FINAL_OTFOC_JA_ServiceNow_Extension_Redacted.pdf

ServiceNow SaaS License Entitlements

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Procurement Operations Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source modification is for a continuation of Contract NNG15SD37B Delivery Order (DO) 36C10B23F0319 with METGreen Solutions, Inc (METGreen), 3203 Koenigstein Ave Norfolk NE 68701-3272. This extension to the current DO shall continue supporting the ServiceNow Software-as-a- Service (SaaS) license entitlements to allow the Government to complete the competition requirements for a follow-on contract.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Enterprise Service Management (ESM) has a requirement for the extension of services to provide the required SaaS license entitlements. The ServiceNow software license entitlements are currently being provided under a ServiceNow SysUser table, which is an unlimited license entitlement use structure, to provide complete coverage of VA’s footprint. The ServiceNow unlimited software license SysUser entitlements include the following 10 software license entitlements: ServiceNow Software Asset Management, IT Service Management Enterprise, ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management Professional, ServiceNow IT Operations Management, Artificial Intelligence Operations Enterprise, ServiceNow Integration Hub Enterprise, ServiceNow App Engine, ServiceNow Security Operations Enterprise – Vulnerability Response, ServiceNow Security Operations Professional – Security Incident Response, Application Portfolio Management and ServiceNow Impact Total - Package. Additionally, this action will include three limited software license entitlements for Government Data Center Production and Non-production Instances not to exceed (NTE) Quantity (QTY) 21, and ServiceNow Customer Service Management Professional NTE QTY 800 to support the Loan Guarantee Program. This license procurement directly supports the Secretary of VA’s Four Strategic Objectives of Customer Service, Implementing the MISSION Act, Electronic Health Record and Transforming our Business Systems.

To support mission-critical operations, VA requires continued use of ServiceNow in the following capacities: ServiceNow must continue to support VA service desk operations across the entire enterprise and provide event and incident management for early warning and detection of system degradations and service interruptions to prevent outages to critical VA business systems. As VA continues to add clinicians, support staff, and volunteers to meet the needs of increased patient care, ServiceNow is required to provision all new devices and provide immediate clinical application access for staff.

Veterans’ Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture is the legacy of VA's Electronic Health Record system. Continued ServiceNow support is needed to triage information technology (IT)-related issues that surface in VA medical devices used by clinicians. To sustain telehealth needs, VA requires continued use of ServiceNow for clinician credentialing and for immediate system password reset across the enterprise for all VA applications, including performing specific application capacity monitoring in support of telehealth. Continued ServiceNow monitoring of VA network health is required for the entire remote workforce. This capability must remain in place to report and triage issues that could disable telehealth workers or otherwise negatively impact IT services provided to Veterans and their families.

Continuation with METGreen is essential to sustain current operations only during the period while the recompete of the follow-on action is completed and transitioned, if required. No new capabilities are being introduced under this extension; the scope reflects only what is necessary to maintain existing, mission-critical functions without interruption.

This extension to Contract NNG15SD37B Task Order 36C10B23F0319 shall consist of a three-month base period of performance (PoP) with three, three-month Option Periods, spanning from September 22, 2026 through September 21, 2027. The total estimated value of the proposed increase is , including all option periods.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(3) as implemented by the Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul (RFO) 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: The proposed source for this action is METGreen, 3203 Koenigstein Ave Norfolk NE 68701-3272. METGreen was awarded Contract NNG15SD37B Task Order 36C10B23F0319 as a brand name requirement for SaaS license entitlements. The DO currently ends on September 21, 2026.

The follow-on contract requirements to the current DO are being solicited as full and open competition, based on emerging technologies in the marketplace for these licenses, and the resulting award is not projected until December 2026. VA’s current software and Authority To Operate on ServiceNow requires brand name ServiceNow SaaS license entitlement applications to continue operation in VA’s production environment and across the enterprise. The environment supports daily operations for 550,000 end users and over 15,000 OIT professionals to track and resolve incidents and service requests for all VA users across multiple systems. VA requires an extension of its existing licenses to brand name ServiceNow SaaS license entitlements to support IT requests across the enterprise, and to support VA service management operations for all VA users. The follow-on contract requirements are being completed, with anticipated award in December 2026, and if an alternative vendor software is selected for award, it is estimated to take at least six months of transition based on the extensive market research conducted. This extension allows for both the competition and transition to be completed by September 2027. If an alternative vendor software wins the follow on contract, then the software technicians will have to transition data for major VA mission partners that include Security Operations, Veterans Benefits, Veterans Service Lines, Veterans Health Administration, and major incident management reporting for the Chief Information Officer. The software is currently operational, and this extension is to maintain access to what has already been implemented. A failure to extend the existing licenses to brand name ServiceNow SaaS license entitlements will bring VA’s automated system monitoring capabilities and VA service desk operations to an immediate halt. Specifically, the licenses to brand name ServiceNow SaaS license entitlements renewals are required to support the continued monitoring and troubleshooting of VA mission essential systems such as the Veterans Benefit Management System and Veterans Health System.

Without contract extension, VA would be left with no IT Service Management System or enterprise resource planning tool, no mechanism for clinicians and veteran service providers to obtain IT support, and no way to track or resolve timely service outages, while fragmented service management functions drive up operational inefficiencies and costs.

