JA_Spok_Redacted.pdf

Continuation of External Paging Services for SPOK, Inc. VA-23-00040618

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, NJ 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a sole-source Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) contract with a 12-month base period and two 12-month option periods with SPOK, Inc, (SPOK) for renewal of continue wireless messaging pager/beeper services and maintenance at 81 Veteran Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) in the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. The proposed source for this action is SPOK, 5911 Kingstowne Village parkway, PKWY STE 600 Alexandra, VA 22315.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to continue the current wireless messaging pager/beeper services and current functionality of the 81 VAMCs in the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The contractor will ensure that the proposed wireless messaging pager/beeper services shall include one-way, two-way messaging, and wireless information services, as well as maintenance. Maintenance includes repairs to any base station transmitters, radio towers or other hardware that can contribute to a service outage and includes replacement beepers for lost devices. Additionally, the Contractor shall provide access to a web-based portal for moves, adds, deletions and changes. Furthermore, the Contractor shall provide shipping and return support of deployed devices. The period of performance for this effort shall be a 12-month base period with two 12-month option periods, if exercised. The total estimated value of this effort is , inclusive of all 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 conducted, as described in section 8 of this justification, this effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements and it has been determined that only SPOK can provide the aforementioned pager services. For the coverage area of this requirement, only SPOK can provide seamless renewal for continued use and maintenance of deployed pagers at these VAMCs, and only SPOK can provide continuity of the required maintenance and pager support services.

Specifically, based on previous history and due to the type of services that are currently in use, no other vendor can test and turn up new services without first conducting extensive testing at the locations to determine if a signal strength could penetrate structures and vegetation at all locations which would require a minimum of 60-90 days to provide an overall evaluation. Additionally, based on the evaluation results and due to proprietary constraints, any other vendor would require the use of its specific equipment and infrastructure, as opposed to the native infrastructure, which would add significant duplicative costs. Based on historical data, to pivot to any alternative vendor would produce estimated duplicative costs of approximately $1 million which would be required to build new infrastructure and reprocure hardware. This development effort would further add to the timeframe to turn up the replacement beeper services. These estimated duplicative costs would not be recovered through competition. More critically, during this time, VA would experience loss of existing services which would result in disruptions of service of communications that aid medical staff where other forms of communication cannot currently reach medical professionals. Due to the type of telecommunication services, to introduce another vendor, to test and provide new services would provide for an unacceptable high level of risk and serious negative impacts to patient care and health of Veterans. No source, other than the incumbent, can provide the required beeper solution and service at the required locations. Only the incumbent has access to the proprietary hardware, software, and frequencies necessary to provide this coverage. Any other source would require access to this specialized equipment, proprietary software, and SPOK, the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) network to identify and resolve potential issues with the deployed solution. For instance, in the event of a system error, should a source not have access to the specialized equipment, proprietary software, and the OEM’s network, that source would be unable to perform root cause analysis and successfully mitigate whatever potential issues may arise. Further, the vendor would be unable to test the network to ensure that any software patch or change to the system was successful, and that the beepers are able to receive and send messages. Additionally, without access to the OEM’s proprietary source code and software updates provided by the OEM, regular and preventative pushes could not be deployed. This increases the risk that the network will not be operating within the required Software License Agreement requirements. As such, as the OEM does not resell these services, only the OEM can provide this required beeper service for the 81 VAMC’s.

Failure to procure the services as described above will hinder medical care provided to the Veterans being seen at these 81 VAMCs. Specifically, without these services, approximately 20,000 employees would be without beeper service/messaging capabilities that directly support current VA workflows. The loss of these beeper capabilities would hinder the Agency’s mission to provide critical healthcare and support services to the Veteran.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. Additionally, the proposed action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities Page 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 Government’s Contract Specialist conducted Market Research in January 2023 via web-based market research and the release of a request for Information (RFI) 36C10B23Q0084 that was posted to Contracting Opportunities page to ascertain if there were any other sources that could meet VA’s requirements.

Responses to the RFI were received from SPOK and American Messaging Services, LLC. Based on the information provided in response to the RFI, VA determined that only incumbent (SPOK) could provide the coverage areas identified in this requirement to maintain the existing commercial beeper footprint without the estimated duplication of cost and time as detailed in Section 5 of this justification. An update was posted to the Contracting Opportunities page on January 13, 2023 to inform all interested parties that VA has determined only SPOK was capable of meeting VA’s functional requirements, and to inform of VA’s intended acquisition strategy. No further responses have been received to date.

9. Other Facts: None

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.

Date:

Program Manager Signature:

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 comparison of the proposed action to historical prices paid, as well as a comparison to commercial list pricing, and the Independent Government Cost Estimate. Further price analysis will be conducted and subsequent negotiations held as necessary. Additionally, price discounts will be sought.

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature:

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

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature:

5/1/23

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of wireless messaging pager/beeper services at 81 VAMCs in the states of Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the statutory authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date: ____________ Signature

Technology Acquisition Center

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics