Nuance JA - Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-24-00065421

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: This proposed action is for a firm-fixed price (FFP) delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the renewal of brand name Nuance Communications (Nuance) Annual Maintenance and Software maintenance.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) has a requirement for brand name Nuance Maintenance and Software perpetual licenses renewal for 1,270 Nuance ASR and 1,176 Nuance TTS software licenses to support the existing VAM Enterprise IVR at Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) and Philadelphia Information Technology Center (PITC) data centers located in Austin, TX and Philadelphia, PA. These licenses enhance the Veteran experience and enables more human, personalized Veteran interactions for the IVR self-service applications. Specifically, the function that Nuance software performs in the VAM Enterprise IVR ECC environment is to convert text into spoken voice output to aid the visually impaired by offering a computer-generated spoken voice that would read text to the user.

This requirement includes a 12-month base period and two (2), 12-month option periods for Nuance Maintenance and Software renewal to support 1,270 ASR perpetual software licenses and 1,176 TTS perpetual software licenses. The total duration of the order will not exceed 36 months inclusive of options. The total estimated value of the proposed action is , inclusive of all option periods.

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 implemented by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), en providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly sp

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: This brand name justification is based on extensive market research, as described in Section 8 of this document, it was determined that renewing the Maintenance and Software support for Nuance software licenses ca The current VAM Enterprise IVR ECC environment uses Nuance ASR and TTS to support speech recognition and text to speech functions. These applications are already in place and requires maintenance in

Nuance Software Maintenance Control Number VA-24-00065421 order to stay operational. Nuance does not authorize any other vendor to provide the maintenance support required; therefore, support can only be obtained from Nuance.

The VAM Enterprise IVR ECC environment is built on Nuance ASR and TTS technology. Nuance brand name software is the only software that can continue to ng VAM Enterprise IVR infrastructure. Any other brand name software is unable to integrate with the currently fielded Nuance software. Nuance is the current ASR and TTS software that is operational and maintained by the VAM Enterprise IVR environment. Any deviation or replacement of Nuance software would require re-engineering of the VAM Enterprise IVR infrastructure. Further, a replacement software solution of the current Brand Name Nuance software would cost an estimated

, along with the loss of the Government s initial investment, to include services, and support. If VA were to discontinue speech recognition services within the VAM Enterprise IVR solution that would result in loss of speech recognition services and require major system rework, while not meeting business requirements.

Additionally, another icenses will not work with the Nuance ASR or TTS server. Existing brand name software inventory includes existing ownership of 2,446 Nuance software licenses that supports the entire Veterans Benefit Administration (VBA) National Call Center environment, for which maintenance support is being sought. Furthermore, no other brand name ASR and TTS software can integrate and communicate with the current VA owned Nuance software which communicates through a source code that is based on Nuance proprietary data. The existing environment has been meticulously tested to meet TRM compliance, Penetration test, Web Application Security Assessment (WASA) scans, Nessus scans and VA 6500 directive.

Nuance requires annual software maintenance for existing ASR and TTS licenses to provide technical assistance to support patches, hot fixes and any other corrective action for bugs and issues discovered not only by VA but by industry. Only Nuance or its authorized resellers can provide the required maintenance support services due to Nuance proprietary software code.

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. Market research did not yield any alternative ASR and TTS software other than Nuance that can meet the Government's requirements to be compatible with the existing Nuance servers within the VAM Enterprise IVR ECC environment. It is anticipated that there will be several vendors on NASA SEWP V who can provide the required brand name Nuance ASR and TTS Maintenance and Software renewals. 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 Contract Opportunties/beta.SAM.gov site 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.

8. Market Research: The Government's technical experts conducted market research in April 2024 by reviewing other similar ASR and TTS software products to ascertain if these items could meet VA's requirements. Specifically, the Government technical experts conducted web-based research which included iSpeech, Hamilton Capital and Zapier & the incumbent. Based on the review of these products by the forementioned two newest companies, t technical experts determined that none of these products can meet the Gov lity and compatibility requirements with the current environment. Only Nuance software will ensure compatibility and interoperability with the existing environment. Based on all of these market research efforts, the Governmen hnical experts have determined that only Nuance brand name software can meet all of .

Additional market research was conducted by utilizing the NASA SEWP Provider Lookup Tool. There are 109 contract holders listed that provide Nuance products, including 16 service-disabled Veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) resellers,15 of those resellers are Small Business Administration (SBA) certified as SDVOSBs. The requirement discussed herein has been found to be within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC in a separate determination. As a result of the aforementioned market research, VA intends to issue Request for Quotation number 36C10B24Q0367 to SDVOSBs on 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.

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 the Independent Government Cost Estimate and Price Analysis. Additionally, price discounts will be sought.

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

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of Nuance Software Maintenance 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.