Sole Source JA - 4Cast Final_Redacted.pdf

Control Number: VA-25-00011666

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Procurement, Acquisition and Logistics

Technology Acquisition Center 23 Christopher Way Eatontown, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: The proposed sole source action is for a firm-fixed price contract with Unison Software, Inc (Unison) or the renewal of brand name 4Cast software.

3. Description of Supplies or Services: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the West Palm Beach VA Healthcare System, Office of the Director, has a requirement for Unison 4Cast software license subscriptions. West Palm Beach has been utilizing 4Cast software for over six years to support planning, forecasting, and monitoring of facility budgets across the medical center. 4Cast software is a web-based application that is available 24/7 and is designed to align with VA’s unique accounting and organizational structure, allowing budget planning and execution to take place at the service level and tie back to the VA and Veterans Integrated Service Network strategic plans.

The period of performance for this effort shall be a 12-month base period with four 12-month option periods. While VA will continue to conduct market research, it is anticipated that this new 4Cast software will be required for at least five years to enable West Palm Beach VAMC to effectively plan, forecast and monitor finance and budget activities. The total estimated price of the proposed action, inclusive of option periods, if exercised, is

4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C.3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 titled, "Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements."

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: The proposed source is Unison, 44927 George Washington Blvd., Ashburn, VA 20147. Based on market research, as described in Section 8 of this document, the Government has determined that Unison is the only source capable of providing the required annual software license renewals; therefore, there is no competition for this acquisition at this time. 4Cast was created independently by Unison specifically for VA to be a fully integrated data collection, business planning, and monitoring technology solution to collect financial and planning data based on VA’s unique accounting and organization structure. As such, 4Cast’s unique design allows business plans to be created that translate directly to VA’s cost accounting structure in such areas as projected staffing, equipment, supply, contract, and all other funding requirements, which can then be validated against VA’s own accounting systems. In addition to the unique accounting structure, VA operates with a unique executive leadership structure, with services reporting to specific executive leaders.

4Cast Software Control Number: VA-25-00011666

The 4Cast product was also designed to specifically support VA’s leadership hierarchy, allowing reporting of financial and budget data at various departmental and leadership levels. Further, only 4Cast software has the ability to plan and execute the building and monitoring of VA’s budget using the same structure and terminology that is inherent to the Agency, making the software capable of uploading data sets provided by the agency to refresh financial and budgetary data and update financial projections for more accurate data for decision making.

4Cast integrates specific purpose funding categories that are appropriated by Congress to support VA’s unique organizational structure. This allows users at all levels to project and monitor expenditures in specific appropriated funding types that are specific to VA, allowing for better utilization of those specific funds.

Additionally, use of another product will significantly resources to gather, backup, export, and reconcile six years of data compiled in various sections of the program such as staffing, contracts and recruitment. The inability to effectively manage and track, staffing, budget and overtime can negatively impact patient care. Fund control points can become depleted resulting in the inability to procure supplies timely for patient care services such as surgeries and prosthetics requests. Inappropriate staffing levels can affect the quality of care provided to veterans.

Finally, the 4Cast software includes modules specifically designed to monitor unique staffing categories within VA, including different appointment types under United States Code, which are unique to VA. Other financial planning software products in the market delineate staffing costs versus other costs, but do not break staffing down into the specific appointment types and appropriation categories that are crucial in projecting and balancing the budget in VA. This combination of capabilities is only available through 4Cast. No other commercial financial planning software is designed to align or integrate with VA’s accounting and organizational structure.

Replacing the existing 4Cast software licenses with any other brand software will require an extensive and complex redesign, development and integration effort to deploy a new financial planning software solution capable of providing these capabilities that are already readily available through 4Cast’s out of the box product. Any such replacement effort may take up to two years to complete all while still retaining the critical functionality provided through the existing software until the new software capabilities are fully operational. These estimates are based on previous software design and integration efforts of similar size and scope. Furthermore, failure to continue to utilize this software and its existing licenses will bring these critical financial planning and budgeting capabilities to an immediate halt. Without these capabilities provided through the existing 4Cast software, West Palm Beach can be susceptible to medical center budget gaps, which occur when appropriated funding is less than the expenses of the medical center. If the medical center has a budget gap, it will need to redirect resources away from other planned projects, modernization efforts, or acquisitions to meet the financial needs at the medical center. By reducing or eliminating medical center budget gaps, West Palm Beach VA Healthcare System will be able to follow its strategic planning initiatives without having to redirect resources and/or delay plans. This allows the facility to better achieve the core mission of treating

4Cast Software Control Number: VA-25-00011666 veterans and achieving our VHA goals to improve access, timeliness of care, and modernization of our healthcare system.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section 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. The proposed action will be synopsized on the Contract Opportunities page in accordance with FAR 5.201. Any proposals that are received shall be evaluated. Additionally, in accordance with FAR 6.305(a) this Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition will be made publicly available on the Contract Opportunities page within 14 days after contract 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: Market research was conducted in September 2024 by doing internet research and reviewing industry publications for alternative commercial financial planning software such as OpenGov and Questica, as well as companies specializing in budgeting such as BMT Consulting, Inc. No alternative products were identified that could provide all the required financial planning and budgeting capabilities out of the box and without an extensive upfront design and integration effort.

It is determined that currently, only the existing 4Cast software can meet VA’s requirements, and Unison is the only source that can provide the software that will meet the needs of the facility. 4Cast is the only financial planning software capable of providing the required financial planning and budgeting capabilities out of the box and without extensive upfront design and integration effort, and as such, VA intends to award a sole source contract to Unison to renew its existing 4Cast software licenses.

9. Other Facts: NA