JA_Precisely_Redacted.pdf

CONTROL NUMBER VA-26-00024218

J&A

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 the procurement of the Precisely (fka Pitney Bowes Software, Inc.)

Spectrum enterprise software suite and associated maintenance support services.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA Office of Information and Technology, Enterprise Services, VA Profile Project Office (VA Profile) has a requirement to acquire one Precisely Spectrum enterprise software suite. The enterprise wide Precisely Spectrum software platform will provide address standardization, validation, candidate matching, congressional and location enrichment for contact data on behalf of the enterprise.

VA Profile works with over 70 consuming data partners and is the authoritative data source for contact information in the VA. The Precisely Spectrum software platform will enable an enterprise capability for ensuring that accurate correspondence and residence addresses are available for the Veteran and associated persons, that will be leveraged to improve customer experience and demographic analysis when used by Veteran-facing systems, back-office correspondence delivery systems, and applications such as the Enrollment system, Oracle Health Electronic Health Records Modernization (OEHRM), VA Veterans Health Information System and Technology Architecture (VISTA), Digital GI Bill (DGIB), Loan Guaranty (LGY), and VA.gov among others.

This software is needed to resolve validation failures, erroneous, or incorrect contact data across the enterprise. The address validation information provided by this software will determine a Veteran’s location (i.e., geocoding) for sending correspondence to Veterans and ensuring address accuracy. Additionally, the software must be Code Accuracy Support System (CASS)-certified as this certification enables the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to save time and manpower by reducing the volume of non-deliverable mail, unsorted mail, and mail that can be delivered but not without significant effort due to incorrect mailing data. The USPS itself evaluates and certifies software and maintains a list of all the CASS-certified products on its website. VA also requires Precisely Spectrum associated maintenance support services which includes periodic patches, fixes, updates, enhancements and corrections to the software as they are offered commercially, as well as technical support.

VA requires a software solution that is compatible with VISTA, VHA Enrollment Services (VHAES), VA Veterans Service Network Compensation and Pension suite of applications, Benefits Gateway Services (BGS) data service platform, and Identity and

Access Management (IAM) Master Person Index (MPI) systems. VA requires, along with our other nearly five dozen internal consuming data partners, a software solution that fits our security posture, which includes not storing Veteran data and working within our ATO (Authority to Operate) boundaries for infrastructure. VA also requires an address set that includes international addresses in countries where our reporting and analytics have shown significant populations of Veterans, including Germany, Canada, and the Philippines. VA requires our services to be able to handle enterprise-level throughput of transactions, and not be rate-limited.

The period of performance is 12 months with two 12-month option periods.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.507-7(b), 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 upon market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for this requirement.

The Precisely Spectrum suite is an integral component of the Enterprise VA Profile Address Validation API product that is already in use by 60+ VA projects which include VHAES, BGS, DGIB, LGY, OEHRM, and IAM MPI. These projects currently utilize the VA Profile Address Validation API which uses the Precisely software, however due to compatibility constraints with potential replacements on these projects, continued use of the integrated component software is required. The Precisely Spectrum suite is the only API that has gone through the rigorous testing process required before any software may be used with VA network and its infrastructure, and within project ATO boundaries.

Utilizing software other than Precisely would require a redesign and code rewrite of the VA Profile API impacting 60+ VA projects and would require a new address validation tool along with a new exception management process. A transition to a different tool would require a minimum of six months for technical and architectural analysis, followed by an additional six to 12 months for development and testing. The estimated cost is at least $1.5 - $3 million, not including tool or licensing expenses. Additionally, since the API is the proprietary property of Precisely, it cannot be purchased for perpetual use internally and must be licensed.

Precisely has exclusive rights to distribute the software, data set, and the ability to utilize this source code for any purposes (e.g. updates, maintenance, or bug fixes).

