JA - Sole Source - 4Cast Annual Subscription - Redacted.pdf

4Cast Annual Subscription VA-25-00034906

JUSTIFCATION 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 a firm fixed price contract for the renewal of brand name Unison 4Cast Annual Subscription, technical user support, virtual training, and access to future enhancements with Unison Software Inc. 8444 Westpark DR STE 920, Mclean, Virginia 22102-5125.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA Central Western Massachusetts Medical Center requires financial planning and budget execution software to support budget formulation and execution monitoring. VA requires software that includes a budget formulation module that helps facility leadership calculate the affordable full time employee equivalent staffing based on contextual factors that are specific to the facility and provides dashboards to track budget execution. This allows planning throughout the year using distinct dashboards that are tailored to Service Line Managers and to Facility Executive Leadership. 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 VA and the Veterans Integrated Service Network strategic plans. The contract will include an annual 4Cast license (unlimited facility users) for a base period of 12-months, plus four (4) 12-month option periods. Technical Support includes a help desk end-user available to address issues utilizing the software. The contract also includes unlimited access to all future enhancements, and virtual training. The total estimated value of the proposed action is $528,929.49, inclusive of option periods.

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 document VA has determined that Unison Software Inc. is the only source capable of satisfying VA’s requirements. 4Cast was created by Unison Software Inc. 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 VA’s leadership hierarchy in mind, allowing reporting of financial and budget data at various 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. Additionally, 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.

Further, the Budget Formulation Module of the 4Cast Software is unique to Unison Software Inc. and was built to incorporate VA’s resource allocation model (Veterans Equitable Resource Allocation Model, Medical Care Collection Fund program, and Care-in-the Community or purchased care programs). This model is essential to providing a uniform approach to calculating affordable Full Time Equivalent Employees. Lastly, the medical center requires a product that will be compatible and interoperable with VA’s 50-year-old legacy financial management system (FMS) and provide reporting functionality that is missing from FMS. 4Cast is the only financial software on the market that is interoperable with VA’s FMS and designed to provide this functionality. Other commercially available products cannot meet VA’s functional or interoperability requirements.

The above 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, use of any alternative financial planning software product will require an extensive and complex redesign, development and integration effort to provide these capabilities that are already readily available through 4Cast's out of the box product. Any such redesign and development effort is estimated to cost $1.2M and take up to two years to complete.

These estimates are based on previous software design and integration efforts of similar size and scope. Furthermore, failure to procure these licenses will not allow the medical center to continue current services procured to address the current gaps in the financial planning and budgeting system. This makes 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, resources are redirected 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, leadership will be able to follow its strategic planning initiatives without having to redirect resources and/or delay plans. This allows the medical center to better achieve the core mission of treating

Veterans and achieving our VA 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. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on Sam.gov 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: The VA technical experts conducted market research in November 2024. SAM.gov was searched for other potential sources of financial analysis products, as well as conducing web-based searches. It was discovered that while other financial analysis products from alternative manufacturers such as Workday and MyPartTime Comptroller exist those products do not meet VA's unique functionality and interoperability requirements that are needed for VA’s Central Western Medical Center.

Specifically, only Unison Software Inc. provides the proprietary 4Cast software solution and associated technical support that can provide the unique functionality and interoperability required by the VA Central Western MA VAMC and avoid the duplicative costs and effort, as described in paragraph 5 above necessary to analyze all financial aspects based on VA's current accounting structure. The market research also revealed that there are no resellers of the 4Cast software. On January 21, 2025, Unison Software Inc. provided a Sole Source Letter that stated that they are the sole provider of 4Cast software, and they do not have any authorized distributors or resellers.

Additionally, a Request for Information (RFI) was posted on Sam.gov on January 21, 2025, by the Contract Specialist on Sam.gov. A draft Product Description was provided.

This RFI yield two responses from Begini Howard Private Equity LLC, and TANDT LLC (dba CyberExcellence). The responses from both companies were not considered valid as they did not address VA’s RFI questions or provide any insight into being able to meet VA’s requirements. It was determined that both responses were uncapable of meeting VA’s requirements.

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.

Tiffany L. Slaven Date Activity Certifier

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 historical pricing and comparison the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

Kendra M. Casebolt Date Contracting Officer

12. Contracting Officer Certification/Approval: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. This contract action exceeds the simplified acquisition threshold, but does not exceed $750,000, therefore, the certification required by FAR 6.304(a)(1) serves as the Contracting Officer’s approval.

Kendra M. Casebolt Date Contracting Officer