JA_AAMS_to_iFAMS_Integration.pdf

Automated Acquisition Management System to Control Number: TAC-19-53096 Integrated Financial And Acquisition Management System Integration

LIMITED SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

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: The proposed action is for a non-competitive firm-fixed price (FFP) Task Order (TO) to be issued under the General Service Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) Information Technology (IT) 70 Contract Number 47QTCA18D0095, with Distributed Solutions, Inc. (DSI), 12350 Pinecrest Road,Reston, VA 20191 for the deployment of an interface between VA’s Electronic Contract Management System (eCMS) and VA’s Integrated Financial and Acquisition Management System (iFAMS).

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The VA, Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction currently utilizes the Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) eCMS software component, Automated Acquisition Management System (AAMS), for contract document generations, milestone tracking, contract file management, and interfacing to the federally mandated E-Gov Integrated Acquisition Environment. The AAMS interface supports the posting of announcements, solicitations, and awards via the Federal Business Opportunities Page website, reporting of procurement obligations to the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS), receipt of vendor information from companies registered in the Central Contractor Registration System, and issuance of solicitations through GSA’s eBuy Connect system. The proposed action shall provide project management, requirements capture, business analysis, design, development, testing, and deployment of enhancements to AAMS and Cross Program Interface (XPI) that results in an interface between AAMS, the core COTS component of eCMS, and iFAMS (Momentum) to support the implementation of the financial portion of iFAMS.

With the introduction of iFAMS, VA’s Office of Management, which is responsible for the accounting system, estimates that VA will begin replacing IFCAP and Financial Management System (FMS) in fiscal year 2019. VA’s Senior Procurement Executive stated that when this change occurs VA would likely obtain a new interoperable contract system to replace eCMS. eCMS is not linked to VA’s accounting system, requiring duplicate effort and increasing the risk of errors, a known problem that VA has been struggling to address. This situation causes duplicative work for contracting officers since data must be entered separately into both systems, thus increasing the risk that differences between the data might occur. This integration effort between AAMS and iFAMS will allow for the creation of a purchase request (PR) within iFAMS, which will then be replicated within eCMS with the capability to return or cancel the PR, receive and send information regarding contract line items/sub-line items, receive and send financial information, and the ability to obligate and de-obligate funds on an award or modification. It also includes required system/error messaging capabilities and syncing of managed reference data shared between the two systems. The period of performance for this action is nine (9) months.

4. Statutory Authority: This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple- Award Schedule Program. The specific authority providing for a limited source award is Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), “Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized”.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on extensive market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification, it was determined that competition is not viable, as DSI is the developer and sole licensor of AAMS software. DSI is the only source with the capability of modifying the source code for the AAMS application. DSI possesses the expertise and proprietary data necessary for integration with iFAMS. In addition, DSI is the only vendor to have access to the proprietary data required for success of the integration. DSI is unwilling to sell the proprietary information to the Government at this time. Other vendors do not have access to DSI’s proprietary information, therefore, any vendor besides DSI would be unable to complete proper integration, timely implementation, and a cost effective solution. DSI possesses the specialized experience specific to AAMS, eCMS, and VA acquisitions, all of which is necessary to provide the critical integration services in a seamless and timely manner. Failure to implement the interim interface would reduce the efficacy of the new financial implementation while possibly introducing new inefficiencies, reporting errors, poor management visibility and control over spending.

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. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. In accordance with FAR Part 8.405-6(a)(2) and FAR Part 5.301, a copy of this Limited-Sources Justification will be posted, along with a synopsis of the resulting contract, to the Federal Business Opportunities website within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: No barriers to future competition are anticipated.

This one-time contract action will allow DSI to satisfy VA’s need for iFAMS intetegration support services

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts performed extensive market research by searching on the GSA e-Library and other commercial internet sites to identify sources other than DSI that can provide software to meet VA’s aforementioned requirements. The vendors that were researched were DSI, Centeva, CACI, eRPI, Engility, and B3 LLC. As a result, the technical experts confirmed that all of the vendors researched, except DSI, were unable to meet VA’s requirements as outlined in Section 5 of this justification.

Further Market Research was conducted on October 31, 2018 by posting Request for Information (RFI) 36C10B19Q0062 to the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) Page which provided a draft PWS describing the required AAMS to iFAMS (Momentum) Integration services and requested information describing the company’s knowledge, skills, and abilities, and subject matter expertise for the deployment of an interface between

AAMS, the core COTS component of eCMS, and iFAMS (Momentum) to support the implementation of the financial portion of iFAMS. Vendors were also requested to recommend any current contract vehicles under which their services would be available and if they could meet limitations of subcontracting and perform at least 50 percent of the services between themselves as prime and similar situated entities. The RFI closed on November 7, 2018 and yielded eight responses as follows: AgileRank (verified SDVOSB), Distributed Solutions, Inc (Small Business), Fairway Technologies, Inc. (Small Business), Liberty IT Solutions (verified SDVOSB), MDW Group, Inc. (Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB)), Sentz Consulting (Small Business), Sterling Heritage Corporation (SDVOSB), Trilogy Federal (verified SDVOSB); however, DSI is the sole provider of the required services.

Government technical experts completed a thorough technical analysis of the RFI responses, which was submitted on November 9, 2018. As a result of the analysis, which was based on the capability statements provided by the vendors, the Government determined that one vendor, DSI, was deemed capable of meeting the integration of the AAMS to iFAMS requirement. DSI is the only source with the capability of modifying the source code for the AAMS application. The Government technical experts determined that AgileRank LLC, Fairway Technologies, Inc., Liberty IT Solutions, Sentz Consulting, Trilogy Federal, and Sterling Heritage Corporation all provided valid responses, however, access to the proprietary code is required to accomplish these requirements and none of these respondents have access to DSI’s proprietary source code. The Government technical experts also reviewed the response from MDW Group, Inc and determined that MDW Group, Inc does not provide adequate information to properly perform a technical analysis and as with the other respondents MDW Group does not have access to the propriretary source code.

The seven respondents were contacted on November 29, 2018 and advised of VA’s assessment that it could not meet VA’s needs. No objections were received. Based on the above, only DSI has the capability to provide the required integration services in order to meet all of the Government’s requirements.

9. Other Facts: Tthe Government contacted DSI and received confirmation from DSI verifying that DSI is the sole source ownership of the DSI AEON and AAMS products and no resellers of DSI products are authorized to perform the required integration services.