NNG15SD27B 36C10B20F0191_1.docx

eGain Enterprise Knowledge Management License VA-20-00031898 Software Maintenance and Technical Support eGain Enterprise Knowledge Management License VA-20-00031898 Software Maintenance and Technical Support Contract Opportunity Award Notice

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* = Required Field Contract Opportunity Award Notice D318 eGain Enterprise Knowledge Management (KM) License Software Maintenance and Technical Support VA-20-00031898 07724 36C10B20Q0313 N 541519 Department of Veterans Affairs Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown NJ 07724 heera.polanco@va.gov kathryn.pantages@va.gov heera.polanco@va.gov 732-795-1074

NNG15SD27B_36C10B20F0191

$4,434,389.87 06-11-2020

V3GATE, LLC

808862598

555 MIDDLE CREEK PKWY STE 120

COLORADO SPRINGS

CO

80921 heera.polanco@va.gov heera.polanco@va.gov

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solution for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the renewal of maintenance and technical support for a single perpetual license of the brand name eGain Enterprise Knowledge Management (KM) software, and additional optional tasks described below.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Office of Information & Technology(OI&T), Enterprise Program Management Office (EPMO), Veterans Centered Experience (VCE), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has a requirement to renew maintenance and technical support for a single perpetual license of the brand name eGain Enterprise KM software VA previously acquired. Under this Justification, VA is not renewing licenses nor procuring any additional licenses. VA claims processors use eGain KM portals to service Veterans’ inquiries at call centers and regional offices across the country, and to assist Veterans claim adjudicators in processing Veterans claims for benefits. The KM tool allows for a single source and version to support both internal and public facing KM portals with real-time updates performed by VA staff. The Self-Service Web Sessions provide VA claim adjudication manuals and support information access to Veterans and VA stakeholders. The existing perpetual eGain Enterprise KM license includes unlimited agents for eGain Knowledge Agent, unlimited sessions for the external facing portal hits through eGain Web Self Service, and unlimited access through Application Program Interfaces for Customer Chat deflection and the Inquiry Routing and Information System (IRIS) Widgets. Additionally, VA’s eGain Enterprise KM license includes a mobile application for iPhone Operating System and Android devices that shall require a link to KM and Chat and the Virtual Interaction Management Digital Channel Analytic Package.

The required software maintenance support shall include the same periodic updates, enhancements, and corrections to the KM software that are offered commercially. Standard technical support shall include the same enhanced self-help and search capabilities that are available commercially for the KM software. As part of the software maintenance support, the Contractor shall also upgrade KM Co-Browse On-Premise in the existing 3rd party environment from version 15 to version 17 (note that there was not a version 16 released). This upgrade will provide improved authorizing and analytics and is required for compatibility with the eGain Always-On Architecture and Service. This is strictly a version upgrade which is considered to be a minor software upgrade and does not constitute purchase of a new license.

Technical support shall be provided 24/7/365, and shall include the same enhanced self-help, search capabilities, and live issue resolution support services that are available commercially. The resultant delivery order will also include four Optional Tasks for enhanced technical support services as follows:

Optional Task 1 is for 24x7 eGain professional software support including live technical support availability over phone and email, Incident management, and issue analysis and resolution 24x7; for example, in the event of latency issues with the KM application due to issues with the software outside of normal business hours, eGain will provide live technical support and issue analysis to solve the issue. Professional support is over and above the standard technical support.

Optional Task 2 is for Premier Support to augment existing operations and maintenance, Hosting, and eGain Support in the areas of server/system/partition administration, configuration, authoring, and other eGain specific tasks including troubleshooting support for end-to-end system problems including the collection of proprietary log data and performing data analysis on the proprietary log data. Premier Support is over and above the 24x7 eGain professional software support.

Optional Task 3 is for eGain CRM Integration which includes integration support to support the migration of eGain to a CRM environment.

Optional Task 4 is for eGain User Guided Help in which eGain or eGain resellers would provide live, guided assistance that can be either externally (Veteran) or internally (agent) facing.

The period of performance for the software maintenance and technical support for the eGain Enterprise KM license is 12 months from the date of award, with one 12-month option period and four optional tasks that may be exercised at the discretion of the Government at any point during the period of performance. The maximum length of the proposed action if the option period and optional tasks are exercised is 24 months. The total estimated value of the proposed action is $---, inclusive of the option period and optional tasks.

4. 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 implemented by 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: Based on extensive market research, as described in Section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available among eGain resellers.

Only eGain or eGain resellers are authorized to provide maintenance and support due to proprietary constraints. Any source providing any of the aforementioned services would need access to the eGain proprietary code to ensure all services provided are properly configured to the software. The eGain software described above is vital to VA for implementation of a comprehensive and consistent view of the KM content, such as VA policy and guidelines, operational manuals, call scripts, knowledge articles and reference material, required by users to conduct VA business processes. The current KM repository consists of over 16,000 knowledge articles which are meta-tagged within eGain’s proprietary software. Utilizing any other brand name software would require a complete re-authoring and reengineering of internal VA statutory manuals and reference materials, a complete re-training of the KM authors across the VA enterprise, a complete redesign of Co-Browse in order to be interoperable with the CRM applications, and system integration of the new KM and Co-Browse interfaces. This would result in extensive delivery delays and duplicated costs of over $6M that would not be recovered through competition. This assessment of extensive duplicated costs is based on similar efforts. CRM has utilized eGain KM software since 2012 and previously purchased an Enterprise License Agreement which provided unlimited access to KM Agent Licenses and KM Web Sessions, as well as 667 Chat licenses and 165 Chat & Co-browse licenses that are currently in use.

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. It was determined, however, that limited competition is anticipated among resellers for brand name eGain products and the associated software maintenance and technical support. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 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. Additionally, in accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(2), this justification will be provided with the solicitation on the NASA SEWP V GWAC.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for the requirements described herein, the Government’s technical experts will continue to perform market research to determine if there are any products which become available that will enable future requirements to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research in January 2020 by reviewing other similar software and associated services to determine if sources other than eGain or eGain resellers can satisfy the requirement. The other similar software and services reviewed included Oracle, Parature (wholly owned subsidy of Microsoft), Pega, and Talisma. Based on reviews of these products, the Government’s technical experts determined that while other sources possess general capabilities needed to provide similar capabilities for their respective products, no other source was found that could provide the required software maintenance and technical support without access to eGain’s proprietary code. Additionally, no other source is compatible with the existing eGain KM software. Based on the market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts have determined that only eGain’s brand name software can meet all of VA’s needs.

In addition, a Request for Information (RFI) was issued on February 19, 2020 via the NASA SEWP V website to ascertain if there were sources that could meet the Government’s technical requirements for brand name eGain products and the associated maintenance and technical support. The RFI closed on February 26, 2020 with two responses received, one from V3Gate, LLC, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), and one from CDW-G, a large business, both resellers of eGain products. Based on the information provided, the Government Program Manager (PM) determined both vendors to be technically capable of performing the effort. The Contract Specialist confirmed via the VIP database that V3Gate, LLC is a registered and verified SDVOSB.

Additional market research was conducted in April 2020 utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup Tool to identify NASA SEWP resellers that could provide the brand name eGain products and the associated maintenance and technical support. The search yielded four eGain resellers capable of providing this requirement that are contract holders in Group B(2) SDVOSBs and registered and verified in the VIP database; therefore, limited competition is expected among SDVOSBs for this proposed action. Furthermore, market research was conducted on the VIP database which found that two or more VIP verified vendors are capable of meeting the Government’s requirements under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 541519. In addition, NASA SEWP V is a dynamic GWAC in which products can be added on a daily basis to vendor catalogs based on customer requests, as long as the required information technology product is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC.

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: ___________________

Project 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 anticipated limited competition. Additionally, NASA SEWP V has already determined the prices on contract to be fair and reasonable and more competitive pricing may result from competition. Finally, the successful quote will be compared with the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

Date: ________________________________

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.

Date: ________________________________

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

13. Legal Sufficiency Certification: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support an exception to fair opportunity and deem it legally sufficient.

Date: ________________________________

Legal Counsel Signature: ____________________________

Approval In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of software maintenance and technical support for a single perpetual license of the brand name eGain Enterprise KM software, and additional optional tasks described herein, on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in paragraph 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date: ____________ Signature: _________________________________

Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics