C01 - Redacted Awarded JA.pdf

Brand Name Netwrix Endpoint Policy Manager Control Number: VA-26-00012587

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 to be issued under the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Netwrix Endpoint Policy Manager (formerly PolicyPak) software licenses and maintenance.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology, End User Services, End User Operations, Endpoint Engineering, Desktop and Device Engineering (DDE) have a requirement for the license and maintenance renewal of brand name (formerly PolicyPak) solution and software maintenance. VA requires a solution that is compatible with VA’s Microsoft Active Directory infrastructure, Microsoft Configuration Manager infrastructure, and the VA’s Cloud infrastructure. This Endpoint Policy Management (EPM) application works with VA’s Windows Operating System Deployment (OSD) to centralize the deployment of Operating System and application settings across the entire environment as part of VA’s compliance requirements that apply to all users and workstations built via OSD.

The required software application license and maintenance shall support 500,000 endpoints and customer support that is available for regular business hours, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm ET, M – F (customers can also submit a support ticket online 24/7).

The period of performance is 12 months with two 12-month option periods. The total estimated value of the proposed action is $ (inclusive of all options).

4. Statutory Authority: 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 Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul VA Deviation 16.507-6(b)(2), 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, it has been determined that limited competition for Netwrix EPM software and maintenance is available among authorized resellers. VA is currently utilizing Netwrix’s EPM software within the VA’s Microsoft Active Directory infrastructure, Microsoft Configuration Manager infrastructure, and the VA’s Cloud infrastructure, all of which are currently configured to only interoperate with the existing Netwrix EPM software for handling Operating System and application settings compliance management. The Netwrix EPM software centralizes the creation and management of Operating System and application settings that are mandated for VA to implement as part of overarching Federal compliance standards.

Brand Name Netwrix Endpoint Policy Manager Control Number: VA-26-00012587

Use of a different management software would require the decommissioning of the current EPM software and will result in a duplicative effort to re-engineer, re-develop, implement, test, and train with respect to the Active Directory, Configuration Manager, and Cloud infrastructures. The duplicative effort and cost associated with the engineering, developing and implementation for these infrastructures would not be recovered through competition. The estimated cost of implementing a different software solution is $ and would take more than 2 plus years to fully implement. As such, VA DDE would not have the capability to maintain the deployment of Operating Systems and application settings, resulting in compliance issues across the enterprise.

VA endpoints support every VA operation’s desktop functionality such as Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) and patient care functions.

Based on the above, only brand name Netwrix Endpoint Policy Management software can meet the Government’s requirements. These compliance requirements are federally mandated and VA’s inability to meet them would mean that devices could not be used for any VA related functions, including providing patient care, the overall impact of that is immeasurable.

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 VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Netwrix EPM licenses, as well as software maintenance and 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, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contract Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

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: VA technical personnel conducted market research in August and September of 2025 by researching websites for products comparable to the Netwrix Endpoint Policy Manager software. Specifically, the Government's technical experts conducted web-based research on similar products available from VMware WorkspaceOne, ManageEngine, and Microsoft Intune. The results of the market research confirmed that None of these other software products could meet VA’s interoperability and compatibility requirements across all of the VA’s infrastructure, both on premises and the cloud as outlined above in this document. Based on the above, only Netwrix software can meet all the Government’s requirements.

Additional market research was performed in December 2025 utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup tool, which resulted in the identification of multiple Service- Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) resellers of the required Netwrix software. As a result, there is a reasonable expectation for limited competition on NASA SEWP V GWAC amongst SDVOSB authorized resellers.

9. Other Facts: None.