FY21 JA Compuware - Final 9.14.20.pdf

Compuware Software Licenses and Maintenance VA-20-00078409

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

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 for renewal of brand name Compuware software licenses and associated software maintenance. This effort is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program; the proposed effort will be awarded under the General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) 47QTCA18D0038 to Compuware Corporation (Compuware), 1 Campus Martius, Detroit, Michigan, 48226.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Infrastructure Operations (IO) has a requirement for renewal of brand name Compuware software licenses and associated maintenance. Specifically, VA requires renewal of brand name Compuware Abend-Aid, Abend-Aid for CICS, File-Aid, Expediter, and Strobe software licenses and associated maintenance. The software is CPU-id dependent requiring annual license key for continued usage. This software provides critical support for mainframe z/0S systems and applications requiring batch processing. The software maintenance will consist of software upgrades and updates to include major releases, point releases, service releases and security releases of applicable software on a quarterly basis, and/or within 48 hours in cases in which a high-risk vulnerability fix becomes available. The maintenance is required to ensure the Compuware software in use remains operational. The base period shall be a 12-month period of performance from 10/1/2020 to 9/30/2021 followed by two 12-month option periods. The total estimated price of the proposed action is $922,501.00, inclusive of the option periods.

4. Authority: This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of Multiple-

Award Schedule Program. The specific authority providing for a limited source award is Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), "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."

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is Compuware Corporation, 1 Campus Martius, Detroit, Michigan, 48226. Based on extensive market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification, it was determined that there is no competition among vendors for the required software licenses renewals and software maintenance as

Compuware does not allow resellers to resell Compuware software or maintenance. Only Compuware software and associated maintenance can meet all of the Government's requirements. Specifically, VA requires brand name Compuware software because only brand name Compuware software can meet VA’s functional requirement to enable VA researchers to send and receive meaningful information from extremely large data sets up to five terabytes. VA requires a mainframe compatible software to send and receive data from these data sets, and only brand name Compuware software has the performance and capability for handling the vast amounts of data required by the VA. Additionally, even if an alternative software was capable of handling the large data sets required by VA, deployment of the alternative software would require reconfiguration of millions of lines of code across the over 60 applications that currently use Compuware software. This reconfiguration would be necessary to adjust scripts, or a sequence of instructions, that have been set up to run automatically utilizing the Compuware products. If VA utilized an alternative brand software, changes to scripts would be necessary to utilize the new software, and to have that new software provide the required functionality.

This reconfiguration process is very labor intensive and would require a minimum of three years to complete. This estimate is based on prior reconfiguration efforts of similar magnitude. Further, while the necessary reconfiguration was being performed, both Compuware and the new software would need to be executing in parallel to ensure data integrity. The cost of running both products simultaneously is estimated to be double the current renewal license fee. These costs would not be recovered through competition.

Additionally, training would need to be provided for VA analysts to be able to write code on the new software. This would require extensive training to enable staff to duplicate many of the more complex solutions and would incur additional costs, in the form of loss of programming manhours as the many of VA Compuware programmers would be trained on the new software. The current IO information technology infrastructure utilizes brand name Compuware Abend-Aid, Abend-Aid for CICS, File-Aid, Expediter, and Strobe software. VA requires support for these products for continued operational availability. Only Compuware can provide the necessary software updates because access to the proprietary source code is required to develop and implement software maintenance. No other source is capable of providing the required software maintenance due to the proprietary nature of the software database structures, protocols, and software application programming interfaces. In addition, this code is required to ensure the software is properly configured when services are provided.

Without the aforementioned proprietary source code, no source other than Compuware can meet VA's needs. Should license and maintenance renewal for the Compuware software not be acquired, there is an immediate risk to production batch cycles that rely on Compuware tools. Compuware software maintenance is vital to VA for continued sustainment of effective job and file management to keep production processing within expected customer expectations.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research paragraph of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government's requirements. The ordering activity will post the justification along with the Request for Quote to e-Buy in accordance with FAR 8.405-6(b)(3). In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 8.405-6(a)(2), this action will be synopsized within 14 days after award on the beta.SAM.gov Contract Opportunities/ Federal Business Opportunities Page and the justification will be made publicly available.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to monitor the availability of similar software that can meet the VA’ future requirements and will conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government's technical experts conducted market research in July 2020 by reviewing similar software and services to ascertain if these items could meet VA's requirements. The VA’s Technical experts conducted web-based research on websites and reviewed similar products and maintenance support services in the mainframe and monitoring area available from BMC Software and New Relic. As a result of the market research, the technical experts confirmed that the other software products will not support VA’s existing infrastructure protocols, interoperability and compatibility requirements as outlined in Section 5. In addition, none of these companies have access to Compuware’s proprietary source code required to maintain IO’s existing infrastructure. Compuware is the only source capable of providing the required maintenance. A Compuware Representative confirmed via email on September 2, 2020 that Compuware will not permit resellers to resell Compuware software licenses or software maintenance. Based on the above, only Compuware software and maintenance meets all the Government’s requirements.

9. Other Facts: None

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.

Dawn Sturtz Date:

Project Manager Signature

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 8.404(d). GSA has already determined the prices on the FSS contract are fair and reasonable. Further price analysis will be conducted by comparing the quote to Independent Government Cost Estimate and to the GSA Contract Schedule Prices. Further price discounts will be sought.

Debra Clayton Date

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature:

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

Debra Clayton Date

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature:

09/14/2020

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of renewal of brand name Compuware software licenses and associated software maintenance on an other than fair opportunity 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.

Date: ____________ Signature: _________________________________ Philip Weckesser, Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics