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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 24, 2017 FBO #5784
DOCUMENT

D -- FY18- Bull SW Maintenance (10/1) - Attachment

Notice Date

9/22/2017
 

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

VA11817Q2218
 

Archive Date

11/21/2017
 

Point of Contact

Joseph.Pignataro@va.gov
 

E-Mail Address

joseph.pignataro@va.gov
(joseph.pignataro@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SC17B VA118-18-F-2249
 

Award Date

9/22/2017
 

Awardee

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

Award Amount

$778,347.84
 

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 for the 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 Bull software maintenance for the current Bull software utilized on VA s 68 Bull NovaScale Enterprise Servers and VTS for the Office of Information and Technology (OI&T), Service Delivery and Engineering (SDE), Infrastructure Operations (IO). 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 minor software upgrades, bug fixes, and updates to include 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, 2017 through September 30, 2018. 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 Above: 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 with Atos as the sole authorized reseller of Bull hardware and software and associated maintenance and support services. Atos does not do business directly with the Government and authorizes Merlin to act as its sole reseller. The currently installed Bull software is proprietary to Bull, therefore, only Merlin, as Bull s only authorized reseller, can provide the requisite software maintenance as no other vendor has the ability or data rights to access the software source code in order to develop and push software updates, patches, or provide technical support on its products. Thus, only Bull software maintenance can meet the Government s requirements. Specifically, if any other source was to provide these maintenance 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. Access to the proprietary source code is critical to meet the VA s need to maintain the current Bull software as operational. Specifically, without access to this code, a source would not be able to push upgrades through to the currently fielded software due to the proprietary constraints. 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 May 2017 to ascertain the ability of other similar software maintenance providers 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 IO s requirements. Specifically, the Government s technical experts reviewed similar products and support services from companies and organizations including Dell, International Business Machines (IBM), and Oracle. Although Dell, IBM, and Oracle have similar software products, they do not and cannot perform maintenance services on Bull software because none of these companies have access to the existing Bull proprietary source code, which is necessary to maintain the software as operational. The technical experts confirmed that since the source code required to perform the required software maintenance and issue the updates and releases is proprietary, Merlin, the exclusive maintenance provider for Bull software, is the only source capable of providing the required maintenance updates and releases for the existing Bull software. No other source has the capability of developing and issuing software updates and fixes for Bull software necessary to support existing IO requirements. 9. Other Facts: None
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/c5736b3b672b74f4519ca9710a73edf6)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG15SC17B VA118-18-F-2249 NNG15SC17B VA118-18-F-2249_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3811331&FileName=NNG15SC17B-008.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=3811331&FileName=NNG15SC17B-008.docx

 

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

Record

SN04691560-W 20170924/170922232111-c5736b3b672b74f4519ca9710a73edf6 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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