ServiceNow is an eco-system of service management, operations management, and business management modules that are built upon one another to provide for holistic analysis, dashboards and reporting. VA has a large and complex enterprise and requires a myriad of people, processes, and tools to manage its critical business infrastructure and service operations. The licenses to brand name ServiceNow SaaS license entitlement offerings are uniquely poised to meet VA’s requirements for a single service management console because of its ability to integrate disparate business functions. All applications in the ServiceNow Portfolio are built on the ServiceNow software, and therefore all metrics, tasks, services, assets, people, locations, and information are stored together, creating a single system of records and a single system of engagement for the enterprise. For example, the human resources module is fully integrated with the asset management database to accomplish role-based provisioning, and the facilities module, asset database and governance risk and compliance module are all integrated to enable VA to pinpoint the location of a biomedical or IT asset at a field location with a zero-day security vulnerability. Immediate loss of the ServiceNow SaaS license entitlements right would significantly degrade the efficiency of VA’s service management operations, as well as compromise data integrity, thereby disrupting critical service to Veterans. Losing ServiceNow would directly disrupt veteran-facing applications (Loan Guaranty, LoanStar, Native American Direct Loan) and degrade enterprise IT operations enterprise-wide, causing increased resolution times, loss of VA service desk support for veterans and clinicians, and an inability to perform effective event and incident management, resulting in undetected system degradations that ripple back to VA's core mission. As noted above, the use of any other software would require complete replacement of the existing software. No other brand name software can communicate with the existing licenses to brand name ServiceNow SaaS license entitlements in production on VA’s ServiceNow software.

Only brand name ServiceNow SaaS license entitlements can satisfy VA's requirements during the pendency of the follow-on competitive procurement. VA's requirement for a single, unified Information Technology Service Management (ITSM) console precludes alternative software, as full replacement of the existing ServiceNow infrastructure at this time would be operationally impracticable and would risk continuity of mission-critical service management functions.

Any lapse in current coverage would interrupt the enterprise service management console on which VA enterprise relies, directly impairing mission-essential functions. The incumbent alone can continue performance without interruption; transition to another software would require at least six months, during which VA would face unacceptable risk to continuity of operations.

The delay in awarding the follow-on contract is the result of multiple updates to the requirements in order to promote competition to the maximum extent possible, in addition to identifying emerging technologies in the marketplace. These updates were the result of feedback received through multiple RFIs. The requirement itself underwent substantial refinement during acquisition planning to accurately reflect VA's operational needs, including incorporating additional capabilities new to the marketplace, and necessary System Integrator requirements.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that could meet the Government’s requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. In accordance with RFO 5.301, 16.507-6(f), and 16.507- 9(c)(1), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on Contract Opportunities and the justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: No barriers to future competition are anticipated. A competitive contract is anticipated to be awarded in December 2026, and future acquisitions will be awarded on a competitive basis.

8. Market Research: Based on extensive ongoing market research conducted it was determined that award of a new contract based on full and open competition for the aforementioned software is in the best interest of the Government, which will be competed and awarded during this extension. Additionally, VA has determined that the procurement of commercial software and services best meets this need. The use of in-house resources was also reviewed as an alternative but it was not considered a viable option.

In 2025 the Government hosted multiple live demonstrations where it was determined that other software were potentially capable of meeting the requirement. The Government technical team has since updated the requirements extensively by adding additional services and software based on the results of the demonstrations and to encourage competition to the maximum extent.

The Contract Specialist conducted additional market research in October 2025 by posting a Request for Information (RFI) which consisted of 24 questions to industry, on the General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) under Special Item Number (SIN) 54151S, "Information Technology Professional Services," NASA SEWP V GWAC, and SAM.gov Contract Opportunities. A total of 39 vendors responded to the RFI. From those 39 responses multiple vendors were deemed capable of meeting the requirements. Based on the results of the RFI and industry feedback, the Government further revised the requirements and the mission need evolved from an ITSM requirement into the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) requirement.

The Contract Specialist posted another RFI with the revised requirements on GSA, NASA SEWP V GWAC, and SAM.gov Contracting Opportunities in January 2026. A total of 31 responses were received. After completing the review on February 26,2026 of the 31 responses there were numerous vendors that deemed capable of meeting the revised ERP requirements.

Based on the responses received, the requirements were revised further again in May 2026. Another RFI was posted with these revised requirements on SAM.gov Contracting Opportunities in July 2026. A total of 39 vendors responded with multiple still being deemed capable of meeting the update requirements.

VA has updated its requirements to maximize competition and incorporate emerging technologies. It has been determined that multiple vendors are capable of meeting the updated requirements, but any alternative software would not be able to meet VA’s immediate requirements in the required timeframe, due to the time associated with re-platforming to an alternative software identified above.

9. Other Facts: None.

ServiceNow SaaS License Entitlements Control Number: VA-26-00083698

10. Technical and 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.

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the proposed contract action will represent the best value to the Government consistent with FAR 15.404-1(b)(2)(ii). The Contracting Officer has already determined that the prices on Contract NNG15SD37B Delivery Order 36C10B23F0319 were fair and reasonable prior to award.

12. Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Office of General Counsel (OGC) Review I have reviewed this document and find it legally sufficient, based on the representations set forth in the documents and, if any, attachments. The Senior Procurement Executive’s approval is an independently supported decision not wholly reliant on the legal sufficiency determination.

ServiceNow SaaS License Entitlements Control Number: VA-26-00083698

HCA Concurrence In my role as Head of the Contracting Activity, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby concur with the acquisition of ServiceNow Software-as-a-Service License Entitlements, pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Senior Procurement Executive Approval In my role as Agency Senior Procurement Executive, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of ServiceNow Software-as-a-Service License Entitlements on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.