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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JULY 01, 2011 FBO #3506
DOCUMENT

D -- VBA New Hiring Initiative - CISCO Procurement - Justification and Approval (J&A)

Notice Date

6/29/2011
 

Notice Type

Justification and Approval (J&A)
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Center for Acquisition Innovation-Austin;1701 Directors Blvd;Suite 600;Austin TX 78744
 

ZIP Code

78744
 

Solicitation Number

VA798A11RQ0132
 

Archive Date

7/29/2011
 

Point of Contact

Lindsey Hooge
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG07DA39B VA798A-11-1173
 

Award Date

6/29/2011
 

Description

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION 1. Contracting Activity: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Acquisition and Logistics Center for Acquisition Innovation - Austin 1701 Directors Blvd., Suite 600 Austin, TX 78744 2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a Firm-Fixed-Price Delivery Order (DO) issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) IV Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), for Cisco network hardware and support services for infrastructure expansion requirements at Region 5 Local Area Network/Wide Area Network (LAN/WAN) environments. All Cisco hardware shall be delivered within 30 days after receipt of the Delivery Order. This procurement shall be for hardware with one year of SMARTnet Maintenance. SMARTnet Maintenance provides Cisco technical support, operating system software updates and hardware replacement. The maintenance period will begin upon receipt of the equipment. 3. Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is for the expansion of Region 5 LAN/WAN environments infrastructure to accommodate new VA employees and training facilities. Region 5 LAN/WAN environments are a network that allows Veterans' data to be processed and transmitted to various VA and other Government agencies. The proposed Cisco hardware will be utilized to control/manage data/access to the Region 5 LAN and WAN. The proposed hardware will provide uninterrupted access through content fast switching, improving responsiveness, availability, scalability, and security of VA websites, server farms, cache clusters and firewall systems. The SMARTNET maintenance is required to ensure the hardware remains operational. The total estimated price of the proposed action is $1,000,000.00. The Government requires the following brand name Cisco network hardware: Catalyst 3750V2 24 10/100 PoE + 2 SFP + IPB Image, PN WS-C3750V2-24PS-S Catalyst 3750V2 48 10/100 PoE + 4 SFP + IPB Image, PN WS-C3750V2-48PS-S Catalyst 3750 48 10/100/1000 PoE + 4 SFP + IPB Image, PN WS-C3750G-48PS-S 1000Base-SX GBIC, PN WS-G5484= GE SFP, LC connector SX transceiver (fiber, multi mode) 1000Base-SX SFP, PN GLC-SX-MM SC/SC, 8', 62.5/125 Fiber Patch Cable LC/SC, 8', 62.5/125 Fiber Patch Cable CAB-SS-V35-MT Cable, PN CAB-SS-V35-MT Cable WIC-2T, PN HWIC-2T 4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting this exception to fair opportunity is 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. Reason for Authority Cited: Based on extensive market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available for these brand name items and services. Cisco equipment is the only brand name that meets the Government's requirements. Since fiscal year 2008, VA has made substantial investments totaling over $11 million in Cisco network hardware equipment. VA requires a solution compatible with existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability within Region 5. Cisco utilizes Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) which is a proprietary redundancy protocol for establishing a fault-tolerant default gateway if the primary gateway should become inaccessible. HSRP requires two Cisco routers in order to transfer information and is not compatible with other vendors' hardware. Maintaining a single brand reduces interoperability risks to infrastructure and support processes with different vendor components combinations. Procuring Cisco hardware avoids duplicated hardware cost(s), and eliminates the cost of training, testing, and certification required for new hardware. Market research indicates that for Brocade (a Cisco competitor), the average cost to become certified is approximately $24,000.00 per person, and training would take approximately six weeks. If VA purchased equipment from Brocade, VA would require 130 Region 5 employees to be certified on the Brocade equipment, resulting in additional costs of $3,120,000.00 to VA, in addition to the extensive time it would delay the project for all 130 Region 5 VA employees to become certified. Additionally, VA has a Cisco SMARTnet Maintenance and Advanced Services Support contract with Sword & Shield that provides support to VA offices nationwide. After the initial 12 months of SMARTnet maintenance on the proposed action, these Cisco products will be incorporated into the nationwide Cisco SMARTnet Support Services Contract, saving VA additional maintenance costs in the later years of the equipment's life. