J_A_Redacted.pdf

IBM MDM CONTROL NUMBER VA-25-00008814

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JUSTIFICATIONFOR 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 and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurements (SEWP) V Government wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name International Business Machines (IBM) Infosphere Master Data Management (MDM) annual software subscriptions, to include software maintenance services and technical support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action is for the renewal of software maintenance and technical support services for 16,110 Infosphere MDM annual software subscriptions for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Information Assurance implemented at VA�s Azure Government Cloud and the purchase of an additional 3,160 new IBM MDM subscriptionl licenses were procured to accommodate growth in the Veteran identities associated with the PACT Act and and an increase in the number of Veterans conducting online business with VA. The IBM Infosphere MDM software provides unique patient identity services for VHA, allowing enterprise-wide correlation of patient information residing at separate Information Technology (IT) systems throughout the VHA facilities. The VA requires software that includes the following functionality; configurable probabilistic algorithm that is fully interoperable and compatible with the existing VA Master Person Index (MPI) service;

interoperability and compatibility with VA sources of identity data that include: VA systems, other Agencies, and commercial providers; system integration Application Programming Interfaces (APIs); and data load. The Contractor shall provide software maintenance services, which includes periodic updates, enhancements, and corrections to the software, and online technical support, enhanced self-help, search capabilities (24 hours by seven days) and voice Support. The Period of Performance shall be 12-months from the date of award with two (2) 12-month option periods for renewals. The total estimated price of the proposed action is , inclusive of all option periods.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(a)(4), 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 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�.

CONTROL NUMBER VA-25-00008814

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research as outlined in Section 8 of this Justification, it was determined that only IBM Infosphere MDM software meets all of the VA�s configurable probabilistic matching, integration and data load APIs, and out-of-the-box User Interface (UI) requirements. Only IBM or its resellers of the brand name IBM Infosphere MDM annual software subscription renewal,additional licenses, software maintenance services, and technical support can meet VA�s requirements. The IBM Infosphere MDM software was originally procured via a competitively awarded contract in 2005 and has been subsequently customized to interface and work with the VA (MPI) GOTs software that is the VA Authoritative Data Source for Veteran identities. Additional MDM licenses have been procured to accommodate the growth in Veteran population.

VA has a functional requirement to utilize software that provides a configurable probabilistic algorithm that is fully interoperable and compatible with the existing VA MPI service currently deployed at Azure Government Cloud and is interoperable and compatible with VA sources of identity data that include: VA systems, other Agencies, and commercial providers. IBM Infosphere MDM software provides the configurable MDM probabilistic algorithm and APIs used to match VA persons of interest records across all VA, other Agencies, and commercial systems. The high match rate reduces/ eliminates record duplication and improves data quality. The proprietary IBM MDM probabilistic algorithm match and compare APIs have been configured over many years to improve VA de-duplication and record matching that enables the VA MPI to establish a VA unique Identity record in the VA MPI Authoritative Data Source. Specific VA configurations made to the IBM MDM probabilistic algorithm include adding VA specific traits, creating attribute combinations, scoring near matches, and updating the weight of attributes.

Accurate data in VA MPI is critical for patient safety, claims processing, benefit payments and many other VA functions. The VA MPI provides unique identity services for all VA systems in support of all persons of interest to VA. VA MPI heavily relies on the VA configured IBM MDM algorithm and APIs to map/match records across VA systems as well as outside of VA.

IBM MDM provides a probabilistic algorithm that supports configuring of identity traits, attribute combinations, and scoring logic to support VA data accuracy requirements.

Even if another product algorithm had the same configuration capabilities, switching to the product invalidates all the current probabilistic matching indices created for the approximately 60 million identities managed by the VA MPI. Invalidation would result in patient safety issues resulting from clinical data being associated with the wrong person.

either sent out or goes into the workflow to resolve the issue.

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Switching to another product would also require configuration of attributes, attribute combinations, weighting, and weighting scores; integration, loading, and testing of data from VA, other Agencies, and commercial entities; configuration of resolution workflow notifications; testing of 60 million identity matching indices; and configuration of User Interfaces (UI). The projected cost of any such potential configuration is estimated to cost a minimum of $25 million and is estimated to take 4 years to complete development and transition. These estimates are based on previous acquisition history.

These estimated costs would not be recovered through competition. The extended conversion timeline requires the legacy solution to run in parallel which duplicates VA costs for this capability during the transition. A dedicated development/operations team would be needed to maintain the legacy solution and another development/operations team would be needed to implement the new software.

The renewal of IBM Infosphere MDM annual software subscription, software maintenance services, and technical support is vital to VA�s MPI, patient safety and to ensure that IBM Infosphere MDM software remains secure, reliable, and fully supported. Only IBM or a reseller can provide the services required since access to the IBM proprietary code is needed to ensure all the services provided are properly configured and all updates and upgrades are properly pushed through. Without the renewal of the IBM Infosphere MDM annual software subscription and support, VA will not be able to receive critical software updates, enhancements, software corrections, and technical support, which will pose an immediate risk to patient safety, claims processing, benefit payments and other VA business processes.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. It was determined however that limited competition is viable among resellers for this brand name item. 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: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the agency will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be fully competed.

8. Market Research: Government technical experts conducted web based market research in October 2024 and reviewed similar alternative solutions. These alternative solutions included PiLog MDM, Intelligent Master Data Management Platform Informatica, TIBCO EBX, Stibo Systems MDM, SAP Master Data Governance, Pimcore, and Oracle Customer Data Management Cloud. All of the products reviewed did not meet the VA requirement to be fully interoperable and compatible with the existing VA MPI service due to the need to create and test the scoring logic rules required to achieve the critical high match rates and duplicate reduction rates with VA MPI that are

Page 4 of required to prevent patient safety issues resulting from mismatched clinical data or benefits payment issues resulting from incorrect identity matches between VA MPI and the identity software product. As identified in Section 5 of this document, it is estimated a cost of $25 million and 4 years is required to bring the products into compliance with this requirement. Additional market research in the form of product comparison reports from a leading market research firm confirmed the Government technical experts conclusion.

Only IBM or a reseller can provide the maintenance services required since access to the IBM proprietary code is needed to ensure all the services provided are properly configured and all updates and upgrades are properly pushed through.

The Contract Specialist also performed additional market research in November 2024 by utilizing the NASA SEWP Provider Lookup tool to determine whether the brand name IBM Infosphere MDM is available from NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. It was determined that there are 51 authorized resellers of brand name name IBM Infosphere MDM software products and offerings that hold current GWACs under NASA SEWP Groups B, C and D, such that limited competition is anticipated.

9. Other Facts: None.