P03_JA_E-FOIAXpress REDACTED posted with solicitation.pdf

AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress Software Control Number VA-22-00042453

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, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) Delivery Order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name AINS, Incorporated, LLC (AINS, Inc.) FOIAXpress software and associated maintenance support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Quality, Performance and Risk, Office of Quality and Compliance has a requirement for renewal of 1,055 licenses of brand name AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software and associated maintenance support to provide continued support of the Electronic-Freedom of Information Act (E-FOIA) System. This amount is consistent as a renewal of previous requirements. Additionally, VA requires up to an additional 40 brand name AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software licenses to accommodate user fluctuation. The requirements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552 as amended By Public Law No. 110-175, 121 Stat. 2524 states that any person has a right of access to Federal agency records, except to the extent that such records are protected from release by a FOIA exemption or a special law enforcement record exclusion. Executive Order 13392 and the Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act, which amended FOIA, requires VA to provide more customer-oriented service by improving the management and administration of its own FOIA program. VA’s web-based E-FOIA system was created in response to these laws and directives. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) currently uses AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software to process its FOIA requests. This software redacts sensitive and personal information from audio, video, and documents so that it can be released in accordance with United States Laws and VA Directives.

Without this software, responding to FOIA requests would be a labor-intensive manual process. Each document and media file would have to have all sensitive information manually redacted. The maintenance support associated with this procurement involves software updates, responding to system outages, training, and help desk support. Last year, VA had over 27,000 FOIA requests and the VHA currently has approximately 4,000 FOIA requests that it is processing. Software automating FOIA requests is critical to VA’s mission and obligations under United States Law. The period of performance for this effort shall be a 12-month base period with two, 12-month option periods for continued use of the software and associated maintenance support. This effort includes two optional tasks, the first being for subject matter support to close out of data hosting in the event of potential transition. The second optional task is for the up to 40 additional brand name AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software licenses annually to

JA Template - FAR Part 16.5 _FEB_26_2021

Control Number VA-22-00042453 AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress Software accommodate user surge requirements. The total estimated value of the proposed action is XXXX (inclusive of options).

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), 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 paragraph 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for brand name AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software and associated maintenance support. The software coding, security protections, and trade secrets used to store VA data on the AINS, Inc. servers make the transference of this data from AINS, Inc. to another vendor inaccessible due to the proprietary nature of the software. AINS, Inc. software contains schema (proprietary blueprint) that does not interface with other software and if the schema does not match the data will not migrate into the correct fields of other software. The encrypted data is configured to only be compatible with the capabilities of the AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software currently in use at VA. In order to accomplish the transfer of data any alternative vendor solution would first need to obtain an Authority to Operate (ATO) which can take up to 18 months during which time the current AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software would have to run concurrently to ensure there is no break in service and ensure that the Agency is able to continue to process FOIA requests within the 20 business days required by law. To run both software concurrently would result in approximately $2.7M of duplicative costs for the Agency based on previous acquisition history. During this time, all submitted FOIA requests must be processed/completed within the AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software as requests in flight cannot be transferred.

During this time the current vendor will also be required to close out all open FOIA actions.

Additionally, while awaiting ATO approval the alternative vendor will need to set up and test the new environment to host the data. The current amount of data hosted by AINS is seven terabytes. The seven terabytes of data consists of a complex array of record information, multiple image file types, file formats and various sources of data that would have to be downloaded from the AINS, Inc. servers and placed in a generic database. For this data to be transferred to another vendor, the new FOIA software would have to have the exact same capabilities as the AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software that is currently being used and no other vendor has the exact same compatibilities as AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress; therefore any new software solution would have to be customized to meet the capabilities associated with the existing software. This would require any alternative vendor to purchase and maintain appropriate servers or cloud storage depending on solution type prior to facilitating a data transfer. The seven terabytes of data are specifically mapped for the AINS FOIAXpress software currently in use so the use of any alternative vendors product would necessitate the development of custom software migration scripts to move the data from AINS, Inc. servers to the new servers or cloud storage. This is an extensive development effort and is not a simple download of data from one server to another. The estimated costs for the alternative vendor to set up, test, and host the environment, as well as transference of data, are estimated to cost a minimum of $70K. This estimate is based on current market value for Cloud based hosting solutions and the labor mix required for this rework. Therefore, the total estimated duplicative costs associated with using an alternative vendor solution would total a minimum of $2.8M which would not be recuperated via competition.

Additionally, only after the ATO is approved, and the alternative vendor has set up and tested a stable hosting environment, can the data transfer be attempted. If transfer is successful, the data would then have to be mapped specifically to the new software package. During transfer there is a risk that data not correctly mapped may be inaccessible which would result in not only further delays and duplicative costs, but additional risk to VA. More specifically, the risk of data loss or corruption associated with this transfer is not feasible as the nature of the FOIA data is highly sensitive. Any loss or corruption of data would leave VA without ability to process FOIA requests as required by law.

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. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software maintenance and 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 Contracting 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 ascertain if there are changes in the market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research by posting a Request for Information (RFI) to NASA SEWP V GWAC on 03/02/2022.

The RFI included a draft performance work statement requesting brand name AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress or equivalent software that met a list of saliant characteristics. The RFI resulted in response from Copper River, Thunder Cat and RedHawk, three AINS, Inc. brand name resellers that are small businesses All resellers proposed use of AINS Inc., FOIAXpress software. No alternative software solutions were proposed in response to this RFI.

Market research conducted in March 2022 also included web-based research of similar software from alternative vendors. Specifically, the Government technical experts reviewed similar FOIA processing software from GovQA and JustFOIA. While similar software from other vendors exist, no other alternative can provide a seamless integration to the existing VA network due to proprietary software coding, data security protections and trade secrets used to store VA data on the AINS, Inc. servers. The use of any alternative software would require the duplication of time and effort as described in paragraph 5 above. Additionally, use of any alternative softwaret would also expose VA to risk of data loss and corruption. Further, after review of the JustFOIA software, Government technical experts concluded this redaction software can not meet VA requirement to create video responses which is required by VA when processing FOIA requests.

Based on all these market research efforts, the Program Manager has determined that only AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress brand name software and associated maintenance support can meet all of VA’s needs without causing any delays in providing the services required to allow for the continuation of FOIA services in accordance with Federal regulations.

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: 4/8/2022

Title 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 because NASA SEWP V GWAC prices have previously been determined fair and reasonable.

Additionally, the successful quote will be compared to the published price lists on the NASA SEWP V GWAC price catalog of the successful offeror. Finally, the successful quote will be compared with the Independent Government Cost Estimate and/or competition.

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.

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature:

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of for brand name AINS, Inc. FOIAXpress software and associated maintenance support, 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.

04/11/2022 Date:

Signature:

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