JA_CommonLook SW Maintenance_5.27.2021_Final_Redacted.pdf

CommonLook Software Licenses and Maintenance Control Number VA-21-00052485

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 (FFP) delivery order (DO) issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for renewal of brand name Netcentric CommonLook software licenses and maintenance.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA Office of Information & Technology (OI&T), Enterprise Program Management Office, 508 Compliance Office requires renewal of the following three brand name NetCentric CommonLook software products:

one CommonLook Clarity license; one CommonLook Suite Professional license, which encompasses Common Look Portable Data Format (PDF) Global Access Advanced, and one CommonLook Office Global Access Professional products license. OI&T also requires commercial software maintenance services for each of those software licenses.

The 508 Compliance Office is tasked to ensure that all VA products are accessible in accordance with the requirements set forth in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (39 U.S.C § 794d), as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220).

To meet those requirements, VA requires renewal of the current software tools utilized to support accessibility. CommonLook Clarity provides the tools and methodology to effectively measure the accessibility of PDF electronic documents and track performance towards achieving accessibility consistent with Section 508 requirements.

CommonLook Global Access Advanced product, which is part of the CommonLook Suite Professional, greatly accelerates tedious remediation tasks and superimposes structure and methodology over the remediation process to ensure compliance with established accessibility standards. CommonLook Office Global Access Professional product, which is also part of the CommonLook Suite Professional, is a software plug-in that provides users with the ability to create accessible Section 508 compliant PDF documents directly from Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. The use of this tool does not require that the document author know information about tagging or other document authoring Section 508 concepts, and is a very useful tool that walks the author of documents through the process automatically The required software maintenance services on existing NetCentric CommonLook products shall provide VA with 50 hours of onsite support and access to all major and minor releases, hot fixes, patches, and customer support via email, telephone and required training. Software patches and updates email alerts shall be sent to VA within 48 hours of availability.

This support is required to ensure the accessibility tools remain functioning for the VA.

Contractor support shall include accessing the VACO Clarity Server as the Application Administrator to update patches, new releases, ad hoc troubleshooting, working with the VACO Clarity Server Database Admin. The Period of Performance is 12 months from the date of award plus two 12-month option periods. The total estimated price of this acquisition is , inclusive of option periods.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 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 Subpart 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 the market research described in paragraph eight of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for the aforementioned brand name NetCentric CommonLook software products.

As discussed in section eight below, though other software products are available for Assistive Technology (AT) devices that perform similar functions to brand name Netcentric CommonLook software products, no other alternative software can meet all of VA’s functional requirements. Specifically, the CommonLook Global Access Advanced product, which is part of the CommonLook Suite Professional, is a plug-in to Adobe Acrobat that allows it to extend the accessibility options of the Adobe Acrobat.

The CommonLook Global Access Advanced product allows the user to make PDF documents compliant with Section 508 requirements in several key ways that have significant impact for accessibility. These methods include automating the accessibility of complex data tables, allowing for specific tagging of images on each page, and providing a mechanism to verify document conformance to a variety of standards including but not limited to the Section 508 Refresh standards that are not found in Adobe Acrobat. The CommonLook Global Access Advanced product allows the user to make PDF documents compliant with Section 508 requirements in several key ways that have significant impact for accessibility. These methods include automating the accessibility of complex data tables, allowing for specific tagging of images on each page, and providing a mechanism to verify document conformance to a variety of standards including but not limited to the Section 508 Refresh standards that are not found in Adobe Acrobat. Market research efforts have found that similar products in the marketplace have the ability to generate a passing PDF testing report however similar products consistently fail the WCAG 2.0 required for Section 508 testing and 508 compliance. The brand name Netcentric Commonlook software is the only product in the marketplace that has the ability to provide a fully automated tester that passes WCAG 2.0/ Section 508 testing since the users are required to verify testing checkpoints where human interaction is necessary to ensure that nothing gets missed to validate Section 508 compliance standard accuracy.

