SOURCES SOUGHT
70 -- VetLink Support VASD
- Notice Date
- 12/6/2023 1:41:00 PM
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541519
— Other Computer Related Services
- Contracting Office
- 262-NETWORK CONTRACT OFFICE 22 (36C262) Gilbert AZ 85297 USA
- ZIP Code
- 85297
- Solicitation Number
- 36C26224Q0318
- Response Due
- 12/13/2023 10:00:00 AM
- Archive Date
- 01/12/2024
- Point of Contact
- Peter Kim, Supply 4 Chief, Phone: (562) 766-2203
- E-Mail Address
-
peter.kim33@va.gov
(peter.kim33@va.gov)
- Awardee
- null
- Description
- This is a SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY. It is neither a solicitation announcement nor a request for proposals or quotes and does not obligate the Government to award a contract. Responses to this sources-sought notice must be in writing. The purpose of this sources-sought announcement is for market research to make appropriate acquisition decisions and to gain knowledge of potential businesses interested and capable of providing the services described below. After review of the responses to this sources-sought, a solicitation announcement may be published. Responses to this sources-sought synopsis are NOT considered adequate responses for a solicitation announcement. BACKGROUND: Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has an integrated, enterprise Point of Service (POS) software solution to support patient administration and processing. The POS solution is made up of hardware and software components geared towards enhancing the Veteran experience and their relationship with VHA, as well as improving workplace efficiency. Currently the system used is operating with VetLink hardware and VetLink proprietary software provided by VECNA Technologies, Inc., within the platform, which has a patient-facing User Interface (UI), a staff-facing UI, and a provider-facing UI. Many facilities/clinics possess kiosks which give Veterans, clinicians and administrative staff the ability to more efficiently manage information critical to the continued delivery of services. The VA is in the process of transitioning to a new system to provide similar functionality, however, some locations require continued support as they determine how best to support their patients and staff. Until all such determinations are complete, VISN 22 requires continued support of the existing infrastructure to include hardware, software and server support services. REQUIREMENT: The Veteran s Integrated Service Network 22 is seeking a contractor to provide the following services in accordance with the requirements below and in the Performance Work Statement. The VA requires software sustainment services for existing VetLink server(s) (Test & Production) and applicable queuing workflow(s). VetLink servers control the VetLink hardware modalities (e.g., kiosks, queuing displays). Currently fielded kiosks must continue to function as they do today provided that the hardware is operational and/or under local extended warranty services with the vendor or is covered within the contractor s maintenance scope of work within this contract or separate. The Contractor shall provide system administration support to include software sustainment services and server administration. The Contractor shall provide information assurance support to include information system authorization, testing, and continuous monitoring. The Contractor shall perform services from its location(s) but may be required to provide on-site services such as consultation, training, and activation activities. This requirement is for brand name or equal supplies/services that are compatible with, and support current systems. If you are interested and are capable of providing the required product(s) please provide the following information. (1) Company Name, Address, Point of Contact (2) Size status and representations of your business, such as but not limited to: Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB), Veteran Owned Small Business (VOSB), Hubzone, Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB), Large Business, etc. (3) Is your company considered small under the NAICS code 541519, Other Computer Related Services? (4) Does your company have an FSS contract with GSA or the NAC or are you a contract holder with any other federal contract? If so, please provide the contract type and number. (5) If you are an FSS GSA/NAC or other federal contract holder, are the referenced items/solutions available on your schedule/contract? (6) Please provide general pricing for your products/solutions for market research purposes. (7) If your offer is for an equivalent product, please provide manufacturer, model number and information regarding how their product meets the salient characteristics. The Government is not obligated to, nor will it pay for or reimburse any costs associated with responding to this sources sought announcement. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. The Government will in no way be bound to this information if any solicitation is issued. The VA is mandated by Public Law 109-461 to consider a total set-aside for Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses. However, if there are insufficient Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business responses, an alternate set-aside or full and open competition may be determined. No sub-contracting opportunity is anticipated. Responses to this notice shall be submitted via email to peter.kim33@va.gov . Telephone responses will not be accepted. Responses must be received no later than 12/13/2023 10:00 AM PT. After review of the responses to this sources-sought announcement, a solicitation may be published on the beta.sam.gov or GSA eBuy websites. Responses to this sources-sought announcement will not be considered adequate responses to the solicitation. All interested offerors must respond to the solicitation in addition to responding to this sources-sought announcement. Prospective bidders must be authorized re-sellers in order to participate in the solicitation process. Notice to potential offerors: All offerors who provide goods or services to the United States Federal Government must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://sam.gov. Additionally, all Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Businesses or Veteran Owned Small Businesses must be registered with the Small Business Administration s Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) registry located at https://veterans.certify.sba.gov PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS): SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT SERVICES The Contractor shall provide the following: SERVICE DESK SUPPORT The Contractor shall provide a service desk for the VetLink system users to contact for support issues. Contractor s Service Desk shall support VA during core hours: Monday through Friday (7:00 am to 6 pm; and 6 pm to 12 pm Pacific Standard Time) for Tier 1; and for Tier 2 and Tier 3: Monday through Friday (7:00 am to 6 pm Pacific Standard Time). Tiers 2 and 3 shall support On-Call during non-core hours: weekdays, weekends, and holidays, leveraging best practices including Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Non-core hours are defined as 8pm to 4 am per the facility location time zone. The Contractor-provided Service Desk shall have a ticket tracking system that ensures the management of the resolution process and monitoring of performance metrics. The Contractor shall ensure the Service Desk can receive requests by telephone or email Any telephone support provided by Contractor shall be at no additional