JA_CommonLook SW Maintenance - redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-24-00015186

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 Allyant CommonLook software licenses and maintenance (CommonLook Software).

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information & Technology (OI&T), 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 (29 U.S.C. § 794d), as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220), August 7, 1998. To meet those tasks, 508 Compliance Office, requires software maintenance renewal for the following Section 508 accessibility tools purchased by VA for use in providing accessibility to all VA staff.

CommonLook was merged into Allyant in August 2022. The 508 Compliance Office requires up-to-date support and maintenance of the following Portable Document Format (PDF) accessibility tools: CommonLook Clarity Unlimited Enterprise, CommonLook Suite (PDF and MS-Office tools), CommonLook Training Modules, and CommonLook Power Support for up to 2,000 licenses. In addition, there is an Optional Task to purchase additional CommonLook Suite licenses and CommonLook Power Support. This optional task may be exercised in bundles of 250 with a Not to Exceed amount of 1,000, in the base and option periods.

The software maintenance package shall cover CommonLook Clarity and CommonLook Suite (PDF and MS-Office tools) and shall provide VA with the latest releases of the software as well as 50 hours of onsite support and training. The maintenance package shall include access to all major and minor releases, hot fixes, patches and customer support via email and telephone, and software upgrades shall be done electronically over the Internet. Software keys and the instructions for downloading and installing the software shall be sent to VA within 48 hours of receiving a signed order. Software patches and updates via email alerts shall be sent to VA within 48 hours of availability.

The Period of Performance is July 2,2024 through July 1, 2025 with two 12-month option periods and one Optional Task for additional licenses and maintenance support.

The total estimated price of this acquisition is inclusive of option periods and the optional task.

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.

CommonLook Software Licenses and Maintenance Control Number VA-24-00015186

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 Section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for the aforementioned brand name CommonLook software licenses and maintenance.

As discussed in Section 8 below, although other software products are available for Assistive Technology (AT) devices, no other alternative software can meet all of VA’s functional requirements. Specifically, the CommonLook Suite product, which is part of the CommonLook Suite (PDF and MS-Office tools), is a plug-in to Adobe Acrobat that allows it to extend the accessibility options of the Adobe Acrobat. The CommonLook Suite meets our requirements which allows the user to make PDF documents compliant with Section 508 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 Suite product allows the user to make PDF documents compliant with Section 508 requirements in several key ways that have significant impact for accessibility. 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 Web Content Accessibliity Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 required for Section 508 testing and 508 compliance. The brand name 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 AT 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 Suite includes 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 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 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 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 CommonLook can provide the required software maintenance. The maintenance package covers CommonLook Clarity and CommonLook Suite Professional, which encompasses Common Look Suite, which is proprietary. Due to the proprietary nature of the software, specifically the CommonLook software plug-ins, only or its authorized resellers can provide the required software maintenance as only CommonLook has access to the proprietary software source code necessary for maintenance and updates. Any other source would need access to the CommonLook proprietary data in order to provide these maintenance services and ensure the software is properly maintained, updated and configured. Access to the CommonLook proprietary data is required to complete these efforts. Therefore, only CommonLook 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 CommonLook 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 CommonLook 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 January 2024, such as Microsoft Word, ACCESS FOR ALL and Tingtun and maintenance associated with these products and other similar products. Due to the proprietary constraints as discussed in Section 5 of this document, no other service provider was found that can provide the software or associated maintenance on the currently fielded CommonLook software. In addition, no other brand name software can meet all of VA’s functional requirements as outlined in Section 5 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 did not find any other sources that could provide the required functionality or provide the 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 8, 2024 to ascertain the ability of any other source, other than CommonLook or its resellers, to provide the software maintenance services for the 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 CommonLook software. VA received a quote from one reseller, Blue Tech, that can provide the required CommonLook software maintenance.

As a result, the Contract Specialist (CS) conducted additional market research in February 2024 by using the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup Tool to determine what vendors could meet the requirement using keyword: CommonLook. The search returned 20 Contract Holders, and 203 Number of Products, under the Provider Allyant., with associated names “CommonLook.” Of the 20 contract holders, there were five Approved Resellers, and eight Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs), Contract Group B and C.

Based on the results of the review set forth above, there is reasonable expectation that two or more SDVOSBs will be able to provide the required CommonLook Software licenses and maintenance. Therefore, given that there is a reasonable expectation of competition between at least two capable SDVOSBs, it has been determined by the Contracting Officer that the subject Request for Quote will be released as a SDVOSB set-aside under the existing NASA SEWP V contract vehicle, under the Value-Added Reseller North American Industry Classification System code 541519.

9. Other Facts: None.

10. Technical/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 based on anticipated limited competition. Additionally, NASA SEWP V has already determined the prices on contract to be fair and reasonable and more competitive pricing may result from competition. Finally, the successful quote may be compared with the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

12. Contracting Officer Certification/Approval

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Advocate for Competition 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 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.