JA GovDelivery SMS REDACTED.pdf

VA-24-00057552

JUSTIFICATIONFOR 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, New Jersey 07724

2. Description of Action: This proposed action is for the award of a firm-fixed-price delivery order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the purchase of brand name Granicus Inc. GovDelivery Communications (hereafter referred to as GovDelivery), which includes licenses and ancillary support services.

3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The VA Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs has a requirement to augment its messaging capability currently deployed under the brand name GovDelivery Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. Specifically, through the proposed action, VA will requires additional text message capability (Cloud Short Message Service (SMS) messages) to deliver further awareness with The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act and toxic exposure outreach to Veterans.

Through this action VA will be able to deliver messages directly to the public and other stakeholders to provide an enhanced direct communications channel for priority alerts via these SMS/text messages.

The Contractor shall provide a license for the base quantity of 10 million SMS Text Messages to be used within the base period (2-months) in concert with the existing solution, and an option period with 10 million SMS Text Messages. An Optional Task will be included to secure an additional 10 million SMS Text Messages during Option Period One, if required to meet any additional SMS communication requirements to Veterans. For the base period, this effort shall co-term with the existing Delivery Order term which currently runs through July 29, 2024, and has one remaining Option Period July 30, 2024 through July 29, 2025.

SMS/Text Messaging license includes access to the selected volume of additional SMS/text messages per year from a shared short code within the United States, use of responsively designed sign-up pages that allow the public to subscribe to communication updates from various devices, and corresponding High throughput Toll Free Annual Subscription per performance period.

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

GovDelivery VA-24-00057552 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, the Government has determined that limited competition exists for the required brand name GovDelivery licenses and ancillary support services.

Specifically, no other solution can provide all of these technical and functional requirements without significant duplicated costs and delivery delays by any other source that would not be recovered through competition. Of note, VA requires that the SMS/Text Messaging capability augment and seamlessly interoperate with the existing deployed solution. The existing solution contains all parameters and pertinent data to fully utilize the solutions ability to create communication campaigns based upon VA’s immediate requirements. For instance, procurement of the brand name GovDelivery SMS/Text Messaging capability will allow for access to existing brand name GovDelivery's proprietary network of subscribers, which includes other Government agencies both at the Federal and State levels. This solution is the only solution that provides access to a vast network of participants and Government agencies both at the Federal and State levels. This satisfies a critical VA functional requirement of being able to leverage a solution that connects Government at multiple levels, while also identifying non-traditional paths to connect with the Veteran. Access into or exposure to the GovDelivery Network of related topics from VA and other Government agencies that span the entire federal state and local space provides the unique opportunity for a VA program office that is utilizing these services to extend their reach to over 380 million unique subscribers. The procurement of these additional SMS/Text Messaging licenses will allow VA to leverage this custom work to agency needs. For instance, the existing solution utilizes VA specific websites/web pages and content management processes without requiring back-end database or content management server integration. As the development and execution of these communication campaigns leverage proprietary source code to create and disseminate data, no other brand name SMS/Text Messaging capability has ability to be utilized. Further, VA requires a SMS/Text Messaging capability that can connect with the existing solution to support enterprise reporting capability for Agency users regardless of access level, as well as reporting for each communication sent on behalf of the Agency. Communication reporting is critical as it will provide statistics to VA that reflect at a minimum, engagement rates, subscriber access, and bounce rates. This data assists VA with its goal to conduct initial and reengagement with Veterans based on a direct link or secondary exposure to topics on the platform.

Further, VA requires a SMS/Text Messaging capability that is able and approved to change the domain name of correspondence sent on behalf of VA, specifically, that it has the approvals to be considered a “trusted sender” for VA. The “trusted sender” credentialing achieved for this solution has allowed the VA to utilize alias “.gov” URLs instead of “.com” on all outgoing messages. Only the existing GovDelivery Solution, that this immediate procurement augments, is able to leverage this “trusted sender” accreditation is critical to VA to enhance confidence within Veterans that the legitimacy of the messages is truly from the VA. This feature and accreditation is not something that can be provided by any other solution “out of the box”, but something that VA invested significant amount of time and effort to capitalize on this functionality to change domain name. This process includes completing necessary reviews and approvals, such as receipt of an Agency authority to operate (ATO), FedRAMP approval at the proper levels, validation by the Enterprise Security External Change Council and other entities. Even if another vendor were to already have the necessary ATO/FedRAMP requirements met, the solution must also be vetted, tested and validated to achieve this accreditation by the Enterprise Security External Change Council.

For another source to be considered capable of providing the immediate requirement, it would require complete design, testing and deployment of the underlying alternative solution. At a minimum, that solution would need to interface with multiple databases, websites, and repositories to start get to the existing baseline VA has deployed. Further, any other source would have to obtain a VA Authority to Operate or be FedRAMP moderate compliance, as well as be approved for the change of domain name for correspondence sent on behalf of VA as detailed above. XXX XXXXXXXXXX

XXXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXX XXXX XX XXXXX $XX and XXX XXXXX to complete these tasks. These estimates are based on historical development efforts of similar size and scope. During the development and ATO process, and in order to maintain services at the existing level, VA would have to run the GovDelivery solution concurrently, which would result in extensive duplicative costs and delivery delays which would not be recovered through competition.

Given the above, VA must procure the brand name GovDelivery SMS/Text Messaging licenses as proposed. Inaction would result in VA not being able to fully meet its obligations under section 103 of the VA PACT Act. At the time of award of VA's renewal for the brand name GovDelivery solution, VA was unaware of the necessary quantity of messages to disseminate information related to the PACT Act for the Veteran. As a result, VA must accommodate this bona fide need in order to execute its mission, especially given the critical care provided via the Act. As such, VA would not have access to the critical outreach capabilities via SMS messaging that are currently offered and failure to implement this effort will significantly impact the VA’s ability to educate Veterans, family members, caregivers, and the public about VA benefits, programs, and services available to them under the PACT ACT.

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 meet the Government's requirements. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers for brand name GovDelivery solution, as well as software maintenance and 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 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 to be competed enabling the Government to better be positioned to invest in future technologies that meet the Government’s needs.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research via web search in February and March of 2024 by reviewing similar solutions, such as Amazon Web Services software by Amazon, Twilio software by Twillio Inc. to identify alternatives to the required solution. Based on this review, it was determined that none of these resources were able to seamlessly interoperate with the existing solution, nor were they capable of meeting all the technical and functional requirements outlined in Section 5 of this document.

Additionally, per discussions with Granicus, it was stated “the capabilities delivered by our SMS Text Messaging solution and the processes to administer the solution by Veterans Affairs users is the same irrespective of the Granicus reseller through which the SMS Text Messaging volume is procured. The dependency is that the reseller acquires our original SMS Text Messaging solution from Granicus that operates under the same FedRAMPed infrastructure as our VA Enterprise Communications Cloud solution.” Therefore, limited competition is available among resellers of brand name GovDelivery licenses and ancillary support services.

9. Other Facts: None.

10. 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.

11. Fair and Reasonable Price Determination I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on comparison of proposed price to historical data for the same or similar items, the proposed pricing for to the published catalog and published price indices under NASA SEWP V. Finally, the successful quote will be compared to the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

12. Contracting Officer Certification/Approval I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Advocate for Competition Approval In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of brand name Granicus Inc. GovDelivery Communications, which includes licenses and ancillary support services on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.