JUSTIFICIATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION 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 contract, issued on a sole source basis for brand name RS Means construction cost estimating software and maintenance from RS Means Company, LLC located at 1099 Hingham Street, Suite 201, Rockland, MA 02370. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Office of Information and Technology, Service Delivery and Engineering, Field Operations Region 6, in support of the Center for Engineering and Occupational Safety and Health (CEOSH), has a requirement for the renewal and continued support of the RS Means construction cost estimating software that is currently operating on VA servers behind the VA firewall. CEOSH will also be expanding the number of user licenses during the period of performance. The software shall be capable of serving up to 1,350 unique VA users throughout the course of the contract. The software must be updated to operate on future versions of Internet Explorer (IE) when VA updates software on user desktops and laptops during the contract period and also be backward compatible with prior versions of IE. The required subscription software is a commercial off the shelf service and available to the general public. The maintenance includes routine on-line quarterly updates and any problems in the software if not working correctly. The period of performance shall be 12 months followed by three 12-month option periods. 4. Authority: The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1) as implemented by the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1 entitled, "Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements." 5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: As detailed in section 8 below, RS Mean is the only software that meets the required functions and features for CEOSH. No cost estimating software other than RS Means has the performance and capability to provide the vast amounts of material and labor data required by VA for specific geographic regions throughout the world. The software is required to perform key functions, such as allowing user access through single sign-on capability; save and retrieve of current and past estimates on-line in a secure environment; allowing for estimates to be converted to Excel format, producing estimates that are easily copied, printing and email functionality within the software; and providing the ability to estimate unit price, editable/custom assemblies, editable/ custom square foot models, along with user defined cost data. There is no other brand of software that can meet all of these requirements. Additionally, RS Means software is currently fielded throughout VA and has already provided its construction estimators with training on how to use this software. If another product was available that could meet all of the requirements, there would be a steep learning curve for the users to gain familiarity with another software product that would be counterproductive compared to use of the existing software and result in duplication of cost of RS Mean software in which VA has already invested. The current trained and productive personnel would have to be educated and retrained on another product; which would create an undue and unnecessary disruption to productivity. In addition, other VA facilities use RS Means for their cost estimating which allows for compatibility between those offices and the estimates derived from CEOSH. RS Means Company, LLC. is the sole source provider of the database licenses and maintenance. 6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government's requirements. There is no competition anticipated for this acquisition. The proposed action described herein will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities Page in accordance with FAR 5.201. Any proposals received in response to the solicitation will be considered. 7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, VA will perform additional market research so that other construction estimating software solutions can be considered. 8. Market Research: In November 2015, the Government's technical experts conducted market research. The market research included a thorough review of various websites and discussions with other VA facilities to ascertain if there are other similar construction estimating software products that can meet VA's requirements. Specifically, VA technical experts researched software such as Xactimate, Turboid, Proest Soft, Viewpoint, and Corecon V7. None of the software packages meet all of VA's functional needs. Specifically, only RS Means provides regional cost information that is automatically updated throughout the year, with instant access to labor, material and equipment costs from RS Means' comprehensive database. Based on this market research, it was determined that only RS Means software can meet all of the Government's requirements. Further market research revealed that only RS Means Company LLC sells the RS Means On-line version of the software. Two other resellers of RS Mean's products (4Clicks-Solutions, LLC and Amergreen, Inc.) were identified on the General Services Administration Information Technology 70 Federal Supply Schedule, but neither has the exclusive rights and permission from RS Means Company, LLC to sell the online version of RS Means cost estimating software required by VA to securely operate behind firewalls. 9. Other Facts: None.
