P03 REDACTED Brand Name Justification.pdf

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center 1701 Directors Blvd., Suite 600 Austin, Texas 78741

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a Firm-Fixed-Price delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurements (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name related Cisco hardware.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization (OEHRM) requires 30 Cisco Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) Modules and 224 Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series power supply. The required brand name related Cisco Systems hardware will be used to upgrade physical connections to enable the cores to accept 10G fiber connections that are required for the new EHRM. The total estimated price for the Cisco brand name items is $XXXX, to be delivered with 60 days of contract award.

No installation or other services will be required.

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 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 the market research described in section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for the required Cisco Systems hardware. The current infrastructure is based on existing Cisco Systems network hardware and VA requires additional hardware that is compatible with the existing Cisco Systems infrastructure for continued functionality. OEHRM is required to securely connect VA medical centers and clinics to the Cerner data center where the Electronic Health Record (EHR) solution is being hosted. The hosting environment is jointly managed by the Department of Defense (DOD) and VA. Since DoD is currently using Cisco Systems hardware equipment for EHR, VA cannot use any other networking products. Non-Cisco products would cause interoperability issues among existing VA sites using Cerner and cause a total loss of access to patient health records. Cisco Systems is the only manufacturer that creates the components that are compatible with the existing Cisco Systems network equipment. Therefore, no other networking products can meet VA’s infrastructure requirements. Failure to acquire the hardware components would leave VA without the necessary networking equipment required to protect Veteran, beneficiary, and VA Business partner’s data.

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, it was determined that limited competition is viable among resellers for these brand name items. 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 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 marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research in February 2021 by reviewing similar products to ascertain if other brands could meet VA’s functionality requirements. Specifically, the Government’s technical experts conducted web-based research and discovered that while other similar products from alternative manufacturers, such as XXXX and XXXX exist, they do not meet VA’s unique networking requirements. Only Cisco Systems, or a reseller, has access to the current hardware and software that communicates through a source code based upon the proprietary data currently in place in VA, DoD and Cerner locations supporting the EHR.

Therefore, only Cisco hardware can support VA’s currently installed and anticipated deployment of networking equipment.

9. Other Facts: None.