JA 36C10B25Q0251_Redacted.pdf

CONTROL NUMBER VA-25-00044970

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: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price delivery order for the procurement of brand name AppleCare Operating System (OS) Support - Alliance service plan to support Enterprise Mobile Device wireless voice and data plans that utilize the Apple OS issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC).

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Information Technology (IT) Operations and Services, Solution Delivery (SD), Telecommunications Provisioning Office (TPO) has a requirement for the acquisition of a brand name AppleCare OS Support - Alliance service plan for currently deployed Apple mobile devices for approximately 170,000 VA employees located in over 2,500 sites across 48 states. AppleCare OS Support - Alliance provides enterprise-level incident support for system components, network configuration and administration, professional software applications, web applications and services, and technical issues.

The AppleCare OS Support - Alliance plan includes AppleCare Help Desk Support, an annual technical support plan that covers an unlimited number of support incidents for software installation, launch, and use; hardware and software diagnosis and troubleshooting; and issue isolation for Apple-based solutions. The period of performance is a 12-month base period, with 4, 12-month 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.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: VA has an existing ownership of 130,000 brand name Apple iPhones spread over VA operations worldwide. AppleCare OS Support - Alliance enables support for system components, network configuration and administration, professional software applications, web applications and services, and technical issues with Apple’s iPhone Operating System (iOS). In addition to the OS support, this service is required to support the VA’s IT SD TPO with standards-based enterprise Mobile Device OS support services to include incident reporting status (software, patches, status, etc.). This will ultimately provide VA-OIT an Enterprise solution that tracks VA enterprise tickets and incidents for VA Apple OS mobile devices.

Specifically, the current iOS system and software communicates through an Apple registration code that is based on Apple’s proprietary network, hardware, and software data. Apple is the only source that can provide the technical support tools to diagnose and troubleshoot the Apple OS; and issue isolation for Apple-based solutions. Due to the proprietary code within the Apple iOS system, only Apple support can detect and resolve the OS issues. Brand name AppleCare OS Support - Alliance is the sole manufacturer solution for incident reporting and help desk services that can deliver enterprise-level incident support via phone and email for Apple OS technical issues with a technical support plan that covers an unlimited number of support incidents. Any other brand name support is unable to provide Apple OS incident reporting with 24/7 Help Desk Service due to proprietary protections for mobile device operating systems.

Additionally, no other brand name service will be compatible VA mobile iPhone smartphones that operate exclusively on the Apple OS. No other service can provide this communication capability outside of Apple corporate operations.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: 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. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among resellers for brand name AppleCare OS Support - Alliance. 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: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research for alternative Apple support providers in April 2025. The market research concluded that there are no alternative Apple OS support providers as no other similar support was identified. Apple offers a closed software ecosystem and VA has adopted Apple as its primary phone manufacture. This allows VA to receive support for Apple products that no other brand name can provide as it does not exist. Additionally, VA Telecommunications Subject Matter Experts regularly review industry trade publications and conduct internet research to ascertain if any other brand name service is available.

Based on all these market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts have determined that only brand name AppleCare OS Support - Alliance can meet VA’s requirement.

Additional market research was conducted in April 2025 utilizing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) (SEWP) Market Research Tool using the part number “D5691ZM/A”. This search resulted in numerous SDVOSB resellers that can provide the required software maintenance.

Therefore, limited competition is expected among SDVOSB resellers.

9. Other Facts: N/A.