Brand Name Justification - SAS - Final.pdf

BRAND NAME JUSTIFICATION

SAS Software Requirement

1. Title of Procurement:

Statistical Analysis System (SAS) Software Services

2. Program Office Point of Contact:

Requesting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (50D) 801 I St NW Washington, DC 20001

Procuring Office

Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (53P) 801 I St NW Washington, DC 20001

3. Nature of Procurement:

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has a requirement for Brand Name Statistical Analysis System (SAS) software licenses and maintenance services to support existing SAS software licenses.

VA OIG currently uses Base SAS 9.4 for Extract Transform Load (ETL) processes to load data to a Data Warehouse. VA OIG has SAS scripts to download source files from VA, create database tables from these source files, load the data into the data warehouse, and validate file loads. Currently, 60 Analysts use SAS to query the OIG Data Warehouse as well as other data sources across the VA. VA OIG uses many templated SAS procedures in routine operations for the Office of Investigations, Office of Audits and Evaluations’ Biostatistics Division, and the Office of Data and Analytics. VA OIG currently has two (2) SAS servers in production, which are used by personnel across the OIG to perform statistical, analytical, and visualizations to support OIG projects.

4. Cost:

The estimated cost for a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with a period of performance consisting of one (1) twelve (12) month Base Period with four (4) twelve (12) month Option Periods is: $1,307,515.60

5. Description of Services and Supplies:

The VAOIG requires the following hardware, software licenses, and term software license maintenance services:

Base SAS SAS Graph SAS Connect SAS Access to ODBC SAS Access to PCFF SAS Access to Netezza SAS Stat SAS Assist

SAS FSP

SAS Office Analytics for a single virtual server SAS Access to Netezza for a single virtual server SAS Connect for a single virtual server SAS JMP Pro

SAS PCJMP

SAS Access Interface to MS SQL Server SAS Access Interface to MS SQL Server for a single virtual server

6. Authority:

The authority for this justification is FAR 6.302-1, Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

7. Procurement Strategy and Organizational Mission

Prior to engaging in market research, key Directorates within VA OIG that depend heavily on the Office of Data and Analytics to accomplish the mission of VA OIG, met to discuss the renewal of the SAS; “possible features and platforms (cloud based platform options) to consider, and alternative statistical software (e.g., R and Python given the increasing adoption of cloud platform in the VA and OIG). The feedback is to stay with SAS on existing on-premises server environment, at least for the next year or two, to prevent disruptions to the existing and planned projects.” (VA OIG Chief Data Officer).

8. Market Analysis:

As mentioned above, the VA OIG has two (2) SAS Servers currently being used through the VA OIG to provide the OIG with statistical analysis capabilities, predictive analytics, data modeling, and data mining. Market research was conducted in June 2025, by a VA

OIG technical expert to ascertain what software plans could meet the Government’s requirements. Specifically, the Government technical experts conducted an internet search to determine if there were software providers other than the existing SAS products and software that VA OIG maintains.. VA OIG’s technical expert confirmed that as the source code required to issue the updates is proprietary, SAS, or an authorized reseller, is the only source capable of providing the required maintenance and upgrades for SAS software.

The market research revealed that Executive Information Services, LLC was the only authorized reseller of all SAS products on the General Services Administration (GSA) website under Special Item Number (SIN) 511210. Any authorized reseller will be allowed to provide quotes in response to the solicitation. Market research did discover another authorized reseller, Carahsoft Technology Corporation, for certain SAS products (such as annual SAS 9.x Software). However, Carahsoft is not an approved reseller of all the SAS products that the VA OIG requires, whereas Executive Information Services, LLC is an authorized reseller for all the required SAS products and maintenance that the VA OIG has specified. No other firm has the capability to issue software updates and fixes for SAS software that are necessary to support existing requirements.

9. Rationale Supporting Use of Sole Source Authority:

Based on the market research, it was determined that Executive Information Services, LLC (EIS) is the sole Government provider of perpetual SAS software, SAS Software licensed on a mainframe, and SAS JMP software. As a result, there is no competition among Vendors for the required software maintenance. EIS is located at: 6903 Rockledge Drive, Suite 760, Post Office Box 34076, Bethesda, Maryland, 20827-0076.

