JA - NearStar - Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-23-00018776

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 firm-fixed price contract with NearStar, Inc. (NearStar), for brand name NearStar software maintenance support and professional services in support of Information Technology (IT) Operations Services (IO) Production Print Operations (PPO).

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology (OIT), has a requirement for brand name maintenance support and technical services for its NearStar perpetual software. The professional services will be utilized to analyze output print files for new and existing IO customer applications and to provide technical expertise to evaluate, IO print production equipment and processes and make recommendations to improve the conversion of print ready files and optimize the print output process. This includes migrating, configuring, converting, formatting, and coding efforts for print output jobs that will be processed by the current NearStar DataServer Print Production infrastructure, which consists of the NearStar DataServer, Accounting and Tracking Operations Manager (ATOM) and Job Entry Subsystem (JES) DataGateway. The Contractor shall create modules to support onboarding applications that may not have current functionality to integrate with the NearStar software and print infrastructure at each of the IO Data Centers. Additionally, this action will provide 24 hours a day, 7 days a week maintenance and technical support on the existing NearStar DataServer Manager, NearStar ATOM and NearStar JES DataGateway software licenses. NearStar's software is currently installed and in use at three (3) different Data Centers within IO.

The NearStar software is a foundational component that enables the centralization of print and the financial management for Print Production billing. The NearStar suite provides a multi-print data format input software that integrates both mainframe and Secure File Transfer Protocol inbound data files and standardizes output into a uniform format which reduces production costs. The NearStar software also provides a user interface to manage production offering segmented user access to VA partners and their respective files, therefore restricting access to Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Personal Health Information (PHI); custom reporting and data export, reroute work to alternate locations; print file testing and review; and historical/archive information. Under this effort, the Contractor shall ensure that print jobs are configured and converted from Line Conditioned Data Stream (LCDS), Word, Postscript, Text, Variable-Data Intelligent PostScript Printware (VIPP) and Portable Document Format (PDF) files to Print Ready jobs that support the current NearStar architecture for IO’s Print Production. The maintenance and technical support shall include upgrades and bug fixes, as well and remote and on-site technical support.

NearStar Professional Services and Software Maintenance Control No. VA-23-00018776

The period of performance shall include a 12-month base period with four (4) 12-month option periods for a continuation of the technical services and to renew the 24 hours a day, 7 days a week maintenance support. An optional task shall also be included in each period of performance for additional print job conversions. The option periods are required as the print conversion services, and maintenance renewals are a known, reoccurring need required for a minimum of five (5) years. VA anticipates use of its existing NearStar perpetual software for a period of at least 5 years. A base and four (4) option periods will ensure continuity of print jobs that directly impact our Veterans. A five-year contract will reduce the impact on our multiple VA business partners who would have to support program testing with limited resources as well as existing contracts for equipment, personnel, and print vendors. A transition from VA’s current print management software would impact close to 39 million pieces of mail and production of over 225 million printed images.

The total estimated value of the proposed action is , inclusive of all option periods and optional tasks.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is NearStar, 410 East Main Street, Lewisville, Texas 75057. This effort requires Contractor services to analyze new and current print job applications and provide custom coding and/or modules to enable them to utilize the currently deployed brand name NearStar software for standardized production printing. The required print conversion activities vary from job to job as not all VA data is similar and is based on what programmer owns it, the language its programmed in, and the system it comes from. Therefore, VA requires a Contractor to analyze each print job application, and develop the custom coding or module required to integrate each application with the existing NearStar software for standardized production printing operations. Once integrated, the NearStar software will have the ability to receive the print job data in its native format, such as VIPP, LCDS Word, Text, Postscript, and PDF files, from a customer, automatically convert this data to a standard Print Ready format and push that data to be printed at any VA printing location. The NearStar software will have the ability to provide custom reporting and data export and segmented user access. Due to the proprietary nature of the existing NearStar software, only NearStar can develop the code required to integrate these new and existing print job applications with the existing software. The NearStar source code contains scripts and proprietary programming that executes, and processes steps required to create the print output, and each script is unique based on print file source data. Therefore, the custom code and/or modules required to support the integration and onboarding of new and existing print job applications into the NearStar software and print infrastructure must be compatible and interoperable with the existing NearStar scripts and proprietary programming. As such, no other source can provide these services. Using any source other than NearStar would necessitate the total reconstruction of VA's existing print job management solution. VA PPO supports 15 customer applications with a minimum of 150 letter per application with a unique workflow that requires individualized coding. A new software solution would require reprogramming and integrating existing applications, building new profiles, integrating new contracts, training users, reconfiguring and integrating PPO’s database for contract billing and reconciliation. For example, the Veterans Benefits Administration is a customer with an application that can have several letters under it that would require programming or specialized coding depending on the solution.

The current output configuration is intertwined with the Government Publishing Office (GPO) contracts. An alternate software solution would require an assessment of all output configuration and contract impact which could result in additional cost to modify existing GPO contracts. PPO has an internal database that is dependent on NearStar’s output. The PPO database processes billing and invoices for the IO business office and GPO. An alternate solution would require reprogramming each letter and delaying vendor payments. Fielding an alternate solution would result in an estimated minimum delay of nine (9) months to critical, ongoing print production services directly supporting the timely processing of Veteran's benefits, as well as an estimated $3,000,000 in duplicative costs incurred for replacement of VA owned NearStar perpetual software licenses, travel, security clearances, technical development and support, specialized coding, programming, and testing by PPO, GPO, VA business partners and contracted vendors. These estimated duplicative costs are based on historical costs and would not be recovered through competition.

Additionally, this effort will provide 24x7 maintenance support on the existing NearStar software licenses which is required to support the NearStar software more effectively as IO continues to bring on mission critical applications.

Access to NearStar's proprietary source code is required to provide the necessary 24x7 maintenance support which will include upgrades and bug fixes, as well and remote and on-site technical support. NearStar owns the source code and copyrights to its software and is the only company that has the ability to make changes to it. Further, NearStar will not provide its source code or technical data specifications to outside entities and does not have authorized resellers of its software and maintenance support. VA confirmed this via email with NearStar on June 21, 2023. Failure to award this contract would directly impact VA’s print management and mailing of documents such as Veteran’s billing invoices, award letters, collections and educational time sensitive notices that could expose VA to potential legal actions by Veterans if not printed and mailed in a timely manner.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Furthermore, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities Page in accordance with FAR 5.201.

Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated.

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 actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: Market research was conducted in February 2023. In addition to NearStar, two other companies, LRS Output Management and RocSoft QDirect, with experience in output management were identified by the VA subject matter experts (SMEs). Each company was contacted by email to ask if it would be able to deliver the required services. Details of the conversation are as follows: LRS Output Management never responded. RocSoft QDirect responded but never followed up with the information requested. The VA’s SMEs conducted additional market research, consisting of web-based research, and it was determined that LRS and QDirect are unable to meet the Government’s requirement. Specifically, LRS and QDirect do not offer VIPP supports which are a core format of VA print files, custom reporting and data export, or segmented user access. Additionally, the Government technical experts reviewed whether any other sources could provide software maintenance support on the existing NearStar Software. Based on this review of similar brand name software maintenance support for the NearStar licenses, it was revealed that any source, other than NearStar, lacked access to the proprietary source code necessary to provide the required support, configuration, and software updates. Only NearStar can access the proprietary source code in order to maintain the currently fielded NearStar perpetual licenses and avoid the duplication of cost and time as outlined in Section 5 of this justification.

9. Other Facts: None