C01 - JA ASG Rocket FINAL - REDACTED.pdf

Rocket Software Licensing, Maintenance, and Support Control Number VA-26-00000143

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 to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Rocket software licenses, maintenance, and support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Infrastructure Operations (IO), Mainframe Operations has a requirement for Rocket software licenses, maintenance, and support for brand name Rocket software. Rocket licensing is based off a Million Instruction per Second (MIPs) levels, and the required MIPs level will be at, or equal to, what is already in place at the VA. Rocket software consists of a suite of interoperable software products such as JobScan and EOS360.

These software products work together to enhance overall efficiency and quality in a mainframe environment. The JobScan software license renewals are necessary for IO to continue successful operation of the existing Rocket software which supports multiple existing IO systems and applications. IO’s existing infrastructure, consists of various brands of hardware (i.e., mainframes, servers, tape storage systems) along with ancillary software that provides a compatible and interactive Backup Operations (BO) environment capable of meeting all service and security levels. IO currently has a subscription for and utilizes Rocket software to interact with the hardware infrastructure and act as an enterprise class backup system that is essential to the interoperability of BO. IO requires a dynamic payroll/reporting tool, which will assist with disbursing payments to vendors and VA employees, and track accounting history throughout VA as well as provide activity-based cost accounting data for analysis. Software maintenance support is necessary in order for the VA to receive software upgrades, updates, access to relevant product documentation, access codes, and remedial software patches to assure functionality of the previously purchased Rocket software in the VA IO environment. The maintenance is required to ensure the Rocket software remains operational. This proposed action is for expansion and renewal of maintenance services. EOS360 is the expansion portion of this requirement. IO requires an interoperable, comprehensive output management software solution which integrates with mainframe environments to enable efficient business workflows and improve IO’s output management system. The Contractor shall also provide onsite training which will take place during the base period of performance.

The period of performance shall be one, 12-month base period from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026, plus two, 12-month option periods. The total estimated price of the proposed action, inclusive of all options, is $2,508,494.25.

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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 document, the Government has determined limited competition is available for this action among resellers for the required brand name Rocket software, maintenance, and support. The current IO infrastructure is based on existing Rocket software, and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. No other source is capable of providing the required software maintenance and support as only Rocket or its authorized resellers have access to the proprietary source code necessary to provide the required software downloads of fixes, patches, updated versions, troubleshooting, and helpdesk support assistance.

Since the software is proprietary, a legal restriction is placed on access to the software code that is required in order to develop updates and patches to the software. Without this access it is impossible to modify the software code as necessary to provide the required patches and updates. Access to this code is also required to ensure the services provided to the software are properly configured. Failure to maintain the existing software will be detrimental to the operability of the existing infrastructure. If any other software was selected and utilized all backup data would need to be migrated off the Rocket software system. Since these tools were implemented, the system currently has amassed a large amount of data. Specifically, several terabytes of backup and report archive data. This data is required for legal and audit purposes and is required to be maintained for at least seven years. A new solution would require an extensive data migration and reformatting effort due to the age of the data. Acquisition of an alternate product, even if another one existed with qualifications that met VA’s stated functional needs, would require the VA to purchase new software licenses, retrain personnel, migrate data , and would require the upkeep of the original licensing until the migration is complete. The costs of such an effort is estimated to be $1,200,000.00 and would require timeframe of 24 months to transition to a new software product. These estimates are based on previous migration efforts of similar size and scope. This migration would also increase risk of data loss or corruption. This data is required for legal and audit purposes to the VA and any loss or corruption of this data would cause significant harm to VA’s audit ability.

No other license is compatible with or interoperable with the existing Rocket proprietary database structures, protocols, and software application programming interfaces.

Therefore, only Rocket or its approved resellers can provide the software maintenance that meets the Government's requirements.

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

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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.

8. Market Research: VA IO subject matter experts conducted market research in April 2025 by using internet based catalogs to review similar products such as Microsoft SQL and Vizient software. Microsoft SQL was found to manage and store information;

however, it does not support activity-based cost accounting data for analysis. Vizient software is for healthcare records and management, and cannot be used for accounting purposes. Both of these solutions are not compatible with or interoperable with the existing VA infrastructure.

Furthermore, the Government’s technical experts reviewed products from IBM and Computer Associates to determine whether any other sources can provide software maintenance and support on the existing Rocket system. Based on this review of similar brand name software, it was determined that no other source could provide software maintenance and support for the Rocket software as every other source, other than Rocket resellers, lacked access to the proprietary source code necessary to provide the required support. Only Rocket or its authorized resellers can provide the required software maintenance and support for the existing licenses

Additionally, in January 2025, further market research was conducted by using the Provider Look Up Tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website. The tool revealed multiple authorized resellers of Rocket software, maintenance, and support products.

Furthermore, this search found multiple verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) resellers. Therefore, based on the results of the market research, there is a reasonable expectation that ample competition exists among verified SDVOSB for this requirement. Based on the result of the market research efforts, and the technical experts’ findings, this acquisition will be solicited as a brand name total set-aside for an SDVOSB concern via the NASA SEWP V GWAC under Groups B, C, and D.

9. Other Facts: N/A

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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.

Jodi Dominie Date: ________________________________

Management/Program Analyst Signature: ____________________________

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this acquisition will be fair and reasonable due to: catalog pricing for SEWP V GWAC holders has already been determined by NASA to be fair and reasonable. Finally, price analysis shall be conducted by comparing the successful quotation with the Independent Government Cost Estimate and other quotes received.

John Vardouniotis Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

12. Contracting Officer Certification/Approval: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

John Vardouniotis Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

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Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of Rocket software licenses, maintenance, and support. on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the 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.

Jason Bullen Date Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Department of Veterans Affairs