The VA OIG Office of Data and Analytics uses SAS Desktop software to perform data extraction, transformation, and loading to the OIG Data Warehouse, perform ad-hoc queries to extract, analyze, and visualize VA data to support VA OIG Oversight projects, The VA OIG has two (2) SAS Servers currently being used through the VA OIG to provide the OIG with statistical analysis capabilities, predictive analytics, data modeling, and data mining. The VA OIG also currently has licenses for the advanced SAS Analytic products, SAS JMP and SAS JMP Pro.

Delays Impacting VA OIG’s Mission

The VA OIG Office of Data and Analytics maintains an extensive library of SAS Code to analyze, extract, visualize and automate business processes. Replacement of SAS Software Licenses with any other product would require VA OIG to convert this code library, test and train personnel on the use of the new software causing unacceptable delays in projects. These delays would negatively impact the overall oversight work of the VA OIG, which relies heavily on the data provided by the OIG Office of Data and Analytics and other data teams.

In addition, a Senior VA OIG IT Analyst explained that “statisticians and analysts at OIG Directorates, including OAE and most of ODA, rely on SAS to perform critical data analysis in support of OIG operations. Their responsibilities encompass a wide range of tasks, including audits, research, data requests, and the management of data warehouses. Any delay in renewing the SAS license and contract will hinder their ability to support both ongoing and new projects, as most of their analytic work depends exclusively on SAS.”

He stated further that “VA OIG is transitioning its data warehouse hosting from the on-premises servers to the Azure cloud platform. Following VHA and VBA migrated their corporate data warehouses to cloud platforms, the analytics teams have experienced reduced performance and slower connections to these systems. To address this, this year’s SAS contract includes two additional SAS modules to enhance the speed of connecting to the cloud-based data systems. Timely renewal of the SAS license and contract is critical to improving the efficiency and productivity of analytics operations.”

Unacceptable Costs

The CO was also told by VA OIG IT experts that “procuring another brand of software other than SAS would be prohibitively expensive. Specifically, the Government would incur unacceptably high costs associated with the required hardware, software licenses, software license maintenance, installation / configuration services, and training services in this requirement. Moreover, internal processes and infrastructure would have to be revised to accommodate a new brand, existing hardware would have to be reconfigured at additional time and cost, and users would have to be retrained to use the new system(s). All these costs and delays are avoidable by continuing to use SAS products, which will also provide sufficient time for users to adjust to a new programming platform (either open-source software, such as Python, and / or cloud computing services).”

9. Other Facts Supporting Use of Brand Name:

Not Applicable.

10. Determination of Best Value:

The Sole Source BPA will be issued from a GSA Schedule Contract. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 8.404(d), GSA has already determined the prices of supplies and fixed-price services, and rates for services offered at hourly rates, under schedule contracts to be fair and reasonable. Additionally, the Contracting Officer will also seek additional discounts from GSA Schedule Contract prices. As a result, the award of a Sole Source BPA issued from a GSA Schedule Contract represents the Best Value to the Government.

11. Actions to Remove Future Barriers to Competition:

VA OIG will continue to perform Market Research and review our requirements to identify possible openings for competition in future requirements. VA OIG will seek to identify opportunities to maximize future competition and continue to be responsible fiduciaries for taxpayer dollars.

TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION

I certify that the facts are representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are complete and accurate, and the particular Brand Name, product, or feature described above is essential to the VA OIG's requirements, and market research indicates other companies' similar products, or products lacking the particular feature, do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet the agency's needs.

Yu-Fang Li Date Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General 50D

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION

I hereby certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Brett Pickett Date Contracting Officer Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General 53P

APPROVED:

James Johnson

09/18/2025 Date

Deputy Director for Procurement Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General 53P

Li Yu-fang Digitally signed by Li Yu-fang Date: 2025.09.18 08:22:01 -07'00'

09/18/2025