JA - WordPress FINAL - SIGNED_Redacted.pdf

Control Number: VA-24-00087254

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-price order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for renewal of (1)brand name “WordPress VIP” hosting services as well as associated WordPress VIP administration, management, user administration, theming/layout design, content editor support, engineering, and plug-in development support services.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), in partnership with the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs (OPIA), have a requirement for renewing Automattic brand name WordPress VIP hosting solution used for the VA News Site (https://news.va.gov), the VA Department site (https://department.va.gov), and several others. These websites deliver critical Veteran news and information including benefits information, policy updates, news, and events.

These sites also serve as the primary communication channel for updates on Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT)/Toxic Exposures Fund (TEF) implementation. Additionally, VA has identified the WordPress CMS (Content Management System) as the enterprise destination for all non-Veteran content that must be migrated from the outdated TeamSite CMS over the next several years.

In addition, VA requires the following technical support for VA’s WordPress VIP instances: WordPress administration, management, user administration, theming / layout design, engineering, and plugin development; Support for content editors and users of the WordPress VIP platform; Content migration from legacy platforms to WordPress VIP platform, content strategy, content creation and management;

Accessibility oversight, 508 compliance, security and information handling best-practices; Development or refinement of overall information architecture; Assistance and support for agency ATO and accreditation process; and Reporting on quality, accessibility compliance, content migration progress and other metrics for oversight bodies.

The period of performance for this effort is one 12-month Base Period with one (1) 12-month Option Period. The total estimated value of the proposed action, inclusive of options,

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(a)(4), the following brand name requirement is being justified and approved as an exception to fair opportunity under the statutory authority of Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as

WordPress VIP Platform Hosting and Support and Content Governance contract actions completed by VA over the last four years with comparable scope and scale. Additionally, during that time, the current proprietary hosting solution would still need to be maintained to ensure Veteran access to these important websites. If these specific websites were rendered non-functional, Veterans would be unable to receive VA news and important messages affecting their care and benefits, careers, scan for VA news affecting them and many other website needs VA veterans depend on for an estimated two years. Additionally, VA delivers critical content and news about the PACT Act implementation at VA including notifying Veterans about changes to eligibility for many medical conditions previously unsupported by VA benefits.

Additionally, Automattic WordPress VIP remains the only FedRAMP approved external hosting solution tailored to WordPress, as confirmed in July 2024 via a search of the FedRAMP marketplace website and the additional market research detailed in paragraph 8 below.

Finally, VA requires commercial content governance support for VA’s Web Governance Board and the VA.gov instances on the WordPress VIP hosting solution with the requisite knowledge and understanding of WordPress VIP to meet VA’s technical requirements. Specifically, the Contractor must have a detailed understanding of the configuration of the proprietary WordPress VIP hosting solution to provide support for user management and permissions and to provide support to VA teams adding and managing content on the aforementioned websites. The support must come from partners with specific knowledge of WordPress VIP to ensure they follow proper engineering processes, and all content is promoted to the websites consistently, successfully, and accessibly.

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, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Automattic WordPress VIP hosting and support. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.301, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities website and this justification will be made publicly available 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. The Government will use the time allowed by this contract to ensure the critical products hosted on WordPress VIP are architected to allow a low-burden migration to an alternative hosting provider.

8. Market Research: In June 2024, the Government’s technical experts conducted an internet search of other available WordPress hosting solutions like Kinsta and Liquidweb as well as reviewed FedRAMP Marketplace. This research was conducted by the employees of the Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs (OPIA) and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OI&T). The research was conducted via internet searches, analysis of alternatives, and vendor conversations and demonstrations.

Similar software evaluated included Kinsta, Liquidweb, Drupal, and TeamSite. As the result, it was determined that the brand name “WordPress VIP” hosting solution (provided by Automattic) was the only WordPress specific hosting solution that can provide seamless continuation of VA’s current WordPress based websites due to the proprietary nature of the support and hosting services being provided. For the reasons discussed in Section 5, neither Kinsta, Liquidweb were capable of providing a hosting solution with a WordPress SaaS model with Premium support, and a FedRAMP authorization. WordPress VIP is the only hosting provider with WordPress SaaS model AND Premium support for the WordPress application (others have each but not both together). Additionally, WordPress VIP is the only WordPress hosting provider with FedRAMP authorization as well as a VA Authority to Operate (ATO).

At the time of the initial acquisition, alternative CMSs evaluated at that time included Drupal (currently used within VA on the Veteran eligibility and benefits content pages of the modernized VA.gov). However, VA’s Drupal implementation is de-coupled (front-end code is independent of the back-end content API) which would add an unacceptable level of technical complexity and enormous increase in cost to maintain the websites listed above based on how they are currently architected. Specifically, this is because a shift in the CMS from WordPress to Drupal would require development of new re-usable front-end templates and custom content models for each of the dozens of necessary use cases needed in a department-wide news, policy, and information site such as department.va.gov (in addition to the hundreds of other micro-sites that must be migrated) listed above. This would require new user research on each of those templates to ensure they provide the same or better a user experience as well as to ensure there is no reduction or removal of functionality from the current websites.

Additionally, the re-creation of all of the templates would add technical debt whereby VA would be required for several years to maintain two versions of the same user experiences/templates, one on the legacy website and one on the new CMS, which would be unacceptably complex to maintain and keep secure as the increase in the number of templates increases the size of the security boundary of the system and also increases the opportunities for security intrusions. The existing VA implementation of the TeamSite CMS was also evaluated. However, this CMS was no longer supported by its parent organization and presented considerable security, usability, accessibility, and performance issues.

The paragraphs above detail the analysis conducted of both alternative Content Management Systems (Drupal and Teamsite) and alternative WordPress CMS specific hosting solutions (Kinsta and Liquidweb). Therefore, only the Automattic VIP brand and its authorized resellers can provide the continued hosting and support services meeting the VA needs and preventing significant disruption to VA’s public facing platform of services.

The Contract Specialist conducted market research by issuing a Brand Name Request for Information (RFI ID# 290784) on October 24, 2023, open to all socioeconomic business categories on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) with a closing date of October 31, 2023. One (1) contract holder, Service- Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) submitted a response on time and there was one (1) contract holder, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB), who submitted a response after the closing date. In addition, there were also 2 RFI responses, which were submitted to the customer directly and later provided to the Contract Specialist for consideration. All responding vendors were deemed technically capable by the Government’s technical experts. The responses

Additionally, the Contract Specialist conducted additional market research, on July 9, 2024, by identifying 5 contract holders that are resellers of brand name WordPress VIP and support by utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Market Research Tool. Of these 5 resellers, 2 are SDVOSBs, 2 are WOSBs and 1 Small Business.

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. Based on the above, there is a reasonable expectation that limited competition will take place on the NASA SEWP V GWAC among at least two SDVOSB authorized resellers of the Automatic WordPress VIP brand. As a result of the aforementioned market research, VA intends to issue a Request for Quotation on the NASA SEWP V GWAC as an SDVOSB set-aside for the WordPress VIP brand of support and hosting services.

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.

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. Price analysis shall be conducted by comparing the quote to the published list pricing for the required WordPress VIP solution. Finally, if necessary, the successful quote will be compared to the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

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

Office of General Counsel (OGC) Review

13. I have reviewed this document and find it legally sufficient, based on the representations set forth in the documents and, if any, attachments. The Competition Advocate’s approval is an independently supported decision not wholly reliant on the legal sufficiency determination.

Approval

14. In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of brand name WordPress VIP Platform Hosting and Support and Content Governance 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 property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.