D--2237 - Additional After Hours and Weekend Support

LIMITED SOURCE JUSTIFICATION FOR FEDERAL SUPPLY SCHEDULE ORDERS FAR 8.405-6(B)(1) 1. Contracting Activity Department of Veterans Affairs Center of Acquisition Innovation 1701 Directors Blvd. Suite 600 Austin, TX 78744 2. Nature of Action Being Approved: This justification and approval is for the acquisition of additional weekday and weekend database support and maintenance to be added to GS-35F-0250J / V0010A116E95270, via Edge Systems, LLC, 3S 721 W Ave, Ste 200, Warrenville, IL 60555. The anticipated additional contract cost is . This contract pricing falls under the GSA Scheduled # GS-35F-0250J. 3. Description of Service and Supplies and estimated costs: TIMS supports the processing and payment of Veterans Affairs Education benefits. TIMS was built to support over 3000 Education employees supporting the new G.I. Bill for post September 11, 2001 veterans. This acquisition will be for additional Database Administrator support and technical support for The Image Management System (TIMS) in option year one and for future options on VA task order number V0010A116E95270. The purchase will solidify the support for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) during second shift and weekends. The new support hours will be Monday to Friday 6am CST to 8pm CST and Saturday to Sunday 6am CST to 6pm CST. The VA has now started to hire more personnel to take on the second shift work load so the VA can control the influx of veteran's claims. The total estimated cost to add to the current contract is as follows: Option Year 1: Option Year 2: Option Year 3: Option Year 4: 4. Identification of the Justification Rationale: Edge Systems, LLC, using their IMEDGE product, developed TIMS, which is a mission critical business application that supports the processing and payment of Veterans Affairs Education benefits. Data contained in TIMS is the property of the VA. The Office of Field Operations (OFO) and Education staff that has been hired are required to use the TIMS application to access the information needed to continue to provide education benefits to our nation's veterans. However, EDGE software is the only means by which to access this data. The only personnel trained and authorized to manipulate the IMEDGE software are EDGE employees. If additional weekday and weekend support is not obtained, then claims processing will be affected, resulting in delayed benefit payments to veterans and dependents. 5. Best Value Determination: This procurement is for a fixed amount of pricing and labor hours per tasks specified in the statement of work. GSA has already determined the prices of supplies and fixed-price services, and rates for services offered at hourly rates, under schedule contracts to be fair and reasonable. Therefore, a separate determination of fair and reasonable pricing is not necessary, except for a price evaluation as required by FAR 8.405-2(d). By placing an order against a schedule contract using the procedures in 8.405, the VA contracting office has concluded that the order represents the best value (as defined in FAR 2.101) and results in the lowest overall cost alternative (considering price, special features, administrative costs, etc.) to meet the Government's needs. Although GSA has already negotiated fair and reasonable pricing, the VA contracting office will seek additional discounts before placing an order (see 8.405-4). 6. Description of Market Research: No efforts were made to solicit other offerors. The VA has developed a proprietary environment by allowing one contractor to do the work in support of TIMS using their proprietary software. The proposed vendor is available on GSA schedule. 7. Other Supporting Data: N/A 8. Future barriers to competition: The task order that this effort will modify is a follow-on contract for one year, with four 12-month option periods to provide continued maintenance support, until the replacement software system can be developed and deployed. The new software system is being developed with the proper contract clauses so that the VA will not be put into this type of non-competitive situation again.