SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- Compusearch Prism Support Services for OARM - RFI
- Notice Date
- 4/23/2012
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541519
— Other Computer Related Services
- Contracting Office
- Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Acquisition Management, EPA/Headquarters, 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., 3801R, Washington, District of Columbia, 20460
- ZIP Code
- 20460
- Solicitation Number
- EPA-EAS-FY12-1
- Archive Date
- 5/17/2012
- Point of Contact
- Brent Maravilla, Phone: 202-564-2184, Lottie Plater, Phone: 202-564-0163
- E-Mail Address
-
maravilla.brent@epa.gov, plater.lottie@epa.gov
(maravilla.brent@epa.gov, plater.lottie@epa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- RFI U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Request for Information No. EPA-EAS-FY12-1 Compusearch Prism Support Services for the Office of Administration and Resources Management, Office of Acquisition Management April 23, 2012 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is conducting market research for an upcoming procurement requirement and is developing its scope of work (SOW) and acquisition strategy for Operations and Maintenance and a Distant Learning Training Module for its Procurement Writing System (EAS). EAS is a Prism product currently supported by Compusearch Inc. This is a request for information for Commercial services in accordance with the FAR part 12 Commercial Items and 16.505 Fair Opportunity. This is a Request for Information (RFI) and not a Solicitation. No Proposals are requested by this announcement; all responses shall be solely in the form of information and materials. This Request for Information notice is for planning purposes only and does not obligate the Government to issue a solicitation or to award any task order or contract on the basis of this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be the sole responsibility of the contractor. All submissions will be treated as business confidential materials, become Government property, and will not be returned. Respondents will not be notified of the results of this request. Introduction The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Acquisition Management (OAM), under the supervision of the Director, Office of Acquisition Management, is responsible for acquisitions and the acquisition functions within the agency. In order to perform these functions, the EPA Acquisition System (EAS) Project replaced the EPA contract writing, purchasing and contract administration workflow with a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) system aligned with the Agency's enterprise architecture. The COTS product is PRISM, rebranded EAS, from the vendor Compusearch. The EPA Acquisition System (EAS) is in the EPA Enterprise Architecture transition plan and the target architecture. The EAS provides only essential business functions and has been designed to meet the OAM Information Resources Management (IRM) strategic vision. EPA has provided the contractor with the appropriate EPA IT Policies and Procedures. The EPA acquisition system is the starting point for many of the agency's financial transactions. EAS provides timely information to management and the financial system. 1. Overview of services this potential contract will support Under this effort, the successful contractor will provide the EPA with timely support for EAS operations and maintenance. The contractor shall support the EAS project as defined by the tasks below: • Project Management • Project Management • Quality Assurance/Quality Control • Technical Support Plan for yearly operations and maintenance • Operations and Maintenance Plan • Budget and Scheduling • Operations and Maintenance Support • Operations and Maintenance Procedures • Report on quality assurance and program metrics • Improvement efforts • New technology • FAR and EPAAR updates • PRISM Patches and Updates • Helpdesk Support • Staffing the Help Desk • User concerns • Document customer inquiries and helpdesk metrics • Trouble shooting • Issue resolution, including issues arising from interfacing applications, and upgrades/enhancements/patches • Answer requests from telephone inquiries, voice mail, and email • Training • Instructor - led training in DC. If the Long Distance Learning is completed in FY13, this will be removed. 2. Tasks Project Management Activities Contract Project Manager (CPM) is responsible for the operations and maintenance of EAS at the EPA and reports to the EPA EAS Program and Project Manager. The CPM's responsibilities include management and oversight of the Functional and Technical Managers to ensure that the entire team meets the milestones defined in the project schedule and provides the appropriate level of detail for any change requests. The CPM supports the needs of the EAS Project for the Office of Acquisition Management (OAM). The CPM shall provide any updates or information to EPA. The CPM should communicate any issues and/or concerns the EPA may have to Compusearch's senior executives when necessary. The CPM shall provide the following support and deliverables - • EAS Project oversight • Liaison support between EPA and Compusearch • Submit EAS monthly reports • Documentation support • Maintain the EAS resource plan • Provide contract management support • Provide oversight and guidance to the team including help desk support, integration with Compass, and operations and maintenance of EAS Quality Assurance / Quality Control Project Manager shall provide quality assurance /quality control support for EAS. Project Manager shall work closely with the EPA Program and Project Manager to ensure the quality of each requirement under the EAS project is being met. The contractor shall prepare for the documentation if we are audited. Standards and Certification of IT Device Attaching to the EPA Network Contract Project Managers (CPM) must ensure that any device being attached to the EPA network conform to the standards outlined in quarterly certification of IT devices. The details of these standards include: • Configuration of the IT device including