P03 - VAAA IPPS JA redacted 5.16.25.pdf

Informatics and Program/Project Support Control Number VA-25-00052856

JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Technology Acquisition Center (TAC) 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, NJ 07724-3325

2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a modification to Task Order (TO) 36C10B20N10080035 issued under Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contract Number VA118-16-D-1008 on a hybrid Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP), Time-and-Materials (T&M) and Cost Reimbursement line item for travel basis to International Business Machines, 6710 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20817-1834. The purpose of this modification is to extend the period of performance by five months and incorporate an optional task for transition support. This extension will serve as a bridge of support for Informatics and Program/Projects Support (IP/PS) until a new competitive TO is awarded and awardee begins providing services required under the new award.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: On March 20, 2020, the TO was awarded to B3 Group, Inc. (B3) on a competitive basis under Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) set-aside procedures on the T4NG contract vehicle with a total value of $15,142,572.25. Subsequently, modification P00005 processed a Change of Name Agreement changing B3 name and address to B3 Group, LLC, 13421 Woodland Park Road, Suite 500, Herndon, VA 20171-6401. Modification P00006 de-obligated unused T&M and Cost Reimbursable Travel under Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs) 1005 and 1006 decreasing the TO total value by $68,592.50 to $15,073,979.75. Modification P00008, revised the labor categories required under T&M CLINs 3005 and 4005, decreasing the TO total value by $36,297.42 to $15,037,682.33. On January 1, 2025, B3 was acquired by IBM and on March 20, 2025 was novated to reflect the change. The scope IP/PS is for coordinated and comprehensive program and project support services.

The program management support services consist of two categories: (1) Project management assistance for projects within the Veteran’s Affairs Acquisition Academy (VAAA) and the centralized Office of the Chancellor program management office (PMO) support; and (2) Project and data management services to assist Federal Government project managers. IP/PS provides support to VAAA, which includes centralized functions that support the Academy as a whole and coordinates action from five schools within the Academy, Enterprise Shared Service, the Learning Standards Office, the Office of the Registrar, Student Travel Services, and Facilities Management. The overall support for IP/PS is required to ensure continued project and PMO services to support structural changes to the VAAA and data analytics required to effectively operate the VAAA. As an ever-growing organization, VAAA depends on accurate and timely data reporting. Staffing, budgets, marketing efforts, and VA Executive level briefings are highly dependent on the ability to produce these reports. In response to academy throughput and growth, VAAA has experienced increases in the level of detail, frequency, and amount of enterprise data that needs to be collected, managed, and reported. Data collection, reporting, and management tools were insufficient for the increasing data demands of the Academy. VAAA established standard data collection and reporting practices, developed an in-house data storage and management tool, and adopted industry standard practices to ensure the integrity of VAAA data. The Single Source of Truth (SST) product solved this problem of fragmented reporting of student training data that existed at the Academy in a variety of formats and management systems. SST allowed for the standardization of data collection, management, and reporting. The successful implementation of SST, accomplished VAAA’s goals of Operational Excellence and Innovative Technology. SST is now being maintained in an operational status with software releases regularly occurring every two months.

IP/PS requires the current services to continue and for an optional task for transition support to be incorporated under T4NG TO 36C10B20N10080035 to allow for seamless transition of services to new awardee. As a result of the novation from B3 to IBM, B3 no longer exists, and IBM is not a SDVOSB vendor. The period of performance for this proposed action shall be March 30, 2025, through August 26, 2025. The total estimated value of the proposed action is $1,344,100.67.

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) 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 of the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source for this action is IBM, 3241 Woodland Park Rd, Ste 500, Herndon, VA 20171-6401. IBM was awarded the IP/PS TO 36C10B20N10080035 on March 20, 2020, on a competitive basis under SDVOSB set-aside procedures on the T4NG contract vehicle. The period of performance for VA’s current TO with IBM ends on March 29, 2025.

