Avaya Licenses and Support

JUSTIFICATION FOR AN EXCEPTION TO FAIR OPPORTUNITY



1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Office of Acquisition Operations

Technology Acquisition Center

23 Christopher Way

Eatontown, NJ 07724



2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a brand name firm-fixed-price task order to be issued against the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for Avaya software licenses and maintenance.



3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to provide additional licenses and maintenance for the existing Avaya Aura voice system located in the VA Pharmacy Customer Care (PCC) facility located at 4800 Memorial Drive, Building 90, Waco, Texas, 76711 to allow additional call agents to support Veteran s needs. Maintenance support shall include advantage essential support, software releases and upgrades, as well as installation and configuration of the licenses. The period of performance for this effort shall be 12 months from date of award. Installation and configuration of the licenses shall be completed within 30 days of receipt of all items.



4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (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 limited competition is available among authorized Avaya resellers for the aforementioned licenses and maintenance. VA PCC currently utilizes the Avaya Aura voice system in its facility to take calls from Veterans and to provide Veterans with services telephonically. Additional licenses are needed to allow more call agents access to provide services for our Veterans. The currently installed Avaya voice system is proprietary to Avaya and communicates through proprietary source code and only Avaya or authorized resellers can provide additional system software licenses and maintenance to meet the Government s requirements because any other source would need access to Avaya s proprietary source code in order to provide, configure and support licenses in the existing Avaya voice system. Use of any other software would result in severe interoperability and compatibility issues. Specifically, if another brands product were introduced into the Avaya infrastructure, the system would malfunction, eventually resulting in system failure which ultimately has a disastrous effect on VA s ability to provide patient care to Veterans. Therefore, only Avaya or authorized resellers can provide the necessary licenses and maintenance to meet the Government s requirement.



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. It was determined however that limited competition is viable among resellers for this brand name Avaya software licenses and maintenance on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), this action will be synopsized and the justification will be made publicly available within 14 days of award on the Federal Business Opportunities Page. Additionally, in accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(2), this justification will be posted with the request for quotation on the NASA SEWP V GWAC.



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 June 2017 by reviewing similar voice systems for availability of similar software and maintenance providers such as Oracle/SUN Microsystems Inc., Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. The technical experts confirmed that no other source has the capability to access the proprietary source code in order to license, install, configure, and maintain licensing in the existing Avaya voice system.



Market research was conducted in August 2017 through the use of the Provider Lookup Tool on the NASA SEWP V GWAC web site, which found a total of 90 resellers that can fulfill the Government s requirements, 19 of which are contract holders in Group B(2) Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses. Additionally, a Request for Information was issued on the NASA SEWP V GWAC in July 2017, and the Government received three responses and one additional company expressed interest in this requirement. In addition, the NASA SEWP V GWAC is a dynamic GWAC in which products can be added to vendor catalogs based on customer requests on as frequent as a daily basis, as long as the required Information Technology item is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC. Finally, the requirements discussed herein have been found to be within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC in a separate determination.



9. Other Facts: None