SOLICITATION NOTICE
70 -- NUMOME software customization
- Notice Date
- 8/21/2009
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 511210
— Software Publishers
- Contracting Office
- Department of Veterans Affairs;VA Boston Healthcare System;Contracting Officer (90C);940 Belmont Street;Brockton MA 02301
- ZIP Code
- 02301
- Solicitation Number
- VA-241-09-RQ-0273
- Response Due
- 8/29/2009
- Archive Date
- 9/28/2009
- Point of Contact
- James Kneeland
- E-Mail Address
-
Contracting Specialist
(James.Kneeland@VA.Gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Letter of Intent to Sole Source for Crystal Development, Inc. (NUHOME extension software) The Department of Veterans Affairs, VA Boston Healthcare System, has a requirement for the development of specialized proprietary computer software Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to their specialized NUHOME software and provide consultation on its use for analyses undertaken as part of the HSR&D funded grant Identifying and Characterizing High Performing VHA Nursing Homes (IIR 06-260). It is the Governments intention to solicit and negotiate only with this source. Please refer to the Sole Source Justification. This is not a solicitation; it is notice of intent to sole source a requirement. Inquires/information received after established deadline of 3pm EST on August 28, 2009 shall not be considered. The submission of any data for review shall not impede award of this contract as planned. The Government does not intend to pay for information solicited. This synopsis is issued pursuant to FAR 6.302-1. JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION: 1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity: The agency is the Department of Veterans Affairs. The activity is the Boston VA Medical Center. 2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved. The nature of the action is a sole source solicitation to Crystal Decisions, Inc. 3. The description of the supplies or services required to meet the agencys needs (including the estimated value). Crystal Decisions will provide their specialized proprietary computer software Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to their specialized NUHOME software and provide consultation on its use for analyses undertaken as part of the HSR&D funded grant Identifying and Characterizing High Performing VHA Nursing Homes (IIR 06-260). The part of the grant on which Crystal will be working involves the use of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models to calculate composite measures of nursing home performance. A number of DEA software packages exist. However, none of them are tailored to specific applications. Crystal (under an NIH-funded grant Comparative Evaluation of Nursing Homes, R43 AG17426 and R44 AG17426, 9/1/99 to 8/31/06) received over $900,000 to develop NUHOME, a user-friendly, spreadsheet-based software package that allows operating managers to use DEA to benchmark nursing homes. It is the governments belief that no other DEA software exists that is tailored specifically for analysis of nursing homes by operating managers. This capability is important because we hope that if results of the DEA analysis prove useful for managers in the VA Office of Geriatrics and Extended Care (GEC), they will use the software on an ongoing basis. In addition, Crystal has worked extensively with nursing home data and so is familiar with many issues in preparing the data for analysis and interpreting results. We used the royalty-free licensed software in a pilot study done as part of the grant application. It is easy to install as an Add-In in Excel, it ran quickly, and results were clearly laid out. The estimated value of this product is $79,600.00. 4. Identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition. No other source can be identified that meets the technical requirements of the Center for Organization Leadership and Management Reserarch (COLMR) for this required product. This is a proprietary software product and no comparable product exists. 5. Demonstration of the contractors unique qualifications: Crystal Decisions is uniquely qualified to provide this product as this Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a proprietary analysis software program created and used to benchmark nursing home performance. There is no comparable software product which allows operating managers to benchmark nursing home performance. Part of the grant involves extending DEA software to 1) incorporate a potentially large number of multiplier constraints needed for assurance regions, i.e., management imposed limits on weights, some of which we will obtain from GEC central office managers; and 2) do multiple replications in order to place confidence intervals around facility-level efficiency estimates based on bootstrap samples of cases at each facility. Crystal has the technical expertise to undertake these extensions. They are the only ones that could add these extensions to the existing NUHOME software. From our use if the software in the pilot study, it is clear that it could support these extensions. Contracting with another group to produce from scratch an entire platform to perform the needed tasks would entail a much larger cost larger than available for the subcontract, since the original development of the NUHOME software cost nearly $1 million dollars. 6. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a FedBizOps notice was or will be publicized as required by subpart 5.2 (copy attached) and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies. Investigative efforts found that though there are companies that provide DEA software, NUHOME is better for this application in that: (1) it is specialized for application to the nursing home industry, and (2) its user interface is designed for managers rather than for DEA researchers and consultants. As there is no other source for this product as specifically required for the applications needed, no additional offers could be solicited. 7. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. Pricing schedules have been reviewed and determined to be in compliance with retail and GSA offers. 8. Description of the market survey conducted (i.e., names of firms and date(s) the firms were contacted) and the results or a statement of the reasons a market survey was not conducted. As there is no other source available that can provide the producr expressed in section 2. No market survey has been initiated. 9. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition, such as an explanation why technical data packages, specifications, or engineering descriptions, statements of work, or purchase descriptions suitable for full and open competition have not been developed or are not available. As there is no other source available that can provide the product expressed in section 2, no market survey has been initiated. 10. A listing of the sources, if any that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition. As there is no other source available that can provide the product described in section 2, no other sources have expressed, in writing, an interest. 11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required. As there is no other source available that can provide the services expressed in section 2, there are no actions that can be taken to remove or overcome any barriers to competition (i.e., there is no competition available).
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