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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 03, 2016 FBO #5398
DOCUMENT

D -- TAC-16-35156 SW_R_ServiceNow - Justification and Approval (J&A)

Notice Date

9/1/2016
 

Notice Type

Justification and Approval (J&A)
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

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

ZIP Code

07724
 

Archive Date

12/8/2016
 

Point of Contact

Alma Aliaj, Contract Specialist
 

E-Mail Address

erdick,
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SC92B VA118-16-F-1369
 

Award Date

8/31/2016
 

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, NJ 07724 2. Description of Action: The proposed action is for a firm-fixed price delivery order to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government-wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for the procurement of brand name ServiceWatch software license maintenance. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Enterprise Operations (EO) has a requiremnent for maintenance of 3,000 currently fielded ServiceNowServiceWatch T2 Node (24x7x365) annual software licenses. Maintenance support includes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year (24x7x365) assistance via phone, email, upgrades, patches and defect remediation for the licenses purchased. One telephone number and/or a point of contact will be provided for the VA to contact and for opening maintenance service calls. ServiceWatch creates accurate service maps that show the mix of applications and InformationTechnology (IT) components that support VA business services and how they are related. It starts with the service entry point, such as a Uniform Resource Locator, queue or Citrix Virtual Desktop Infrastructure client that traces the service across all VA technology domains to create a complete and accurate map of all of the applications, servers, databases, virtual machines, network connections and other IT components that support the service. This mapping of business services, dependencies and linkage to monitoring data enables the VA to effectively triage IT issues and present the status of triage to VA executives. The period of performance shall be 12-month base period plus two, 12-month option periods for maintenance and support, if exercised. The total estimated price of the proposed action is $XXXXX, inclusive of the 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) 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. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on market research, as described in section 8 of this document, it was determined that limited competition is available among authorized resellers of ServiceWatch software maintenance. VA currently utilizes ServiceWatch, Inc., software and maintenance support services. No other vendor other than ServiceNow, Inc. makes a product which combines the discovery of business services with the automated mapping of performance components and availability metrics to those business services, which is a VA functional requirment. Similar software was reviewed by VA technical experts such as Computer Associates (CA) Configuration Automation; BMC Atrium Discovery and Dependency Mapping; CA Service Operation Insight and CA Application, to determine if they were able to satisfy all of the VA's software requirements. Performance Management performs either the discovery of configuration items and dependencies or the measurement of performance metrics but does not provide for the automated mapping of metrics to discovered business services. The current process of manual mapping of the discovered items to business services and associating the performance metrics to the resultant business services is not only time consuming, but labor intensive, and prone to error. Given the complexity of VA IT systems, it is not feasible to continue with manual mapping of these elements. Only ServiceWatch or an authorized reseller can provide the necessary software maintenance, since ServiceWatch is the owner of the propriety source code which is being maintained. Only the owner of the proprietary source code or their authorized reseller who has access to this code can provide bug fixes, patches and updates to the software and ensure the services are properly configured. No other source is capable of providing the required software maintenance that meets VA's unique functional requirements without access to this code. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in the market research section of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that could meet the Government's technical requirements. It was also determined, however, that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the required brand name software license maintenance support. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a) (4) (ii) (D), the action will be synopsized and this justification will be made publicly available on the Federal Business Opportunities Page within 14 days after the award. In addition, this justification will be posted with the solicitation to notify all the SEWP vendors. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the agency will work with the program office to perform additional market research so that other solutions can be considered. Specifically, the Government's technical experts will continue to research other brand name software and their ability to meet VA EO requirements. 8. Market Research: In July 2016, the Government's technical experts reviewed similar software products and services to ascertain if these items could meet EO's requirements. Specifically, the Government's technical experts reviewed similar companies/organizations, such as BMC and CA. As a result of the market research the technical experts confirmed that as the source code required to issue the updates is proprietary, ServiceWatch is the only source capable of providing the required maintenance and upgrades for ServiceWatch software. No other firm has the capability of developing and issuing software updates and fixes for ServiceWatch software necessary to support existing EO requirements. All of the products researched were unable to meet the functional requirements as stated in section 5. The requirements detailed in section 5 and integration with existing installed software and no other product other than ServiceWatch software are able to meet these requirements. Additionally, none of these other software products could meet VA's interoperability and compatibility requirements as outlined in section 5 of this document. Based on the above, only ServiceWatch software maintenance meets all of the Government's requirements.. Market research was also conducted in July 2016 by the Government technical expert issuing an Request for Information on NASA SEWP V GWAC website to identify interested sources capable of providing the required maintenance support. Three vendors responded to the RFI: Four Points Technology (Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB), New Tech Solutions, Inc. (small businesses) and Red River (Small Business). All three vendors proposed maintenance support for brand name ServiceNow software licenses. Furthermore, NASA SEWP has a dynamic catalog where line items can be added based on customer requests; therefore, as long as the required item or service is within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC, items and services can be added to the catalog on a daily basis. This requirement was determined to be within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC under a separate determination. Therefore, VA anticipates limited competition 9. Other Facts: None. 10. Technical and Requirements Certification: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in this justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Roy McBrayerDate: ______________________ Project ManagerSignature: ______________________ 11. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: I hereby determine that the anticipated price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable based on analysis of the proposal against the Independent Government Cost Estimate and historical pricing data. Jan OberdickDate: ______________________ Procuring Contracting OfficerSignature: ______________________ 12. Procuring Contracting Officer Certification: I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief. Jan OberdickDate: ______________________ Procuring Contracting OfficerSignature: ______________________ 13. Legal Sufficiency Certification: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support an exception to fair opportunity and deem it legally sufficient. Mary G. Courtney Date: ______________________ Legal CounselSignature: ______________________ Approval In my role as Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the Firm-Fixed Price delivery order for ServiceWatch software license maintenance, on an other than fair opportunity basis, pursuant to Section 41 U.S.C. 4106(c)(2), subject to availability of funds, and provided that the services herein described has otherwise been authorized for acquisition. Date: ____________ Signature: _________________________________ Ronald J. Bakay Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Acquisition Operations
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/1bcc8a49cfd867fd8e5712da8c740e0b)
 

Document(s)

Justification and Approval (J&A)
 

File Name: NNG15SC92B VA118-16-F-1369 NNG15SC92B VA118-16-F-1369_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2982205&FileName=NNG15SC92B-001.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2982205&FileName=NNG15SC92B-001.docx

 

File Name: NNG15SC92B VA118-16-F-1369 P03- JA for ServiceNow.doc (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2982206&FileName=NNG15SC92B-002.doc)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2982206&FileName=NNG15SC92B-002.doc

 

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

Record

SN04252167-W 20160903/160901235753-1bcc8a49cfd867fd8e5712da8c740e0b (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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