Precisely resellers are the sole distributors of the compatible Spectrum suite of licenses to use this product. Based on the market research conducted by the Government’s technical experts, it has been determined that only Precisely or its authorized resellers have the required access to the source code and other proprietary data of the software to perform the services necessary to meet the Government’s needs.

Furthermore, integrating multiple commercial software packages to support address validation, geocoding, and business data stewardship would result in the complete redesign of the infrastructure. The current infrastructure consists of Precisely brand name software and no other software is interoperable and compatible due to the aforementioned proprietary constraints. The VA Profile Address Validation service’s infrastructure was built around and has been updated on this software. Specifically, no other software will be able to communicate with the existing Precisely software.

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, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Precisely software suite and associated maintenance support services. In accordance with FAR 16.507-7(c)(ii), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders.

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. In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the agency will work with the program office to perform additional market research so that other solutions can be considered for future actions.

8. Market Research: In March and April 2026, the Government’s technical experts conducted market research to determine if there are viable sources who could meet the requirements. Potential sources that were reviewed included Experian, USPS, and Melissa. Although other sources possess similar capabilities to provide the required software licenses and maintenance, only Precisely, or an authorized reseller has the proprietary source code necessary to provide the required licenses and perform the required services; therefore, these other vendors are not able to perform the services on the proprietary software.

There are unique issues with each reviewed. Experian has stated that any and all addresses sent for validation would be stored for up to one calendar year on their Non- VA database which is outside the boundaries of the required security posture and not acceptable to our ATO.

USPS has stated that their services are not to be used for non-mailing or database cleansing services, a necessary function within VA Profile. VA Requires this solution to do a significant amount of other work with correspondence and home addresses that require validation, such as benefits providers (including BGS, above) validate eligibility, research groups validate and study population movement to make decisions about which VA Medical Centers need to plan more preventive service coverage for different population groups, VetRide and other caregiver partners validate pickup locations and closest VAMC or care locations. Database cleansing work includes studying bad address indicators and working with data quality teams to improve the precision and accuracy of our data – as this is not strictly a ‘mailing’ activity, the USPS service would not apply.

Melissa address validation software does not provide capacity at the enterprise level scale required and this is needed to support all Veterans within the VA. Additional market research was conducted in April 2026 to determine if additional providers could support the specialized needs in coverage for VA Profile, and found that other software options did not sufficiently support Philippine’s international addresses, military coverage, congressional districts, or delivery point validation, or did not perform functions at an enterprise level capacity in order to meet the Government’s needs.

There is no other software interoperable and compatible with the current infrastructure due to proprietary constraints. Specifically, no other software will be able to communicate with the existing Precisely software.

On May 6, 2026, a Request for Information (RFI) was submitted to all contract holders under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 541519 on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). The RFI yielded two responses from Carahsoft Technology Corporation (Large Business) and Software Information Resource Corporation (Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB)).

The technical experts determined that the two responses were deemed capable of performing the effort. Of note, Carahsoft Technology Corporation stated they cannot comply with Veteran Affairs Acquisition Regulation 852.219-75 VA Notice of Limitations on Subcontracting - Certificate of Compliance for Services and Construction.

Additionally, on May 6, 2026 a RFI was posted on SAM.gov to reach a wider audience.

The RFI yielded one response from Cover Six Solutions, LLC (Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB)). The technical experts determined that the response was deemed not capable because the respondent did not provide a quote showing what would be delivered, unit costs associated, or total cost of delivery.

Specifically, the technical experts were unable to determine if the respondent would provide the correct bundle or the required pieces for the license.

As detailed above, market research indicates that at least two NASA SEWP V GWAC contract holders are capable of providing the brand name Precisely software. As a result, the Government’s notice to industry regarding the intended outcome was posted to SAM.gov on June 8. 2026.

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 based on market research and reseller options to provide licensing purchase.

Contracting Officer Certification

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 Precisely Spectrum enterprise software suite and associated maintenance support services on an other than fair opportunity 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.