JA Out of Scope Mod REDACTED.pdf

ETEMS Options Adjustment VA-24-00099320

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 to issue and award a firm-fixed-priced modification against Contract 36C10B19C0059 with B3 Group, LLC (B3) located 10780 Parkridge Blvd FL 4, Reston, Virginia 20191-4373.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA Office of Information Technology (OIT) has a requirement to modify its projected maximum telecommunication spend ceilings captured within the Enterprise Telecommunications Expense Management Software (ETEMS) platform contract to reflect modified projected telecommunication spend in the outyears of the contract. This Contract manages telecommunication spend and inventory, and directly supports efforts such as VA’s General Services Administration (GSA) Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) Task Orders. The ETEMS solution creates a central assets and services repository, standardizes the service ordering and delivery process, further streamlines invoicing and payment processes, enforces corporate policies, while providing customizable reporting modalities and business analytics to the VA. B3 was competitively awarded contract 36C10B19C0059 to provide its ETEMS solution on September 27, 2019. X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X XXXXXXXX, for a 12-month base period, with 14 subsequent 12-month option periods, and seven (7) optional tasks if exercised, with the ultimate completion date of September 26, 2034.

This proposed modification is needed because the original estimated telecommunication spend projections included in the original competitive solicitation and resultant award for the outyear contract periods (Option periods 4 through 14) needs to be increased based on technology shifts in industry. As a result, a greater demand is created to shift legacy telecommunication technology to current industry telecommunication technologies, which would be covered under vehicles such as GSA EIS. VA manages its EIS Task Orders through ETEMS. The proposed modification will align the contract to revised projections of annual projected telecommunication spend.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx6. There are no proposed changes to the period of performance or ultimate completion date.

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: Based on Market Research as described in Section 8 of this Justification, the proposed source for this action is B3.

This ETEMS solution, which is based on TurningPoint’s Network Inventory and Optimization solution (NiOS) proprietary software, is required to continue to provide modules with the following functionalities: inventory and asset management, contract administration, billing verification and validation, dispute management, reporting, workflow processing, electronic ordering and transition support. The ETEMS solution remains the only software that can provide all these VA functional requirements while not causing any interruptions to VA transition services off of the predecessor GSA telecommunications contracts that GSA has sunset and onto GSA EIS within the GSA mandated timelines.

When the contract was originally contemplated, VA was seeking to address multiple findings from both the U.S. Government Accountability Office and VA’s Inspector General to address deficiencies in the VA’s telecommunication spending practices.

Further, GSA had a mandate to have all federal agencies transition from the outdated telecommunication vehicles, such as Networx, Washington Interagency Telecommunications Service, and Local Telecommunications contracts. The inventory procured under those vehicles were to be transferred to Task Order(s) issued against the new GSA EIS contract by September 2022. Since that time, VA has been actively working to transition its telecommunication inventory to its GSA EIS Task Orders. There are currently two Task Orders, with a new Task Order award anticipated in fiscal year 2025.

However, since the award of the ETEMS contract, the telecommunication industry has been evolving, and certain technologies are being sunset in favor of newer or alternative solutions. As such, VA must also modify how it delivers its telecommunication mission.

For instance, the Federal Communication Commission has mandated that Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS) be sunset, which was a sizeable technology that VA was utilizing. Other utilized solutions such as Primary Rate Interface (PRI) are also not being used and are being supported less widely then when the Contract was originally established. As such, the PRI and POTS inventories, as well as other technologies, must be transitioned to current services, which are being supported by GSA EIS. As a result, the original projected telecommunication spend costs, which were based solely on maintaining the EIS footprint, must now be expanded to account for these technology shifts and increased managed spend being processed through the ETEMS solution.

This modification does not change the original intent nor technical processes included in the original competition and resultant award, rather it addresses unanticipated demand on the GSA EIS vehicle and making correction to the Government established ceilings for yearly telecommunication spend. VA must maintain a single Enterprise solution to manage its telecommunication spend and inventory in order to mitigate risks such as duplication of inventory, unnecessary spending and waste, and potential fraud.

