36C10B19R0016-001.pdf

Control Number: TAC-19-54402

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 (TAC) 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price contract for management and consulting services to assist with the programmatic and administrative efforts of the VA, Office of Information & Technology (OI&T), Talent Management Office (TMO). Specifically, this justification is for the requirement that any source utilize the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Structural Equation Modeling software for completion of the Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey and the Net Promoter Score measurement surveys. Based on the below analysis only CFI Group, LLC. has access to ACSI and therefore are the only source that can meet the brand name requirement.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, OI&T has a requirement for management and consulting services for the measurement of Customer Satisfaction Metrics. The required services include functions such as measurement of customer satisfaction, customer site visits and engagement, customer service improvement activities, analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, communication, data analytics, research, and reporting. The brand name portion of this requirement is the use of the ACSI Structural Equation Modeling software. ACSI Structural Equation Modeling software is required for completion of the Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey and the Net Promoter Score measurement surveys. The data from these surveys are utilized for the overall measurement of Customer Satisfaction Metrics. The ACSI measures customer satisfaction with over 100 services, programs, and websites of federal government agencies. ACSI is used for government entities to track user satisfaction with the quality of their services over time and compare these results to other organizations in both the private and public spheres. Net Promoter Score measurement surveys are sent to randomly selected VA employees each month and is a measurement of customer experience and predicts business growth. The period of performance shall be 12 months from date of award with four, 12-month option periods. VA requires this PoP due to the nature of the data that VA knows it will need to rely on for approximately 5 years. VA conducts its analysis on data from the past 5 years. The total estimated price of the brand name portion is and the total estimated price of the proposed action is , inclusive of the option periods.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an expectation to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C.3304(a)(1) as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 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: - Based on market research, described in paragraph 8 of this document, it has been determined that limited

Customer Service Improvement Program Control Number: TAC-19-54402 competition is available for this procurement. No other brand name software, other than ASCI, can meet VA’s needs. On January 29, 2019, ACSI, LLC provided confirmation that the only company who is licensed to provide the ACSI proprietary software and use the software is CFI Group, LLC. Therefore, VA requires any source to use CFI as a subcontractor for completion of the Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey and the Net Promoter Score measurement surveys. No other source can complete these two areas without having access to the ASCI software, which only CFI has. Using a cause and effect methodology, ASCI Structural Equation Modeling platform measures and analyzes customer satisfaction. ACSI has measured more than 100 programs of Federal Government agencies since 1999. This allows benchmarking between the public and private sectors and provides information unique to each agency on how its activities affect the satisfaction of customers. Since 2010, OI&T has been using ACSI Structural Equation Modeling platform to measure VA’s OI&T customer satisfaction at the enterprise level as well as at the facility level and compare it against other Government and non-Government organizations. To understand the effect of OI&T’s CSI programs, TMO needs to have a measurement, or score, at the beginning point as well as an ending point. VA has accumulated a large amount of longitudinal data (scores) that is needed for comparison purposes for future survey results and to provide a basis for all future statistical and analytical efforts. This allows OI&T to track customer satisfaction with the quality of services over time.

Switching to a new platform other than ACSI, would result in the loss of the beginning measurement point (score) and the ability to determine if actions that have been taken to improve customer services are successful or not. Decisions on which areas to focus on for improvement are based on the data provided from the Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey and Net Promotor Score Measurement. Switching to a new platform would in effect, erase all the customer satisfaction data from its decision-making pool, adversely effecting future CSI decisions.

ACSI Structural Equation Modeling software is a proprietary methodology and therefore cannot be replicated. Using another brand name software, would calculate a different methodology to trend future data which would not be possible or compatible with current customer satisfaction data. If a new platform methodology is utilized to obtain future data elements, and that data is compared to the historical data, the data will become mathematically imprecise because the survey results will be evaluated differently because of how the new platform methodology weights and calculates the results, ultimately compromising all data or results obtained to date since it is based on ACSI scores. No two software products evaluate and determine results in the same manner. Specifically, VA operates on a 5-year data cycle in which it relies on existing data points for the Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey and the Net Promoter Score measurement surveys. Use of any other brand name software would result in having to re-do all the existing 5-year data points which is technically impossible due to the nature of data and survey results. Furthermore, re-doing all the previous survey and data points would result in extensive delivery delays of at least 5 years and duplicated costs of $2.5M that would not be recovered through competition. However, it is critical to note that these duplicated efforts are technically impossible to re-create. The brand name ACSI Structural Equation Modeling platform is the only platform that meets the Government’s requirements.

