S03_JA_Liferay_Final_Redacted_7.16.24_.pdf

Control Number VA-24-00023259

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY

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 task order to be issued under the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for renewal of brand name Liferay Digital Experience Platform (DXP) Enterprise Subscription Platinum Level annual software licenses and maintenance support.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Veteran Experience Services, Digital Experience has a requirement for the renewal of Liferay DXP Enterprise Subscription Platinum Level software licenses and maintenance support (12 Non-Production Sizing 1, Platinum Level Software 24x7 Support and 12 Production Sizing 1, Platinum Level Software 24x7 Support) as well as the Liferay Extended Premium Support. The Liferay software licenses are currently being utilized as the user interface of the My HealtheVet (MHV) platform. With the entire MHV web-based portal running on Liferay, it is critical that OIT and MHV teams have access to technical support necessary to support the system. The renewal of Liferay licenses and maintenance support will allow non-technical Veterans Health Administration staff to continue to manage website content updates without intervention from the staff. Additionally, the software maintenance will provide bug fixes and updates that are required to keep the software operational and to mitigate security vulnerabilities. The period of performance shall be one, 12-month base period from September 3, 2024 through September 2, 2025. The total estimated price is

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 market research, as described in section 8 of this document, it has been determined that competition for Liferay DXP Enterprise subscription software and support is viable among resellers of these products. The current MHV platform is based upon Liferay proprietary code and utilizes Liferay licenses for its user interface. This user interface integrates with the currently fielded MHV platform, which is comprised of 26 distinct applications, such as Appointments, Pharmacy, Blue Button, and the Healthy Living Assessment. VA currently owns the MHV platform, but requires Liferay licenses to continue to customize

Liferay DXP Enterprise Subscription Control Number VA-24-00023259 portals and manage content. Liferay has been integrated with each of these MHV applications. If any other brand name software was to be utilized as the user interface for the MHV platform, then all 26 applications would require integration with the new software and the MHV platform would need to be rebuilt. The current applications are coded specifically to interact with proprietary Liferay source code. Due to the criticality of the previously mentioned applications, and the MHV platform as a whole, the Liferay solution would need to be maintained while the alternative software solution was built, configured and integrated, and data is migrated to the new software. The development and integration of any other software solution is estimated to take a minimum of 18 months, and would result in an estimated duplicative cost of at least $6,000,000. These duplicative costs include not only the cost required for licensing costs of two platforms and the manpower cost required to host two platforms but also the extensive development, configuration, integration and migration efforts previously discussed.

These estimated duplicative costs and time are based upon previous development and configuration efforts of similar size and scope. These estimated duplicative costs would not be recovered through competition. The existing Liferay DXP Enterprise Subscription Platinum Level software licenses and maintenance support would need to be maintained until the new software solution is built, integrated and available. Additionally, during this transition, there is increased risk for system downtime and an inability for Veterans to access critical applications which would directly result in a disruption of the Veterans ability to virtually access their personal health information, virtually contact their physicians, access their appointment information, and virtually refill vital medications, among all the other capabilities of MHV. Each of the portal applications that MHV supports - including the MHV National Portal, MHV Admin Portal, and MHV SM Clinician portals would need to be rebuilt and rehosted on a different solution and platform. This would severely impact 5.5 million Veterans, as MHV is the Veteran’s sole resource for virtual healthcare from VA.

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. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name Digital Experience Platform (DXP) Enterprise Subscription Platinum Level annual software licenses and maintenance support. 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 market place that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research to ascertain the ability of any other source, other than a Liferay DXP Enterprise subscription licensing and technical support reseller, that can provide the

Liferay DXP Enterprise Subscription Control Number VA-24-00023259 aforementioned services. VA technical experts conducted web-based market research in May 2024 by researching other similar brand name items, such as Simpplr, Axero, and LumApps. While these software developers provide products that perform similar functions, they are not configured to work with the required interfaced solutions.

Selecting an alternate product would require a significant redesign to the MHV portal.

Additionally, the above mentioned software companies only offer software maintenance and technical support for their own proprietary product.

9. Other Facts: None.