Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JULY 23, 2008 FBO #2431
SOLICITATION NOTICE

70 -- Citrix XenApp Licenses

Notice Date

7/21/2008
 

Notice Type

Presolicitation
 

NAICS

423430 — Computer and Computer Peripheral Equipment and Software Merchant Wholesalers
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Corporate Franchise Data Center, Department of Veterans Affairs Corporate Franchise Data Center, Department of Veterans Affairs;Acquisition Management Section/00D;1615 Woodward Street;Austin TX 78772
 

ZIP Code

78772
 

Solicitation Number

VA-200-08-RQ-0095
 

Response Due

8/1/2008
 

Archive Date

9/30/2008
 

Point of Contact

Mark ShumakeContract Specialist
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

Subject: Special Notice, Citrix Presentation Server licenses It is the intent of the Government to purchase Citrix Presentation Server licenses or license renewals and support maintenance using the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) Solution Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) IV Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). The Statement of Work will be provided in the solicitation. The successful offeror shall provide licenses, license renewals and support maintenance for Citrix Presentation Server software which will be described in the subsequent solicitation for the Dept. of Veterans Affairs - Austin IT Acquisition Center located at 1615 Woodward Street, Austin, TX 78772. The solicitation will only be available to NASA SEWP IV contract holders. Comments are due on or before August 1, 2008. Sincerely, Mark Shumake Contracting Officer (512) 326-6029 Email: mark.shumake@va.gov JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (FAR 6.302-1(c)) 1.Identification of the Agency and Contracting Activity: Requesting Activity:USVA OI&T Region 3 Office PO Box 131250 Ann Arbor, MI 48113-1250 Attn: J. Verreau Contracting Activity:Department of Veterans Affairs IT Acquisition Center (200/00D3) 1615 Woodward Street Austin, TX 78772 2.Nature and/or description of the action being approved: The purpose of this action is to: Upgrade 1,510 Citrix perpetual Presentation Server licenses from Enterprise to XenApp Plati-num with Subscription Advantage Upgrade 1,100 Citrix perpetual Presentation Server licenses from Platinum to XenApp Plati-num with Subscription Advantage Upgrade 250 Citrix perpetual Presentation Server licenses from Platinum with Subscription Advanced to XenApp Platinum with Subscription Advantage Restore 840 Citrix expired Presentation Server licenses from Enterprise with Expired Subscrip-tion Advantage to XenApp Platinum with Subscription Advantage Restore 300 Citrix expired Presentation Server licenses from Platinum with Expired Subscrip-tion Advanced to XenApp Platinum with Subscription Advantage Consolidate Citrix licensing management across the region Provide Citrix technical support service bundle of 25 calls Provide three option years of 4,000 Citrix perpetual XenApp licenses Platinum Edition with Subscription Advantage Renewal This purchase will protect VAs invested base by: Leveraging current investment of dollars Over the 41 sites in Region 3 there are currently some 3,400 licenses already owned by VA. However, of these about 2,000 are current. An ad-ditional 1,400 have lapsed which have varying expirations at the Region 3 facilities. So on completion of this procurement, Region 3 will have in place the upgraded perpetual licenses to the Platinum level which provides newer technology and features for thin client technology, and will have an overall subscription plan for all active licenses. Leverage current investment of staff training and operational familiarity Over a number of years various facilities throughout what is now region 3 have accumulated the existing substan-tial pool of Citrix licenses. In that time technical staff and users throughout those sites have gained familiarity with the product and how to make it work for them in the VA context. In-troducing a different brand would cost the VA to make a substantial investment in retraining both users and technical staff. This purchase will provide compatibility and communication with the larger VA context. Regions 1, 2, and 4 have already invested heavily in the Citrix product with a total of 16,266 existing licenses. Region 3 expects to gain the advantage of the synergy of using the same platform across the VA enter-prise. Citrix has a known capability to meet the following VA requirements: For protecting WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure (WAPI) -- One of the attrac-tive features of the XenApp product is the ability to minimize the exposure of protected infor-mation. There are a number of techniques available with the Citrix product for isolating and disposing of electronic data that are much more difficult to implement on a full desktop. A re-cent SEWP brand name or equal RFI conducted in May 2008 resulted in only one product, the Citrix XenApp product. For application compatibility Over the years that staff at the various facilities and networks in Region 3 have worked with the product technical staff have come to know how to engage the commonly and not so commonly used desktop applications in this context. Introducing a new layer of software between the operating system, Windows, and the hardware on which the two run at the point of use invariably introduces subtleties in the arena of application workability. In addition to the skill set developed to make this configuration work is the knowledge of the limits of the configuration. Of particular import is compatibility with and special features con-figured to support the Sentillion CCOW product in the VA environment for users connections to VA VistA. 