NNG15SD21B-071.pdf

Control Number: TAC-20-57466

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 task order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Micro Focus Static Analyzer (Micro Focus SCA) software maintenance and rule pack updates.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The VA, Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Office of Software Assurance (SWA), requires continued software maintenance and rule pack updates support for brand name Micro Focus SCA for perpetual software licenses currently in use throughout the VA Enterprise.

Micro Focus SCA software maintenance is required for the continuous operation of Static Analysis. This software has been in use at VA SWA for seven years and it supports the VA OIT Certification Program Office assessment and authorization activity. The software maintenance shall consist of software version updates, and rule pack updates, on a quarterly basis. The software maintenance support is necessary to ensure the software remains fully functional and operational allowing the applications to operate successfully. The Contractor shall provide one telephone number and/or a point of contact for VA to contact and open-up maintenance service calls. In addition, the Contractor shall provide secure connection capabilities for the downloading of software updates and/or the uploading of diagnostic information. The period of performance (PoP) for this effort shall be 12 months, with one 12-month option period, if exercised. VA anticipates utilizing the Micro Focus SCA software that requires maintenance for perpetual licenses for at least two years; therefore, requiring this PoP length.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

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 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."

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available among resellers for the Micro Focus SCA software maintenance support.

The current SWA static analysis process is based on existing Micro Focus SCA software, and VA requires maintenance and support for a total of 4080 Micro Focus SCA licenses compatible with the existing software protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. Micro Focus SCA software is a proprietary

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software; therefore, no other software maintenance provider has the proprietary code required to perform the necessary maintenance support. Micro Focus owns the proprietary rights to the software. Based on the market research, only Micro Focus, through its resellers, can provide the necessary software maintenance support because of the propriety source code required to develop and implement software updates. Without access to the proprietary source code, existing proprietary database structures, protocols, software application programming interfaces, and software updates cannot be installed. This would result in the VA software development teams functioning with an outdated and unsupportable software version. Operating with outdated and unsupportable software will result in providing less functionality to the end users utilizing the source code static analysis tool. Specifically, it will adversely affect VA’s ability to issue authorizations to operate. Brand name Micro Focus SCA static analyzer tool software maintenance is the only software maintenance that meets the Government's requirements.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are provided 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 technical representative determined that limited competition is available among resellers for brand name Micro Focus SCA static analyzer tool software maintenance support. In accordance with (IAW) FAR 5.301 and FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), this action will be synopsized, and the justification will be made available within 14 days of award on the Contract Opportunities page. Additionally, IAW FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), the justification will be posted with the request for quotation on the NASA SEWP V GWAC.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: VA technical experts conducted market research by reviewing other similar source code static analyzer tool software maintenance providers. This market research was an ongoing process starting in April 2019 and continuously conducted through August 2019. The subject matter experts (SMEs) found other similar software and software maintenance from the following manufactures: Code DX, IBM Security AppScan, Klocwork, and Checkmarx software companies. The SME’s determined that none of these Original Equipment Manufacturers can meet the Government’s requirements as outlined in Section 5 of this justification due to the need to access the source code, and other proprietary data of the Micro Focus SCA software to perform the maintenance support. Only Micro Focus, through its resellers, can provide the necessary software maintenance support because of the propriety source code required to develop and implement software updates.

Furthermore, VA SME’s regularly review industry trade publications and conduct internet research to ascertain if any other brand name software maintenance is available. Based on all these market research efforts, the Government’s SME’s have determined that only brand name Micro Focus SCA can meet all of VA’s needs.

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Additionally, market research was conducted by the Contract Specialist in November 2019 utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup Tool to determine whether the required brand name Micro Focus SCA software maintenance was available from current GWAC holders. The results of the search found numerous GWAC holders which are Micro Focus resellers that could possibly meet VA’s needs, including several Service-Disabled Veteran- Owned Small Business resellers. This requirement has been found to be within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC in a separate determination. Therefore, there is reasonable expectation that limited competition exists on the NASA SEWP V GWAC for the Micro Focus SCA software maintenance support.

9. Other Facts: None