EAS_OSS_JA.pdf

Control Number: VA-20-00087463

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 Task Order (TO) to be issued under Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) Contract Number VA118-16-D-1012 with CACI-ISS Inc. (CACI) to provide Enterprise Acquisition Service (EAS) maintenance and operational support services.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to provide project management, change and configuration management support, release management, business analysis, business process engineering support, documentation support, testing, business requirements management support, enhancement and development for EAS. The original TO was awarded to CACI as result of a competitive action under T4. CACI is currently providing EAS maintenance and operational support services. The current TO included training which is not required on the proposed action. EAS includes the enterprise content management system (eCMS) which currently is comprised of the several following acquisition components/ technologies to include but not limited to: Automated Acquisition Management System; Center for Acquisition Resource; Appian; Microsoft Dynamics; Adobe Experience Manager; VA Task Order Management System; VA Vendor Portal; Service Oriented Architecture Layer;

Enterprise Service Bus Layer; VA Centralized Acquisition Datastore; and Virtual Office of Acquisitions. The services and maintenance support are required to ensure the environments remain operational. In addition, as part of the continued support for enhancement and development, VA requires modernization efforts such supply chain transformation (i.e. Defense Medical Logistics Standard Support (DMLSS)) and financial/acquisition transformation (i.e. integrated Financial and Acquisition Management System (iFAMS)) to align with emerging requirements across VA.

The period of performance for this proposed action shall be September 20, 2020 to December 19, 2020 with three, one-month periods. The total estimated value of the proposed action, inclusive of options, is $$$$$$.

4. Statutory 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) 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: The proposed source is CACI, 14370 Newbrook Drive, Chantilly, VA, 20151-2218. The original TO was awarded to

EAS maintenance and operational support services Control Number: VA-20-00087463

CACI as result of a competitive action under T4. CACI is currently providing maintenance and operational support services for EAS under this effort and is currently meeting the requirements of the TO. Only CACI can provide the maintenance and operational support services without any disruptions. CACI has developed the current source code used in the EAS systems portfolio. CACI has worked closely with VA over the past five years and has obtained and demonstrated significant knowledge of VA's current EAS environments, integrations, services and applications. No ramp up time is required by utilizing CACI in this effort as they have specialized complete unencumbered knowledge of all EAS systems. Furthermore, CACI is also currently engaging in complex integration efforts with respect to several modernization efforts.

For example, CACI is developing interfaces for the iFAMS and DMLSS efforts. The iFAMS effort subsumes several components of eCMS and modifications are ongoing.

Another example includes the DMLSS which is focused on supply chain and logistics management across VAMCs. Any other Contractor would have to spend 30-60 days to fully understand the complete VA’s source code in order to make any enhancements which would add significant delays to the iFAMS and DMLSS projects.

The VA's current TO with CACI is scheduled to expire on September 19, 2020. VA is in the process of competitively awarding a TO. The requirement development for the competitive TO began in first quarter of FY 2020. There were unanticipated changes due to the dynamic modernization efforts and roadmaps that occurred from March 2020 to August 2020 that delayed award of this competitive TO. Specifically, VA had to perform a reassessment of its requirements and needed additional input due to the complexity of the requirements. VA is currently in the second wave of deep dives to further understand user requirements across the enterprise. Operations need to continue to support the user community to ensure that Veterans Affairs Medical Centers continue to provide services to Veterans uninterrupted. The acquisition package documentation is being updated to align with emerging requirements of modernization efforts that meet the needs of VA customers nationwide. Due to the emerging requirements resulting from multiple concurrent enterprise modernization efforts, additional reviews are necessary to ensure all current and future requirements are met, therefore, the current acquisition package has been delayed. Loss of CACI support during this gap will significantly inhibit many eCMS applications, modernization integration efforts, and would severely impact the acquisition communities’ ability to complete its mission. Therefore, VA requires continued sustainment support with CACI to ensure all eCMS applications uptime, which in turn reflects the serviceable uptime for all VA acquisition applications. VA anticipates award of a competitive TO in late first quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 which would encompass the services detailed in Section 3.

Any source other than CACI would require significant ramp up time of approximately 30- 60 days. Specifically, due to the complex nature of the enterprise wide concurrent modernization efforts, any other source would require code discovery regarding the current backlog and in progress releases. There are several new modernization efforts and systems to learn, as well as coding for the current systems EAS manages and works, and adjudicating of help desk tickets daily. Each one of these EAS systems has at least five hosting environments, and each application has many integrations, and dependent applications that are spread throughout the acquisition workforce. Due to this complexity, the options of knowledge transfer is a part of the bridge PWS. Further, it is anticipated that it will require a minimum of an additional 30-60 days in order to provide system access in accordance with the Personal Identification Verification security requirements and elevated access privileges. These elevated privileges are required for multiple environments. The 30-60-day estimate is based on previous efforts conducted for similar development/sustainment services of this magnitude and complexity. Further delay is possible, however, as COVID-19 has negatively impacted timeline for Personal Identification Verification and elevated access privilege issuance as part of the onboarding process. Failure to acquire the CACI maintenance and operational support services seamlessly would cause serious harm to VA and Veterans.

As previously discussed, VA is currently in the process of issuing a competitive action for EAS requirements. It is imperative that the EAS applications and maintenance services are sustained while the recomplete is finalized and awarded. Operational loss to the EAS systems would result in delays to contract awards for services and supplies being to delivered to Veterans. In addition, there would be significant delays with the modernization efforts such as iFAMS and DMLSS which would result delayed seamless services to Veterans and higher costs to taxpayers.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in Section 8 of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the beta.sam.gov website and this Justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: VA anticipates an award of a competitive TO in late first quarter of FY 2021 which will include the eCMS operational support services.

Based on the complexities of this requirement as outlined in Section 3 and 5 of this Justification, VA has included an option periods that would provide seamless support, if necessary, while a new vendor is onboarded and performs the code discovery necessary to provide support. However, if the aforementioned EAS maintenance and operational support services can be fully provided from the awardee of the competitive TO prior to exercising the option period(s) for seamless support, VA will not exercise the option period(s).

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted from July 2020 through August 2020. A Request for Information (RFI) was released on the beta.sam.gov website. The RFI included a draft Performance Work Statement and requested that interested parties provide indication of their respective capabilities to perform the aforementioned services. The RFI closed on August 16, 2020 and two responses were received to include CACI, the current Contractor, and Accenture Federal Services LLC (Accenture).

Both large businesses. CACI was deemed capable based on its response and given CACI is currently successfully performing the EAS maintenance and operational support services. Accenture was deemed not capable. While Accenture was found capable of providing the maintenance and operational support services, it is unable to provide seamless support by September 20, 2020. The Contracting Officer notified the Contractor on August 20, 2020 as to why the company was not capable. Accenture followed up requesting the anticipated release date of the new RFI. In addition, Value Integrators, a Woman-Owned Small Business, submitted a response to the RFI on August 24, 2020. The response was marketing material and did not specifically address the requirements of the PWS. On August 31, 2020, the Contract Specialist notified Value Integrators that the company was deemed not capable of meeting its requirements. No additional correspondence was received from Value Integrators.

Based on this market research, VA has determined that only CACI can meet all of VA's

9. Other Facts: None