EPA security policies, Password policies and approved Operating Systems. • Patching of IT devices must be completed and consistent with EPA standards. • Virus protection: Appropriate Anti-Virus programs running with automatic updates of virus pattern files. Standards for EPA Communications All communication between the EPA staff and the contractor personnel must be done using EPA Email accounts. Contractors have the choice of setting up the EPA email client on their IT device or having the EPA staff setup the EPA email client on a USB key that will be provided. EPA's email instant messaging function must be used by the contractor staff when on duty. EPA's email calendar functions must be used by the contractor for scheduling and providing documents to be used in meetings with EPA staff. Project Management - Technical The Project Manager shall provide the Operations and Maintenance Plan and the Technical Support Plan in order to ensure that they have the necessary resources to provide technical support for the operations and maintenance of EAS. A monthly technical management report, will be due to the COR within 7 days of the end of the preceding month. The report must address progress made on deliverables and highlight any significant events. A description of any significant events that caused a disruption in service, or that had the potential to cause a disruption in service, along with a description of remedial and/or preventive actions taken, must be included. Project Management - Budget The Project Manager shall forecast and provide a cost estimate, report on all actual monthly expenditures, and meet with the EPA Program and Project Manager once a week to make sure that spending stays within budget constraints. A monthly cost management report, showing costs by subtask and labor category, must be submitted to the COR within 7 days of the end of the preceding month. This report must depict the total costs expended during the month, the total costs expended for this effort from the inception of the work through the date of the report, and the anticipated amount of funding required for completing the change. Operations and Maintenance Support - Mandatory Provide technical and administrative support to maintain the EPA Acquisition System (EAS) application residing on OAM's network infrastructure. The OAM network infrastructure resides on servers located on mirrored sites in Potomac Yards, Virginia (PY) and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina (RTP). The production environment is regularly scheduled to switch between the mirrored sites in PY and RTP. The switching of production sites allows for regular testing of the failover procedures which may need to be executed during an emergency COOP situation. The EAS application is a PRISM application running on an Oracle Database residing on a SUSE Linux server with a Windows web server front end. Authentication to the EAS application uses the EPA's Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) authentication method. Performance Objectives: Maintenance of the EAS application includes, but is not limited to providing OAM the following: • Regular PRISM patches • PRISM COTs changes • FAR updates • EPAAR updates • Bug fixes as directed by OAM • System enhancements as directed by OAM's Change Control Board (CCB) Maintenance of the interfaces between EAS and other systems includes, but is not limited to the following: • OCFO's Compass Financial system • OCFO's Websphere application which serves as an interface between EAS and Compass • EPA's Central Contractor Registry (CCR) tables • U.S. General Services Administration's (GSA) Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE) government shared systems and its successor System for Award Management (SAM). These systems include, but are not limited to: o Federal Procurement Data Systems - Next Generation (FPDS-NG) o Fed Connect o Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) o Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) o Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) o Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) Access to the EAS web-based application via EPA supported browsers, from all EPA locations. Remote access to EAS web-based application via EPA supported browsers and EPA supported remote access methods. Uninterrupted availability of EAS application and it's interconnected systems. Helpdesk Support - Mandatory Background and Metrics: The EAS Help Desk consists of contractor and EPA staff. Support is managed through a phone system with a ring order. Technicians log into the system to begin receiving calls; they can also set a break or allow time to wrap up a call without logging out of the system. These statistics can be captured. There is also a web-based ticketing system where all calls are recorded. The ticketing system has a robust knowledgebase where many Standard Operating Procedures are stored. The EAS help desk currently handles approximately 1500 help tickets per month and supports 5000+ users from all 10 regions of the EPA. It is open from 8AM until 6 PM (EST) daily and coverage must be available to keep wait times under 3 minutes and to ensure that 80% of the calls are answered by a person and not sent to voice mail. Currently the Help Desk fields a maximum of 4 persons at the height of the call period. In the final month of the fiscal year, some weekend hours may be required. All tickets must be moved from "New" to "In Progress" within 24 hours. Ongoing issues must be updated weekly. Tickets that are resolved on the first call must contain both the issue and the solution. Tasks: During this period of performance the contractor shall provide personnel to support the EAS Help Desk, including level 1 and level 2 technicians, and a team lead. The team shall work in conjunction with the EPA applications team and under the guidance of the EPA Help Desk manager. The Help Desk personnel shall be located in EPA Headquarters at the Ronald Reagan Building. Contractor personnel shall: • Staff the phone tree as the first line of support, taking calls and monitoring voice mail • Create tickets in the on-line ticketing