NNG15SD25B-085.pdf

SLACK Enterprise Grid Licenses Control Number TAC-19-56486 management tools allows teams to communicate more efficiently resulting in improved efficiencies that translate to improve quality and faster delivery. Slack is integrated with other DevOps tools to provide automated notification to project teams of system outages or problems within the system that are affecting the ability for end users to access or complete actions. The integration with DevOps tools to automatically notify project teams of incidents and alerts as part of performance monitoring enables real time communication to the staff that are responsible for troubleshooting and resolving system issues, allowing for timely resolution of probems. The integration of DevOps tools eliminates the need for resources to manually enter information into disparate systems. Slack prevents duplication of costs by eliminating the need for resources to maintain information in different DevOps tools. Slack is also used by project teams to collaborate, track and monitor continuous integration and continuous deployment of changes to systems. Project teams have integrated DevOps tools used for project management and source controls with Slack. Discontinuing the use of Slack would result in delays with delivery while project teams decouple their continuous integration and contiuous delivery process and integrated DevOps tools.

Deliveries would also be delayed as a result of resuming the manual data entries and communications across organizational boundaries. VA requires the use of Slack to prevent disruption to systems and project teams that have implemented DevOps processes and tools to manage the system lifecycle and to continue delivery on schedule.

VA Ol&T has utilized Slack Standard in support of the VA's API program and by the teams supporting the development of the VA.gov website for over three years. The current Slack accounts include a significant amount of VA data including more than fifty thousand messages exchanged. A significant portion of this data falls under the purview of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) accordingly, VA requires Slack licenses to ensure no loss of the existing data as the current version of Slack VA is utilizing does not provide the ability to download that data locally. Accordingly, VA is purchasing the Slack Enterprise Grid licenses which provides the ability for VA to download the data in the future should it be needed for a FOIA request or for any other reason like Congressional inquiries regarding information shared and/or exchanged via the Slack application.

Additionally, the Slack Enterprise Grid Licenses provides VA Ol&T with enhanced scalability across organizational departments and groups while reducing the need for duplicate accounts and associated billing required by the currentSlack Standard Licenses. VA Ol&T currently has more than 14 separate work spaces within the organization with some users having multiple accounts that are billed separately based on each individual workspace they are added to.

By implementing the Enterprise Grid licenses, VA will alleviate the redundancy of the billing of single users multiple times in the separate workspaces. The Enterprise Grid Licensing provides for a greater number of users while reducing overall costs to VA.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government's requirements. However, the undersigned VA determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Slack Enterprise Grid licenses. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

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: Based on the Government's current market research, including input from numerous technical advisors, Slack is the industry leading collaboration tool that meets all the VA's requirements. The Government's technical experts conducted market research by reviewing the Micorsoft Teams application on March 21, 2019. Based upon compatibility concerns and the loss of the historical data that walls under FOIA associated with transitioning to another comparable application, the Government's technical experts determined that none of the competing applications can meet the Government's interoperability and compatibility requirements previously discussed while preserving the historical and sensitive data that has already been captured within the existing application. Additionally, review of Microsoft Teams is based on actual VA experience using the competing monitoring software. Additionally, VA networking Subject Matter Experts regularly review industry trade publications and conduct internet research to ascertain if any other brand name software is available.

Slack Enterprise Grid will provide the scalability and security capabilities required by the VA. Enterprise Grid will allow for a federated Slack model across the Department while enabling key security requirements like Single Sign On, eDiscovery, Data Loss Prevention and Enterprise Mobility Management. Based on all these market research efforts, the Government's technical experts have determined that only the required Slack Enterprise Grid application can currently meet all of VA's needs for a secure, scaleable collaboration application that preserves this historical data transmitted and shared within its messaging feature and channels.

On July 16, 2019, two Requests for Information (RFI) were posted, one on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurment (SEWP) V Governemnt Acquisiton Contract (GWAC) and the other on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website. The RFI closed on July 19, 2019 and although the NASA SEWP V GWAC RFI did not yield any affirmative repsonses, the FBO RFI yielded five responses from verified Vendor

Information Page Database SDVOSB resellers of Slack four of which are resellers that hold contracts on the NASA SEWP V GWAC in Group 8(2). A representative from Slack also confirmed that all four resellers are authorized to sell slack products. Even though none of the four currently has the required Slack Product on their catalog, NASA SEWP V GWAC has a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requiests; therefore, as long as the required item or service is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC, items and services can be added to the catalog.

9. Other Facts: None.

SLACK Enterprise Grid Licenses Control Number T AC-19-56486

10. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.