S02 - Redacted JA - UCIS On-Ramp Project_Phase 2.pdf

FORCE Number VA-20-00084036

JUSTIFICATION

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

Austin, TX 78744

2. Description of Action: This proposed action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for brand name Cisco Network hardware components and associated installation and configuration services.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has a requirement for an Enterprise Solution to enhance the Veteran call center experience. To meet this requirement, this procurement action will provide additional brand name Cisco Network hardware components and associated installation and configuration services to the existing Cisco Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) environment. Specifically, the Government requires 119 sites/facilities to receive two (2) Cisco C240 M5 Servers, two (2) Cisco 4431 Voice Gateway Routers, and one (1) Cisco Nexus 9300 Switch. The Government requires brand name Cisco installation and configuration services for the installation of all brand name Cisco hardware. The new Cisco hardware, with embedded proprietary software, will provide the capability for 1 Voice System (VS) across the VA Enterprise, which will reduce current VS resources (i.e., 1 voicemail system) as well as centralized VS management. The new Cisco hardware and software will seamlessly interface the local exchange carrier (LEC) telephone company via Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) with the new Cisco Unified Communications Manager Session Management Edition (SME) to route calls efficiently over existing VA infrastructure as well as mark the beginning of an “Enterprise/National Contact Call Centers” which will provide flexiblity to dynamically adjust bandwidth. Additionally, the COVID-19 Pandemic has created a challenge to keep up with the impact of remote Full Time Equivalent Employee (FTEE) across enterprise and other issues this impact creates; such as saturating existing circuits both by VA Employees and Veterans calling in to access the services the VA supports for our nation’s Veterans. This procurement will support Veteran callers and provide stable high-quality call center connectivity to meet increased volume of callers due to COVID-

19. While the COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the need to satisfy the immediate increased volume of Veteran callers, it has also reinforced the long-term requirement for high-quality call center connectivity to better serve Veterans. The period of performance shall be six (6) months from award. The total estimated value of this effort is .

COVID-19 UCIS On-Ramp Project – Phase Two (2)

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 Section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for the required brand name Cisco Network hardware components and associated installation and configuration.

The current VS infrastructure consists of Cisco Session Manager Enterprise Clusters.

Therefore, expansion of the existing Cisco VoIP environment, which consists of Voice Mail, Automated Call Distribution (ACD) licensing, embedded software and hardware components can only be provided by Cisco or an authorized reseller. Use of any alternate brand would cause compatibility and interoperability issues with Session Manger Enterprise cluster uniformity throughout the VA enterprise. These issues would prove insurmountable and impractical from a technical and operational standpoint, and would instead require VA to purchase an entirely new VS environment. It is estimated that to replace the VS environment would cost approximately $28.5M. This estimate is based on previous acquisition history. These costs would not be recovered through competition.

Additionally, brand name Cisco hardware and software are the only products that will allow the use of Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) which is a proprietary Cisco Protocol that allows the call manager clusters to interact with the routers and voice gateways throughout the existing VA environment. As employees are moved within their organization, across organizations, onboarded, or retired, call center information for groups, characteristics, number, and location all have to be entered and maintained daily to ensure calls are routed appropriately. MGCP makes this process more efficient and reduces risk of error. Without the use of MGCP, all necessary changes would have to be done manually on the voice gateways which is both time consuming and tedious and increases risk of improper coding which could lead to incorrect information being entered. Therefore, system interoperability and compatibility between routers, switches, voice gateways and call manager is a requirement as it is necessary for these systems to function at the highest level. Only Brand name Cisco hardware and software can provide the required interoperability and compatibility.

Additionally, the installation and configuration services required under this effort must be performed by a Cisco certified technician/partner due to the proprietary nature of the hardware, software, and source code. Therefore, only Cisco hardware and associated installation and configuration services can meet VA’s requirements.

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

COVID-19 UCIS On-Ramp Project – Phase Two (2) meet the Government's requirements. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Cisco Network hardware components and associated installation and configuration. 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 Federal Business 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 in December 2019 through June 2020 by reviewing similar hardware and embedded software products to ascertain if other brand solutions could meet VA’s functionality requirements. While other VoIP hardware and embedded software solutions exist from alternative manufacturers such as Blackbox and Brocade, they do not meet VA’s functional requirements. Only Cisco or an authorized reseller has access to the existing proprietary hardware, software source code currently in place throughout the VA enterprise. Additionally, in order to effectively transition and accommodate the infrastructure upgrade, access to the proprietary database and structure specific to the existing MGCP clusters is required for the expansion to interconnect with the existing VS’s in place.

VA’s Government technical experts conducted web-based searches by regularly reviewing industry trade publications and conducted internet research to ascertain if any other brand name hardware or embedded software is available. Therefore, at present, there is no other solution available in the marketplace that can meet this requirement to modernize the current VA enterprise. Based on market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts have determined that only the Cisco brand name hardware and embedded software source code can meet all the VA’s requirements.

The Contract Specialist (CS) conducted market research in August 2020 by using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V GWAC Provider Look-up and Market Research tools to determine what vendors are capable of providing the full requirement. Based on this market research, the CS found multiple Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs) capable of meeting the full requirement.

9. Other Facts: None.