JA OPEN TEXT REDACT_Redacted.pdf

Brand Name Open Text Trusted Link Enterprise (TLE) VA-24-00052266 Professional-Windows Software Maintenance and Technical Support Services

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: The proposed action is for a Firm-Fixed-Price delivery order, issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V, Government-wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), to procure brand name Open Text TLE Professional-Windows Software Maintenance and Technical Support Services.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA Financial Services Center (FSC) requires renewal of brand name Open Text Trusted Link Enterprise (TLE) Professional-Windows Software Maintenance and Technical Support Services for its existing software perpetual licenses. Maintenance and support services are required to ensure the software functions as intended. Maintenance shall include 24 hours per day, seven days per week telephone and live chat support, email support, access to OpenText TLE community forums, knowledge bases, technical and product news, software updates/upgrades, patches, coverage for bug fixes, new releases, enhancements and new product upgrades. The period of performance shall be a 12-month base, with two 12-month option periods. The total estimated value of the inclusive of the option periods.

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 paragraph 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 only of brand name Open Text TLE Professional-Windows Software Maintenance and Technical Support Services detailed above is capable of supporting and continuing the software maintenance of the VA and that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers. Since the fielding the current brand name OpenText software, VA requires continued software maintenance and technical support with the existing OpenText TLE software. Maintenance and technical support are required to maintain compatibility with existing IT infrastructure within the VA-FSC’s environment. The software maintenance updates, upgrades, and enhancements must seamlessly interoperate with the existing licenses and requires access to OpenText software proprietary code. Any source that provides these services must have access to Open Text's proprietary code to ensure all provided services are properly configured. Due to the proprietary constraints, the use of OpenText software maintenance and technical support is required to ensure the software functions as intended. Without this source code, a non-OpenText provider would not have access to proprietary code which is necessary to provide the software, push patches and updates for deployed software, configure the software, and ensure the OpenText software is properly configured and operational. In addition, another vendor’s developed software would not seamlessly integrate and cause interoperability issues, system breakage and service interruptions.

Additionally, Invoice Payment Processing System (IPPS) systems are built with plug-ins from the OpenText software. The continued maintenance of this software provides the FSC with the ability resolve system issues, support community care claims, process invoices and prompt payments. Without an interoperable solution, the FSC invoice processing time would increase and payments would be delayed, which would negatively impacting the Veterans ability to receive care in the community. Furthermore, another solution would cause the removal of the existing software and licenses. VA would incur duplicative costs and schedule constraints, which would far exceed the value of this proposed action. VA SMEs estimate it would take between one and two years to switch to another product, taking countless manhours tallying an estimated $3 million per year as an entire new project team would need to be onboard for the project.

As such, only OpenText, can maintain the current functionality and provide necessary support to the existing IT infrastructure.

Due to the nature of the software code and OpenText software interoperabilty, no other software provider has the ability to develop patches and updates to the software products. No other software manufacturer can provide patches and updates to OpenText TLE license. Furthermore, since the TLE software is proprietary to the Open Text, no other vendor can provide technical services support, such as phone, email, and on-line support. Only Open Text brand name software maintenance support can meet the Government's requirements. Therefore, only OpenText or an authorized reseller have access to its proprietary source code and is capable of providing the required software maintenance and technical support.

Additionally, failure to procure the requirements, as described above impedes VA’s ability to continuously deliver interoperable, compatible, and functionality within VA - FSC’s environment. Without the OpenText maintenance there would be a direct impact on the prompt payment of community care claims and invoices processed through the Invoice Payment Processing System IPPS. IPPS systems are built with plug ins from the OpenText software and if there was an issue with these systems and no maintenance, the FSC would not have the means to fix the software. This would cause the Veterans to not receive care in the community due to VA invoices to not be processed resulting in vendors not being paid promptly. Veteran-serving projects would be hindered. Therefore, these services must be provided by Open Text or its authorized resellers.

For another vendor to provide the required maintenance support for this requirement, VA would need to replace the underlying licenses and software in use. As noted in Section 8 of this document, there is no other alternative solution can meet all of VA’s requirements. However, even if there were such a source or solution that could meet this requirement, there would be multiple duplicative costs and schedule constraints that would render it infeasible for use. These duplicative and unnecessary cost would not be able to be recouped and would far exceed the value of this proposed action. As such, only OpenText, can maintain current functionality and provide necessary support.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are 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 authorized resellers of the required brand name OpenText software maintenance and technical support. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301, FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D) and FAR (16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A), the award notice for this action will be synopsized and the justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award on Contracting Opportunities website.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for the requirements described herein, the Government’s technical experts 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: In February 2024, VA’s technical experts conducted market research by reviewing similar software maintenance and technical support services from multiple Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), including Savvion Business Process Management Suite, QPR ProcessAnalyzer, Microsoft, and BPM online services.

Although Savvion Business Process Management Suite, QPR ProcessAnalyzer, Microsoft, and BPM online services offers similar software maintenance and technical support services, none of these OEM are capable of meeting VA’s requirements, as outlined in Section 5 of this justification. Due to the proprietary source code, no other vendor has access to OpenText’s proprietary source code required to maintain IO’s existing OpenText deployed infrastructure. The VA’s technical expert identified OpenText authorized resellers via NASA SEWP. Therefore, at present, there is no other brand or solution available in the marketplace that can meet this requirement.

Based on the above market research efforts, the VA’s technical experts have determined that only brand name Open Text TLE Professional-Windows Software Maintenance and Technical Support Services can meet the VA’s requirements.

Additionally, the Contract Specialist (CS) conducted market research in May 2024 using NASA SEWP V GWAC market research tools to determine what vendors are capable of providing the full requirement. Based on this research, the CS identified 17 OpenText Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) resellers able to provide the required brand name services to meet the VA’s needs for this effort. As a result, limited competition is anticipated.

9. Other Facts: None