(P03) JA FAR Part 6 Schedule Apps Development Redacted.pdf

Control Number VA-21-00072184

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

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:

The proposed sole source action is for a one-year firm-fixed price (FFP) effort for Telehealth and Scheduling Applications Suite SAFe and Administrative Support with Iron Bow Technologies (Iron Bow), LLC 2303 Dulles Station Blvd, Herndon, VA 20171.

3. Description of Supplies or Services:

The proposed action is to enhance and sustain the Web and Mobile Scheduling Applications Suite, also known as the VA Online Scheduling (VAOS) Suite, which serves as the mechanism by which Veterans are able to schedule and access VA Telehealth Video Appointments to receive clinical care in circumstances where distance separates those receiving services and those providing services. The scheduling apps suite consists of three web applications. The first web app, VAOS, enables Veterans to directly schedule an appointment or submit a request to VA scheduling staff members to make an appointment. Additionally, VAOS is the app Veterans use to check eligibility for community care treatment, search for community providers, and request community care appointments. VA staff members use the second web app, Scheduling Manager (SM), to process the requests for appointments from Veterans using VAOS. The third application is the VA Tool Set, (VATS), which is a small staff-facing application used to configure VAOS at VA Medical Centers and Health Care Systems. The services required for the performance of this contract are Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) support, including project management, application lifecycle management, for the VA Web and Mobile Scheduling Applications Suite, integrated services and software verification/validation. The total estimated value of the proposed action is

(inclusive of options).

4. Statutory Authority:

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C.

3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 entitled, “Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above:

Telehealth and Scheduling Applications Suite SAFe and Administrative Support

Control Number VA-21-00072184

Iron Bow Technologies subject matter experts are being leveraged for their specific knowledge of the Telehealth/VAOS environments. As indicated by the market research, no other contractors have the access to or knowledge of the current suite of VA owned application required for the sustainment and development of the applications. OIT is finishing the rollout of SAFe on VAOS and scheduling, and the Government requires these services to continue uninterrupted. These critical services are required to achieve the July 2021 roll out date. If another contractor is utilized, it would take no less than 90 days to onboard and grant access to new contractor staff. Even if the contractor staff was fully onboarded, contractor staff would need to engage in software discovery or redevelopment to fully understand and improve upon the work already completed as VA moves to implementation. This re-discovery and learning curve is anticipated to take at least an additional three months further delaying the next product increment and delivery of planned new features to the Veteran and Providers. A three month delay of the upcoming product increment would disrupt planned provider features and impact Veterans in a negative manner for medical scheduling and COVID-19 appointments as well as accessibility to updated VAOS features, thus decreasing the ability of Veterans to schedule necessary telehealth appointments.

Iron Bow Technologies provides support for all currently fielded, and future, Telehealth devices, software and systems, including scheduling software, of which the VAOS suite is a crucial component. Additionally, Iron Bow supports the digital health technology development, enhancement, release, maintenance, and operations support. The Telehealth and Scheduling Application Suite SAFe and Administration Support TO will help to ensure the digital health technologies continue to integrate effectively so that all components work together seamlessly to provide safe, effective, and quality medical and critical care to our nation’s Veterans.

Iron Bow Technologies possesses the specialized experience to continue to procure equipment (leveraged under their BPA) health technology, development, and enhancements, as well as provide critical maintenance and help desk support services without a break in service. This BPA was recently extended on 3/30/2021 for completion of the required implementation services. However, the aforementioned requirements were excluded from the overall BPA extension and therefore must be extended externally. This effort is only anticipated to last until 1/31/2023 and therefore transition to a new vendor would not benefit VA in the long term.

There are no vendors working in this exact environment that could replicate the services without hindering the Governments schedule to achieve the rollout of SAFe without disrupting the environments which would exceed the timelines for the services. A new vendor cannot replace Iron Bow Technology in terms of comprehensive knowledge offering of VA-OIT-and-Telehealth-approved devices;

integration, development and enhancement of the technical support services Without knowledge of the current environment knowledge to support VA's national telehealth network. Knowledge of the breadth of the telehealth system is required in