JA_VINCI extension_Final_redacted.pdf

VINCI Sustainment, Data Management, Control Number: VA-24-00101119 and System Administration Services Extension

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 sole source action is for a modification to the Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) Task Order (TO) 36C10B21N10080041 issued under Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) Contract VA118-16-D-1008 with B3 Group, LLC. (B3), 13241 Woodland Park Rd Suite 500, Herndon, VA 20171. The purpose of this modification is to extend the period of performance (PoP) of Option Period Four and Optional Task Four for three months and incorporate two additional one-month Option Periods. This extension will serve as a bridge of support for Veterans Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI) Sustainment, Data Management, and System Administration Services support until a new competitive TO is awarded.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The scope of the VINCI Sustainment, Data Management, and System Administration Services TO is to maintain and create VINCI research datasets; implement and maintain operations and research project folders, databases and analysis software; implement and maintain Virtual Machine environments. Support includes maintaining VINCI Central, Data Access Request Tracker, Meta Data, Provisioning System, as well as supporting long term initiatives for Natural Language Processing, genomics and related items that may be included in the planned Electronic Health Record Modernization as necessary. The current TO provides management, administration, and day-to-day operations of all servers, storage systems, operating systems, and network systems that are part of VINCI and provides technical and help desk support. Additionally, the Contractor provides necessary information and documentation to achieve and/or maintain the VINCI Authority to Operate (ATO). Critical support is provided for the following: Statistical Analysis for System (SAS) Grid, Hyper V Clusters, SharePoint administration, and VINCI project management. This support includes Biosurveillance and Vaccine support in response to COVID-19. No additional hardware or software will be procured as a result of this action.

VINCI helps researchers develop patient cohorts specific to their operational or research needs by providing services to help researchers and clinicians appropriately access data and use tools, conduct research addressing key gaps in VINCI’s offerings, and manage the interface with Information Technology (IT) partners for translating research innovations into deployed tools for general use. VINCI Research Program provides a cooperative scientific infrastructure that provides a majority of Health Systems Research and Development (HSR&D) funded projects with transparent

Extension methods and reusable tools resulting in reproducible results. Additionally, VINCI utilizes the Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW) which is the central collection of standardized databases integrating key enterprise-wide clinical, administrative, and financial data to provide a unified view of VA data. The CDW strategy includes standard information, standard architectures, and standard tools that management needs to have access to data to support management decision making. VINCI is a research and development partnership and clinical operational platform for health services research, epidemiology, decision support, and business intelligence; and its partners are the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) HSR&D program and VHA’s Office of Informatics and Analysis.

The overall support for VINCI is critical to ensure continued project and program management support, help desk support, system administration services, data management services, software sustainment support, along with biosurveillance and vaccine support for the HSR&D program. VINCI requires that the current services outlined above for Option Period Four and Optional Task Four, under TO 36C10B21N10080041 continue without interruption to ensure continued access to the VINCI storage, server, and the following services: provisioning, infrastructure and network installation and maintenance, hardware and software upgrades, help desk support, program management, applications support, development and statistical analytics system support. This effort was initially awarded on June 16, 2021 with a Base Period of 10 months, two 12-month Option Periods, and five Optional Tasks, the last of which expired May 2, 2024. On April 23, 2024, a modification, P00004, was executed to extend Option Period Two and Optional Task Four for three months from May 3, 2024 through August 2, 2024, and to incorporate two 1-month Option Periods, the last of which expires October 2, 2024. Performance Work Statement (PWS) revisions, extensive revisions to the Consolidation memo and the source selection approach of the follow-on Data Analytics Integrated Modernization and Operations (DAIMO) effort have resulted in additional delays with soliciting for the follow-on TO. As such, the proposed action is required to extend the last option period by three months through January 2, 2025 and incorporate two additional one-month Option Periods for continued support through March 2, 2025, if needed, to provide a seamless transition. The total estimated value 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) 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 Above: The proposed source for this action is B3, 13241 Woodland Park Rd Suite 500, Herndon, VA 20171. B3 was awarded the VINCI TO on June 16, 2021, on a competitive basis under Service- Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) set-aside procedures on the T4NG contract vehicle. The PoP for the VA's current TO with B3 ends on October 2, 2024. VA is in the process of competitively awarding a new TO for DAIMO, which

