JA Dragon - Redacted.pdf

Nuance Dragon Professional Enterprise Subscription and Technical Support

VA-26-00007509

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 issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Nuance Dragon Professional software subscriptions, maintenance and technical support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services:

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology, End Users Services, has a requirement for a brand name enterprise Nuance Dragon Professional subscription, maintenance, and technical support delivery order. This Enterprise Agreement will establish a single contract vehicle for all Nuance Dragon Professional subscriptions and technical support at VA. This contract represents the continuation of Nuance Dragon Professional software and associated support, that have been acquired or will be acquired by VA during the contract’s period of performance.

Additionally, this Enterprise Agreement will establish a single management console, provide a means for the VA to scale up and down license increments monthly, provide the ability to prorate or sync new licenses with each period of performance.

The period of performance (PoP) shall be one 12-month Base Period with two 12-month Option Periods and three optional items for additional licenses in each period of performance. The total estimated value of the proposed action, inclusive of all option periods and optional items, is

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.507-6(a), 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 16.507-6(b)(2), 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 Section 8 of this document, VA determined that only the brand name Nuance Dragon Professional software is capable of meeting VA needs and that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for brand name Nuance Dragon Professional software on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V.

CONTROL NUMBER VA-26-00007509

Nuance Dragon delivers up to 99% speech recognition accuracy, allowing the user to speak naturally at normal speeds and the words appear on the computer screen almost instantly, enabling users to dictate documents up to three times faster than they can type. Moreover, Nuance Dragon Professional allows creation of custom commands to control programs or functions. The enterprise-ready speech recognition permits users to dictate and edit documents and emails, spreadsheets, presentations, send emails, search the Web, and automate business processes with unparalleled speed, ease, and comfort. Nuance Dragon Professional includes a minimal user interface, which allows the user to work hands-free to turn spoken words into text and voice commands into action, and only Nuance Dragon Professional allows a user to store a custom dictionary of words or corrections. Based on market research, the VA anticipates limited competition among resellers for the required Nuance Dragon Professional software, licenses, and associated maintenance and support services to track the number of licenses being used. Based on the above analysis, only Nuance or its authorized resellers can meet the VA’s requirements.

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 could meet the Government’s requirements. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Nuance Dragon Professional software subscriptions and technical 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 Contract Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition:

The Government will post its solicitation along with this justification for this brand specific requirement on NASA SEWP. All contract holders that meet the set aside requirement will have a fair opportunity.

Additionally, 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.

8. Market Research:

The Government’s technical experts conducted market research in March 2026 and reviewed similar products such as Microsoft Windows Speech Recognition, FreeSR, Tazti, Braina, Dolphin SuperNova, and JAWS, along with the maintenance requirements associated with each. While these tools offer useful features—ranging from basic built-in dictation (Windows Speech Recognition), open-source flexibility (FreeSR), consumer-level voice commands (Tazti), AI-driven personal assistance (Braina), and accessibility support for visually impaired users (SuperNova and JAWS)—none are designed to deliver the high-accuracy, secure, customizable, and enterprise-grade speech-to-text capabilities required for government documentation workflows. Most lack advanced vocabulary modeling, continuous high-accuracy dictation, administrative controls, secure deployment options, or the professional support infrastructure necessary for mission-critical environments.

Nuance Dragon Professional is the only evaluated solution that provides the accuracy, adaptability, security posture, and enterprise management features required to meet the Government’s operational needs. Its proven performance in high-volume documentation, support for specialized terminology, robust user-profile management, and secure, compliant deployment options distinguish it from all alternatives. Based on these findings, the technical experts determined that no other product could meet the agency’s performance, reliability, and security requirements.

Without Nuance Dragon Professional, VA operations could suffer due to decreased efficiency, increased manual data entry, and potential errors. This may lead to longer wait times, slower processing of medical records, and higher operational costs, ultimately impacting the quality of veteran care. Only Nuance or its authorized resellers can provide necessary support, maintenance, and licensing for Nuance Dragon Professional due to its proprietary nature. Any other source would need access to Nuance's proprietary data to meet VA's requirements.

Based on these results, the Contract Specialist conducted additional market research by using part numbers submitted by the customer, in March 2026, and identified 139 contract holders that are resellers of brand name Dragon Professional products and services, by utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Market Research Tool/Provider Look-

up. Of these 139 resellers, 10 are verified as SDVOSBs. 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 brand name Dragon Professional Enterprise Subscription and Technical Support. Evidence of the SDVOSB resellers has been placed in the contract file.

9. Other Facts:

None

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.

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.

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 $900,000, therefore, the certification required by FAR 16.507-6(e)(1) serves as the Contracting Officer’s approval.