SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- Cyber Security Innovation (VA-20-00046323)
- Notice Date
- 7/13/2020 11:30:13 AM
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541512
— Computer Systems Design Services
- Contracting Office
- TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION CENTER NJ (36C10B) EATONTOWN NJ 07724 USA
- ZIP Code
- 07724
- Solicitation Number
- 36C10B20Q0446
- Response Due
- 7/21/2020 7:00:00 AM
- Archive Date
- 09/19/2020
- Point of Contact
- Eric.Raps@va.gov, Contract Specialist Eric Raps, 732-795-1076,, Phone: Contract Officer Kevin Monahan, 732-440-9695,, Fax: Kevin.Monahan@va.gov
- E-Mail Address
-
Eric.Raps@va.gov
(Eric.Raps@va.gov)
- Awardee
- null
- Description
- 2 Request for Information Cybersecurity Innovation Program (CIP) Introduction: This is a Request for Information (RFI) only issued for the purpose of conducting market research. Accordingly, this RFI constitutes neither a Request for Proposal nor a guarantee that one will be issued by the Government in the future; furthermore, it does not commit the Government to contract for any services described herein. Do not submit a Proposal. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this request. The Government does not reimburse respondents for any costs associated with submission of the information being requested or reimburse expenses incurred for responses to this RFI. The information provided may be used by VA in developing its acquisition strategy and Performance Work Statement. Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary; however, any information received shall become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the respondent. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. This is an RFI and does not obligate the Government in any way, nor does it commit the Government to any specific course of action. Please provide responses to the questions below and any additional comments or information to clearly identify the capabilities of your suggested solution. Partial responses are not acceptable. The Government is seeking as much information as possible and a complete response to this RFI during this market research activity. Background: VA is seeking a Contractor who is a managed service provider, who can provide an independent curation of emerging technologies and solutions that can be rapidly configured or implemented by VA to mitigate cybersecurity risks. The contractor needs to have a demonstrated, in house experience and capability to continually scan the cybersecurity marketplace to compile technology capabilities that may be beneficial to VA, as well as to flag technologies that may pose potential risk, such as dependency on unfavorable nation states. They must demonstrate that they possess the in-house experience and capabilities to identify, incubate, and recommend innovative and disruptive cyber technology investments that VA may make to accomplish its mission to protect Veteran data against malicious cyber adversaries. as well as to focus the investments on technologies that are likely to have a beneficial impact on IT security controls, and thus VA s ongoing material weakness. Therefore, the contractor must also have in depth exposure to, and experience with, working with IT security controls that would apply to remediating existing, and preventing future, OIG findings. To accomplish this, OIS needs the support of a managed service provider with demonstrated in-house capabilities and expertise in identifying, incubating, and exploiting emerging cyber security trends and technologies, through both horizon scanning/technology scouting and through the ability to quickly activate a reputable network of domestic and global vendors and thought leaders. VA recognizes that a successful innovation program requires a combination of authoritative thought leadership, deep experience, complex analysis, global business relationships, and knowledge management technologies. As a result, VA seeks a contractor that unites people, processes, and technologies into a demonstrated managed service capable of identifying, incubating, and delivering innovative cyber solutions within a large, integrated Federal healthcare organization. For horizon scanning and tech scouting, VA is seeking a managed innovation service that has ontology-driven, technology sensing and horizon scanning solutions available on day one with the following demonstrated capabilities: Natural language processing and machine learning based on standard Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to perform the following tasks: keyword extraction and classification, concept and document relevancy scoring, and document deduplication and clustering; Ability to recognize impactful and disruptive trends by tracking emerging technologies and thought leaders across the ecosystem of startups and venture capital investments; Ability to analyze multiple decades of US and global patent data, both filed and approved; Ability to ingest, correlate, and aggregate numerous open source and commercial data sources from diverse and reputable modalities, including news, intellectual property, and technical reports; Ability to access academic and industrial reports, articles, and other artifacts from leading global organizations. For ecosystem activation, VA is seeking a managed innovation service with the following capabilities: Strong existing alliances and relationships within the Silicon Valley and other Innovation Hubs communities; Experience with incubation of cyber technology startups with innovative solutions close to the edge ; Local partnerships within the Greater Washington Area who may be easily accessible partners and vendors ; Partnerships with academic, non-profit, government, and research institutions focused on developing and advocating for innovative cyber solutions; and International partnerships that may influence or seed best practices piloted abroad within the VA IT environment. The contractor shall be required to sign an OCI plan which will prevent them and their subcontractors from competing or participating in deployment contracts for technologies or solutions identified via the Cybersecurity Innovation Program. Response(s): Please submit the below requested information by 10:00AM EST on July 21, 2020 via email to Eric Raps, Contract Specialist, at Eric.Raps@va.gov and Kevin Monahan, Contracting Officer, at Kevin.Monahan@va.gov. VA reserves the right to respond to any, all, or select respondents. All VA current requirements identified herein are subject to change at any time. If you experience any problems or have any questions concerning this announcement, please contact Eric Raps at 732-795-1076, or Kevin Monahan at 732-440-9695. VA appreciates your time and anticipated response. As part of your RFI response, please provide the following information: General Company Information Include the following identification information Company Name CAGE/DUNS Number under which the company is registered in SAM/VetBiz.gov Company Address Point of contact name Telephone number Email address VA anticipates that this effort would fall within the following North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code: 541512 Computer Systems Design Services, which has a size standard of $27.5M. If you believe there is a more appropriate NAICS code, please provide that to the Government with your rationale. List any Federal contracts in which you are a prime contract holder, for example: GSA, NASA SEWP, CIO-SP3, and T4NG. If a small business, what type of small business are you? Are you able to comply with FAR 52.219-6 and 52.219-14 in execution of this effort? Are you able to comply with VAAR 852.219-10, VA Notice of Total Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Set-Aside and with subcontracting limitations in 13 CFR 125.6 in execution of this effort? Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude estimate in terms of Level of Effort (LOE) for each Task for a base period of 12 months, with four (4) 12-month option periods to include all optional tasks. Capability Statement Submit a capability statement of your company s ability and understanding to provide the requirement in the attached DRAFT PWS. In addition to the capability statement, please address the questions below separately. For each of the questions, if the answer is yes, please also provide a description and specific narrative describing the occurrence in which your organization has demonstrated this capability. Include the place of performance, name of the Federal Government agency and contact information of the Federal program manager for that agency. If the occurrence was for a commercial customer, in addition to the narrative, please include the place of performance, name of the company and contact information of the program manager for the company. Please provide a brief summary description and specific narrative describing each of the currently employed and credentialed staff and their capabilities available today in your company with the requisite expertise described in the question including their labor category, years of experience performing those duties, and the number of staff who have that capability. The overall corporate capability statement shall not exceed two (2) pages. Each narrative responding to the questions shall be no more than one (1) page except for Question 8 which shall not exceed three (3) pages. Do you have a demonstrable, automated, and scalable managed service with a technical capability to perform technology sensing and horizon scanning of innovative technologies using high-pedigree data sources, such as US and/or international patents; reputable trade news sources; and academic and technical publications? If yes, please describe the algorithms (e.g. AI) and technology platform (e.g. cloud) used to implement the technical component of your managed service? Has your organization developed innovation strategies that were actionable, measurable, and transformational for large commercial and/or Federal organizations with a focus on IT modernization and cyber security? Has your organization conceived, designed, developed, deployed, and monitored innovative cybersecurity and AI technology capabilities as a managed service? Has your organization assisted in the development of IT and/or cybersecurity policies with a resiliency to changes in technology? Does your organization have existing relationships and partnerships with established innovation organizations in industry, academia, government, and non-profits with a national/global reach? Does your organization have active relationships with technology companies and incubators in major innovation hubs, including Silicon Valley and the Greater Washington DC area? Does your organization have active demonstrable experience with the incubation of innovative startups in emerging high technology areas, including AI, cybersecurity, blockchain, and cloud security? Does your organization have a team of subject matter experts with demonstrable experience and credentials in the following domains? If so, please describe experience, educational degrees, professional credentials, and types of clients supported. Consolidate by Labor Category (e.g. Program Analyst, Data Scientist, etc.). Innovation strategy development aligned with areas of VA s cybersecurity and privacy mission Technology transition from innovative technology companies and research laboratories into actively deployed solutions Innovation advisory and guidance aligned with Federal and public sector organizations Emerging technology discovery, development, use case identification, deployment, and impact assessment in cybersecurity, AI, blockchain, and cloud services Federal program management and assessment, especially in cybersecurity, privacy, and risk management Has your organization developed a framework (e.g., NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF)) for an organization of similar size and complexity to that of the VA (or at the VA)? Has your organization actively managed a cybersecurity framework program based on the NIST RMF for a large, integrated healthcare Federal organization? Has your organization provided project management support for multi-year cybersecurity and privacy programs with dozens of complex cybersecurity projects for an organization of similar size and complexity of the VA (or at the VA)? Has your organization built and executed against a robust outreach strategy (i.e., encompassing multiple initiatives in support of the organization s cybersecurity strategy) with a measurable impact on the organization s cybersecurity strategy and implementation for an organization of similar size and complexity to that of the VA (or at the VA)? Has your organization assisted a client of similar size and complexity to that of the VA (or at the VA) in maintaining, updating and aligning cybersecurity documentation, based upon government-wide guidance such as OMB 16-04 and the NIST Cyber Security Framework? Has your organization provided project management support for an organization of similar size and complexity of VA (or at the VA) wherein the Office of Inspector General (OIG) has provided year over year recurring recommendations in information security? Has your organization developed an executive-level reporting process, mechanism and infrastructure (i.e., dashboards) that provide both high level and granular information views on an organization s cybersecurity posture on a recurring basis that is of similar size and complexity of the VA (or at the VA)? If so, please include in your narrative a description of the processes and of the technology platform. Please acknowledge that if you are selected as the contractor, you will be willing to sign and be bound by an OCI plan which will preclude you and your subcontractors from competing or participating in deployment contracts within the VA for technologies or solutions identified via the Cybersecurity Innovation Program (CIP). Has the draft PWS provided sufficient detail to describe the technical requirements that encompass the CIP managed services to be performed under this effort. If NO , please provide your technical comments/recommendations on elements of the draft PWS that may contribute to a more accurate proposal submission and efficient, cost effective effort.
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
(https://beta.sam.gov/opp/45b3effc6a8c4c4eb1b50a2194902f6b/view)
- Record
- SN05719573-F 20200715/200713230153 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
SAM.gov Link to This Notice
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