Limited Source Justification (PCR 82A).pdf final.pdf

Limited Source Justification

I. Agency and Contracting Activity

Requesting Activity

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Contracting Activity General Services Administration Federal Acquisition Service Assisted Acquisition Services Div.

One World Trade Center New York City, NY 10007-0089

II. Description of Action This contract action is for a sole source award of a modification to International Business Machines (IBM), 6300 Diagonal Highway, Boulder, CO 80301 for services to the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) to address additional scope for Extended Support 3 – Additional Coverage / Extended Support 4 / Employee Self Service (ESS) from August 2022 to December 31, 2022.

Description of Supplies/Services

Described within this PCR is the level of effort required to incorporate the following:

1. Extended Support 3 (Additional Coverage) (FFP) – Provides an increased Level of Effort (LOE) to Table Maintenance, Help Desk, Queries, and Testing due to the effort required to implement a higher than anticipated number of Duty Stations due to COVID.

2. Extended Support Phase 4 (FFP) – Provides support through the end of the contract including change management, communications, training + communications material, training environment, enhanced testing, functional requirements, Help Desk, Queries, and Ad Hoc Services and Change Requests.

3. Employee Self Service (ESS) Implementation/ Deployment (FFP)– Provides support for deployment of one iteration of ESS functionality.

4. Extended Support Phase 4 AdHoc Services (T&M) est hours - 1810

The total Firm Fixed Price (FFP) estimate for the above work is $ 1,277,725.49 and the Time and Materials (T&M) estimate is $337,951.90 ($1,615,677.39 total). Assuming a start date of August 2022, the estimated period of performance for these services is from August 2022 through December 31, 2022.

III. Authority Cited

FAR 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B) only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the services are unique to the source (IBM).

IV. Reason for Authority Cited

The current contractor, IBM is the developer of the proprietary HRIS SSC solution VA is currently utilizing.

This action provides for improved overall business processing of personnel actions. Outlined below are the relevant factors relating to this effort:

a. The VA requirement is within scope as it provides for the level of effort required to sustain and enhance HR Smart through the remainder of the period of performance as noted above.

b. The current Contractor, IBM is the developer of the “proprietary” HRIS SSC solution VA is currently utilizing. IBM solely owns and license’s the PeopleSoft based developed solution and is hosting the solution at its facilities.

c. Purchasing the services through multiple contracts or other means would significantly increase the program risk and cause potential mission failure for program solutions. Such an approach would present a very high risk of configuration control issues across the multiple contracts.

d. VA currently does not have the programmatic skills or subject matter expertise in the area of product application development.

This acquisition is being conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program.

This justification is prepared in compliance with 8.405-6(a)(1)(i)(B), which authorizes the limiting of sources when “only one source is capable of proving the service.” Based on the requesting activity’s needs, the intent of this procurement is to minimize cost and transition risk to meet critical mission requirements. IBM has all the necessary labor skill categories to meet the requirements.

V. Efforts to Obtain Competition

Market research was not conducted, details of which are included in the market research section of this document.

VI. Actions to Increase Competition

No actions were taken as this is a one-time upgrade with follow on operations and maintenance that must be performed by the developer of the system.

VII. Market Research

Because of the Private Shared Service Center solution described in IV, market research was not conducted. IBM, as the developer of the proprietary HRIS SSC solution, which includes the software, hardware, hosting and maintenance, prevents any market research from being conducted for this requirement.

VIII. Interested Sources

(See paragraph VI, Efforts to Obtain Competition).

IX. Technical 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.

Emily Prohaska Date CEHRIS COR, Department of Veterans Affairs

X. 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.

Emily Prohaska Date CEHRIS COR, Department of Veterans Affairs

XI. Contracting Officer’s 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, that the order represents the best value to the government and the anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. The price for the associated services is computed using the established GSA hourly rates set forth in the VA HR LOB task order and IBM’s MAS schedule, reflecting a 25% discount. Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve a sole-source task order modification award to IBM for the requirements listed in this document.

Wei Lu-Gin Date Contracting Officer

XII. Concurrence

I concur with the Contracting Officer’s determination.

EMILY PROHASKA Digitally signed by EMILY PROHASKA Date: 2022.08.16 08:40:46 -04'00'

EMILY PROHASKA Digitally signed by EMILY PROHASKA Date: 2022.08.16 08:41:07 -04'00'

WEI LU-GIN Digitally signed by WEI LU-GIN Date: 2022.08.16 10:52:50 -04'00'

Date��$XJXVW��������� Lynn Womack Branch Chief, AAS

Lawrence Unger Director, AAS

Theresa Ramos Competition Advocate

Lynn M.

Womack

Digitally signed by Lynn M. Womack Date: 2022.08.16 16:20:09 -04'00'

Lawrence Unger

Digitally signed by Lawrence Unger Date: 2022.08.17 08:43:18 -04'00'