S03-JA ADOBE SUBSCRIPTIONS Redacted.pdf

Adobe Connect Subscriptions VA-24-00060390

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, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed brand name action is for the issuance of a new firm-fixed price (FFP) delivery order for brand name Adobe subscriptions under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC).

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The VA, Veterans Health Administration (VHA)

Institute for Learning, Education and Development (ILEAD), has a requirement for brand name Adobe Connect subscriptions. Specifically, VHA ILEAD requires 2,000 concurrent Adobe Connect subscriptions to access the Adobe Connects virtual cloud-based conferencing, meeting, and training online system via servers located outside of the VA firewall. This access shall be an uninterrupted, Internet-based synchronous classroom delivery vehicle that provides the VA a conduit for online meetings and training. With the cyclical reduction of face-to-face meetings and training, this VA ILEAD requirement will meet the department-wide effort to reduce travel, time away from the Veteran patient bedside, and on-demand learning needs. The Contractor shall maintain remote support functionality during the duration of the contract between the hours of 8AM-5 PM EST, excluding weekends and federal holidays for routine requests to provide for training/support needs for all capabilities, features, and functions of the solution. VA shall be able to have access to the subscriptions 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without regard of holidays or weekends. The period of performance shall be August 30, 2024, to August 29, 2025, with two 12-month option periods for renewal of the concurrent Adobe Connect Subscriptions. An Optional Task will also be included for up to an additional 200 users to mitigate the potential risk of running out of learning platform bandwidth. The total estimated value of the proposed action is $7,565,456.25 including all options and optional tasks.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 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 Subpart 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 extensive market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers of brand name Adobe Connect for the required subscriptions. VA requires Adobe Connect as an adjunct to VA Enterprise solutions due to the capabilities of the cloud-based solution that are not available in the VA enterprise solutions. Adobe Connect works with the enterprise solutions to provide full spectrum learning and communications platforms that operate inside and outside the VA firewall, that meets the minimum technical requirements of a single application allowing multiple simultaneous sessions and native, configurable up to HD video streaming capability These technical capabilities are critical to ILEAD’s unique mission. No other COTS product offers this collection of capabilities. Many VHA programs use Adobe Connect as their learning platform, relying on the robust learning environment native to Adobe Connect. This robust learning environment is the aggregation of characteristics widely available in communication platforms, such as video conferencing, voice conferencing and chat features, plus the capabilities essential for an effective learning environment such as smoothly embedded multi-media content, fully customizable and modular virtual learning desktop, polling, whiteboard, check-ins, breakouts and ability to concurrently manage multiple learning sessions. While some other COTS applications offer some of these capabilities, no other application meets all technical requirements. Award of a subsequent contract using Adobe Connect as the technical solution is the only possible way to avoid the requirement to migrate 10 years of content to an alternative hosting solution. There is no technical solution available other than continued use of Adobe Connect, that will forestall the requirement for VA to curate and preserve past content for future use, and to meet record maintenance requirements, which would constitute a substantial level of effort, outlined below. There would be a significant manpower requirement to migrate 10 years of saved content from the Adobe servers to VA media storage and curate that content into a useable library. If a file must be migrated from Adobe Servers to another storage solution, that migration must happen in real time, meaning a one-hour recording takes one hour to migrate, and unfortunately there is a loss of features when the recording migrates.

Specifically, files are “flattened” to MP4 format and lose permission settings, all hierarchical structure and content access permissions as well as interactive elements are lost when files are migrated. VA expects there will be unpredictable “holes” in content.

Adobe Connect recordings are engineered to meet the very specific technical footprint of the Adobe Connect server. Moving this content to VA media storage is possible but would require significant manual intervention and result in an unacceptable degradation in quality. There are currently 13,293 distinct meeting rooms preserved in Adobe with 2.4 billion kbs of data. If the content had to be moved, it would take a minimum of .33 hours to determine which content from each room is ripe to be preserved, then another .25 hours per saved file to curate the content, then 1:1 hour to migrate the saved file and another .25 hours per saved file by the AV production specialist who uploads the content to the server.

These few minutes per file become untenable when put in the context of the 10.s of thousands of files that have to be parsed. Additionally, VA would need to procure a file server infrastructure to host and make the content available. It cannot be stated how many hours of content would be migrated until after a room-by-room determination is computed.

That preliminary step alone would take approximately 2.1 FTE one year to complete.

(13293 rooms x .33 hours to review) x (2080 FTE hours in a year) = 2.1 FTE Considering the uniqueness of the aggregate Adobe Connect capabilities and the enormous cost in time to manage 10 years of content, no other solution is feasible currently. Due to the propriety nature of the Adobe Connect, only the software manufacturer or an authorized reseller can provide the subscriptions required.

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. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Adobe Subscriptions, training, and support. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(2), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all interested NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the notice of award of the resulting order will be synopsized on the SAM.gov Contract Opportunities website and this 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 marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: VA technical personnel conducted market research in October 2023 by researching websites for products comparable to Adobe Connect. Specifically, the Government's technical experts conducted web-based research on similar products available from Microsoft, CISCO and Omnex. Adobe Connect was the only system meeting minimum technical requirements of a single application allowing multiple simultaneous sessions and native, configurable up to HD video streaming capability. Based on reviews of these products, the Government’s technical experts determined that none of these products can meet the Government’s requirements. Review of these products is based on actual VA experience by subject matter and technical experts. Based on these market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts determined that only Adobe Connect brand name software can meet all of VA’s mission requirements.

Additional market research was performed in April 2024 utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup tool, which resulted in the identification of 24 SDVOSB resellers of the required Adobe Connect. As a result, there is a reasonable expectation for limited competition on the NASA SEWP V GWAC.

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.

Wayne Surratt Date: ________________________________

Program Manager Signature: ___________________________

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: 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 on NASA SEWP GWAC prices already being determined to be fair and reasonable. Additional price competition is expected among resellers for this action.

Steven Snodgrass 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.

Steven Snodgrass Date: ______________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: __________________

Office of General Counsel (OGC) Review

I have reviewed this document and find it legally sufficient, based on the representations set forth in the documents and, if any, attachments. The Contracting Officer’s approval is an independently supported decision not wholly reliant on the legal sufficiency determination.

Nicholas R. Pantages, Esq. LL.M. Date Office of General Counsel

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of brand name Adobe Connect, on another than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the statutory authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date: Signature:

Jason Bullen

Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics