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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF AUGUST 24, 2016 FBO #5388
DOCUMENT

70 -- TAC-16-35487 _Community Care (CC) Virtru Pro Secure Email Implementation - Attachment

Notice Date

8/22/2016
 

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

VA11816Q1194
 

Archive Date

11/19/2016
 

Point of Contact

Jessica.Adamitis@va.gov
 

E-Mail Address

jessica.adamitis@va.gov
(jessica.adamitis@va.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Award Number

NNG15SD26B VA118-16-F-1288
 

Award Date

8/12/2016
 

Awardee

THUNDERCAT TECHNOLOGY, LLC;1925 ISAAC NEWTON SQ STE 180;RESTON;VA;20190
 

Award Amount

$147,532.06
 

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: This proposed action is for a firm-fixed-price Delivery Order (DO) to be issued under the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Solutions for Enterprise-Wide Procurement (SEWP) V Government Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for Virtru Pro Secure Email Service software licenses and support services. 3. Description of the Supplies or Services: VA, Veterans Health Administration (VHA) requires the acquisition of Virtru Pro Secure Email Service software solution which includes 5,000 Virtru Email Encryption VA user software licenses which is inclusive of software support services. There are application components of the Secure Email Service software that include Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) data loss prevention, and Bulk Decrypt - eDelivery Tool and Secure Email Gateway which shall provide the secure email capability required for VA programs such as the Community Care Program (CCP) and the Homelessness Program. CCP is an ongoing effort to consolidate and streamline both overhead and management internally; and to improve Veterans' access to and understanding of the VA-sponsored care available to them. The Virtru Pro Secure Email Service software provides VA users the ability to encrypt email from a user's email application (e.g. Outlook) and securely deliver it to arbitrary recipients utilizing multiple commercially available email applications. After registering an account with Virtru, which does not require the purchase of any additional application or software, recipients are able to read and securely respond to email from their native email application (e.g. Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail). This capability is critical to facilitate the sharing of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI) between Veterans Affairs and non-VA Community Care providers. The Virtru Pro Secure Email Service software is inclusive of software support, which includes telephone and email support, updates, patches and defect support for one year including software support coverage to repair or replace system components that restores full operation and accessibility within 48 hours. All items shall be delivered within 30 days after receipt of order. The period of performance shall be for 12 months from Government acceptance of delivery with two 12-month option periods. The Contractor shall support the initial purchase of 5000 users throughout the life of the DO. Additionally, VHA requires optional tasks to increase the Virtru Email Encryption software licenses for supported VA users incrementally to up to an additional 40,000 users throughout the life of the DO. VHA requires this option for additional VA users in order to meet potential future expansion of both the CCP and Homelessness Program over the period of performance which will allow for VHA to determine the need for an Enterprise License and future procurement requirements. The total number of users shall not exceed 45,000 throughout the life of the DO. The PoP if the optional tasks are exercised will not exceed 36 months. 4. Statutory Authority: The statutory authority permitting this exception to fair opportunity is Section 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: Based on market research, as described in section 8 of this justification, it was determined that limited competition is available for this procurement. It is imperative that VA's email encryption solution allow for this integration since community partners could be utilizing any commercially available email service while requiring access via multiple website browsers. VA has specific functional requirements that must be met in providing a secure solution to exchange PHI and PII with non-VA Community Care providers. The Government requires a solution that allows messages to be secure from end-to-end from the point in which the message is in draft form through its delivery to the final recipient destination. Also, the Government requires a solution that provides extensive security control over messaging that allows users to revoke access to email content at any time, include before or after the email is opened and read. Only Virtru's Secure Email Service software secures messages within the sender's and recipient's inbox, encrypting Veteran PII/PHI information when messages are in draft form reducing the risk of lost sensitive information as it is exchanged electronically with Community Care providers. Also, only Virtru's unique key structure allows for the sender to revoke access to individual recipients of individual messages, even when the message is sent to a group. As such, Virtru's per-message/per-sender/per-recipient key structure ensures only the intended recipient receives Veteran PHI/PII data. These are all critical VA functional requirements for software. Also, only Virtru can meet all the Government's requirements for a software solution that includes an email encryption solution capable of seamlessly integrating with commercially used e-mail systems (Outlook, Gmail, and Yahoo). Virtru Pro Secure Email Service provides secure messaging capability within existing VA and non-VA provider email systems ensuring Community Care providers are able to use email encryption without having to obtain a VA email account. As such, Virtru's unique capability increases the accessibility of secure email with all Veteran providers, allowing VA to provide efficient service to Veterans and their Community Care providers. Additionally, only Virtru and authorized resellers of Virtru products can provide Virtru software support. Virtru's software coding is proprietary in nature and is not released to any other party. Furthermore, Virtru software support will ensure that all support services performed are properly configured to the Virtru software. Virtru and its authorized resellers are the only software providers that are able to provide software support to the Virtru Pro Secure Email Service software licenses. 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. 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), the resultant award announcement will be publicized and the justification will be made publicly available on the Federal Business Opportunities Page within 14 days of award of the order. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all contract holders on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. 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 conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed. Specifically, the Government's technical experts will continue to research email encryption software and services to determine their ability to meet the Government's requirements in providing a secure solution to exchange PHI and PII with Community Care providers. 8. Market Research: Market research was conducted from March 2016 through May 2016 by Government technical experts via websites of similar email service and software solution providers, including Citrix Systems, AppRiver and DataMotion, to ascertain if these sources are capable of meeting the Government's requirements. In addition, market research was conducted by members of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as recent as February 2016 in which trial licenses were downloaded from similar email service and software solutions including Hewlett Packard Enterprise SecureMail Cloud solution (formerly known as Voltage), Zix Corporation Email Encryption, DataMotion Email Encryption, AppRiver CipherPost Pro, Citrix ShareFile and Virtru to test for applicability to VA requirements. Additionally, from February 2016 to May 2016 demonstrations by various product vendors were coordinated through VA Program Manager and conducted with over 100 VHA and OI&T members throughout VA. All feedback ascertained through VHA and OI&T members and product demonstrations corroborated the technical experts' findings that Virtru was the only software that could meet the Government's existing requirements in providing a secure solution to exchange PHI and PII with Community Care providers to include the capability to integrate with commercially used email applications. It is imperative that VA's email encryption solution allows for this integration since community partners could be utilizing any commercially available email service while requiring access via multiple website browsers. The Government also determined that these similar solutions provide secure messaging that is only done at the point of transmission which results in Veteran PII/PHI being unencrypted while the message is in draft form. Finally, none of these similar solutions provided revocation functions that allow users to revoke access to individual recipients of individual messages, even when the message is sent to a group on a key-structured granular level. Based upon the above, only Virtru Pro Secure Email Service solution is capable of meeting all the Government's requirements. Furthermore, based on the market research conducted by the Government's technical experts, it has been determined that no other software support providers have access to the proprietary data required to provide the necessary software support. On June 3, 2016 a Request for Information (RFI) was issued to NASA SEWP Groups B, C, and D to determine the availability of resellers of the required Virtru software solution. The RFI closed on June 13, 2016 with a total of one response. Additional market research was conducted during June 2016 by directly contacting NASA SEWP V GWAC contract holders to determine reseller availability, which resulted in an additional response from one Group B2 Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business contract holder offering Virtru brand name products; however, the NASA SEWP V GWAC 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 has been found to be within scope of the NASA SEWP V GWAC in a separate determination. 9. Other Facts: None
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/notices/55c5587fafbdb432c0441ffcb587ba68)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: NNG15SD26B VA118-16-F-1288 NNG15SD26B VA118-16-F-1288_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2957692&FileName=NNG15SD26B-045.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=2957692&FileName=NNG15SD26B-045.docx

 

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

Record

SN04235689-W 20160824/160823000110-55c5587fafbdb432c0441ffcb587ba68 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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