JA - Anthology BB Redacted.pdf

VA-24-00069973

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

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 brand name, firm-fixed-price base contract with four optional ordering periods issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the acquisition of brand name Anthology Blackboard Learn Ultra Learning Management System (LMS) subscription services for up to 200 users. The solution shall include a plugin that allows for a lockdown browser with fully automated online proctoring for remote testing and additional ancillary support services.

3. Description of Supplies or Services:

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), National Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (11DIAG2) requires a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for virtual classroom management tools. The solution requires an annual software subscription for an LMS for up to 200 users with accessible content and courses from anywhere at any time; implementation and training services; and reports on student activity, engagement, and performance. The Period of Performance shall be one base year with four 12-month option periods. The total estimated value of the proposed action is $521,802.90.

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 upon market research, as described in section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available among resellers for a Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FEDRAMP) approved LMS with an Authority to Operate (ATO).

Anthology Blackboard Learn Ultra Learning Management System (LMS)

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and National Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PLM) strives to provide high quality, effective, and efficient laboratory services to those responsible for providing care to the Veterans at the point-of-care as well as throughout all the points of the Veterans’ health care in an effective, timely and compassionate manner. The mission of the PLM is to ensure clinical laboratories in the VA perform at high quality and set the standard for the practice of laboratory medicine for our Veterans. Medical Laboratory Scientists (MLS) are essential members of the healthcare team as their work directly impacts patient care through accurate diagnoses, treatment guidance and disease prevention.

The premier international agency for accreditation and approval of education programs in the clinical laboratory sciences and related health professions is National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS). VHA currently has two well established medical laboratory scientist educational programs accredited through NAACLS, the Myron E Rubnitz, M.D. Medical Laboratory Science (MLS) Program at Hines VAMC and the School of Medical Technology at the Zablocki VAMC. These programs provide internships for students enrolled in a medical laboratory science curriculum from affiliated academic institutions and students with a baccalaureate degree or higher in natural sciences. Students who graduate from a NAACLS accredited program are eligible to sit for the American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Certification Exam (ASCP BOC). This certification is required for employment.

National Pathology and Laboratory Service is expanding the number of VHA laboratories that offer NAACLS accredited programs by opening enrollment to students who currently hold a baccalaureate degree or higher in natural sciences in accordance with the ASCP BOC and the American Medical Technologists certification requirements. The program will deliver the didactic portion of the students’ education online via the two NAACLS accredited programs (Hub Sites) while students complete experiential clinical training opportunities at participating VA laboratories (Spoke Sites).

The MLS (0644) designation is one of the top ten critical career fields for VHA.

Students graduating from accredited or approved training programs has decreased significantly in recent years. As a result, VHA has a critical requirement to develop a national comprehensive strategy to educate and retain students in this critical occupation starting immediately. Through the Government’s market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification, all known commercial learning management services are provided on a cloud based Software as a Service (SaaS) subscription basis. Of the available solutions, only Anthology’s Blackboard solution holds a FedRamp approval which is required for use in VA. If any of the other known solutions were able to start the FedRamp certification process, it would be expected to take them between12-18 months to obtain approval. Delaying implementation for up to one year to allow for FedRamp certification is unacceptable. In addition to delays risking VA’s access to a sufficient number of properly certified clinical laboratory scientists, which could inversely impact Veteran care, it would require laboratories to continue, and expand, mitigation strategies that include adjusting workload, reducing services, increasing send out testing, and potentially hiring additional contract fee basis employees to fill vacant positions.

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 authorized resellers for brand name Anthology Blackboard Lean software subscription, as well as training and support. 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 Contracting 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 marketplace that would enable future products to be considered.

8. Market Research:

The Government’s technical experts conducted market research from June 2023 to March 2024 to ascertain if sources other than brand name Anthology Blackboard LMS could meet VA’s needs.

On January 17, 2024 and February 5, 2024, the technical experts met with Instructure Canvas to review the proposed solution. Although, this solution does meet most of the technical requirements, the SaaS solution is not FedRAMP certified and would cause unacceptable delays of between 12-18 months to implement.

On January 29, 2024 and February 26, 2024, the technical experts met with Desire2Learn (D2L) to review the proposed solution. Although, this solution does meet most of the technical requirements, the SaaS solution is not FedRAMP certified and would cause unacceptable delays of between 12-18 months to implement.

The Government’s technical experts also conducted further web-based market research in June 2024 on other similar software products which included Moodle.

The technical experts were able to try Moodle using their free open-source format and evaluate the upgraded pay version. The free open-source version lacks ease of implementation and navigation which is critical for VA’s program to be successful. The upgraded pay version has many functionalities, and meets several of VA’s requirements (proctoring, assessments, interactive content, certificate of completion, tests and quizzes) after installation of additional plugins.

However, these plugins lack vendor support which is critical for VA to meets its business needs. Furthermore, customization, which would be required, has been reported to be lost and requiring rebuild when applying system upgrades which is not acceptable to VA.

Based on these market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts have determined that only the brand name Anthology Blackboard is capable of meeting all VA’s technical requirements.

Additional market research was conducted by the Contract Specialist in July 2024 utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Market Research Tool/Provider Look-up Tool. This look-up resulted in identifying 15 contract holders that are resellers of Learning Management System (Anthology, Anthology Inc, Anthology Inc, Anthology Incorporated, Blackboard, Blackboard Inc.). Of these 15 resellers, two are verified SDVOSBs (Better Direct, LLC and Alvarez, LLC). Furthermore, NASA SEWP has a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests provided that the required item or service is within the scope of the NASA SEWP V contract suite and therefore additional competition may be achieved. As a result, there is reasonable expectation that competition exists among SDVOSB value added resellers on the NASA SEWP V for the needed requirement. Evidence of the SDVOSB resellers has been placed in the contract file.

9. Other Facts:

None

10. Technical and 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.

Jill Johnson Date: ________________________________

Project Manager Signature: ____________________________

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable because NASA SEWP V GWAC prices have previously been determined fair and reasonable. Additionally, the successful quote will be compared to the published price lists on the NASA SEWP V GWAC price catalog of the successful offeror. Finally, the successful quote will be compared with the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

Christopher Minetti Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

12. Contracting Officer Certification/Approval

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. This contract action exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold, but does not exceed $750,000, therefore, the certification required by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(A) serves as the Contracting Officer’s approval.”

Christopher Minetti Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________