Extension encompasses the VINCI TO services. In August/September 2023, VA leadership determined it would be best to consolidate two current TOs in their entirety into one effort: 1) TO 36C10B21N10080041 which provides VINCI Sustainment, Data Management, and System Administration Services for VA facilities located in Salt Lake City, UT; Washington, DC; and/or Austin, TX; and 2) TO 36C10B20N10020015, which provides Enterprise Services Integrated Platform services for Austin, TX and various remote sites, as well as to consolidate small portions (related to data analytics) of two other very large efforts: 1) TO 36C10B19N10080030 which provides Digital Transformation Center services; and 2) TO 36C10B21N10150056 which provides Product and Technology Ecosystem Management Services. Previously, with the data analytics work being spread across multiple portfolios and pillars, there were numerous contracts that all had similar and/or redundant scope. This dispersion of Data Analytics project work created challenges in ensuring effective oversight and created unnecessary cost inefficiencies. To address these shortcomings, leverage economies of scale, produce tangible and intangible cost savings and to improve management oversight of all data analytics work, the Data Analytics Pillar has made the strategic decision to consolidate all data analytics efforts into one standalone TO, called DAIMO, which has added numerous complexities to consolidate and remove duplications. The strategic adjustments, driven by Request for Information (RFI) feedback and a more in depth understanding of the project requirements, aim to ensure that the contract is both financially sound and operationally effective. DAIMO is designed to eliminate excessive costs associated with maintaining four distinct TOs by consolidating the common and overlapping work, which consists of development, enhancement, modernization and daily operational sustainment of products and programs. Examination of current contracts reveal that VA is paying for redundant software development and sustainment services from four different vendors (on four separate TOs) at varying prices and not capitalizing on substantial available cost savings by centralizing capabilities and needed skillsets to maintain, enhance and develop similar product and platform. The requirement development and market research for this competitive TO began in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024, however, solicitation release is not anticipated until mid-September with award currently projected in December 2024. This projection is at a minimum of three months beyond the current TO expiration date. The delay in solicitation release is due to a number of factors, including 1) the change in requirements due to multiple PWS revisions to refine the requirements and acquisition strategy which resulted in additional questions to the RFI small business and SDVOSB respondents to reaffirm the acquisition strategy; and 2) the change in the technical evaluation approach which will now require a three-phase approach by down-selecting and including vendor demonstrations. Once the competitive TO is awarded, there is also a need for at least 30 days of overlap to support a seamless transition of the services to a new vendor.

For these reasons, VINCI requires support provided by B3 beyond its current end date of October 2, 2024 until the DAIMO TO is awarded.

Under this TO, B3 is currently providing and meeting the programmatic and technical support requirements as described in Section 3 above for VINCI. The VINCI environment is complex and unique. The platform and services needed to operate the

Extension environment include an infrastructure composed of multiple models of storage and servers, Extract Transform, and Load services, cohort development and provisioning services, Windows and Linux administrative services, SAS expertise, Software development along with many other products and services are required to support the VINCI environment. Extending the current TO with B3 enables continuity of operations, sustainment, and knowledgeable resources to address outages or other service needs.

Without this continuation of services, VA faces a gap in service which would significantly inhibit the many HSR&D projects provided under the current TO, 36C10B21N10080041, which would negatively impact VA’s ability to provide high-quality data, openly extensible IT, and support services to VA’s researchers and clinicians. These support services need to continue to generate and integrate new knowledge, methods, and technologies for research and medical-care communities to assess and improve Veterans’ healthcare while the new TO is awarded. Specifically, the following are examples of Veteran Health Research, which if not completed, have potential implications on future cures for Oncology, Spinal Cord Injuries and Disorders, Traumatic Brain Injury, Prostate Cancer, and other critical health care issues. Additionally, there are 70 new research studies (across the various Veteran health care domains such as Oncology, Genomics, Suicide Prevention and many others) which onboard with VINCI each month, with approximately 350 or more requests/amendments being created, each month, not counting those associated with the Corporate Data Warehouse, and other Federal agencies such as, National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. There would be a significant negative impact if the sustainment services contained in this TO were to be eliminated or delayed, which would impact the projects researching the above-mentioned critical health care issues.

