JA - 36C10B20Q0531.pdf

Control Number VA-20-00077900

JUSTIFICATION

FOR 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: This 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 Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Data Innovations (DI) Instrument Manager software licenses, installation, configuration, workflow and Auto-verification (AV) rules development, training, project management and maintenance.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 10 Pathology & Laboratory Medicine Services (PLMS) services has a requirement to procure 122 DI software licenses, installation, configuration, workflow and AV rules development, training, project management and maintenance. This effort encompasses 11 total facilities within VISN 10. Instrument Manager is the software that is currently utilized within VISN 10 for AV, which provides a process for automatically verifying test results based on a predetermined set of rules established by the laboratory. VA requires additional expansion of this capability to improve operational efficiency by eliminating the need for a medical laboratory physician or technologist to approve each test result before it is released to the laboratory information system for reporting. In general, with AV, patient results generated by an instrument interfaced to a laboratory information system are compared by computer software against laboratory-defined acceptance parameters (rules). If results fall within these parameters, they are automatically released for reporting with no additional human intervention. VISN 10 conducts tests for Chemistry, Coagulation, Hematology and Microbiology and Urinalysis test specialties. Without AV capability, medical technologists have to manually review, approve and enter results into patient records. The Contractor’s installation team will work with VISN 10 engineers, technicians, laboratory scientists, Information Technology staff and network engineers to set up, configure and test the lab instruments with the DI Instrument Manager software to validate that end-to-end lab tests orders, results, and quality control metrics are all connected and functioning in an accurate and optimal manner at the VISN 10 facilities. Training shall consist of basic training on the Instrument Manager software for each facility within VISN 10. Configuration involves providing device configurations for the Instrument Manager Software. Software Maintenance is different per each facility, but examples include maintenance for testing to improve system performance and detecting any issues, to include resolving those issues, as well as maintenance enhancement of existing features of the software. The Contractor shall provide brand name DI components (licenses and services). The Contractor shall perform the VISN10 AV effort in multiple waves between the base (waves 1&2) and option period (waves 3–5). The Period of Performance (PoP) shall be

VISN 10 Pathology Auto-Verification

12-months from date of award, with one 12-month option period. The overall PoP shall not exceed 24 months.

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”.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers of the required brand name DI software licenses, installation, configuration, workflow and AV rules development, training, project management, and maintenance.

The DI software is currently used by all of VISN 10’s sites for interfacing common laboratory equipment with the VistA laboratory platform. No other software is currently able to provide the required interface with VistA. VISN 10 is comprised of 11 facilities:

Marion, Dayton, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Detroit, Battle Creek, Ann Arbor, Saginaw, Cincinnati, Chillicothe and Columbus. Each of these sites currently utilize DI software, and are in various phases to achieve AV. VISN 10’s infrastructure consists of the DI Software and the procurement of another vendor’s systems and software would require a completely new infrastructure and impose significant technical risk as VA would have to implement that brand’s entirely new software suite. No other brand name software licenses will be able to meet VA’s interoperability and compatibility requirements.

Specifically, no other brand name software would be able to communicate and function with the currently fielded DI software licenses due to proprietary constraints within the software and its integration with the AV process. Only software maintenance and premium technical support services provided by DI or a reseller can meet the requirements as the existing software is proprietary to DI.

Only maintenance support provided by DI, or a reseller, can meet the requirements as the existing software is proprietary to DI. Specifically, without access to DI proprietary source code, no other source is able to provide access to the Customer Web Portal for drivers, upgrades, patches, along with access to the DI Support Line.

Additionally, since the software is proprietary, no third-party source exists that provides analysis, troubleshooting, and resolution of any software product-related problems other than an DI reseller.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Currently, no other companies other than DI or a reseller can provide the required DI software licenses, installation, configuration, workflow and AV rules development, training, and maintenance. Market research was conducted, details of which are in Section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. It was determined, however, that limited competition is viable among resellers for this brand

VISN 10 Pathology Auto-Verification name acquisition. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2), notice of award of this action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page within 14 days of award and this justification will be made publicly available. This justification shall also be posted with the solicitation on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website for review by prospective offerors.

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. VISN 10 will continue to research and monitor whether there are emerging products that enter the marketplace that are interoperable and compatible with the existing DI software licenses.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted by VA technical experts in May and September 2020 by researching similar products via internet catalog research and reviews such as those from Oracle and Orchard Software. Based on this analysis, the VA technical experts determined that no other brand name software would be able to communicate and function with the currently fielded DI software licenses due to proprietary constraints within the software and its integration with the current DI system.

Additionally, as detailed in Section 5 of this justification, no other vendors can provide the required software required to interface with VistA. The VA technical experts reviewed products from Oracle and Orchard Software to determine whether any other sources can provide DI installation, configuration, workflow and AV rules development, training, and maintenance. After review, it was determined that no other vendor can provide the required brand name DI installation, configuration, workflow and AV rules development, training, project management and maintenance due to the proprietary source code, no other source is able to provide access to the Customer Web Portal for drivers, upgrades, patches, along with access to the DI Support Line to the proprietary DI software. Each software developer offers a proprietary system and associated services that will only operate with its respective hardware and software. Based on this market research, only DI or resellers of DI can meet VA technical requirements.

Additional market research was conducted in July 2020 by the Contract Specialist by utilizing the Provider Lookup tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC website which identified numerous resellers of the required DI software licenses, installation, configuration, workflow and AV rules development, training, project management, and maintenance including 5 prospective SDVOSB GWAC holders. As a result, there is a reasonable expectation that limited competition exists on the NASA SEWP V GWAC for the brand name DI software licenses, installation, configuration, workflow and AV rules development, training, maintenance.

9. Other Facts: None.