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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF APRIL 05, 2015 FBO #4880
DOCUMENT

99 -- TAC-15-19053 eDiscovery for OGC Phase 2 Symantec Clearwell - Attachment

Notice Date

4/3/2015
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Technology Acquisition Center;23 Christopher Way;Eatontown NJ 07724
 

ZIP Code

07724
 

Solicitation Number

VA11815Q0172
 

Archive Date

6/1/2015
 

Point of Contact

Dawn Eimont
 

E-Mail Address

5-1117<br
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG07DA46B VA118-15-F-0118
 

Award Date

4/2/2015
 

Awardee

ALVAREZ & ASSOCIATES, LLC;8251 GREENSBORO DR STE 230;TYSONS CORNER;VA;22102
 

Award Amount

$2,104,116.03
 

Description

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: This proposed action is for a Firm-Fixed-Price Delivery Order issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) IV Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) to authorized resellers for upgrades of brand name Symantec Clearwell Electronic Discovery (eDiscovery) System licenses to augment the existing Symantec Clearwell licenses hosted at VA's Austin Information Technology Center (AITC) located in Austin, Texas for use by VA's Office of General Counsel (OGC). This requirement also includes maintenance and support services. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: The proposed action is to upgrade the existing Symantec Clearwell eDiscovery System licenses in order to support additional users within VA OGC. The required upgrades include security patches additional Processing and Legal Hold software licenses, Critical Services Premier Support, On-site Expert Resident and Business Critical Services Remote Product Specialist. The total estimated value of the proposed action is $2,650,898.27, inclusive of the 12-month base and three 12-month option periods. 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 Above: This is a brand name justification in support of FAR 11.105, Items Peculiar to One Manufacturer. Based on market research, as described in paragraph 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the required brand name software upgrades and support. Symantec Clearwell eDiscovery is the only eDiscovery software that can continue to build upon VA's existing Symantec Clearwell eDiscovery Platform located at the AITC. The current system has the ability to accommodate up to 3 Terabytes (TB) of processing capability. In order to support the forecast growth of OGC users, an additional 5 TB of processing capability license upgrades are required. Additionally, the Symantec Clearwell eDiscovery is the only software that has Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) decryption capability and Predictive Coding capability that supports OGC's eDiscovery process. The PKI decryption capability is required so that users can process, search, analyze, and review digitally encrypted emails. Predictive coding allows review of the electronically stored and processed data in a very quick manner, reducing the number of attorneys required and the amount of time spent on discovery document research on various legal cases. Ultimately this capability will allow existing OGC staff to increase their case load and will enable VA to better meet its discovery obligations to various courts and litigation forums by allowing the Symantec Clearwell eDiscovery system to process more data than it can today to complete case investigation and research in a timelier manner. No other brand name software can meet these essential VA functional requirements. The use of the existing platform and licensing model is critical to fully integrate additional OGC users into the existing platform located at the AITC. Any other brand name software would be unable to interoperate with the currently fielded Symantec Clearwell eDiscovery System software. Since the required Symantec Clearwell software is proprietary, only an authorized Symantec Clearwell reseller can provide the aforementioned software licensing, software updates and technical support services. An upgrade will allow additional users to perform preservation, processing (such as decryption and de-duplication), searching, reviewing, analysis, and production of electronically stored information. This will assist attorneys, custodians of relevant information, and other Office of Information and Technology (OI&T) personnel in accomplishing their required tasks more efficiently. OI&T personnel use Symantec Clearwell in the event they need to assist in litigation and criminal cases where email users attempt to circumvent controls and try to prevent VA investigators and OGC from accessing their email records. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this document. 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 authorized resellers for the required brand name software upgrades. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), this action will be synopsized and the justification will be posted on the Federal Business Opportunities Page within 14 days of award and posted to NASA SEWP IV 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 market place that would enable future actions to be competed. 8. Market Research: From September 2014 through December 2014, the Government's technical experts conducted market research by reviewing other similar brand name eDiscovery software applications, specifically from Hewlett Packard/Autonomy, International Business Machines, Enterprise Content Management, and AccessData. Of the software applications researched, only the Symantec Clearwell eDiscovery software is able to meet VA's predictive coding and PKI decryption requirements. Additionally, based on the review of similar brand name software, specifically from Hewlett Packard/Autonomy, International Business Machines, Enterprise Content Management, and AccessData, it was determined that none are able to interoperate with the existing Symantec Clearwell eDiscovery System software and architecture. Each brand software product is proprietary and is therefore incompatible with software from other vendors. Different architectures cannot communicate with each other. Each brand eDiscovery application uses a different proprietary software code which makes communication between different brand names impossible. As a result, the Government's technical experts have determined that only the Symantec Clearwell eDiscovery software and licenses can meet all of the Government's requirements. 9. Other Facts: None.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/e18fcdb8bcf940043004450cdd03c88e)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG07DA46B VA118-15-F-0118 NNG07DA46B VA118-15-F-0118_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=1962193&FileName=NNG07DA46B-096.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=1962193&FileName=NNG07DA46B-096.docx

 

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

Record

SN03688875-W 20150405/150403234448-e18fcdb8bcf940043004450cdd03c88e (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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