JA PTSD Repository - Socrata FINAL - At Award_Redacted.pdf

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Repository Control Number VA-20-00045056

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: This proposed action is for a firm fixed price delivery order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Socrata Open Data Platform Access Subscription and Socrata Consultant support for the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Repository database.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to provide access to the Socrata hosting platform and Socrata Consultant support for the PTSD Repository database. The Socrata Consultant (i.e., a program manager and data analyst) will work with the National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD) staff to reformat new data from the current Microsoft Excel format (.xls) to an easy to use online version. Additionally, there are several variables in the Excel database where a single cell contains two separate elements and contractor support will be necessary to separate these two elements into distinct variables within their own respective cells. This will include configuring an updated schema for breaking the data into useable tables, cleaning and formatting data so that it can be incorporated into the current platform and validating the entire dataset.

The Socrata Consultant will also assist with creating an abstraction template within the platform which will consist of the following: combining the new data with the current data in the PTSD-Repository and updating the application with the most recent version of the database; creating a PTSD Repository specific user resource; creating auto notification of errors in the database; creating live links to bibliographic records of publications that are referenced in the database; establishing an online tool to monitor the use of the site;

creating data stories; and enabling the system to register users to create and save visualizations and filtered data.

The contractor shall ensure the Repository is in conformance with all VA defined architecture requirements for the PTSD Repository as listed in the Product Description.

The Period of Performance for this effort will be a 12-month Base Period with four (4) 12-Month Option Periods as we anticipate use of the repository for the next five years at a minimum.

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.

4106(c)(2) as implemented by FAR Subpart 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), entitled “Only one

PTSD Repository Control Number VA-20-00045056 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: In 2019, the NCPTSD competitively awarded a contract for a new PTSD Repository. After reviewing several proposed solutions, the Socrata platform from Tyler Technologies was selected. The Socrata platform is a proprietary solution that was selected for several reasons including but not limited to: 1) the availability of a built in Application Programming Interface (API) and API documentation that allow users to use the data for their own purposes off platform; 2) use of the Open Data Protocol (O-Data) that ensures interoperability with other applications to pull the data and work with it using external tools; 3) the ability of the platform to allow the data to be downloaded in a variety of formats to further facilitate using off platform tools to work with the data; 4) the ability to view, sort, and create visualizations within the platform to better understand the data; 5) the ability to log in and save the visualizations; and 6) the ability to create and share data stories that allow NCPTSD to communicate the findings to the public.

Over the past year VA has worked with Tyler Technologies’ Socrata Consultants to reconfigure VA’s Socrata-based PTSD Repository to abstract data from over 300 studies to create an interactive database capable of producing visualizations and stories that make the data understandable and usable by Veterans, researchers, and clinicians.

This was necessary because the data which was appropriate for a systematic review was not in the optimal format for public use. This took considerable effort from both the

Contractor and VA to determine how best to translate and transform the data for use from multiple audiences. Based on this and the interoperability concerns discussed below, only Socrata can provide the necessary subscriptions required to keep VA’s repository operational. Additionally, as the Socrata platform is based on its proprietary source code, only consultants from Socrata have the requisite skill sets, knowledge of Socrata, understanding of VA’s PTSD Repository configuration, and access to the underlying proprietary code base to provide the necessary consultation services in support of the requirements listed in Section 3 above.

The website is live, the data is now publicly available, and VA has strongly marketed the site with several thousand-page views in the last several weeks alone. In order to maintain the important work, that includes 49 visualizations, 16 data tables, 3 geospatial maps, and 10 data stories, should VA shift to a whole new platform, not only would a new platform need to be recompeted, configured, and released into production, throughout that process the current site would also still need to be maintained, providing a huge duplication of cost and effort. The recompete of a new platform would require development and configuration of the new solution, including all VA required security checks and receipt of an Authority to Operate, and would come at a cost of

, which would not be expected to be recovered through competition, and a delay of 9-12 months.

Additionally, if VA were to switch to a different product other than Socrata a number of stories and visualizations that took months to create would no longer function and would

PTSD Repository Control Number VA-20-00045056 need to be re-created in the new platform, adding additional complexity and risk. These visualizations extend beyond the PTSD-Repository and are used in other NCPTSD online products that would no longer render as they are configured to work with the current Socrata platform. Another benefit of the current platform is that it has the ability to be shared with the other VA open data groups who use the same platform. Although the sites maintain their autonomy, meta-data can be transferred between the sites seamlessly. Furthermore, another source would require a steep learning curve while gaining familiarity with current database and its data schemas. There would also be a significant learning curve for the government to learn a new system and work to integrate the data to this platform, as well as many of the researchers who rely on the data provided by the repository. The Socrata platform is essential to the Government’s requirements and market research indicates other similar products, many lacking a modernized data infrastructure with queries and statistical functions, do not meet, or cannot be modified to meet, the agency’s needs given the aforementioned interoperability concerns.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in paragraph 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. It was determined, however, that limited competition is viable among resellers for these brand name items. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page (FBO) and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award of the order.

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: NCPTSD Subject Matter Experts regularly review industry trade publications and conducted internet research between March 2020 to July 2020 to ascertain if any other products are available in the marketplace that have similar capabilities to the Socrata Platform and Consultant support. NCPTSD Subject Matter Experts reviewed several other commercial database software platforms with similar functionality including: Comprehensive Knowledge Archive Network (CKAN) (https://ckan.org/) DKAN (https://getdkan.org/) and Esri ArcGIS. None of them are interoperable with Socrata and as such would require the duplication of costs and delays as outlined in Section 5. Based on all of these market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts have determined that only Socrata brand name software can meet all of VA’s needs.

Additional market research was conducted by the Contract Specialist in August 2020 via a search on the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup Tool which yielded several resellers of Tyler Technology brand name products. Furthermore, NASA SEWP V GWAC has a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests; therefore, as long as the required item or service is

PTSD Repository Control Number VA-20-00045056 within scope of the NASA SEWP V contracts, items and services can be added to the catalog.

9. Other Facts: None.

PTSD Repository Control Number VA-20-00045056

10. Technical and 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

12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certif ication: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

PTSD Repository Control Number VA-20-00045056

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of brand name Socrata Open Data Platform Access Subscription and Socrata Consultant support for the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Repository database 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 services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.