VA makes decisions based on the data that is generated under this proposed action.

If VA were to switch to a new methodology, VA, is in effect, erasing all the customer satisfaction data from its decision-making data pool. This will have an adverse effect on VA customer service improvement decisions for VA medical centers, benefit programs, and memorial services through which VA serves Veterans.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section in paragraph 8 below. Additional market research was conducted using web searches and telephonic interviews with ACSI to ascertain the identities of companies that were licensed to utilize the ACSI Structural Equation Modeling software. It was determined, however, that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for this brand name ASCI Structural Equation Modeling software. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) Page in accordance with FAR 5.201, and this justification along with the solicitation will be made publicly available in accordance with FAR 6.302-1(c)(1)(ii)(C). Any proposals that are received shall 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: VA reviewed similar brand name software in January 2019 to ascertain whether any other source can meet VA’s needs. Specifically, VA reviewed similar software from Net Promoter Score (SatMetrix), SERVQUAL, and Corporate Executive Board. After reviewing these brand name products, none of them could meet VA’s needs as outlined in Section 5 of this justification, specifically, none are capable of providing benchmarks that would allow VA to tie in historical longitudinal data from prior ACSI Structural Equation Modeling platform surveys to compare customer satisfaction scores to similar federal agencies and private sector companies, as required for this effort. ACSI Structural Equation Modeling software is a proprietary platform of ACSI. Using another platform to trend future data would not be possible or compatible with current customer satisfaction data.

Furthermore, VA conducted additional market research. The Technology Acquisition Center issued a Request for Information (RFI) on January 22, 2019 via FBO to ascertain if there were any other sources that could meet the Government’s requirements. Responses were received from 14 sources. Of the 14 responses received, 10 sources ultimately indicated teaming with CFI Group, LLC, and utilizing ASCI methodologies. Therefore, based on the results of market research, there is reasonable expectation that limited competition exists.

The remaining four sources proposed alternative methodologies. On March 7, 2019 the Contract Specialist contacted the four vendors that did not indicate teaming with CFI Group or provided no discussion of ACSI methodology utilization for clarification on their capability to meet VAs needs. These sources were ath Power Consulting Corporation (aPC), Forrester Research, and Dimensional Concepts, LLC (DCL), and BNL Inc. DCL never responded to VA and therefore did not demonstrate any way to meet VA’s needs. aPC’s solution does not meet VA’s needs as outlined in Section 5 of this Justification, specifically, the methodology proposed by aPC states that their result will only approximate the ACSI calculation, which is not acceptable to the Government. In addition, ACSI includes structural equation models that are proprietary to calculate the drivers, which is not addressed by aPC. Forrester Research’s solution does not meet VA’s needs as outlined in Section 5 of this Justification, specifically, Forrester states that the platform they propose augment the usage of data by answering the “why” question and the “how” question.

However, the Government is already using the ACSI system to answer these questions. Hence, changing the current methodology to the one proposed by Forrester does interrupt the longitudinal integrity of the data without providing the Government any additional benefits. Finally, BNL Inc.’s solution does not meet VA’s needs as outlined in Section 5 of this Justification, specifically, BNL states that they assumed an existing direct relationship between the Government and ACSI for the use of ACSI tools and methods. However, the Government does not have any such relationship with ACSI and requires that the contractor provide the ACSI tools and methods through this contract. On March 13, 2019, VA contacted aPC, DCL and BNL and advised them of the Government’s assessment that they could not meet VA’s needs with their alternative software and methodology. No objections have been received.

9. Other Facts: None