P03 - JA _Digicert.pdf

VA-21-00009708

new competitive acquisition. Additionally, using an alternative product would result in substantial delays to the Veteran as claims hearings would have to be rescheduled until such time as the alternative certificates could be installed and tested to ensure no patient data is compromised during a hearing, which is a critical function during the COVID pandemic requirements.

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 technical representative determined that limited competition is available among resellers for brand name Digicert Managed Public Key Infrastructure (MPKI) for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Standard with Extended Validation (EV) certificates with gold 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 SAM.gov Contract 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 learn if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed. Specifically, the government will research similar items to determine if any changes have been identified in the market place.

8. Market Research: VA technical personnel conducted market research in May 2020 by researching websites for products comparable to the Digicert certificates.

Specifically, the Government's technical experts conducted web-based research on similar products available from Symantec and GeoTrust. In addition, a Request for Information was posted to NASA SEWP requesting information on alternate products.

No responses were received. Although there are products that provide similar capabilities, no other products requirements as outlined in paragraph 5 of this document. Based on the above, only

The Contract Specialist (CS) conducted market research in November 2020 by using the NASA SEWP V GWAC market research tools to determine what vendors can meet the requirement. Based on this market research, the CS found multiple service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses (SDVOSB) capable of meeting the full requirement.

9. Other Facts: None.