TAC-17-35959 SW_R_HP idol

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, New Jersey 07724



2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed price task order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for Hewlett Packard (HP) Autonomy software maintenance and support.



3. Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Enterprise Operations (EO) has a requirement for brand name HP Autonomy software maintenance and support. The software maintenance and support will consist of software upgrades and updates to include major releases, point releases, service releases and security releases of applicable software on a quarterly basis, or within 48 hours in cases where a high risk vulnerability fix becomes available. This software maintenance and support is necessary for EO to continue to operate successfully. The maintenance is required to ensure the software remains operational. The period of performance shall be 12-month base period plus two, 12-month option periods for maintenance and support, if exercised. The total estimated price of the proposed action is $XXXXX, inclusive of options.



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) 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: Based on extensive market research, as described in section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers of brand name HP Autonomy, software maintenance and support. The current EO infrastructure is based on existing HP Autonomy software and VA requires support compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. Only HP Autonomy or an authorized reseller can provide the necessary software maintenance and support, because of the propriety source code required to develop and implement software updates. Furthermore, access to the proprietary source code is required to ensure the software maintenance and support is properly configured to the software. No other source is capable of providing the required software maintenance that meets VA's unique functional requirement. In addition, a prior implementation of HP Autonomy, software licenses already exists in EO. No other license is compatible with or interoperable with the existing HP Autonomy, proprietary database structures, protocols, and software application programming interfaces. The brand name HP Autonomy software maintenance and support is the only software maintenance that meets the Government's requirement.



6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. 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. In addition, the Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity shall be posted to NASA SEWP V GWAC website along with the solicitation.



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 fully competed.



8. Market Research: HP Autonomy is a commercially available off-the-shelf software license package currently in use in VA. Market research was conducted in July 2016 and the Government's technical experts reviewed similar software products and software maintenance and support to ascertain if these items and services could meet VA's requirement. Specifically, the Government's technical experts conducted web-based research on Lavastorm and Netezza data analytics software maintenance. As a result of the market research the technical experts confirmed that as the source code required to issue the updates is proprietary, HP is the only source capable of providing the required maintenance and support for HP Autonomy currently in use within EO. No other firm has the capability of developing and issuing software updates and fixes for HP Autonomy software necessary to support existing EO requirements. The other software maintenance solutions researched are unable to meet the requirements. Based on the above, only HP Autonomy software maintenance and support meets all of the Government's requirements.



In addition, a Request for Information (RFI) was issued on July 27, 2016 by utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC web portal to identify interested sources capable of providing HP Autonomy products. The RFI resulted in responses from three vendors, as such VA anticipates limited competition for this effort.



9. Other Facts: N/A



10. Technical and 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.



Rose Gnoffo Date: ______________________



Project Manager Signature: ______________________



11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on the expectation of adequate price competition. In addition, pricing for products awarded on the NASA SEWP V GWAC have already been determined to be fair and reasonable and only more competitive pricing may result. Price analysis will also be conducted; through a comparison of the successful quote received with the Independent Government Cost Estimate.



Jan Oberdick Date: ______________________



Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ______________________



12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. As this contract action does not exceed $650,000, the certification below required by FAR 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(C)(1) serves as approval.





Jan Oberdick Date: ______________________



Procuring Contracting Officer Signature: ______________________





13. Legal Sufficiency Certification: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support an exception to fair opportunity and deem it legally sufficient.



James Scuro Date: ______________________



Legal Counsel Signature: ______________________





















Approval



In my role as Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the Firm-Fixed Price delivery order for HP Autonomy software maintenance and support, on an other than fair opportunity basis, pursuant to Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2), subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described has otherwise been authorized for acquisition.



Date: ____________ Signature: _________________________________

Ronald J. Bakay

Advocate for Competition

Technology Acquisition Center

Office of Acquisition Operations