The Government is in the process of competitively awarding a new four year TO. On December 18, 2024, the Task Order Proposal Request (TOPR) was posted to Acquisition Task Order Management System (ATOMS) under the Veterans Enterprise Contracting for Transformation and Operational Readiness (VECTOR) IDIQ contract vehicle, Service Group 1. It was discovered late January, just prior to TOPR closing, that only some of the Service Group 1 received the solicitation. This does not meet the Fair Opportunity requirement of FAR 16, therefore the TOPR was canceled, as necessary under these circumstances. Additionally, it was discovered during the solicitation that the current TO did not include transition-out period services to allow for seamless transition to a new vendor. A new solicitation, revised to address industry’s comments/concerns received during the original solicitation for these services and was released on February 10, 2025, with a close date of March 12, 2025, at 11PM Eastern.

The anticipated award date of the VECTOR TO is May 18, 2025, the first three months of the new task order will be on transition support to allow time for on-ramping from IBM to the new competitively awarded vendor. This modification action to the existing T4NG TO will prevent a lapse in services and will also support the need for a 90-day transition period for a seamless transition of services to a new vendor. For these reasons, IP/PS requires support provided by IBM beyond its current end date of March 29, 2025. IBM is currently performing all the Technical Management support services, as described in Section 3 above, under the current T4NG TO 36C10B20N10080035 successfully and satisfactory. This extension will ensure continuity of VAAA IP/PS programs and sustainment activities to assists in a seamless transition to a new vendor.

Without this extension and the addition of transition-out services added, there would be a five-month lapse in services, as there are 90-days of onboarding required for a newly awarded vendor. This lapse in service would have significant operational ramifications, primarily due to the sudden loss of dedicated personnel who have accumulated institutional knowledge and specialized expertise in managing and executing the TO’s functions and would disrupt ongoing projects, delay decision-making, and force a costly and time-consuming ramp-up phase once new or replacement personnel are onboarded. The continuity of work would undergo gaps in performance tracking and process improvements that have been carefully refined over time. The loss of the SST database maintenance, which underpins the VAAA’s ability to track key metrics over time and power the dashboard for evidence-based and data-driven decision-making. The SST serves as the central repository for historical and real-time performance data. Without continuous access and maintenance to this repository, the VA would lose the ability to monitor trends, benchmark performance, and quickly identify areas needing intervention. The five-month interruption would compromise the integrity of the data, erode stakeholder confidence, and potentially lead to misguided strategies based on incomplete information, thereby undermining the overall mission of ensuring that VA staff have the necessary insights and resources to provide frontline care to Veterans. The lapse would negatively impact VAAA Planning, Programming, Budget, and Execution functions, as well as strategic planning activities that ensure and track alignment of VAAA goals and objectives with those of its parent organizations – the Office of Acquisition and Logistics, Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction, and ultimately, the Department of Veterans Affairs.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in Section 8 of this document. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities website, SAM.gov, and the justification will be made publicly available within 14-days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: No barriers to future competition are anticipated. A competitive contract is anticipated to be awarded May 2025, and all future acquisitions are planned to be awarded on a competitive basis.

8. Market Research: A sources sought notice was issued to all VECTOR service groups’ contract holders via ATOMS notifying them of the VAAA IP/PS long-term requirement.

The sources sought requested that interested vendors express interest through ATOMS by October 31, 2024. Based on the responses received, multiple VECTOR service group 1 contract holders are capable and qualified of providing these services.

Therefore, a new competitive action has been solicited and will be awarded in May 2025.

At this time, no other vendors would be capable of staffing a new TO and provide transition-out services required by the current need date of March 29, 2025. Only IBM can immediately provide current services and necessary transition-out services to meet VAAA IP/PS operational and mission needs without adversely affecting the Programs and Projects that support Veterans.

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.

Jonathan Higgins Date:

Project Manager Signature:

11. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the anticipated price to the Government for this task order action will be fair and reasonable based on the comparison with the Independent Government Cost Estimate and price analysis.

Susan Banasiak Date:

Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ____________________________

12. Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Susan Banasiak Date:

Procuring Contracting Office Signature:

4/1/2025

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of the extension of services for IP/PS 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.

Date: Signature: ______________________________ Jason Bullen Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics