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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF OCTOBER 05, 2016 FBO #5430
DOCUMENT

D -- Tableau Enterprise-wide software license - Attachment

Notice Date

10/3/2016
 

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

VA11816Q1592
 

Archive Date

10/14/2016
 

Point of Contact

Eleanor.Slocum@va.gov
 

E-Mail Address

eleanor.slocum@va.gov
(eleanor.slocum@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SD25B VA118-16-F-1449
 

Award Date

9/14/2016
 

Awardee

THREE WIRE SYSTEMS, LLC;3130 FAIRVIEW PARK DR STE 425;FALLS CHURCH;VA;22042
 

Award Amount

$4,138,137.90
 

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 a single Tableau enterprise-wide perpetual software license with software maintenance and technical support. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA has a requirement to acquire a single Tableau enterprise-wide perpetual software license with software maintenance and technical support. This enterprise-wide perpetual software license shall include an unlimited number of users based on VA's needs (VA employees and VA support service contractors) for a 3-year term for an unlimited number of Tableau Professional Desktop licenses, Tableau Server Interactor licenses, and Tableau 8-Core Server licenses. At the expiration of the 3-year term, the enterprise-wide license will be converted to perpetual licenses of Tableau Professional Desktop, Tableau Server Interactor licenses, and/or 8-Core Server licenses as determined by VA needs. Optional Tasks have been identified for software maintenance and technical support that may be exercised anytime during the period of performance. The total period of performance will be three years. Tableau Professional Desktop software is currently used by VA employees to create and build reports, as well as provide visual graphical analysis and filtering control on dashboards. Tableau Professional Desktop software is used to connect to data, explore data, analyze data, ask questions of data, and to create new data visualizations/dashboards/analytics. Tableau Server is the secure and governed distribution hub for Tableau visualizations/dashboards/analytics. Tableau Server enforces security so that users only see data and visualizations they have permission to see. Tableau Server also puts the computing power onto a server so that visualizations can be shared. Tableau Server Interactor, and Tableau Server 8 Core is the same product with the same functionality, but offered in 2 licensing models. Tableau Server 8 Core allows installation of Tableau Server on a machine with up to 8 Computer (CPU) Cores and provides for an unlimited number of users to utilize Tableau Server and see Tableau visualizations from that Tableau Server. As more users utilize Tableau Server, additional Tableau Server 8 Cores are needed for speed. Additionally, VA requires software maintenance and technical support which includes a toll-free telephone phone, email support, online self-help, software maintenance, software patches and updates. The aforementioned Tableau software products are used in various offices throughout VA which include Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Veterans Affairs Central Office (VACO), Office of Public Affairs, Board of Veterans Appeals (BVA), Office of Construction and Facilities Management (CFM), and various VBA Field Offices and Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC's). The VBA Field Offices use Tableau data and visual presentation of claim processing data to improve performance by providing faster claim processing. VBA Education Services uses Tableau software to provide for upgrades to the GI Comparison Tool to improve Veteran's experience by making educational options easier to find. The unlimited use of the Tableau software under the enterprise-wide perpetual software license is required to meet VA's rapidly growing demands. 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 upon extensive market research, as described in section eight of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for the brand name Tableau software license and associated maintenance and technical support as described in section three of this justification. VA's current business intelligence, data analysis, tabulation, and reporting infrastructure is based solely on existing Tableau Professional Desktop and Server software. VA requires the Tableau perpetual software license and maintenance and technical support as it meets all of VA's functional requirements and is also compatible with the existing infrastructure and functionality for continued operational availability. Specifically, Tableau is the only solution that meets all of VA's functional requirements for business intelligence, data analysis, tabulation, and reporting, and can seamlessly integrate and is interoperable with the current proprietary infrastructure. Other brand name solutions, as detailed in section eight of this justification, are not interoperable or compatible with the currently fielded Tableau brand name architecture components. For example, Tableau software is currently installed on a virtual server located at Austin Information Technology Center (AITC). The currently fielded virtual server, software, and associated application are all comprised of Tableau brand name software. These architecture components serve as a distribution hub for managing data connections of multiple users. Current VA users must be able to share information analyzed, tabulated and reported through use of the Tableau software. If another brand name software was utilized, it would not allow VA users to meet this critical requirement due to proprietary constraints. Specifically, another brand name software would not be able to communicate with the exisiting VA infrastructure due to the proprietary constraints. Tableau software application facilitates data analysis, tabulation, and reporting results to be published to a repository within the Tableau software host located within VA AITC. The currently fielded architecture, inclusive of the brand name software and associated applications, communicates through a proprietary source code that is based on Tableau proprietary data. No other software can provide this communication capability without the proprietary source code. Only Tableau brand name items can meet all of VA's functional requirements. Specifically, only Tableau software can meet VA's functional requirement for a tool that allows users to skip difficult, technically advanced steps and create a visual presentation quickly, while providing visual feedback of the data as the user performs his/her analysis. This is accomplished through Tableau's proprietary technology, called VizQL, which makes interactive data visualization an integral part of understanding the user's data. Other brand name business intelligence tools force users to analyze the data in rows, columns and choose a subset to present; organize the data into a table and create a chart from that table. Tableau's proprietary VizQL technology skips those steps and creates a visual presentation right away, while providing visual feedback of the data as the user analyzes it. Additionally, the software provides VA with the capability to make a connection to various data sources (e.g., data warehouses, flat files), pull the information into the Tableau application and conduct ad-hoc visual analysis. In addition, VA requires maintenance and technical support for the enterprise software licenses obtained under the enterprise license agreement. The required software maintenance and technical support must be compatible with the existing infrastructure protocols and functionality for continued use and operational availability of the software. Only Tableau or an authorized reseller has access to Tableau's proprietary source code to provide the required maintenance and technical support, which includes software maintenance, patches and updates. Access to this code is essential in ensuring the services provided are properly configured and all patches and updates and properly pushed through. Based upon the above information, only Tableau or an authorized reseller have the ability to meet VA's functional requirements. No other brand product is compatible with, or interoperable with, the existing Tableau proprietary structures, protocols, and software application programming interfaces. Failure to acquire compatible software licenses and maintenance would cause operational failure, putting VA's ability to collect, analyze and report data at risk. 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 functional requirements. It was determined, however, that limited competition is viable among authorized resellers for this brand name software and maintenance. 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. Additionally, in accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(2), this justification will be provided with the Request for Quotation to all NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, VA will continue to conduct market research to identify other software applications that are capable of creating visual displays with raw data. Should such products become available, VA will review and consider these products for future requirements. 8. Market Research: The Government's technical experts conducted market research in April 2016 by reviewing similar software products and services such as Cognos, Pyramid, and QlikView to ascertain if other products existed within the marketplace could meet VA's functional requirements. Based upon reviews of these products, the experts determined that none of these products can meet the Government's functionality, interoperability and compatibility requirements with the existing VA business intelligence, data analysis, tabulation and reporting architecture components discussed in section five above. The experts confirmed that the source code required to interface between the existing architecture components and issue software updates is proprietary. Additionally, on July 22, 2016, Tableau notified the Government that the source code was not for sale. No other solutions can seamlessly integrate into the current Tableau infrastructure, nor can they provide a tool that allows users to skip difficult, technically advanced steps and create a visual presentation quickly, while providing visual feedback of the data as the user performs his/her analysis. Additionally, as stated in section five above, only Tableau or an authorized reseller may provide the required software maintenance and technical support for the Tableau software. There is no other source that has the capability of developing and issuing software updates and fixes to the Tableau software necessary to support existing VA functionality and requirements. All of the products researched were unable to meet VA's functional requirements as the current business intelligence, data analysis, tabulation, and reporting infrastructure communicates through source code that is based on Tableau proprietary data. As such, the Government's technical experts have determined that only Tableau brand name enterprise-wide perpetual software license and maintenance and technical support can meet all of VA's needs. In June 2016, additional market research was conducted by the Technology Acquisition Center utilizing the NASA SEWP V GWAC Provider Lookup tool to ascertain the extent of limited competition among resellers. The results of the search found that there are 42 resellers of Tableau products that could possibly meet VA's needs. It was determined that there is adequate competition for the Tableau licenses and associated maintenance on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. 9. Other Facts: None.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/be089ebe7ce6e7931380df0fedc10143)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG15SD25B VA118-16-F-1449 NNG15SD25B VA118-16-F-1449_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3037594&FileName=NNG15SD25B-013.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3037594&FileName=NNG15SD25B-013.docx

 

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

Record

SN04296345-W 20161005/161003234526-be089ebe7ce6e7931380df0fedc10143 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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