!ID02120052-73_LSJ_PCR_039_Amendment_2_MSS_TRAINING_signatures_9.11.2018.pdf

Limited Source Justification

I. Agency and Contracting Activity

Requesting Activity

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Contracting Activity

General Services Administration Federal

Acquisition Service

Assisted Acquisition Services Div.

One World Trade Center

New York City, NY 10007-0089

II. Description of Action

This contract action is for a sole source award of a modification to International Business Machines

(IBM), 6300 Diagonal Highway, Boulder, CO 80301 to provide training support for Guided

Personnel Action Request (PAR), Manager Self Service (MSS) and the USA Staffing (USAS)

Integration post user acceptance testing and during deployments.

Description of Supplies/Services

The requesting activity has an awarded requirement for the design, development, testing, training, deployment, hosting, help desk support, and also operations and maintenance (O&M) services for an enterprise Human Resources Information System (HRIS) (a.k.a. HR Smart) that is replacing the legacy 50+ year old Personnel Accounting and Integrated Data (PAID) which is nearing its end of life. The new system, being provided by IBM, provides VA Human Resource (HR) Specialists with personnel action processing capabilities, and both HR Specialists and all VA employees with benefits administration and compensation management capabilities. This enterprise system serves the entire VA and over 400,000 personnel.

These services are essential to provide critical core functionality required by HR Specialists to appoint, separate, or make other personnel changes. HR averages over one million transactions per year due to the size of the VA workforce. The new system provides the automated capability to initiate and process a personnel action. It uses automated workflows to initiate, review, and approve requests for personnel actions, route personnel actions through its approval sequence and provide appropriate notifications. As well, VA employees will use the system to review their own personal compensation information.

The current action, per Project Change Request 039, Amendment 2, v. 1.02, addresses requirements for IBM to provide training support for Guided Personnel Action Request (PAR), Manager Self Service (MSS) and the USA Staffing (USAS) implementation that will ensure

VA HR specialists will gain maximum functionality of the USAS and MSS applications. The following requirements are included in this action:

Provide User Guide and User Productivity Kits (UPKs) Development, Training Setup and

Delivery

Provide Facilitator and Participant Guide Development

Provide HRLOB training support of Field HR Users during each deployment

Provide training support of managers and administrative officers during each deployment

The requirement includes Human Resource 3 day training sessions, both remote and classroom; Manager Self Service 1 day training, both remote and classroom; Facilitator Guides, eLearning, Job Aids and communication videos. The price for the training, eLearning, Job Aids and communication videos is $755,390.00 The requirement will include quarterly updates. The price for the updates is $71,836.00.

The work will be performed on a Firm Fixed Price basis with a period of performance of 12 months from date of award for a total price of $827,226.00. The VA has provided funding for this requirement.

III. Authority Cited

FAR 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 services are unique to the source (IBM).

IV. Reason for Authority Cited

The current contractor, IBM is the developer of the proprietary HRIS SSC solution VA is currently utilizing.

This action provide for improved overall business processing of personnel actions. Outlined below are the relevant factors relating to this effort:

a. The VA requirement is within scope as it provides for training required post deployment of the USAS and MSS application that were developed and implemented by IBM.

b. The current Contractor, IBM is the developer of the “proprietary” HRIS SSC solution VA is currently utilizing. IBM solely owns and license’s the PeopleSoft based developed solution and is hosting the solution at its facilities.

c. Purchasing the services through multiple contracts or other means would significantly increase the program risk and cause potential mission failure for program solutions. Such an approach would present a very high risk of configuration control issues across the multiple contracts.

d. VA currently does not have the programmatic skills or subject matter expertise in the area of product application development.

This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

This justification is prepared in compliance with 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), which authorizes the limiting of sources when “only one source is capable of proving the service.” Based on the requesting activity’s needs, the intent of this procurement is to minimize cost and transition risk to meet critical mission requirements. IBM has all the necessary labor skill categories to meet the requirements.

V. Efforts to Obtain Competition

Market research was not conducted, details of which are included in the market research section of this document.

VI. Actions to Increase Competition

No actions were taken as this is a one-time upgrade with follow on operations and maintenance that must be performed by the developer of the system.

VII. Market Research

Because of the Private Shared Service Center solution described in IV, market research was not conducted. IBM, as the developer of the proprietary HRIS SSC solution, which includes the software, hardware, hosting and maintenance, prevents any market research from being conducted for this requirement.

VIII. Interested Sources

(See paragraph VI, Efforts to Obtain Competition).

IX. Technical 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.

9/11/2018

Emily Prohaska

HRLOB COR, Department of Veterans Affairs

X. 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.

9/11/2018

Emily Prohaska

HRLOB COR, Department of Veterans Affairs

XI. Contracting Officer’s 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, that the order represents the best value to the government and the anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. The price for the associated services is computed using the established hourly and unit rates set forth in the VA HR LOB task order and IBM’s MAS schedule, reflecting a 25% discount. Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve a sole-source task order modification award to IBM for the requirements listed in this document.

Charles Ade

Contracting Officer

XII. Concurrence

I concur with the Contracting Officer’s determination.

Joe Urbanik

Deputy Director

Theresa Ramos

Competition Advocate