system, provide full detail, and assign them as mandated by the EPA • Resolve issues as assigned by the help tickets • Work with the application vendor to raise, monitor and resolve level 3 issues • Work with the support team for the Office of Comptroller Financial Operations to analyze and track issues caused by the financial interface. • Guidelines in the Help Desk Manual shall be adhered to. • A weekly meeting shall be held with both teams to discuss issues, resolve persistent problems, and share learning. • Attend other meetings as requested • Review and create documentation as it pertains to the help desk and/or users • Provide general PRISM support. Personnel Requirements: All contractor personnel shall have a strong customer support background and have the ability to remain pleasant under stress. In addition, all contractor personnel shall be extremely attentive to details. Experience requirements Level 1: The contractor employee shall have one year of experience with PRISM 6x. Also, the contractor employee will be familiar with changes to PRISM 7. The employee shall have the ability to solve basic application issues to include, but not be limited to, routing, roles, requisitions, solicitations, and basic contracts. The contractor employee shall also have the ability to analyze and create documentation for users. Level 2: The contractor employee shall have the same experience as a Level 1employee. In addition, the contractor employee shall have experience with interfaces between PRISM and a financial system (preferably Compass). They shall also have the ability to solve problems by analyzing the interworking of financial data as is available in FPDS, EPA financial data warehouse, and PRISM. They shall be able to identify and understand PIDs, DCNs, Line Item Ids and how they are contained in PRISM. The contractor employee shall have an understanding of the procurement life cycle process and how this is managed within PRISM, including de-obligations, account information, and synopsis. Level 3/Team Lead: The contractor employee shall have the same experience as a Level 2 employee. In addition, the employee shall have experience in working with a team; in mentoring team members and monitoring systems. The employee shall be capable of raising issues to the Level 3. The contractor employee shall work with Compusearch, PRISM's vendor and/or Office of Comptroller Financial Operations. Training Support - Optional Task The contractor shall conduct PRISM training appropriate to the EPA business processes for Contracting Officers. This training will be in either 6 (.asp) or 7 (.net), depending on the EPA PRISM instance currently in production at the time of the training. Content: EPA requires training be made available to all new contracting officers and those who want a refresher on a quarterly basis. Typically this training lasts four days and includes the following PRISM areas: 1. Getting Started 2. Creating a Requisition 3. Creating a Milestone Plan 4. Creating a Solicitation - Contracts and Simplified Acquisitions 5. Creating a Multiple Award Setup 6. Creating a Contract 7. Creating a Purchase Order 8. Creating a Purchase Card Order 9. Creating a Delivery Order/Task Order 10. Creating a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) and a BPA Call Order 11. Work Assignments / Work Plan Approvals 12. Requisitions for Modifications 13. Close-out 14. Reports 3. Transition Support Incoming Transition - Mandatory In accordance with this task order, the Contractor shall provide a draft Incoming Transition Plan five business days after contract award for incoming transition. The Contractor shall coordinate with the Government in planning and implementing a complete transition to the Contractor's support model. The Contractor shall collaborate with the Government to develop and deliver an Incoming Transition Plan. The government shall also designate a transition period for the incoming Contractor to coordinate and work with the incumbent Contractor. This transition plan shall include, but is not limited to: • Availability of Key Resources • Timelines/Milestones • Coordination with Government representatives • Review, evaluation and transition of current support services • Transition of historic data to new Contractor system • Government- approved training and certification process • Transfer of hardware warranties and software licenses (if applicable) • Transfer of all necessary business and/or technical documentation • Transfer of compiled and un-compiled source code, to include all versions, maintenance updates and patches ( if applicable) • Orientation phase and program to introduce Government personnel, programs, and users to the Contractor's team, tools, methodologies, and business processes • Distribution of Contractor purchased Government owned assets, including facilities, equipment, furniture, phone lines, computer equipment, etc. • Transfer of Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) and Government Furnished Information (GFI) (if applicable) • Documentation and Inventory • Applicable EPA briefing and personnel in - processing procedures • Comprehensive Security Plan • CBI and Chain of Custody Issues The contractor shall attend a kick-off conference meeting at the EPA headquarters offices in Washington, DC within 10 business days of contract award. Outgoing Transition - Mandatory In accordance with this task order, the Contractor shall provide a plan for 120 days of outgoing transition for transitioning work from an active task order to a follow-on contract/order or Government entity. This transition may be to a Government entity, another Contractor or to the incumbent Contractor under a new contract/order. In accordance with the Government-approved plan, the Contractor shall assist the Government in planning and implementing a complete transition from this order to a successor provider. This shall include formal coordination with Government staff and success staff and management. It shall also include delivery of copies of existing policies and procedures, and delivery of required metrics and statistics. This transition plan shall include, but is not limited to: • Coordination with Government representatives • Review, evaluation and transition of current support services • Transition of historic data to new Contractor system 4. Subscription For Level III Support that is unable to be resolved by the Contractor due to Compusearch PRISM-specific upgrades (software patches, etc.), the Contractor shall coordinate with Compusearch PRISM until the issue is resolved. 