A RFI was posted on the Contract Opportunities site via SAM.gov on November 23, 2023. On December 6, 2023, 36 responses were received. As a result, it was determined internally by VA that there were numerous changes required to better refine the Government’s requirements to maximize potential competition. As such, on February 28, 2024, further market research was conducted, which resulted in sending additional questions to seven SDVOSB vendors that responded to the RFI. On March 5, 2024, five SDVOSBs provided responses. The Government technical experts then had to complete a thorough technical analysis of the RFI responses. Additionally, since the intent of the DAIMO TO is to consolidate four current TOs, there has been major rework/revisions to the requirements documentation due to in-depth analysis of the complex services being consolidated. The combination of requirements for the four TOs, receiving 36 responses to the RFI which led to revising the requirements documentation, necessitating additional market research, took much longer than originally anticipated. Lastly, in June 2024, the DAIMO Program Manager revised the Technical Factor evaluation approach in the source selection evaluation plan and resultant solicitation. The Technical Factor was revised from a two-phase approach (Written and Demonstration) to a three-phase approach. Due to RFI results which determined there to be two or more small businesses capable, the technical evaluation approach was revised to demonstrate Contractor capability to execute the required tasks with a degree of proficiency. The purpose of this approach is to obtain the best

Extension technical solution and reduce proposal costs for Offerors that do not pass the first phase.

Therefore, due to the PWS revisions, extensive revisions to the Consolidation memo (needed to get Executive Director and Senior Procurement Executive approval on the acquisition strategy), and the source selection approach of the DAIMO effort, further market research was conducted through additional questions to the small businesses to ensure they were capable of performing the stated requirements. On July 1, 2024, those vendor responses were received. The Government technical experts then completed another thorough technical analysis of the responses received and determined that small businesses were capable. As such, the recompete TO will not be awarded prior to the current TO ending, which would result in a gap of critically required services. Loss of the current support during this gap will significantly inhibit many HSR&D projects, necessary information and documentation to achieve and/or maintain the VINCI ATO.

Critical support is provided for the SAS Grid, Hyper V Clusters, SharePoint administration, and overall VINCI project management. Therefore, VA requires continued support to ensure uninterrupted operation of the VINCI environment. VA anticipates award of a competitive TO in December 2024 which would encompass the services detailed in Section 3.

Any source other than B3 would require significant ramp-up time of approximately 30-60 days, which would cause significant delays in VA’s ability to provide the level of technical support necessary to continue support of all VINCI operations including the continuous operation and availability of the aforementioned infrastructure, application, and software. While some of the support needed is industry standard (e.g., break/fix, license upgrades, new installs, upgrades, and patches), other sustainment and operations are unique to the VINCI environment. This would have very real and dire consequences to researchers and clinicians who continue to require uninterrupted access to the VINCI environment they depend upon to conduct critical healthcare research. Further, this additional time would be necessary to account for the onboarding process which is estimated to take approximately 30-60 days. Specifically, activities that must occur during the ramp-up time include obtaining National Criminal Fingerprints, Government Furnished Equipment issuance and Personal Identity Verification. Perhaps more importantly, a reduction in capabilities would ultimately impact VA’s ability to provide the level of support needed for the research community to complete their funded studies. If researchers do not meet their strict deadlines to complete studies and reports, this can lead to budget cancellations and consequently the cancellation of health-impacting research. The complexity of this solution makes it extremely difficult for another vendor to take over and assume management responsibilities without the possibility of service disruptions and/or a complete outage crippling healthcare research supporting medical remedies for Veterans. The issues specific to the VINCI environment are unique, deeply technical (in some cases custom code) and require a historical knowledge of the patches, workarounds, and custom hardware developments needed to achieve a working environment. Consequently, the incumbent is the only vendor that can provide uninterrupted services.

