J_A_Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-26-00038071

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

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

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way

Eatontown, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: This proposed action is for the award of a brand name firm-fixed-price delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for hardware and software maintenance support for existing brand name IWA Technical Services R-Comm Systems PT2020 Radio Paging Terminals.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: This requirement is to renew Paging System Maintenance for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Veterans Integrated Service Network VISN 23 sites. This is a brand name requirement for VISN 23 paging systems. The Contractor shall at a minimum, provide paging system maintenance support on the following components:

main RComm PT2020 radio paging terminal; backup RComm PT2020 radio paging terminal; R-Comm paging encoder; paging tone remote interface board; main high power Bluewave Broadband Neptune series paging transmitter; backup paging transmitter; main paging antenna; main antenna transmission line; backup paging antenna; and backup antenna transmission line. The maintenance support shall include critical hardware and software upgrades within one business day of release, non-critical hardware (HW) and software (SW) upgrades within one month of release. In addition, the Contractor shall ensure system documentation is current, provide on-site visits to ensure the proper operation of the components, provide training, and monitor system performance. The Contractor shall also provide technical support for emergency troubleshooting as required, extra pager programmers, tools (ex. tools for antennae repair/troubleshooting) and other components, as required, to keep these paging systems operating properly. The Contractor shall provide 24/7 telephone technical support, immediate replacement of defective on-site Contractor HW/SW components, and replacement within four hours of defective VA facility HW/SW components. The Contractor shall provide Onsite or Virtual Training of key personnel at the VISN 23 facilities in the operation and technical maintenance of the equipment and systems. The Contractor shall conduct up to two (2)additional remote/virtual or onsite training sessions per site per year for technical staff to accommodate new OIT employee onboarding and proficiency in maintaining the paging system. The total number of training engagements is not to exceed three (3) sessions per year per site will be determined by and coordinated with the Area Manager responsible for each site or his/her delegate. The period of performance shall consist of one (1) 12-month base period, with two (2) 12-month

Paging System Maintenance Renewal Control Number VA-26-00038071 option periods. The total estimated value of the proposed action is , inclusive of all options.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul 16.507-7(a), 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 Revolutionary FAR Overhaul 16.507-7(a), “an item peculiar to one manufacturer (e.g., a particular brand-name, product, or a feature of a product that is peculiar to one manufacturer.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: This is a brand name justification in support of Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul 11.204, “Items Peculiar to One Manufacturer”. Based on extensive market research as described in section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available among IWA Technical Services R-Comm Systems PT2020 Radio Paging Terminal resellers for this brand name requirement. Only IWA Technical Services or its resellers can provide access to the proprietary equipment and source code necessary to maintain the existing system. No other maintenance support provider would have access to the proprietary code base and configurations necessary for R-Comm Systems PT2020 Radio Paging Terminals to operate correctly. Specifically, only IWA Technical Services, or a reseller, can maintain the paging encoder and paging system software included in the existing system. Only IWA Technical Services or a reseller can provide the necessary maintenance updates to these components due to proprietary source code. Failure to maintain these components would render the existing system inoperable. Use of another brand would require replacement of the existing infrastructure at an estimated cost of over $700,000.00 plus additional costs for maintenance and training which is not expected to be recovered through competition. Failure to secure these services would result in loss of a system vital to patient care. The internal paging system provides critical response capabilities with Code Blue events. In these situations, the ability to respond timely to patient emergencies can have a significant impact on their healthcare and survivable outcome of the event. The use of in-house pagers provides the ability for immediate notification of the healthcare team to respond to the patient emergency. Failure to maintain the paging system jeopardizes these patient safety capabilities.

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 can meet the Government’s requirements. However, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for maintenance support for these brand name items. In accordance with the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul parts 16.507-6(f)(1) this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

Paging System Maintenance Renewal Control Number VA-26-00038071

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted web-based Market Research by reviewing other similar hardware and software products to ascertain if other brands could meet VA’s functionality requirements. This market research is an ongoing process starting in 2009 and continuously being conducted, as recently as October 2025. The other similar software reviewed included alternative manufactures such as Hewlett Packard (HP) OpenView, WhatsUp Gold, and Cisco Works. Based on reviews of these products/providers, the Government’s technical experts determined that none of these products/providers are authorized to provide the maintenance support to the existing proprietary R-Comm paging terminals. Further, Government technical experts have determined that access to the IWA Technical Services R-Comm proprietary information is required to perform this requirement. Due to the proprietary nature of the R-Comm Systems PT2020 Radio Paging Terminals, only the brand name components can be used in the proprietary system. No other products are interoperable or compatible. Using an alternative product or service other than the brand name IWA Technical Services R- Comm Systems PT2020 Radio Paging Terminals and services would necessitate a full replacement of the existing IWA Technical Services infrastructure in place.

Based on this market research, it has been determined that only R-Comm Systems PT2020 Radio Paging Terminals or its authorized resellers have access to the proprietary source code to meet all of VA’s needs and can avoid the estimated duplicative costs as outlined in Section 5 of this justification.

Additional market research was conducted in February 2026 through the NASA SEWP provider lookup tool which was screened for a list of all IWA Technical Service R-Comm Systems PT2020 Radio Paging Terminals resellers. The search found one (1) SDVOSB reseller. IWA Technical Services was contacted in February 2026 to determine if it had any other authorized service providers under NASA SEWP. While IWA did not identify any additional resellers, they did advise the VA that they would be “happy” to provide any other SEWP vendor with a price quotation.

There are currently 31 SDVOSBs on SEWP, and the NASA SEWP vehicle permits Technology Refreshment for addition of products/services at any time during the life of the vehicle. Per NASA SEWP, products can be added within 24 hours to a schedule holder’s contract if the manufacturer is already approved on SEWP, and IWA Technical Services is already approved on SEWP. The request for quote will stay open for a period of 5 days to allow vendors adequate time to add services to their schedule and encourage more limited competition. Based on the market research above a reasonable expectation for limited competition on the NASA

SEWP V GWAC.

9. Other Facts: None.