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. Limited competition is anticipated for the required brand name software and support. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR 5.3 the contract award will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) Page. In addition, this Justification and Approval (J&A) will be made publicly available on the FBO Page. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: Although the Government is limiting competition as a result of specifying a brand name item, there are authorized resellers of these products on the NASA SEWP IV GWAC. Limited competition for this requirement among these vendors is anticipated. Additionally, this Justification and Approval and the Request for Quotations will be submitted to all four NASA SEWP IV GWAC Groups in order to fully notify all interested parties and obtain price competition. Any quotations received will be evaluated. VA will continue to monitor the usefulness of Cisco Systems and the agency's satisfaction with the vendor's performance of software and support services. Specifically VA will reassess if a technology refresh would be advantageous to the Government. Currently, Cisco utilizes HSRP which only interfaces with Cisco equipment. As such in the future VA will conduct market research to determine if this aspect of Cisco's equipment can interface with other vendors products and/or what the total cost/value to VA would be to replace existing Cisco infrastructure with other products. 8. Market Research: Market research was performed to comply with Federal Acquisition Regulations and to ensure the Government receives the best value for this procurement. Cisco hardware must be compatible and functional with components currently in place. In February 2011, the Government's technical experts reviewed network hardware with similar capabilities to the aforementioned Cisco hardware via the Internet. Based on this market research, the network hardware provided by Blackbox and Brocade could not meet VA's requirements. Specifically, other hardware would not be compatible with pre-existing Cisco hardware because Cisco utilizes HSRP which is proprietary and requires two Cisco routers to transfer information. As such, any hardware purchased from other providers would not be compatible with the existing infrastructure and would adversely affect VA's mission to support the Veteran. The requirement is available via the NASA SEWP IV Government-Wide Acquisition Contract. Therefore, the requirement shall be solicited under NASA SEWP IV pursuant to the memorandum issued by Robert T. Howard, Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology, on June 1, 2007. The memorandum instructs VA offices to use the NASA SEWP IV contract for all information technology acquisitions as of June 15, 2007. Market Research conducted in March 2011 utilizing the NASA SEWP IV Manufacturer Lookup tool determined seven (7) authorized resellers of the Cisco brand name items are current contract holders. Additionally, these seven (7) contract holders also can provide the required support services. Therefore, limited competition is expected for this proposed action. 9. Other Facts: VA will continually assess the best technology solutions. Future requirements will be evaluated to determine and provide for the Government's best interest. Procurement of unlimited data rights, training, or procuring knowledge within the Government to supply the required services is not an available alternative. This alternative is not currently available since Cisco owns all rights to the software. VA will continue to monitor the usefulness of Cisco Systems and the agency's satisfaction with the vendor's performance of software and support services. Should the current product and/or the maintenance and support services fail to meet the Government's requirements, competition will be sought in future acquisitions of these products. 10. Listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition: None. 11. Actions to Increase Competition: VA will continue to monitor the usefulness of Cisco Systems and the agency's satisfaction with the vendor's performance of software and support services. Specifically VA will reassess if a technology refresh would be advantageous to the Government. Currently, Cisco utilizes HSRP which only interfaces with Cisco equipment. As such in the future VA will conduct market research to determine if this aspect of Cisco's equipment can interface with other vendors products and/or what the total cost/value to VA would be to replace existing Cisco infrastructure with other products.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/20941ffb83492d20624deff421a910fe)
 

Document(s)

Justification and Approval (J&A)
 

File Name: NNG07DA39B VA798A-11-1173 NNG07DA39B VA798A-11-1173.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=214533&FileName=NNG07DA39B-000.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=214533&FileName=NNG07DA39B-000.docx

 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Record

SN02485146-W 20110701/110629234523-20941ffb83492d20624deff421a910fe (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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