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There are 9,300 research and operational users dependent on VINCI to perform their critical health care research. Researchers have limited time to conduct their studies or they stand to lose funding. The studies are funded to produce research results within an agreed to period of time. Accomplishment of those milestones is dependent on availability of VINCI resources. Funding the critical programs (e.g. Oncology, Spinal Cord Injuries and Disorders, Traumatic Brain Injury, Prostate Cancer, and other critical health care issues) is dependent on the studies continuing to show progress with their research. Without a highly available VINCI environment, those researchers cannot conduct their studies. Consequently, remedies and cures to the proceeding Veterans Health Care issues will be stalled or inhibited. Effective sustainment is dependent on a knowledgeable staff of subject matter experts in systems administration, network, storage and server maintenance, with an inherit understanding of the current environment protocols, procedures, organization and policies.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in Section 8 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.

In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contract Opportunities website, SAM.gov, and the justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: No barriers to future competition are anticipated.

The follow-on TO is anticipated to be awarded in first quarter of Fiscal Year 2025 under competitive procedures.

8. Market Research: This requirement is leveraging market research conducted in November 2023 as part of the competitive procurement, which includes support for the same services. On November 23, 2023, the Government released an RFI for DAIMO on the Contract Opportunities site via SAM.gov. The RFI included a draft PWS and requested that interested parties provide indication of their respective capabilities to perform the aforementioned services. On December 6, 2023, the RFI closed and 36 responses were received to include; 15 Large Businesses: Accenture Federal Services LLC, Ampcus Inc., Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. (BAH), Carahsoft Technology Corporation, Cloudera (Government Solutions), Inc., International Business Machines Corporation, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Dell Technologies Inc., Huron Consulting Services LLC, InterSystems Corporation, Science Applications International Corporation, TISTA Science and Technology Corporation (TISTA), Leidos Inc., Acumen Solutions Inc., and CGI Federal Inc. (CGI); seven SDVOSBs: Castillo Technologies LLC (doing business as (dba) Cloud Computing Technologies), Andrew Morgan Consulting LLC, ClearCore LLC, HPC Solutions, Mind Computing Inc., Rios Partners LLC, Veterans EZ Info Inc (VetsEZ); 10 Small Businesses: RV Global Solutions Inc, BPM Advisors LLC, Amida Technology Solutions Inc., Burntcow MediaWorks LLC, Cogitativo Inc., Initiate Government Solutions LLC, Federal Management Partners LLC. (dba FMP Consulting), OmniSync Incorporated, Vega Management Consulting LLC joint venture with Mahaaya, Vidya LLC; and four HUBZone, SBA 8(a), & Women-Owned Small Businesses: 6e Technologies, Diaconia LLC, Judit Inc. and RCI, Choksi Inc. (dba Proksi

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Systems). The Government technical experts completed a thorough technical analysis of the RFI responses, which resulted in the Government deeming nine of the above vendors capable of meeting the requirement.

On February 28, 2024, further market research was conducted, which resulted in sending additional questions to seven SDVOSB vendors that responded to the RFI. On March 5, 2024, five SDVOSBs provided responses. Additionally, in June 2024, due to the PWS revisions and revisions to the Consolidation memo of the DAIMO effort, further market research was required in order to demonstrate a strategic step to ensure a well-informed and competitive contracting process. Additional market research was conducted by providing additional questions to the small businesses to ensure they were capable of performing the stated requirements. On July 1, 2024, those vendor responses were received.

In July 2024, the Government technical experts reviewed the above-mentioned vendors and found that none of them would be able to start on day one providing the VINCI services. While there are nine vendors deemed capable of meeting the requirements due to its similar general capabilities, the vendors would be unable to provide the seamless support needed for VINCI.

Additionally, specifically for this action, the Government technical experts conducted market research in July 2024 by reviewing the T4NG Prime contract holders websites.

As a result of that market research, it was determined that at least six T4NG Prime contract holders are capable of performing the effort; Sierra 7 Inc., CGI, VetsEZ, BAH, TISTA, and B3 (now part of Octo); however, only B3 is capable of providing seamless VINCI support until award of the competitive TO.

This market research supports a VA determination that only B3 is capable of providing continued VINCI services until award of the competitive TO. This extension will provide for the timely continuance of this critically needed support in order to ensure there is no gap in service.

9. Other Facts: None.

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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.

11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this task order action will be fair and reasonable based on a comparison with the Independent Government Cost Estimate and price analysis.

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

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Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of a FFP modification to be issued under T4NG Contract VA118-16-D-1008 TO 36C10B21N10080041 for VINCI Sustainment, Data Management, and System Administration Services, on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.