Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF OCTOBER 03, 2015 FBO #5062
DOCUMENT

D -- FY16 Bull Software Maintenance - Attachment

Notice Date

10/1/2015
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

334111 — Electronic Computer Manufacturing
 

Contracting Office

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

ZIP Code

07724
 

Solicitation Number

VA11815Q0335
 

Archive Date

1/8/2016
 

Point of Contact

Joseph Pignataro
 

E-Mail Address

5-1115<br
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SC17B VA118-16-F-0387
 

Award Date

10/1/2015
 

Awardee

MERLIN INTERNATIONAL, INC.;4 B INVERNESS CT E STE 100;ENGLEWOOD;CO;80112
 

Award Amount

$5,312,736.60
 

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: The 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) V Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the procurement of Bull software maintenance on current Bull NovaScale Enterprise Servers and Virtual Tape Systems (VTS) operating in VA infrastructure. 3.Description of Supplies or Services: The proposed action is for software maintenance for the current Bull hardware and software utilized on VA's Bull NovaScale Enterprise Servers and VTS for the Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Enterprise Operations (EO). The maintenance for the current Bull software will ensure that the systems remain operational for the next fiscal year. The Bull NovaScale Enterprise Servers and VTS are critical elements to VA's infrastructure which is configured to support the Benefits Delivery Network Payment System. The required software maintenance will consist of software upgrades, bug fixes, and updates to include major releases, point releases, service releases and security releases on a quarterly basis. This maintenance will ensure the software remains operational. The period of performance is 12 months from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016. The total estimated price of the proposed action is 4.Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting an exception to fair opportunity is 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: The proposed source for this action is Merlin International, 4B Inverness Court East, Suite 100, Englewood, Colorado, 80112. Merlin currently has an exclusive partnership agreement in place with Bull as the sole authorized reseller of Bull hardware and software and associated maintenance and support services. Bull does not do business directly with the Government and authorizes Merlin to act as its sole reseller. Only Bull software maintenance can meet all of the Government's requirements. The currently installed Bull software is proprietary and communicates through proprietary source code which only Bull or an authorized reseller can maintain. Thus, only Bull software maintenance can meet the Government's requirements. Specifically, if any other source was to provide these services without the Bull proprietary source code, it would not be able to push upgrades to the existing software or fix, and configure the software. Furthermore, there is no other software that is interoperable and compatible with the current software utilized on Bull's NovaScale Enterprise Servers and VTS systems. Use of any other software would result in severe interoperability and compatibility issues. 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) the resulting contract award will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page within 14 days of award and this justification will be made publicly available. This Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity will be posted on the NASA SEWP V website with the solicitation. 7.Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the Government will continue to perform market research to determine if there are any new products or maintenance services available that will enable future requirements to be competed. 8.Market Research: The Government's technical experts conducted market research in April 2015 to ascertain the ability of other similar software maintenance that could meet VA's need which is to maintain the currently installed Bull infrastructure. The Government's technical experts reviewed similar mainframe computer performance software products and support services to ascertain if they could meet EO's requirements. Specifically, the Government's technical experts reviewed similar products from companies and organizations including Dell, International Business Machines (IBM), and Oracle. None of the products offered by these companies can meet VA's interoperability and compatibility requirements. Dell, IBM, and Oracle's software cannot communicate with or through the existing Bull proprietary source code. In addition, the Government's technical experts reviewed Forrester Research, Gartner Research, and conducted research on technical mainframe computer websites and web-based forums related to the mainframe computer performance requirements to identify potential mainframe computer performance software solutions that could meet the Government's requirements. All of the products and services offered by these sources were found unable to meet the unique functional performance requirements for the transactions that are required to pass through the servers. Based on the above, only Bull software maintenance support meets VA's requirement to maintain its currently installed Bull software. 9. Other Facts: None.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/861dfba1ecd638eab2f70d0a6ab42110)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG15SC17B VA118-16-F-0387 NNG15SC17B VA118-16-F-0387_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2347524&FileName=NNG15SC17B-000.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2347524&FileName=NNG15SC17B-000.docx

 

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

Record

SN03912289-W 20151003/151001235103-861dfba1ecd638eab2f70d0a6ab42110 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

---

| FSG Index  |  This Issue's Index  |  Today's FBO Daily Index Page |