Brand Name JustificationRedacted.pdf

DMM Software Licenses & Renewals -BimlStudio VA-24-00060377

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

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 the award of a, brand name, firm-fixed-price purchase order for three (3) brand name Varigence BimlStudio integrated development environment (IDE) software subscriptions and 3 years of associated maintenance and support set-aside for small business

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: Business Intelligence Markup Language (BIML) is a tag-based scripting language developed by Varigence to automate the creation of Microsoft Structured Query Language (SQL) Server business intelligence (BI) projects. For the last several years, the EHRM-IO Data Migration and Management (DMM) team has worked with BIML as a free add on to the Microsoft Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The team creates and edits BIML scripts in Visual Studio and then uses a free BIML add-on to generate Structured Query Language (SQL) Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages. VA is currently going through the process of upgrading all SSIS packages to SQL Server 2022 which requires a corresponding upgrade to Visual Studio 2022. However, Varigence no longer provides the free BIML add on to Visual Studio 2022. BimlStudio is now required to enable the EHRM-IO DMM team to continue creating SQL Server SSIS packages with BIML.

The maintenance support provided with the software subscription includes bug fixes, upgrades, and customer support. The period of performance will be four years from date of award. The total estimated price of the proposed action is $28,447.29.

4. Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 6.302-1(a) entitled “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on Market Research conducted, and documented in Section 8 of this Justification, the proposed software, BimlStudio, is the only brand name software that can meet the Government’s requirements. The EHRM-IO DMM team uses BIML to programmatically create thousands of SSIS packages used to load data related to data syndication. The team could develop these packages manually at a rate of 1-3 per day, but BIML allows the team to write scripts that generate hundreds of SSIS packages in a few minutes based on configurations and metadata. BIML is an indispensable tool for EHRM-IO data integration development efforts, and the only program that supports creating SQL Server 2022 SSIS packages with BIML is BimlStudio. Given the number SSIS packages and data integration projects that rely on BIML development, it is crucial to that the EHRM-IO DMM team continue to have access to a development tool that works with BIML. If the Government does not procure BimlStudio, then the EHRM-IO DMM team will be forced to develop the SSIS packages used for data syndication Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes manually and will not be able to support the current data integration needs of the organization. Varigence created BIML and is the only vendor offering a solution for developing SSIS packages with BIML. No source other than Varigence can provide the software required to keep up with the volume of ETL processes required to bring data back from Oracle Health Millennium and make the data available in the VA data ecosystem. For over four years, the EHRM-IO DMM team has been using BIML to develop 100% of the SSIS packages used to programmatically generate the ETL packages that load data to the on-premises SQL Server instances for data syndication. Procuring software other than brand name BimlStudio would require the team to rewrite the scripts that generate the SSIS packages in a language other than BIML and redo four years’ worth of work. Currently the BIML-generated ETL packages load data for data syndication daily. Rewriting the BIML scripts that generate these packages would introduce potential delays in bringing data back from Oracle Health Millennium into the VA data ecosystem, which would put the overall success of the Oracle Health deployment at risk. Furthermore, the inability to process syndicated data in a timely fashion would adversely affect reporting and registries which depend on this data.

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.

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: Market research was conducted in October 2023 by the Government’s technical experts to determine the availability of software capable of meeting the VA’s requirements to use BIML to automate SSIS package development for data syndication ETL processes. The VA technical experts reviewed the following products by reviewing descriptions online:

MangedDTS EzAPI ETLGen Pegasus

However, the VA technical experts determined that none of products can meet the requirements described in section 5 above because none of the above products support BIML and all would require that the scripts used to generate thousands of SSIS packages be rewritten in a language other than BIML. This research confirmed that only BimlStudio meets the Government’s requirements.

A Market Research Request (MRR) was issued in December of 2023 on the NASA Solutions for Enterprise Procurement (SEWP) Government-wide Acquisition Contract Brand name Varigence BimlSudio three (3) year perpetual software subscription and associated maintenance support. The MRR# 291956 was listed on December 6th, 2023, and closed on December 13th, 2023. One (1) contract holder provided a quote.

The contract holder who provided the quote is a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB)

An initial RFI was posted to SAM.gov utilizing NAICS 334111 on SAM.gov for a period of 7 days. One Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and one 8(a) certified small business stated they were interested and could provide the software.

Later, it was determined by the contracting officer that NAICS 541519 was the most appropriate for this acquisition. An RFI loopback describing the changes and acquisition strategy was posted to SAM.gov utilizing NAICS 541519 for a period of 7 days in accordance with TAD 5.205(101). The Contract Specialist reached out to Varigence’s Business Operations Manager, for further information.

Per Varigence has no list of authorized resellers, but is open to work with most resellers and does not require the reseller to acquire Varigence’s permission to sell and distribute BIML software. However, any support (SMU) purchased through a reseller will still be provided directly by Varigence to the end-user.

Based on the above market research, it is recommended that this requirement be set aside 100% for small business in accordance with FAR 19.502-2.

9. Other Facts: None.

10. Technical/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.