TeamSite JA_Final_Redacted.pdf

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 Delivery Order (DO) issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the renewal of brand name OpenText TeamSite software maintenance.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Web Solutions Services (WSS) has a requirement for the renewal of brand name OpenText TeamSite software maintenance for existing Teamsite Business and Technical user licenses currently deployed and in use by the WSS as well as for Teamsite Casual User licenses in use VA wide. Currently, VA uses OpenText TeamSite’s Enterprise Content Management System (ECMS) as the content management solution for the majority of VA websites. ECMS TeamSite provides automated support of business processes such as content authorization and approval workflow processes, change control for tracking and managing updates (versioning, rollback), compliance verification and integration with other authoring and applications development tools. Renewal of OpenText TeamSite annual maintenance is required to allow the ECMS TeamSite to continue running and deploying content onto VA production servers and migrate content and functionality from legacy Structured Query Language (SQL) 2012 to SQL 2016. The required software maintenance shall provide 24x7x365 technical support and software updates, patches, point releases, service releases and security release of applicable software on a quarterly basis, and/or within 48 hours in cases where a high-risk vulnerability fix becomes available. The software maintenance is required to ensure the existing ECMS remains up to date and fully operational. No new software will be procured or renewed under this proposed action.

The period of performance shall include a base period from date of award through June 30, 2021, followed by two 12-month option periods for continued software maintenance renewals.

4. Statutory Authority: Pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 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 Subpart 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 paragraph 8 of this document, it was determined that

OpenText TeamSite Software Maintenance Control Number: VA-21-00076343 limited competition is viable among resellers of the required brand name OpenText TeamSite software maintenance. The current WSS infrastructure is based on existing OpenText TeamSite software and VA requires software maintenance capable of supporting the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. Only OpenText can provide the necessary software maintenance to include updates, patches and releases, because access to the propriety source code is required to develop and implement software updates.

No other source is capable of providing the required software maintenance due to the proprietary nature of the software, protocols, and software application programming interfaces. In addition, access to this code is required to ensure the software is properly configured when services are provided. The current system supports content management for VA’s 472 internet websites and 366 Intranet websites. Maintenance support includes remediation of security findings and bug fixes for multiple, critical applications, such as Web Registry, Web Request, PayVA, Child Care Records Management System (CCRMS) which directly support VA patient care. The use of any other maintenance provider would necessitate the replacement of the existing OpenText TeamSite software licenses in place.

Replacing the existing Teamsite software licenses with any other brand software is estimated to cost a minimum $1.3M, and require an extensive and complex redesign and integration effort to deploy a new ECMS. Any such replacement effort is estimated to take at least 2 years to complete all while still retaining the critical functionality provided through VA’s existing ECMS until the new system is fully operational. These estimates are based on VA’s initial investment in the Teamsite licenses being maintained and on previous integration efforts of similar size and scope. Failure to renew maintenance on the existing software will leave VA’s content management system without critical updates thereby resulting in significant security vulnerabilities for these critical applications which will affect VA's ability to provide services to its Veterans. Therefore, only brand name Opentext software maintenance support can meet VA’s requirements for this effort.

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. However, the Government determined that limited competition is available among resellers of the required Opentext software maintenance. 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 Page website on beta.SAM.gov website and this justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, 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 fully competed.

OpenText TeamSite Software Maintenance Control Number: VA-21-00076343

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research in March 2021 by reviewing software maintenance and support services offered by other content management software manufacturers including Adobe, Drupal, and Mura CMS. Specifically, the Government’s technical experts conducted web-based research to ascertain whether other manufacturers’ maintenance services could be provided to OpenText TeamSite software. As a result of the market research, the technical experts confirmed that since the source code required to issue the updates is proprietary, OpenText is the only source capable of providing the required maintenance and updates for the currently fielded OpenText TeamSite software. Based upon these market research efforts, the Government’s technical experts have determined that only OpenText TeamSite software maintenance can meet VA’s requirements.

Further market research was conducted in June by assessing NASA SEWP for available resellers of Opentext products and services. A search using the NASA SEWP provider lookup tool revealed multiple resellers of Opentext products and services including multiple verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs). Additionally, a sources sought notice was issued among NASA SEWP SDVOSB contract holders on June 23, 2021 to obtain updated budgetary pricing information. Budgetary quotes were received from two verified SDVOSBs capable of reselling the required maintenance support services. Therefore, adequate competition among SDVOSB contract holders on NASA SEWP is anticipated.

9. Other Facts: N/A