36C10B20Q0105-005.pdf

TeamMate Software Licenses and Maintenance Control Number: VA-20-0000842

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Procurement Acquisition and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center

23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for the issuance of a firm fixed price contract for TeamMate Audit Management (TeamMate+) and TeamMate Analytics Software licenses, maintenance, migration of data and training.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Financial Services Center (FSC) has a requirement for brand name TeamMate+software to support VA’s efforts to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-123, and other financial reporting compliance standards. In addition to these requirements, VA FSC’s audit workload has increased as a result of the Veterans Access to Care Act of 2014. The VA currently utilizes TeamMate AM which is configured and operational in the VA environment. This action will procure the upgrade and migration of the TeamMate AM license to the most current and supported TeamMate version (TeamMate+). This proposed action includes the migration of 50 Licenses of TeamMate AM to TeamMate+, 50 Licenses of TeamMate Analytics. This procurement will enable FSC to continue and expand upon its auditing capabilities and reporting, as well as aid in compliance management activities where financial transaction identification, evaluation, testing, and certification reporting are required. The period of performance will consist of a one-year base period, and four, one-year optional periods. The total estimated price of the proposed action, inclusive of all options, is $378,258.00

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C.3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 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: The proposed source for this action is Wolters Kluwer Financial Services Inc., doing business as Wolters Kluwer, 100 South 5th Street, Suite 700, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55402. The auditing software must operate within the existing FSC hardware and software infrastructure previously established upon existing TeamMate+ software. Use of another brand of auditing software would require VA to changes its current hardware and software infrastructure. Changing the FSC software infrastructure will require significant re-engineering effort and will result in disruption to existing operations, resulting in in duplication of costs that would not be recovered through competition. It is estimated that a re-engineering effort will result in a duplicative cost of $250,000 per year.

Only TeamMate software provides for full interoperability with the existing hardware infrastructure, database technologies, and integration with current management software. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Inc. is the developer and sole provider of the TeamMate brand of auditing software, and there are no authorized resellers or other providers. Additionally, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Inc. owns the proprietary software code, and has no plans to sell it or to allow any other contractor to access it as a reseller. Additionally, no other source possesses the proprietary data or source code necessary to provide maintenance of the TeamMate+ and TeamMate Analytics licenses. Access to this data/code is required to develop and push updates and upgrades to the software and access to the code is needed to ensure all services provided are properly configured. Use of a product other than Wolters Kluwer TeamMate+ and TeamMate Analytics software suite could result in server failures during patching procedures causing delays and hindrance of critical auditing activities, as well as introduce security risks due to incompatibility with the existing software. Such security risks could expose the sensitive audit information related to Veteran healthcare financial data currently stored in the TeamMate software suite to unauthorized parties.

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. However, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page in accordance with FAR

5.201. Any proposals received as a result of the synopsis shall be considered.

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

8. Market Research: FSC subject matter experts (SME) performed market research in May 2019 by conducting internet searches and reviewing the technical data for auditing software to include products from MKinsight, Intelex, and Metric Stream.

Based on the market research performed, FSC SMEs determined that no other product can meet the Government's interoperability and compatibility requirements with existing TeamMate software and infrastructure supporting FSC as discussed in paragraph five above, nor does any other source possess the proprietary data and source code necessary to maintain the existing or required TeamMate licenses.

Therefore, based on all of the market research efforts, the Government's SMEs have determined that only Wolters Kluwer TeamMate can meet all of FSC’s requirements for interoperability and compatibility with the existing FSC server hardware and software infrastructure.

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.

Rishon Gengezha Date: ___________________________

Chief, Internal Controls, Auditing and Risk Division (ICARD) Signature: _______________________

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 upon price analysis through comparison of proposed prices to historical prices paid for the same or similar items, and comparisons with prices obtained through market research for the same or similar software products, maintenance and training.

Juan Quinones Date: ___________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: _______________________

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 does not exceed $700,000, the certification below required by FAR 6.303-2(b)(12) serves as approval.

Juan Quinones Date: ___________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: _______________________