Meeting these key requirements strengthens the ability of Assistive Technologies to render Acrobat content available to disabled users. No other tool is available in the marketplace that has these functionalities that are a VA requirement. CommonLook Office Global Access Advanced is a plug-in that allows Microsoft Office products to be made accessible to disabled users. It allows for Microsoft applications to make non-compliant documents compliant and converts Microsoft Office documents into accessible Portable Document Formats (PDF), formatting documents so they are readable by disabled users’ with Assistive Technology. CommonLook Office also tags images, data tables, and columns in Microsoft documents properly, all required by Section 508 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0). No other tools can integrate with Microsoft Office products to convert documents to comply with Section 508 Refresh Standards, including Microsoft Office’s “Save As” feature. Common Look Clarity is a database product that scans and tracks the accessibility of non-compliant PDFs and Microsoft Office documents across the enterprise, assesses the degree of compliance, and allows for reporting of the non-compliant documents that have been found. As part of the scanning database, it reports on non-compliant documents, how those documents were created, how many defects were found, and who the author was for the document. This capability allows for new and improved training so the workforce can create content more in compliance with Section 508, and do so more quickly. No other tool is available in the market that has this capability which is a VA functional requirement.

Additionally, only resellers of NetCentric can provide the required software maintenance. The current NetCentric CommonLook Maintenance Plus package covers CommonLook Clarity and CommonLook Suite Professional, which encompasses Common Look PDF Global Access Advanced and CommonLook Office Global Access Professional products, which is proprietary. Due to the proprietary nature of the NetCentric software, specifically the CommonLook software plug-ins, only NetCentric or its authorized resellers can provide the required software maintenance as only NetCentric has access to the proprietary software source code necessary for maintenance and updates. Any other source would need access to the NetCentric proprietary data in order to provide these maintenance services and ensure the software is properly maintained, updated and configured. Access to the NetCentric proprietary data is required to complete these efforts. Therefore, only NetCentric or its authorized resellers are capable of providing the software maintenance.

No other brand software provider is capable of providing the required software maintenance; therefore, only NetCentric or its authorized resellers are capable of providing the software maintenance. Also, none of the other similar Section 508 accessibility software reviewed meets the Government’s requirements as previously discussed. Therefore, only NetCentric or its authorized resellers can meet the VA’s requirements. Since there are hundreds of millions of PDF documents currently on the Veteran benefits site failure to renew licenses would compromise the PDF accessibility for disabled Veterans which would jeopardize Veteran’s overall benefits and the processing of benefits.

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, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for these brand name items. 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 at beta.sam.gov 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 any new Section 508 accessibility software tools enter the market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research by reviewing other similar products in February 2021, such as Microsoft Word, Access-for-All.ch and Tingtun.no and maintenance associated with these products and other similar products. Due to the proprietary constraints as discussed in section five of this document, no other service provider was found that can provide the software or associated maintenance on the currently fielded NetCentric software. In addition, no other brand name software can meet all of VA’s functional requirements as outlined in section five of this document. Failure to continue the software and associated maintenance for this software and provide updated licenses and test results will result in the loss of functionality within the Section 508 compliance office. Based on these reviews, VA’s technical experts could not find any other sources that could provide the required functionality offered by NetCentric CommonLook brand name software or provide the required software and required maintenance. Therefore, the Government has determined that no other software or software maintenance plan could meet the requirements.

Market Research was conducted on January 25, 2021 to ascertain the ability of any other source, other than NetCentric or its resellers, to provide the software maintenance services for the NetCentric CommonLook software. A Request for Information (RFI) was posted on the NASA SEWP V GWAC seeking vendors who could provide the required software maintenance for the NetCentric CommonLook software. VA received quotes from two resellers, Architecture Solutions and Four Points Technology, that can provide the required NetCentric CommonLook software maintenance. Therefore, limited competition is anticipated.

The Contract Specialist (CS) conducted market research in April 2021 by using the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Look up Tool to determine what vendors are capable of meeting the requirement. Based on this market research, the CS found multiple service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses capable of meeting the full requirement. Therefore in order to promote award opportunity for Small Disadvantaged Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) concerns, quotes will only be considered from SDVOSB contract holders registered and verified in Vendor Information Pages (VIP) database (http://www.va.gov/OSDBU/index.asp) within the NASA SEWP V GWAC Groups B, C, and D. Additionally, the NASA SEWP V GWAC has a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests, therefore, as long as the required item or service is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWACs, items and services can be added to a NASA SEWP V GWAC holder’s catalog on a daily basis.

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.

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 GWAC prices have previously been determined fair and reasonable.

Additionally, price competition is expected among authorized resellers for this action.

Additional price analysis may be performed in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(b).

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of the renewal of brand name Netcentric CommonLook software licenses and maintenance on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in paragraph 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.