JA VHA Smartsheet - Redacted_Redacted.pdf

VA-26-00052728

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: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed price Task Order (TO) issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), for the procurement of brand name Smartsheet.gov Software as a Services (SaaS) licenses and support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration Innovation Ecosystem (VHA IE) has a requirement for brand name Smartsheet.gov SaaS licenses. Smartsheet.gov provides a centralized mechanism for task tracking and project management for VHA IE. The requirement will provide annual licenses that will also include incidental services for professional and technical support. Due to the volume of work VHA IE manages, it is imperative to have a centralized hub for task tracking and project management, which allows for tracking capabilities and specific paths for delivery and/or completion for dashboards.

The software solution must provide a centralized hub on the Government Community Cloud for task tracking project management, to include tracking capabilities for multiple workflow streams. The software must provide flexibility for future changes to workflow, that allows for automated scalable management of portfolio resources and projects. In addition, the software must have reporting capabilities, to include building Ad-Hoc reporting capabilities that have dashboard options for end users to share information without providing access to the underlying data. It must be able to provide specific paths for delivery and/or completion and allow for unlimited file size attachments due to the complex and sensitive nature of the projects the software will support. For oversight purposes, the software must have identity and management that aligns with VA’s requirements for a single sign-on with the ability to implement Mult-factor authentication approved for use within VA. The software will also offer the ability for data regress to protect information through controls on how the data can be exported. The software must have the ability to allow VHA IE to be configured to utilize VA email domain for notifications from the software. This ensures that data from VHA IE remains secure due to the sensitive nature of their mission. The software also must provide tracking at user and supervisor levels with the ability for task assignment, and program management capabilities with dependencies that can be rolled up; down to individual projects/people.

Additionally, the software solution must be integrated with VA’s existing environment of applications to support innovation project management, portfolio tracking, and reporting.

Most critically, VA requires the software to be hosted on a Government Community Cloud with moderate FedRAMP approved security designation.

Veterans Health Administration Innovations Ecosystem Smartsheet.gov VA-26-00022687 resellers for brand name Smartsheet.gov licenses. In accordance with RFO VA Deviation 16.507-7(c)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with RFO 16.507-6(f)(1), the justification will be made publicly available on the Contracting Opportunities Page within 14 days of 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: In March 2026, Government technical experts reviewed similar software solutions to determine whether they could meet the Government requirements listed above. The technical team conducted web-based research and product analysis for Microsoft Project, Trello, Asana, and Jira.

Microsoft Project offers robust project scheduling and task tracking but does not provide the level of flexible, user‑configurable portfolio management, automated workflows, and dashboards needed for VHA IE’s innovation portfolio, and does not provide native integrations to allow interoperability with its existing environment of applications.

Trello provides basic task boards and collaboration but lacks portfolio‑level management, advanced ad hoc reporting and dashboards, required identity management and multifactor authentication alignment with VA single sign-on, and integrations to allow interoperability with its existing environment of applications.

Asana supports task and project tracking with some portfolio features but does not offer the combination of a FedRAMP moderate Government Community Cloud environment, integrations to allow interoperability with its existing environment of applications.

Jira provides strong issue and project tracking, particularly for software development, but does not provide a suitable Government Community Cloud environment with a FedRAMP moderate authorization or native support for the required integrations to allow interoperability with its existing environment of applications. It also does not fully support the portfolio‑level dashboards and ad hoc reporting needed for VHA IE’s innovation portfolio.

The Contract Specialist conducted market research on March 24, 2026, by utilizing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract Market Research tool that identified six (6) SDVOSB authorized resellers of the brand name Smartsheet.gov licenses which include Lancer Information Solutions LLC, SDVO Solutions LLC, Architecture Solutions LLC, Four Points Technology LLC, Government Acquisitions Inc., and ThunderCat Technology LLC. Furthermore, the NASA SEWP V GWAC has a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests. As long as the required item or service is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC, items and services can be added to the catalog on a daily basis. This requirement has been found to be within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC in a separate determination. As a result, there is a reasonable expectation of competition to solicit this procurement as an SDVOSB set-aside under the NASA SEWP V GWAC.

9. Other Facts: NA