While like solutions exist, none of them can meet the above single solution requirement, as no other solution, other than the existing solution, can seamlessly interoperate or maintain the existing solution due to proprietary source code constraints. The only way to introduce an alternative solution or vendor would be to completely replace the existing solution with another. However, that is not viable as it fails to meet first, the mandated timelines to complete the GSA EIS transition of the existing services, it would introduce unacceptable risk and inhibit VA from being able to swiftly address requirements both immediate and potentially tied to Veteran health. It would take another vendor a minimum of four years, and an estimated $28 million dollars to get an alternative solution to the current state that ETEMS is at this time. This estimate is based on historical data. Any other source would need to complete a multitude of activities, which would result in duplicative costs. At a minimum, another source would need to perform user and functional testing to validate the alternative solution, all while working processes such as establishing an agency Authority to Operate, and potentially obtain FedRAMP approval, if externally hosting data outside the VA Firewall. Further, any other source would need to interface the existing ServiceNow solution deployed, as well as electronically bond with the existing telecommunication carriers that hold the GSA EIS Task Orders. Only after completion of those activities could VA be able to start to transition the entire established inventory into the new solution. Transition alone would take a minimum of four years to complete. During this time, VA would be required to continue use of ETEMS while the alternative solution is being baselined. These duplicative costs are significant and would not be recouped through any type of competition.

Failure to execute this modification as proposed would have a direct impact on VA’s ability to execute its mission. For instance, patient care relies upon the telecommunication services to provide direct care at VA Medical Centers and Clinics.

Further, critical services, such as the Veterans Crisis Line Voice service could be impacted negatively, as VA would be unable to make required changes in response to outages, putting at risk veterans without getting services needed. Finally, the use of an ETEMS solution was based in response to GAO-20-155: Telecommunications report.

Utilization of disparate systems, or alternative methods of tracking would leave VA vulnerable and unable to manage its telecommunication spend/inventory, thereby failing to meet that GAO requirement.

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. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Additionally, 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: VA Subject Matter Experts conducted market research in May 2024 by reviewing other like ETEMS Solutions such as Management of Things® (MoT®) - Tellennium, IT Service, Asset Management | Genuity (gogenuity.com) and zLinq Telecom & Technology Lifecycle Management (getzlinq.com). As noted above, none of these potential competitor solutions can meet the Government’s interoperability and compatibility requirements within the Governments timeframe, or as economically or efficiently as the incumbent as noted in Section 5.

Further, while there are other system integrators like the proposed source, such as Booz Allen and Hamilton (BA&H) and International Business Machines Corp, that have worked with the underlying Turning Point solution that VA currently utilizes, the addition of these sources would be inefficient and not economical, as VA would be either running two disparate instances of the Turning Point solution or creating inefficiencies of existing process, as the services could not be parsed out between multiple contractors. As described above in Section 5, no source or solution can meet the Government’s requirement within the timeline required. As such, VA does not anticipate any competition, limited or otherwise, for this action.

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.

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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 comparison of the proposed price to historical prices paid. Additionally, the proposed price will be compared to the Independent Government Cost Estimate. Finally, the Government may perform an analysis of data other than certified cost or pricing data provided by the offeror.

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12. Contracting Officer Certification/Approval

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

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Office of General Counsel (OGC) Review

I have reviewed this document and find it legally sufficient, based on the representations set forth in the documents and, if any, attachments. The Competition Advocate’s approval is an independently supported decision not wholly reliant on the legal sufficiency determination.

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Advocate for Competition Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the proposed modification of existing Contract 36C10B19C0059 on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Digitally signed by JASON BULLEN

Date: 2024.08.23 16:14:22 -04'00'

Jason Bullen Date Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Department of Veterans Affairs

JASON BULLEN