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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF OCTOBER 10, 2015 FBO #5069
DOCUMENT

D -- FY16 Hardware Maintenance Renewal – Dell Server - Attachment

Notice Date

10/8/2015
 

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

VA11815Q0659
 

Archive Date

12/30/2015
 

Point of Contact

joanne.defazio@va.gov
 

E-Mail Address

joanne.defazio@va.gov
(joanne.defazio@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SD22B VA118-16-F-0695
 

Award Date

10/1/2015
 

Awardee

FOUR POINTS TECHNOLOGY, L.L.C.;14900 CONFERENCE CENTER DR STE 100;CHANTILLY;VA;20151
 

Award Amount

$658,061.71
 

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 task order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). 3.Description of Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Enterprise Operations (EO) has a requirement for Dell hardware maintenance coverage. The required hardware maintenance coverage is currently provided under the Data Center Acquisitions Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology task order which expires on 9/30/2015. The Dell hardware maintenance coverage will consist of hardware maintenance to repair or replace systems' equipment components to restore full operation and accessibility to the original redundant component configuration. The hardware maintenance coverage shall provide coverage 24 hours a day x 7 days a week x 365 days per year. The hardware maintenance coverage shall provide an initial response to all VA requests for maintenance within one hour of the initial notification from VA, and shall provide for responses to all requests for on-site maintenance service by sending a qualified technician/engineer to the affected site within four hours of the initial notification from VA. The hardware maintenance coverage is necessary for EO to be able to operate successfully. The maintenance is required to ensure the hardware remains operational. The period of performance is for 12 months. The total estimated price of the proposed action is. 4.Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting this exception to fair opportunity is Section 41 U.S.C 4106(c)(2) as implemented by 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: Based on extensive market research, as described in section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the Dell hardware maintenance and updates as described in section 3 of this justification. The current EO infrastructure is based on existing Dell hardware and VA requires maintenance coverage to support the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued operational availability. VA requires hardware upgrades and updates to include major releases, point releases, service releases of applicable hardware on a quarterly basis, or within 48 hours in cases where a high risk vulnerability fix becomes available. Only Dell or an authorized reseller can provide the necessary hardware coverage, because of the proprietary source code required to develop and implement hardware updates. No other source is capable of providing the required hardware maintenance coverage that meets VA's unique functional requirements based on the existing infrastructure; Dell hardware is already installed and integrated in EO. Acquisition of a different product's maintenance would require massive revision and redevelopment to EO's infrastructure to enable it to support a new product which would require brand name maintenance from that manufacturer. No other maintenance can be performed on the existing Dell hardware. The Dell hardware maintenance is the only hardware maintenance coverage that meets the Government's requirements. 6.Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research paragraph 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 this brand name hardware maintenance coverage. In accordance with FAR 5.301 and 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), this action will be synopsized and the justification will be made publicly available on the Federal Business Opportunities Page within 14 days of award of the order. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(2), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all contract awardees on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. 7.Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be fully competed. 8.Market Research: When conducting market research in January 2015, the Government's technical experts reviewed similar hardware maintenance coverage packages from Dell competitors, including MAC, Hewlett Packard, and International Business Machines, to ascertain if these items could meet VA's requirements. Specifically, the Government's technical experts conducted web-based research on web sites. As a result of the market research, the technical experts confirmed that the source code required to issue the required Dell hardware updates is proprietary. No other firm has the capability of developing and issuing hardware maintenance coverage for Dell hardware necessary to support existing EO requirements. The other products researched were unable to meet the functional requirements as stated in section 5. Additionally, none of these other hardware maintenance coverage packages could meet VA's interoperability requirements as outlined in section 5 of this document. Based on the above, only Dell hardware maintenance coverage meets all of the Government's requirements. Additional market research was conducted by Government representatives in June 2015 utilizing the NASA SEWP V Provider Lookup Tool which resulted in approximately 68 authorized resellers of the required brand name hardware maintenance coverage. This market research further indicated that the required Dell server hardware maintenance coverage is offered by 11 service-disabled Veteran-owned small businesses contract holders. Furthermore, the NASA SEWP V GWAC is a dynamic information technology (IT) contract in which products can be added to vendor catalogs based on customer requests on a daily basis, as long as the required IT item is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC. As a result, there is reasonable expectation that limited competition exists on the NASA SEWP V GWAC for the Dell server brand name hardware maintenance coverage. In addition, the requirements discussed herein have been found to be within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC in a separate determination. 9. Other Facts: None.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/48b6079643c4862f51c95f6f06b5b88d)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG15SD22B VA118-16-F-0695 NNG15SD22B VA118-16-F-0695_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2361078&FileName=NNG15SD22B-017.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2361078&FileName=NNG15SD22B-017.docx

 

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

Record

SN03918199-W 20151010/151008234853-48b6079643c4862f51c95f6f06b5b88d (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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