscription (maintenance) and technical support consists of software upgrades, patches, fixes, updates, and security resolutions, as well asdevelopment enhancement requests and providing developer-level technical support. Procurement of this software subscription (maintenance) and technical support will enable OIS to continue to support VA’s current 140 IBM Cognos Analytics User per Processor Value Unit (PVU), 95 IBM Cognos Analytics Explorer Authorized User, 140 IBM Cognos Analytics Explorer PVUs, 5 IBM Cognos Analytics Administrator per Authorized User and 100 IBM Cognos Analytics User Authorized User licenses. This action is for services only, no software will be renewed or procured under this proposed action.

IBM Cognos is a business intelligence/analytics (BI) platform used by VA to aggregate data from the OIS BigFix application and multiple other data sources to present critical security compliance reporting that includes trending metrics vital for assessing progress across the VA security program for Senior Leadership on down to System Administrators. The platform includes key artifact generation for the VA critical IT system Assessment and Authorization process detailing VA system compliance to Federal standards (e.g. Defenice Information Systems Agency Security Technical Implementation Guides ). It also provides users across Information Technology with ad-hoc custom reporting capabilities on consolidated data from BigFix in support of key security and other endpoint management activities. The period of performance for the proposed DO will be a 12-month base period, plus four 12-month option periods, if exercised. The overall period of performance shall not exceed 60 months, inclusive of options. VA requires this length since it anticipates utilizing the existing software for a minimum of 5 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.”

International Business Machines Corporation Cognos Control Number TAC-19-56155

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research as described in section eight of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers of the required IBM Cognos software subscription (maintenance) and technical support on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. The existing IBM Cognos software solution is a highly configurable software suite that is integrated into an environment that supports VA information security capabilities. VA previously acquired these perpetual licenses and deployed the proprietary business analytics software solutions from IBM in 2010. Only software maintenance and premium technical support services provided by IBM directly or through an authorized reseller can meet the requirements as the existing software is proprietary to IBM.

Specifically, without access to IBM proprietary source code, no other source is able to provide software upgrades, patches, fixes, updates, or security resolutions. Without the required software maintenance and premium technical support, the existing Cognos software performance would eventually degrade and would not be usable by VA as its highly integrated business analytics software solutions. In addition, VA would not receive security updates and other critical content, which could compromise the Cognos Executive Dashboard Application Platform. Additionally, since the software is proprietary, no third-party source exists that provides analysis, troubleshooting, and resolution of any software product-related problems other than IBM. Any source to provide these services must have access to IBM proprietary code in order to ensure the services provided are properly configured.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section eight of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. It was determined however, that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for this brand name software subscription (maintenance) and technical support. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), notice of award of this action will be synopsized and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award on the Federal Business Opportunities Page. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A), this justification will be posted with the request for quotation on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website to notify all interested parties.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to review and revalidate its requirements as systems management and business analytics software solutions continue to evolve. The requiring activity will continue to research and monitor whether there are emerging products that enter the marketplace that are interoperable and compatible with existing VA IBM Cognos software licenses and will monitor other new systems management and business analytics software solution product offerings to determine if an entirely new solution could meet VA current and future requirements cost effectively through competition.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research during May through June 2019 by reviewing similar software subscription (maintenance) and technical support products to ascertain if these items could meet VA’s

International Business Machines Corporation Cognos Control Number TAC-19-56155 requirements. Specifically, the Government’s technical experts reviewed products from Exago BI, Looker Data Platform, Board BI, Bundas BI, Microsoft Power BI, Sisense BI, Logi Analytics, Birst BI, Slemma BI, SAP Lumira, Entrinsik Informer, MicroStrategy, Halo BI, QlikView, SAS Business Analytics, InetSoft Style Inteligence, Grow BI Dashboard, Domo BI, Periscope Data, SAP Business Objects BI, icCube Embedded Analytics, Solver BI360, Yellowfin BI, Tableau Software, SAP Business Analytics Suite, InfoZoom, ClicData BI and Data Visualization and Pyramid BI to determine whether any other sources can provide software subscription (maintenance) and technical support on the existing Cognos software. While many of these products bring interesting and potentially unique capabilities none provides the all-encompassing set of VA requirements met by the IBM Cognos suite. These products will not integrate with VA’s current IBM Cognos network infrastructure as stated in section 5 of this justification.

Additionally, an alternative systems management and business analytics software solution would also require proprietary software maintenance and technical support which would not resolve the inability to obtain maintenance and technical support from vendors other than through the respective software providers.

Based on this review of similar brand name products it was determined that no other source could provide software subscription (maintenance) and technical support for the Cognos software as every other source, other than IBM’s Cognos resellers, lacked access to the proprietary source code necessary to provide the required support. Only IBM’s Cognos or its authorized resellers can provide the required software maintenance for the existing licenses as only those sources have the ability to access the proprietary code.

Also, no other vendors can provide the required IBM Cognos software maintenance and Technical support because these vendors cannot access the developers, source code and technical data of the VA current proprietary IBM Cognos business analytics software application suite. Each software developer offers a proprietary system and associated services that will only operate with its respective hardware and software.

Based on this market research, only software maintenance, and technical support provided by IBM can meet VA technical requirements.

Additional market research was conducted in June 2019 by utilizing the NASA SEWP V Provider Lookup Tool. It was determined that there are numerous NASA SEWP V GWAC holders that are authorized resellers of the required brand name IBM Cognos software subscription (maintenance) and technical support under the North American Industry Classification System code 541519. Therefore, limited competition is anticipated for this requirement.

9. Other Facts: None.