JA Rocket revised for brand name Final to post.pdf

Rocket Software Maintenance VA-22-00001478

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, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed priced contract for brand name Rocket (ROCKET) software with associated software maintenance support.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering (SDE), Enterprise Operations (EO) has a requirement for the associated software maintenance support for previously purchased, brand name

ROCKET software. The software maintenance support is necessary in order for SDE

EO to receive software upgrades and updates to their previously purchased software to include major releases, point releases, service releases and security releases on a quarterly basis, and/or within 48 hours in cases in which a high risk vulnerability fix becomes available. These software upgrades and updates are necessary for SDE

EO to be able to operate successfully and is required to ensure the software remains operational. The period of performance will be from October 1, 2021 through

September 30, 2022, plus two, 12-month option periods for maintenance renewal. The total estimated price of the proposed action is (inclusive of options).

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation

(FAR) Subpart 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), 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: Based upon market research, as described in section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available for the required brand name ROCKET software and maintenance support.

The current EO infrastructure is based on existing ROCKET software and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. Only ROCKET can provide the necessary software updates because of the proprietary source code required to develop and implement software updates. No other brand name software is capable to provide the required software maintenance that meets VA's unique functional requirements. In addition, a prior implementation of ROCKET software licenses already exists in EO.

Acquisition of a different product, even if another one existed with qualifications that met VA's stated functional needs, would require multiple support costs of

$100,000,000.00 to transition to a new sof tware product if the ROCKET software licenses were abandoned in favor of a different product. In addition, EO would need to purchase new software licenses. No other license is compatible with or interoperable with the existing ROCKET proprietary database structures, protocols, and software application programming interfaces. Therefore, only ROCKET can provide the software maintenance that meets the Government's requirements.

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, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for these brand name items. Additionally, the proposed action will not be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities Page in accordance with FAR 5.201 as this action is below the simplified acquisition threshold.

Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated. In accordance with FAR

16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(2), this justification will be provided with the solicitation on the Contracting Opportunities website.

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 fully competed.

8. Market Research: The Government's technical experts conducted market research during June 2021 by reviewing Vizient; Garance, Microsoft SQL and Back Office Accounting, and Oracle Data Base and Business Intelligence products as similar software maintenance support services to ascertain if other brands could meet VA's software maintenance requirements. Specifically, the Government's technical experts conducted web based research and discovered that while other software maintenance exists, it does not meet VA's support requirements because only ROCKET has access to the proprietary database, structure, protocols and software application programming interfaces specific to the maintenance needed for the software in place.

Therefore, at present there is no other software maintenance support available in the marketplace that can meet this requirement. In addition, VA networking Subject Matter

Experts regularly review industry trade publications and conduct internet research to ascertain if any other brand name software is available. Based on all of these market research efforts, the Government's technical experts have determined that only the aforementioned ROCKET software maintenance support can meet all of VA's needs.

9. Other Facts: None.