P03 - Consolidation DnF FINAL 9.10.25 - REDACTED.pdf

VAAM M807-C Page C-1

BRAND NAME DOCUMENT STORAGE SYSTEMS

CONSULT TRACKING MANAGER PLUS

36C10A-25-AP-0479

FINDINGS

I. INTRODUCTION:

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Technology Acquisition Center (TAC) plans to solicit offers for Brand Name Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS) Consult Tracking Manager Plus (CTM+) and has conducted market research that demonstrates consolidation of this procurement to be both necessary and justified.

II. BACKGROUND.

A. Requirement. VA, Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Office of Integrated Veteran Care requires a single award Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) national contract with 5 12-month ordering periods (60 months) for brand name DSS CTM+ perpetual license annual maintenance, annual limited licenses as well as implementation, installation, and testing. Software maintenance will include software updates, upgrades, bug fixes, help desk support, training, reporting, and project management. The total estimated value of this proposed action is , inclusive of 5 12-month ordering periods.

VA, OIT, Office of Integrated Veteran Care requires brand name DSS CTM+ software and associated services for up to 170 VA Medical Centers and approximately 1,193 Community-based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) across the United States. VA requires a server-based software solution that displays instant, up to date consults by status, urgency, and specialty type. This information must be presented in easy to navigate user interface, provide real-time consult information, have the ability to prioritize and organize consults based on urgency, sort consults by age and appointment status, update patient demographics, link and unlink appointments to consults, create and filter consults by work groups or specialty, and provide productivity reports. The software must be able to consolidate data from multiple sources into one software solution, allow for user specific settings and personal preferences, utilize real-time Health Level Seven communication interfaces with the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) system and the Computer Patient Record System (CPRS), and be approved by VA OIT for use within VA’s Information Technology enterprise. Software must integrate with clinical data within the VistA system, CPRS, and Consult ToolBox using a remote procedure call broker interface connection and `serves` as a Graphic User Interface/web application that is accessed through a client web browser.

This consolidation aids the Government in meeting mission objectives by creating a streamlined process for procuring DSS CTM+ software. Approximately 140 VA hospitals and their connected CBOCs currently utilize the DSS CTM+ software. DSS

VAAM M807-C Page C-3

Business Specialist and TAC Small Business Specialist. On August 6, 2025, the TAC Small Business Specialist stated that this effort was not subject to bundling because based on the completed market research, small businesses are able to compete for the requirement.

Affected incumbent small business concerns. Notification to affected incumbent small business concerns is not applicable as this requirement is not subject to bundling procedures. Based upon market research conducted by Government Subject Matter experts and based on VA’s current deployment of DSS CTM+, it was determined that competition will be unrestricted, open market, for brand name DSS CTM+ software and will include DSS authorized resellers are Minburn Technology Group, LLC (SDVOSB) and Blue Tech (HUBZone Small Business and WOSB). Small business participation by DSS authorized resellers is anticipated and likely to occur under a consolidated IDIQ contract.

Additionally, as required by FAR 7.107-5(c), a copy of this Determination shall be posted to the Contract opportunities site via SAM.gov no later than seven days after it is approved, and the solicitation shall not be issued within seven days of the posting.

Results of Market Research: The Government issued a Request for Information (RFI), 36C10A25Q0060, on Contract Opportunities at SAM.gov in May 2025. The purpose of this RFI was to identify qualified vendors, who can meet VA requirements for the brand name DSS CTM+.

The VA received eight responses to the RFI from the following vendors:

1. Asterism Information Technology Solutions LLC

2. SRR International, Inc.

3. RV Global Solutions Inc.

4. ClouDen Technologies LLC

5. VESEQU

6. Begini Howard Private Equity, LLC

7. DSS, and

8. AdaptiveVets Solutions

All of the above, except DSS, were deemed unable to meet all the requirements within the Performance Work Statement (PWS) based on the information provided and independent research completed by VA subject matter experts.

DSS was the only RFI respondent deemed able to meet all the requirements within the PWS. Therefore, the results of the market research determined that this requirement shall be for a brand-name DSS CTM+ software.

Based upon market research conducted by Government Subject Matter experts it was determined that competition is available among the two authorized resellers of DSS CTM+, as well as DSS. Only DSS and its authorized resellers are

VAAM M807-C Page C-4 authorized to provide DSS CTM+ perpetual license annual maintenance, annual limited licenses as well as implementation, installation, and testing. As referenced above, DSS authorized resellers are Minburn Technology Group, LLC (SDVOSB) and Blue Tech (WOSB and HUBZone Small Business).

III. CONSOLIDATION.

A1. Benefits: Based on market research, VA has determined that the benefits of pursuing a consolidated acquisition significantly outweigh those of the alternative contracting methods identified in paragraph A.2C of this section. Specifically, VA will gain substantial management advantages, as detailed below. Additionally, consolidation will greatly enhance VA’s capacity to manage its information technology portfolio, potentially aligning with the Office of Management and Budget Guidance for strategic sourcing and category management discussed in Section II, paragraph A, if the resulting IDIQ is approved as a Tier 1: Spend Under Management solution. Consolidation will substantially reduce administrative costs by requiring fewer specialized resources. For example, instead of 11 Contracting Officers, the consolidated approach needs one Contracting Officer and one Contract Specialist. This can also be applied to resources supporting in the capacity of Project Manager, Budget Analyst, and Contracting Officer’s Representative, overall leading to a reduction from 44 to 5 personnel. Further, the consolidated approach will establish streamlined ordering, consistent oversight, and usage management which will also have significant intangible value.

The overall consolidated procurement strategy is expected to deliver significant cost savings. This approach enables VA to secure better contract terms, improve service delivery, and achieve substantial financial benefits through economy of scale discounts, thus justifying the consolidation under FAR 7.107-2.

Currently, there are 25 individual orders being administered by 11 different Contracting Officers across VA enterprise. Below is a comparison of the unit prices based on historical decentralized purchasing and the unit prices based on the Government’s estimate using a consolidated procurement approach:

Product Unit Price IGCE Unit Price Savings Contract

Reference

DSS CTM+ 81% 36C24420C0095

DSS ADHOC

Premium Application Workflow Services (Implementation, Installation, Maintenance, 83% 36C26121F0477

VAAM M807-C Page C-6 makes the single award approach efficient for both the Government as well as the contract holder. The DSS CTM+ software is available only through DSS and its authorized resellers. The product is proprietary, and the maintenance services (including updates, patches, and helpdesk support) are only provided by the software developer, or authorized resellers. The anticipated frequent number of orders do not justify the additional administrative costs of managing multiple awardees and conducting fair opportunity competitions for each task order. VA expects significant cost savings with the establishment of the single award ID/IQ;

however, if a multiple award approach was executed all awardees would be reselling the same proprietary product, and the anticipated initial cost savings of having a single ID/IQ contract would not be realized. Offerors responding to the ID/IQ would not be as compelled to offer significant discounts upfront since they would be expected to compete for future orders, and the pricing would reflect the administrative burden for each offeror to manage the ID/IQ, as well as responding to future competitive solicitations for each task order. In addition, competitive unit prices are not expected to vary between the two resellers and the OEM significantly, based on procurement history and market research. Since the OEM sets the price there is not an expectation that future competition at the task order level would result in significant price savings to the Government, and any potential savings would be outweighed by the administrative cost associated with managing separate task orders and soliciting, evaluating, and awarding to multiple contract holders. Maintaining a multiple award IDIQ contract would increase administrative costs and workload without yielding cost savings or performance improvements. A single-award approach ensures direct communication and rapid response from a single contractor. Since this software is used in clinical setting, execution time is mission critical and in the event performance is derogated, VA officials must be able to quickly identify the contractor responsible that can correct the performance issue. If a multiple award strategy was implemented, the VA PM or COR would first need to identify the specific license either by the user or site, track down the order number associated with the license, and then the contractor responsible for performance could be identified. With the expectation of 1,000’s of sites with licenses being used across the US and VA enterprise, and no asset management tracking solution, this would cause inexcusable delays in ensuring clinical consults for patients are managed appropriately further impacting care to Veterans.

Category management guidelines require the pursuit of opportunities to achieve economies of scale and maintain oversight of like procurements. The software will be used by multiple clinicians at each site, in addition VA expects this requirement to be transitioned to Oracle Federal Electronic Health Record (EHR) creating risk to the VA that usage and tracking will be compliance with the license quantity and periods purchased. With a multiple award approach, the risk of compliance is magnified times the number of contract holders. Recent congressional oversight has identified the government must have license usage oversight to avoid duplication and inefficiencies. Use of a single award IDIQ with a single contractor capable of monitoring compliance reduces this risk by eliminating duplication of licenses, underutilization, anti-deficiency and/or unauthorized obligations.

VAAM M807-C Page C-7

C. Alternative approaches: Consideration has been given to alternative strategies per FAR 7.107-2(a)(2), including a Blanket Purchase Agreement against General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule; however, DSS is the only authorized seller of CTM+ on GSA which eliminates competition and potential award to a small business. The authorized resellers are contract holders on National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract, but a national ordering vehicle is not possible against an established IDIQ. It was determined that individual sites and/or procurements for each VA Medical Center or CBOC would lead to duplicative efforts. Spreading this requirement across numerous individual sites and/or regional procurements will require VA to commit multiple program managers, contracting officers, and contracting officer representatives to oversee multiple awards for identical items. Additionally, with multiple contract awards, VA will not realize volume discounts or savings associated with purchasing at economies of scale. Consolidation will permit VA to avoid duplicative administrative efforts and leverage economies of scale to secure improved value, secure greater efficiency, reduced acquisition cycle times, and obtain more rapid field deployment.

D. Negative impact: One or more small business may be impacted as a result of the single award IDIQ strategy, because once awarded small businesses (other than the awardee) will not be able to compete on future CTM+ requirements. While there may be a negative impact to small businesses the administrative efficiencies and anticipated savings outweigh those impacts.

E. Inclusion of small business concerns: This determination has been coordinated with and concurred by VA OSDBU. The use of this proposed acquisition strategy has addressed impact to small business. The Contracting Officer has given appropriate consideration for a single award IDIQ. In addition, using full and open competition will maximize small business participation to the greatest extent possible while not sacrificing savings to the tax payer.

VAAM M807-C Page C-8

IV. DETERMINATION.

Based on the above, I hereby determine that in accordance with FAR 7.107-2(a) that consolidation is necessary and justified.

PREPARED BY: I hereby certify that the supporting information and data used to complete this determination is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

REVIEWED BY: I have reviewed this determination and find it to be accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Concur:

Concur:

VAAM M807-C Page C-9

Approve: