Redacted JA - CostPerform Software License and Support.pdf

Control Number: VA-26-00060903

LIMITED-SOURCES JUSTIFICATION

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 action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order to be issued under the General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Category 511210, entitled “Software Licenses”, for the purchase of a brand name CostPerform software license and maintenance support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The VA, Financial Services Center (FSC) has a requirement for a brand name CostPerform software license, which has an unlimited number of users, and maintenance support. The CostPerform software license and maintenance support will provide the VA with the ability to execute cost modeling, produce cost accounting reports, and provide enterprise cost modeling, cost allocation, and budgeting analytics, which support and promote financial transparency efforts for the FSC, Franchise Fund Enterprise Centers, and FSC customers in accordance with activity-based costing and full cost recovery, as is required by the Franchise Fund agreements with the VA, VA Financial Policy, and statutory requirements. The CostPerform software license and maintenance support are for two separate VA cloud environments, specifically the VA cloud Production environment and the VA FSC cloud non-production environment.

In addition, VA FSC requires brand name CostPerform maintenance and technical support to ensure the software functions as intended, and includes all software updates, patches, bug fixes and access to phone, email, and web support for questions and troubleshooting. VA FSC requires 24x7 software maintenance and technical support.

The period of performance shall include one 12-month base period, three (3) 12-month option periods, and one optional task. The total estimated value of the proposed action is , inclusive of all option periods and the optional task.

4. Statutory Authority: This acquisition is conducted under the authority of the Multiple Award Schedule Program. The specific authority providing for a limited source award is General Services Acquisition Manual/Regulation (GSAM/R) 538.7104-4 (a), “Items peculiar to one manufacturer.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on the market research, as described in Section 8 of the document, CostPeform is the only software that meets all of the Government’s requirements. VA FSC utilizes dedicated activity-based costing supporting software. Software designed for activity-based costing leverages best practices and appropriate execution of activity-based costing methodology.

The following functionalities are required and are only provided by CostPerform:

CostPerform Software License Control Number: VA-26-00060903 and Maintenance Support

a. Data ingestion tools native in the application to support transformation, filtering, and normalization of input data that does not require additional products or inherently require data to be formatted and normalized to be ingested in the application’s supporting databases and tables lending to additional processes built outside of the product in order to use the product. Data ingestion tools save the Government a significant amount of time where the FSC staff does not need to spend hours developing and maintaining disparate processes and systems to prepare data before they are able to ingest it.

b. Ability to navigate between activity-based costing layers and the attributes that impact allocations to provide a comprehensive view including types of drivers, driver values, and driver calculations/logic that does not require separate queries to be run and mitigates navigation to separate components of the application to trace components of allocations. This makes it easier for FSC staff to understand drivers, logic, and calculations against the allocations to support analysis, decision-making, and transparency.

c. Utilization of common activity-based costing (ABC) terminology and concepts to maximize user understanding that mitigates combining concepts in single tables or views or configures allocations and dimensions including hierarchy and attributes for data elements in disparate screens that make it challenging for users to configure. FSC staff can learn the software faster and use it more confidently, which helps to reduce mistakes and frustration.

d. Ability to utilize not only datasheet views for allocations but also a graphical user interface to trace complex allocations from expense/resource to activity to cost object and then in reverse using multiple data attributes (drill up or drill down).

The FSC staff can more effectively manage and analyze complex and variable allocations and relationships when navigating up or down allocations.

e. Centralized product capabilities that maximize in single tool items such as data management, data ETL, allocation calculations, scenario or other analysis such as rate setting, reporting, traceability, user permissions, and audit trail. By having all the information in one system, it helps to simplify workflows, streamline data management, improve security, and support compliance. FSC staff do not need to juggle multiple programs, making work more efficient and easier to control.

CostPerform offers distinct functional advantages over competing platforms for the mission-critical services of the VA FSC primarily because it is a purpose-built activity based costing engine. Unlike other software which offer broad corporate performance and enterprise resource planning platforms, CostPerform is engineered specifically for costing methodologies such as activity-based costing. This specialization makes it uniquely suited for the VA FSC’s functional requirements and franchise fund and fee-for-service structures, where operational expenses must be translated under a full-cost recovery model to costs to support defensible per-product fees for the VA and other government agencies. CostPeform is the only software which offers out-of-the-box federal maturity and regulatory alignment required to easily sustain a full-cost recovery model under activity-based costing, which will save the FSC time and money.

Furthermore, CostPerform excels in handling the multi-layered cost allocations under activity-based costing. While other software requires intensive custom programming, script writing, and external data modules to achieve data ingestion and complex cost allocations, CostPerform handles these deep attribution layers natively. This eliminates the need for expensive, high-maintenance custom code or additional products or processes.

Finally, CostPerform provides a lower Total Cost of Ownership for federal deployments.

As a Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) solution supporting activity-based costing, CostPerform delivers rapid deployment and a highly auditable environment that other tools cannot match. Replicating this detailed level of processes in a generalist system would require significant consulting hours and continuous maintenance.

CostPerform will provide the FSC with a robust, efficient, and transparent activity-based costing platform. The result of using CostPerform will be more sustainable and flexible native ETL tools, stronger cost allocation logic capabilities, improved native analytic tools, stronger support for audit and compliance requirements, and substantial long-term savings.

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 resources that could meet the Government's requirements. In accordance with Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) 5.301 and GSAM/R 538.7104- 3(b)(3), 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 marketplace that would enable future actions of alternative solutions.

8. Market Research: The VA FSC subject matter experts conducted market research from July 2025 to August 2026 by reviewing publicly available information on product websites with demonstrations, if applicable. Specifically, the subject matter experts reviewed the following software:

a. Microsoft Dynamics - Microsoft Dynamics is part of an Enterprise Resource Planning solution, meaning multiple products including general ledger configuration that effectively need to be utilized together for their cost and profitability functionality to be usable. VA has a newly implemented financial system (which includes the general ledger), Integrated Financial and Acquisition Management System (iFAMS), which is also used and maintained by VA FSC.

Given this, it would be ineffective for VA FSC to replicate data and processes that already exist in iFAMS in other Microsoft products just to utilize cost and profitability functionality in Microsoft Dynamics.

b. IgniteTech Acorn – The FSC subject matter experts reviewed IgniteTech Acorn software, and it was found that the software is intended to support the derivative methodology of activity-based costing called time-driven activity-based costing.

This methodology is not utilized at VA FSC.

c. CadDO and Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) - VA FSC received demos of Oracle EPM and CadDO. During each demo, an overview of the software and capabilities were provided along with discussion of functional/technical requirements and intended usage by VA FSC. During the demonstrations it was found that Oracle EPM and CadDO were not able to effectively support the following:

i. An integrated solution without implementation of supplemental bolt-on products or custom processes to support transformation, filtering, and normalization of input data.

ii. Native graphical user interface in a unified display to support traceability of allocations from expense to cost object or in reverse from cost object to expense including costs themselves and the drivers/calculations that support the allocations.

iii. Utilization of intuitive terminology and concepts found in activity-based costing such as resources, cost pools, drivers, activities, and cost objects.

iv. Cohesion and transparency of drivers and allocation designations/calculations within activity-based costing layers (resource, activity, cost object) that are configurable using native functionality as well as programmable by subject matter experts mitigating the need for additional technical resources.

In addition to the above, none of the researched software has the required functionalities discussed in Section 5.

On August 4, 2026, the CS emailed CostPerform asking, “I was informed that Carahsoft is the only GSA / National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement authorized reseller for the CostPerform software. Could you please confirm this information and if CostPerform is offered on Carahsoft’s GSA contract? If so, please provide the specific contract number and a list of any additional authorized resellers.”

On August 6, 2026, Lynden Nalbach, Major Account Executive for CostPerform, responded to the CS, “There is no requirement to purchase CostPerform through a distributor. The VA can contract directly with CostPerform for software licenses. Our

GSA contract information is GSA Contract Number: GS-35F-352AA. As a result, Carahsoft is not the only procurement route available for CostPerform.” The CS also learned that CostPerform does business under the name CostControl USA, LLC on the GSA Advantage website.

On August 10, 2026, the CS conducted additional market research by using the GSA Advantage website, which indicated there were two (2) Large Business contract holders, Carahsoft and CostControl USA, LLC, identified as sellers of the brand name CostPerform software licenses and maintenance support; therefore, given that there is not a reasonable expectation of competition between at least two capable SDVOSBs, it has been determined by the Contracting Officer that the subject Request for Quote will be issued to Carahsoft and CostControl USA, LLC under GSA MAS Category 511210. Moreover, GSA Advantage uses the modern Federal Acquisition Service Catalog Platform to manage and auto-publish vendor catalogs, allowing for structured product options, related accessories, and automated updates linked with contract modifications. If other vendors wish to resell this product, they can establish a relationship with the product company as a reseller on GSA Advantage. Based on the results of the market research set forth above, there is not adequate competition amongst certified SDVOSBs or VOSBs for this acquisition; therefore, this brand name solicitation will be issued to both Carahsoft and CostControl USA, LLC under GSA MAS Category 511210.

9. Other Facts: None.

Technical/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.

Best Value Determination

I hereby determine that the proposed contract action will represent the best value to the Government consistent with RFO 8.404(d). GSA has already determined that the prices on the MAS contract are fair and reasonable. Additionally, price discounts will be sought.

Contracting Officer Certification/Approval

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