JA - redacted.pdf

Control Number: VA-21-00064756

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, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a firm-fixed price contract with Plan 4 Healthcare for the renewal of brand name Plan 4 Healthcare 4Cast software.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) 8 Office of the Chief Financial Officer has a requirement for the annual renewal of its existing Plan 4 Healthcare 4Cast software. VISN 8 has been utilizing 4Cast software for the past three years to support planning, forecasting, and monitoring of facility budgets across its five medical centers in Florida and the Caribbean. 4Cast software is a web-based application that is available 24/7 and is designed to align with VA’s unique accounting and organizational structure, allowing budget planning and execution to take place at the service level and tie back to the VA and VISN strategic plans.

The period of performance for this effort shall be a 12-month base period with two (2) 12-month option periods. While VA will continue to conduct market research prior to the exercise of each option period, it is anticipated that the renewal of the existing 4Cast software will be required for at least three (3) years to enable VISN 8 to effectively plan, forecast and monitor finance and budget activities throughout its facilities.

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 titled, "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 is Plan 4 Healthcare, 44927 George Washington Blvd., Ashburn, VA 20147. Based on market research, as described in Section 8 of this document, the Government has determined that Plan 4 Healthcare is the only source capable of providing the required annual software license renewals; therefore, there is no competition for this acquisition. 4Cast was created by Plan 4 Healthcare specifically for VA to be a fully integrated data collection, business planning, and monitoring technology solution to collect financial and planning data based on VA’s unique accounting and organization structure. As such, 4Cast’s unique design allows business plans to be created that translate directly to VA’s cost accounting structure in such areas as projected staffing, equipment, supply, contract, and all other funding requirements, which can then be validated against VA’s own accounting systems. In addition to the unique accounting structure, VA operates with a unique executive leadership structure, with services reporting to specific executive leaders. The 4Cast product was also designed with the VA leadership hierarchy in mind, allowing reporting of financial and budget data at various

4Cast Software Renewal VA-21-00064756 departmental and leadership levels. Further, only 4Cast software has the ability to plan and execute the building and monitoring of VA’s budget using the same structure and terminology that is inherent to the agency, making the software capable of uploading data sets provided by the agency to refresh financial and budgetary data and update financial projections for more accurate data for decision making. As part of the unique VA structure, 4Cast has integrated a structure for specific purpose funding categories that are appropriated by Congress. This allows users at all levels to project and monitor expenditures in specific appropriated funding types that are specific to VA, allowing for better utilization of those specific funds. Finally, the 4Cast software includes modules specifically designed to monitor unique staffing categories within VA, including different appointment types under United States Code, which are unique to VA.

Other financial planning software products in the market delineate staffing costs versus other costs, but do not break staffing down into the specific appointment types and appropriation categories that are crucial in projecting and balancing the budget in VA. This combination of capabilities is only available through 4Cast.

No other commercial financial planning software is designed to align or integrate with VA’s accounting and organizational structure. Therefore, replacing the existing 4Cast software licenses with any other brand software will require an extensive and complex redesign, development and integration effort to deploy a new financial planning software solution capable of providing these capabilities that are already readily available through 4Cast’s out of the box product. Any such replacement effort is estimated to cost $1.2M and take up to two years to complete all while still retaining the critical functionality provided through the existing software until the new software capabilities are fully operational. These estimates are based on previous software design and integration efforts of similar size and scope. Furthermore, failure to renew its existing licenses will bring these critical financial planning and budgeting capabilities to an immediate halt.

Without these capabilities provided through the existing 4Cast software, VISN 8 will be susceptible to medical center budget gaps, which occur when appropriated funding is less than the expenses of the medical center. When a medical center has a budget gap, the VISN has to redirect resources away from other planned projects, modernization efforts, or acquisitions to meet the financial needs at the medical center with the gap. By reducing or eliminating medical center budget gaps, VISN 8 will be able to follow its strategic planning initiatives without having to redirect resources and/or delay plans. This allows the VISN and all its associated medical centers to better achieve the core mission of treating veterans and achieving our VHA goals to improve access, timeliness of care, and modernization of our healthcare system.

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. The proposed action will be synopsized on the Contract Opportunities page in accordance with FAR 5.201. Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated. Additionally, in accordance with FAR 6.305(a) this Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition will be made publicly available on the Contract Opportunities page within 14 days after contract award.

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 March and May of 2021 by the VISN 8 financial office which conducted internet research and reviewed industry publications for alternative commercial financial planning software such as OpenGov and Questica, as well as companies specializing in budgeting such as BMT Consulting, Inc. and Condordant, Inc. No alternative products were identified that could provide all the required financial planning and budgeting capabilities out of the box and without an extensive upfront design and integration effort.

Additional market research was conducted in June 2021 by posting a Request for Information (RFI) on SAM.gov on June 23, 2021. The RFI was seeking interested and capable manufacturers or resellers of alternative brand finance and budgeting planning software that could provide an off the shelf design integrating VA accounting structure, modules allowing budget and business planning at the service (department/unit) level using VA organizational structure, and dynamic reporting modules the could align with VA’s unique staffing categories. Four responses were received including three responses from manufacturers of alternative brand products, and one response from a capable reseller of 4Cast. Upon review of the three alternative brand responses from eTranservices, RZ Service Group (StaffDx), and Anaplan/TruEd, the subject matter experts from the VISN 8 financial office determined that none of the products were capable of meeting VA’s requirements. Specifically, the full scope of financial planning capabilities specific to VA are not readily available in any of the products offered, and each would require varying yet extensive design, development and/or integration efforts prior to deployment as detailed in Section 5 of this justification. The fourth response from Bound Associates indicated their ability to resell the required 4Cast software. However, while Bound Associates, a verified Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, did in fact resell 4Cast software to VA under prior efforts, those efforts also included consulting support services that are not offered directly from Plan 4 Healthcare. Based on additional communication with a representative from Plan 4 Healthcare on July 21, 2021, the representative confirmed that given this effort is for annual software only, it could only be procured directly through Plan 4 Healthcare, and Plan 4 Healthcare would not allow Bound Associates or any other partners to resell its software to VA for this effort. As a result of these market research efforts, it was determined that only the renewal of VISN 8’s existing 4Cast software can meet VA’s requirements, and Plan 4 Healthcare is the only source that can provide the software renewal with no resellers available. On September 20, 2021, an amendment to the RFI was posted to SAM.gov advising all interested parties that as a result of market research efforts, VA determined that Plan 4 Healthcare’s 4Cast software was the only financial planning software capable of providing the required financial planning and budgeting capabilities out of the box and without extensive upfront design and integration effort, and as such, VA intends to award a sole source contract to Plan 4 Healthcare to renew its existing 4Cast software licenses.

9. Other Facts: None