5. Place of Performance All components directly involved in this business solution will be maintained at the EPA in Washington D.C. 6. Operational Hours Operational business hours are: 8 am - 6 pm Eastern Time, Monday through Friday, except for Federal holidays. In the final month of the fiscal year, some weekend hours may be required. 7. Submission Requirements Interested Contractors responding to this RFI will be required to submit documentation to fulfill the requirements that are stipulated below. Please answer all questions fully and to the best of your ability. The Government will use this information to develop its procurement strategy for these services: • Submit a brief description of your approach to meeting the requirements described above. Limit narrative responses to 2 pages. • Provide "demonstrated" past performance experience and history in completing similar requirements during the past three years. Limit narrative responses to 2 pages. • Submit a description of expertise in key technical and capability areas for this type of service. Limit narrative responses to 2 pages. • Respondents may provide any other information relevant to the scope mentioned within this Request for Information for review. Limit narrative responses in total will be no longer than to 8 pages. Respondents should be aware that: • The government reserves the rights to contact the sources for verification of information provided as a response to this RFI and cancelled the request. • The government reserves the rights to cancel the request in its entirety at any time after the RFI notice closes. • No additional information or date(s) for information concerning this RFI is anticipated. All interested parties who believe they can provide the above mentioned information are invited to submit in writing, by the closing date referenced below, a package entitled "Statement of Qualifications/Capabilities Statement," which must include the contractor's indication of their ability to fulfill the requirements outlined in this Section 2. The Statement of Qualifications/Capabilities Statement package must be transmitted under a cover letter. The Cover Letter must cite the following information, at a minimum: 1) Response to RFI No. EPA-EAS-FY12-1. 2) Provide your Company's Name, Address, Contact Person Information 3) Provide your DUNS Number; and Tax ID. 4) What is your Business Size Standard/Classification, and socio-economic status? 5) What are your applicable NAICS codes for this requirement? 6) Do you have an active GSA Schedule? If so, what is the period of performance? Do you have any other Government Contracts such as a GWAC? If so, what is the Contract name and number and what is your socio-economic status under that vehicle? 7) Do you have the ability to perform (a) as a sub-contractor or in a teaming arrangement, or (b) as a prime contractor for this type of work? 8) How familiar/what is your experience with Compusearch PRISM? 9) Have you worked with Compusearch Inc. the past? 10) Do you have the ability to acquire and supply Compusearch's PRISM subscription service to the US EPA? Will this be done as the prime, subcontractor or teaming arrangement? 11) What is your estimate of cost for these services? (both with and without supplying Compusearch PRISM subscription service)? 12) What is your experience developing training modules and leading training courses? 13) What is your experience developing solutions (e.g. training modules) which are 508 compliant? The Environmental Protection Agency is particularly interested in receiving responses from Small Businesses, Women-Owned Businesses, Service Disable Veteran Owned Businesses and 8(a) Small Disadvantaged Businesses. Please indicate on your response your firm's business type. Other Information and/or Responses to this RFI follow: • This scope of this requirement was previously awarded under contract EP-W-07-100; however, the contract also included the Compusearch PRISM software solution. • Questions and/or concerns regarding this RFI shall be submitted by either telephone call or e-mail and only to the following individuals no later than 12:00 noon, Eastern Standard Time (E.S.T.) May 1, 2012: Lottie Plater Brent Maravilla (202) 564-0163 (202) 564-2184 Plater.Lottie@epa.gov Maravilla.Brent@epa.gov Any questions received after 12:00 noon, Eastern Standard Time (E.S.T.) May 1, 2012 will not be entertained. • No hardcopy responses shall be accepted. • No information can be provided concerning the RFI request after the above closing date. The responses are requested merely to determine the requirement type of solicitation, business size requirement, and competition, if applicable. The evaluation and analysis of responses received will be determined by the US EPA program office to reject or request competition. An anticipated date is unknown until a decision is made concerning the evaluation and analysis report is reviewed and approved by additional other internal federal sources. • The closing date for RFI responses is May 2, 2012 no later than 4 PM E.S.T. RFI responses shall be submitted via email to Plater.Lottie@epa.gov and Maravilla.Brent@epa.gov. The government reserves the right to compete any acquisition resulting from this survey among certain business size or may propose award to a business and size base on regulations, the requirements, responses, including set aside to small business or to make award to an 8(a) firm based on the responses received, if applicable. This Request for Information notice is for planning purposes only and does not commit the Government to pay for the information requested, issue a solicitation, or award a contract. No solicitation document exists at this time.
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