GS-35F-451DA-007.pdf

Media Asset Management System (MAM) Control Number TAC-20-56176 Support

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 firm fixed price (FFP) Order to be issued sole source under the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) GS-35F-451DA with Dalet Digital Media Systems USA, Inc. (Dalet) for continued maintenance support of VA-owned Dalet brand Media Asset Management (MAM) system.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA Office of Information Technology, Employee Education System (EES) requires continued support of its enterprise federated Dalet MAM system. The system(s) are located in Crystal City, VA; St. Louis, MO; and Salt Lake City, UT. The MAM system orchestrates VA media data on an enterprise level. It exports data from the existing Avid solution database, media files and its associated metadata, tracks media data within Avid and archive storage, and transcribes workflows to be compatible with VA systems. All MAM system must integrate with various legacy third party systems on an Application Programming Interface (API) level (e.g. Avid, Grass Valley, Sundance, ScheduAll, ProTrack). The support shall be on a 24/7/365-day basis and include installation/deployment of all patches, fixes, and workarounds. The period of performance shall be for 12 months from November 28, 2019 through November 27, 2020 with three 12-month option periods for continued support.

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) Part 8.405-6(b), “Items peculiar to one manufacturer. An item peculiar to one manufacturer can be a particular brand name, product, or a feature of a product, peculiar to one manufacturer). A brand name item, whether available on one or more schedule contracts, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification it was determined that Dalet is the only source that can provide brand name MAM system maintenance support. The VA MAM system is based on existing Dalet software and VA requires support compatible with the existing software source code for continued operational availability. Only Dalet can provide the necessary support, updates, and patches due to the proprietary nature of the source code required to develop and implement software updates. No other source can provide the required system support to meets VA’s functional requirements.

Furthermore, to procure another MAM system would require a complete overhaul of the existing Dalet system. Based on Government historical data this would require a duplicated cost of $1.8M and effort of about two years, which would not be recovered through competition.

Finally, if the Dalet MAM system were to go offline VA would no longer have an enterprise solution to manage and orchestrate its media data. VA would be unable to access media files for enterprise editing and would be required to procure additional support services, resulting in increased and duplicated costs. The MAM system also supports the Veterans News Network (VNN) which is an educational/informational video channel delivered to all VA medical centers and outpatient clinics. The VNN supports the Mission Act in providing Veteran education requirements, if the Dalet MAM system were to go offline, therewould be disruption of these services to VA clinics and Veterans.

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 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page (FBO) and the 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. It is anticipated that the MAM system support will be needed until at least Fiscal Year 2023. VA is beginning its market research to implement a MAM 2.0 system. .

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted by Government technical representatives as recent as April 2019 to determine whether similar providers other than Dalet could provide the required MAM system maintenance support. Specifically, the EES MAM team conducts continuous MAM research by attending media business trade shows and conventions such as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), which is considered one of the largest in the country. Similar providers researched included Avid, MassTech, and Adobe. Based on the research described above, it was found that due to the proprietary source code restrictions, only brand name Dalet system maintenance support can meet the Government’s requirements. Furthermore, during October 2019, Government representatives directly contacted Dalet to confirm that its source code is proprietary. On October 22, 2019, Dalet confirmed that its source code is proprietary and not resold to any other entities. Furthermore, on October 23, 2019, Dalet confirmed that the maintenance support requirements are not available through its authorized resellers. Therefore, Dalet is the only authorized source that can provide the VA requirements.

9. Other Facts: None.

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 proposed action will represent the best value to the Government consistent with FAR 8404(d).

GSA has already determined that prices on the FSS contracts are fair and reasonable.

Additionally, price discounts will be sought. Finally, the quotation will be compared to the Independent Government cost Estimate.

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. As this contract action exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold, but does not exceed $700,000, the certification required by FAR 8.405-6(d)(1) serves as approval.