3.Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agencys needs (including the es-timated value): This acquisition is to restore subscription service to 3,400 Citrix XenApp licenses, add 600 Citrix XenApp licenses, and upgrade 1,500 of the 3,400 licenses to the Platinum level of service for Ci-trix XenApp product (total 4,000 licenses). This acquisition is a procurement with one base year and three option years. The total value of the purchase in 4 years is $1,750,433.75. 4.Statutory Authority Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition: This acquisition is conducted under the authority of FAR 11.105, Items Peculiar to One Manufac-turer and 6.302-1(c), Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. This is not a sole source justification; rather it is a justification to permit other than full and open competition due to a brand name requirement. 5.Demonstration that the proposed contractors unique qualifications or the nature of the ac-quisition requires use of the authority cited: The Citrix XenApp (formerly known as Presentation Server, and Winframe before that) software and servers are already installed around various sites in the region. Region 3 staff have recently configured a server to take on the role of Citrix license server for the 41 facilities of the region. Adding Citrix seats to the configuration is deemed a relatively minor upgrade process. The hard-ware is in place and an earlier version of the product is running at the selected locations. In the market place today there are three protocols that can deliver the virtual desktop environment. They are Independent Computing Architecture (ICA), Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), and Vir-tual Network Computing (VNC). ICA is proprietary, only offered by Citrix. Among other advan-tages, it offers access to printers local to the user, published applications, and compatibility with imaging applications commonly used by clinicians. Failure to refresh the Citrix XenApp software will result in the desktop environment operating in an unsupported mode at many of the 41 Region 3 sites. This infrastructure supports all key clinical and administrative applications across the VA and is critical to the delivery of accurate patient care and management of business operations at VA medical centers. By refreshing and upgrading the Citrix software, the VA will be able to take advantage of new fea-tures Citrix has incorporated into the XenApp solution (formerly known as Presentation Server, and Winframe before that) since the original deployment at the various sites. Of special interest will be application monitoring and analysis and streamlined security capabilities that are available with the Platinum level of service. In comparison to the 4,000 licenses needed by Region 3, Region 1 currently has 5,251 Presentation Server licenses, Region 2 has 6,590 Presentation Server licenses, and Region 4 has 3,055 Presenta-tion Server licenses. These license numbers show that the VA is already heavily invested in the Ci-trix product. 6.Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies: This acquisition will be solicited under the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA) Solution Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) IV Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), to all SEWP contract holders (this includes multiple small, veteran-owned and woman-owned businesses). 7.Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable: Pricing shall be determined fair and reasonable based on competitive quotes, as prescribed in FAR 16.505 (b)(1)(ii)(E). 8.Description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted: Market Research was conducted on the SEWP portal. Currently, Nine SEWP vendors offer the Ci-trix XenApp software on their contracts: Apptis, Blue Tech, GTSI, Gov Connect, PC Mall Gov d/b/a GMRI, FCN Technology Solutions, Dell, IGov, and WWT. On May 1, 2008, an RFI an-nouncement #31036 was posted on SEWP as an RFI seeking alternative products for the Citrix XenApp brand name or equal product. The RFI included a description of the general and tech-nical requirements. GTSI is the only vendor that responded to the RFI providing no alternative products. 9.Other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition: A recent SEWP brand name or equal RFI #31036 was posted on May 1, 2008 resulted in only one product, the Citrix XenApp product.
 

Web Link

FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=e48bf2d42572931e0d71329ec797fd22&tab=core&_cview=1)
 

Place of Performance

Address: 600 Beacon Parkway;West Suite 201;Birmingham;AL

Zip Code: 35209
 

Record

SN01618668-W 20080723/080721222036-e48bf2d42572931e0d71329ec797fd22 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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