Attachment A 36C10B25Q0551_LSJ_Vocera Recompete_Redacted.pdf

Vocera Communications System Service and Maintenance VA-26-00066635

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

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 to be issued under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program and will be awarded under the General Service Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS), for the renewal of brand name Vocera licenses and the related software maintenance, technical support and integration for James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital (JAHVAH).

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Veterans Health Administration, (VHA) JAHVAH, has a requirement for brand name Vocera licenses and the related software maintenance, technical support and integration for JAHVAH. JAHVAH currently utilizes the brand name Vocera Communication System for instant, wireless voice communication.

JAHVAH currently has Vocera Enterprise Licenses for 700 concurrent users and requires Vocera Premier Software Maintenance and Support and Premier Plus Support for existing Vocera Communications Systems to keep all systems functional, perform upgrades as needed as well as provide patches to prevent outages which may risk patient safety. The underlying Vocera Communication Systems is currently installed and operational at JAHVAH and works with the existing VA infrastructure. JAHVAH needs to keep all systems operational.

VA requires a solution that uses wearable, wireless, hands-free, voice activated communication badges which provide critical functionality necessary for the improvement of medical staff services to Veterans. VA requires an interoperable and compatible communications system that works with VA’s existing infrastructure.

The support portion of the Vocera Premier Software Maintenance and Support includes standard phone & email support during business hours and Emergency 24 x 7 x 365 phone technical assistance for severe issues, software hotfixes and releases, annual system health reporting and online training. Vocera Premier Plus Support includes an on-site Vocera System Administrator, maintenance of Vocera databases and call flows, management of Vocera badges and ancillary equipment, system health analysis every 6 months, deployment optimization, end user training, issue escalation and management, end user report management, and increased end user satisfaction by utilization of formal feedback methods. Higher level support is required to ensure high availability of Just-in-time communication for safe and timely delivery of patient care for our Veterans. The maintenance portion must include establishing, updating and maintaining processes for submitting data and device changes to Vocera database. The maintenance and support shall also apply service packs and hot fixes, as needed.

In addition, there are three optional tasks for the integration of two new wards and immediate/urgent (Stat/Now) laboratory (Lab) Order notification in the base period.

The Period of Performance (PoP) shall be from October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026 with two, 12-month option periods and 3 Optional Tasks. The total estimated value of the proposed action is inclusive of all options.

4. Authority: This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple-Award Schedule Program. The specific authority providing for a limited source award is Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 8.405-6(b), “Items peculiar to one manufacturer. An item peculiar to one manufacturer can be a particular brand name, product, or a feature of a product, peculiar to one manufacturer. A brand name item, whether available on one or more schedule contracts, is an item peculiar to one manufacturer.”

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 viable among resellers of Vocera products and services. The Vocera communications system is currently installed and operational at JAHVAH which includes the Main Campus of the JAHVAH and its associated clinics. JAHVAH currently has two wards under construction that are scheduled to open February 2026. These two new wards will require the use of existing Vocera Premier Software Maintenance and Support licenses to maintain the standard of care that the rest of the existing wards currently have in place and will be included in the resulting order as optional tasks. Vocera software is a proprietary product. Therefore, only Vocera or its resellers can provide maintenance and support on its software product. The proprietary code is required to ensure all Vocera software updates and patches are properly pushed through the fielded software and to ensure the software is properly configured. Access to this code is also required to ensure all services provided on the Vocera software are properly configured. Only Vocera and its authorized resellers can provide the associated support services for Vocera Premier Software Maintenance and Support and Premier Plus Support for the Vocera Communication System solution as both require access to required proprietary code and technical data.

Only Vocera or an authorized reseller are able to provide the required professional services to install, test, and integrate the hands-free badges with existing infrastructure. Specifically, Vocera is the only manufacturer of Hands-free Communication Devices (HCD) for health care workers that offers voice activation. The HCD that Vocera currently provides are wearable, wireless, hands-free, voice activated communication badges which provide critical functionality necessary for the improvement of medical staff services to Veterans. Only the Vocera communication badge offers wireless voice activation, a feature which is unique to Vocera, and a critical functionality for the JAHVAH staff. The required hands-free badges will utilize the already implemented 700 Vocera software licenses which are required to allow the communication badges to continue to communicate with Vocera servers. The use of any other brand would require a complete replacement of the existing Vocera Communication System due to the proprietary nature of Vocera’s infrastructure. In addition to the loss of critical functionality in the form of wireless voice activation provided by Vocera, the use of any other brand communication badge would also require a complete replacement of the infrastructure network. Replacing the entire Vocera Communication System would require JAHVAH to replace all hospital badges, buy cell phones for all staff, train the entire staff on how to use cell phones for patience care. In addition, JAHVAH would lose critical patient safety features that have been integrated with the Vocera communication system such as bed exit alarms, immediate/urgent medication order notifications and patient nurse call functionalities. This would require duplicative costs estimated to be $2 million dollars and would take approximately two years to implement. These estimates are based on previous procurement history and these costs would not be recovered through competition. Only Vocera or its resellers can provide the required software licenses, professional services support, server maintenance and upgrades for their software to meet the VA’s needs since Vocera software and licenses are proprietary.

Failure to continue software maintenance and technical support for brand name Vocera Communication System software licenses, server maintenance, and Premier Plus Support Services, will impact JAHVAH’s Vocera Communication System, which will continue to degrade until it is virtually unusable. JAHVAH would continue to face difficulties in its ability to maintain acceptable levels of communication and patient care and vital patient information would be further compromised due to human error and delays. Additionally, the lack of a wearable, hands-free, and voice activated communication badges would increase risk of contamination within the hospital and response times to medical emergencies such as cardiopulmonary arrest, inclement weather, bomb threats, or active shooter scenarios will be delayed causing unnecessary loss of life.

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 could meet the government’s requirements. However, the undersigned technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for software maintenance and technical support for brand name Vocera Communication System software licenses, server maintenance, and Premier Plus Support Services and integration. In accordance with FAR 8.405- 6(a)(2) this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(b)(3) this justification will be posted with the Request For Quotation.

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: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research in March 2025. Strategies included review of industry websites for Cisco and Voalte Platform. These similar vendors do not provide hands free voice activated communication services and do not integrate with JAHVAH’s existing infrastructure. Additionally, Cisco and Voalte Platform’s products do not provide hands-free devices for health care workers that are voice activated.

Only Vocera, or an authorized reseller, can provide maintenance and support of their licenses since Vocera uses proprietary source code and proprietary data required to perform the services.

Accordingly, CISCO and Voalte Platform cannot provide required maintenance and support.

The Contract Specialist conducted additional market research in July 2025. A search of Vocera Communications on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) Market Research Tool came back with zero results. A search of Stryker, Vocera’s parent company resulted by identifying 6 contract holders that are resellers of brand name Vocera products and support by utilizing the NASA SEWP GWAC Market Research Tool. Of these 6 resellers, 4 are SDVOSBs, and 2 are Woman-Owned Small Business. Furthermore, NASA SEWP has a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests provided that the required item or service is within the scope of the NASA SEWP V contract suite and therefore additional competition may be achieved.

Vocera Communications’ parent company is Stryker Corporation. It was confirmed with Stryker Corporation that they work with two Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) resellers in a distributor relationship for Federal Government facilities. One of the SDVOSB resellers is a contract holder on both NASA SEWP and GSA and the other SDVOSB is a contract holder only on GSA Schedules. Therefore, a Request for Quotation (RFQ) will be released as a SDVOSB set-aside under GSA FSS/MAS Category 511210 “Software Licenses.”

9. Other Facts: None.