cost. Any replacement items to be shipped in by the Contractor due to device failure on station of a device in production must be sent in via priority mail not to exceed three business days. The first business day after the contractor is notified of the failure is day one of the three allotted days. A tracking number is required to be provided by the contractor. SERVICE DESK STATUS UPDATES NOTIFICATION/REPORT The Contractor shall provide Service Desk Status Updates Notification/Report. Due bi-weekly throughout the PoP. MONTHLY RESOLUTION OPERATION SUPPORT/HELP DESK TICKET REPORT The Contractor shall provide Monthly Resolution Operation Support/Help Desk Ticket monthly throughout the PoP. INFORMATION ASSURANCE The Contractor shall provide latest version of Security Gap Analysis Report. The Contractor shall provide latest version of Security Assessment Report. The Contractor shall provide latest version of Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M) and updates as needed. The Contractor shall provide latest version of Updated Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). The Contractor shall provide latest version of Updated Information Security Contingency Plan (ISCP). The Contractor shall provide System Security Documentation when a significant change in the system or a major change in the data occurs. SOFTWARE LICENSE, MAINTENANCE, AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT DEFINITIONS Licensee. The term licensee shall mean the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ( VA ) and is synonymous with Government. Licensor. The term licensor shall mean the Contractor having the necessary license or ownership rights to deliver license, software maintenance and support of the computer software being acquired. The term Contractor is the party identified in Block 17a on the SF1449. If the Contractor is a reseller and not the Licensor, the Contractor remains responsible for performance under this Contract/Order. Software. The term software shall mean the licensed computer software product(s) cited in the Schedule of Supplies/Services. Maintenance. The term maintenance is the process of enhancing and optimizing software, as well as remedying defects. It shall include all new fixes, patches, releases, updates, versions, and upgrades, as further defined below. Technical Support. The term technical support refers to the range of software sustainment services via the telephone, email, a website, etc. Release or Update. The term release or update are terms that refer to a revision of software that contains defect corrections, minor enhancements, or improvements of the software s functionality. This is usually designated by a change in the number to the right of the decimal point (e.g., from old software version to current or up-to-date software version). Version or Upgrade. The term version or upgrade are terms that refer to a revision of software that may contain new or improved functionality and or patches and fixes to resolve known issues with the current client of server-based software. This is usually designated by a change in the number to the left of the decimal point (e.g., from Version 5.4 to 6). SOFTWARE LICENSE The software license to the Government is a perpetual, nonexclusive license for use of the software and hardware. This license was established with VECNA in prior national contract vehicles and does not end at the conclusion of those contracts. Therefore, the Government maintains the exclusive right to exercise discretion as to the continued use of either or both the server based and client-based software after any formal contractual agreement has concluded between the Government and the contractor. The Government may use the software in a networked environment. Any dispute regarding the license grant or usage limitations shall be resolved in accordance with the Disputes Clause incorporated in FAR 52.212-4(d). SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT The Contractor shall provide software support services, which includes periodic updates, enhancements, and corrections to the software, and reasonable technical support, all of which are customarily provided by the Contractor to its commercial customers as to cause the software to perform according to its specifications, documentation or demonstrated claims. The Contractor shall work with COR/VA Program Manager (PM), Office of Information and Technology (OIT) and other relevant stakeholders to coordinate the day-to-day operational sustainment and security of the system. The Contractor shall ensure the system both clients and servers met VA organizational baseline requirements are updated with the latest agency approved security patches, upgrades, and encryption. Contractor-provided schedule for these activities shall be delivered to the COR/VA Program Manager (PM) for approval. Any effort defined as an emergency must also be approved by the COR/VA PM (i.e., security hot patch/fix). Any maintenance time, security patches, system updates, etc., shall be tested within a development testing environment (DevTest) or site environment prior to VA station production release: Contractor first then, Government pilot test then Government pilot production, then San Diego, Long Beach, Greater Los Angeles, Albuquerque and Tucson release to Government production. Any system and security patching shall be executed from Tuesday through Friday in non-core hours, 8pm to 4am per the facility location time zone, and as needed. The Contractor shall be responsible for any tuning of the system to resolve performance and or security issues on both clients or servers identified by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Security issues must be fully mitigated in accordance with Department of Veteran s Affairs Office of Information and Technology timelines for resolution. The Contractor shall continually monitor uptime of the VetLink software and notify relevant stakeholders to include both the CO and the COR when an issue is detected. The Contractor shall ensure the uptime requirements of the software are met, monitor services, and proactively respond to projected VetLink system demands. The Contractor shall be responsible for supporting business (service) continuity and recover-all operations during a disaster recovery anytime a kiosk application and/or server outage occurs. The Contractor shall be responsible for ensuring system operation is restored and shall follow established escalation processes in the event of an outage. The Contractor is required to engage a full backup strategy (vice incremental or differential) to ensure that no more than one business days transactions would be lost. The Contractor is required to keep server and clients at what is the IT organizational baseline for assets on the VA IT Computing Infrastructure. Maintenance and support to the VetLink system software must be executed after core hours. If the Government allows the maintenance and support to lapse and subsequently wishes to reinstate it, any reinstatement fee charged shall not exceed the amounts that would have been charged if the Government had not allowed the subscription to lapse. DISABLING SOFTWARE CODE The Government requires delivery of computer software that does not contain any code that will, upon the occurrence or the nonoccurrence of any event, disable the software. Such code includes but is not limited to a computer virus, restrictive key, node lock, time-out, or other function, whether implemented by electronic, mechanical, or other means, which limits or hinders the use or access to any computer software based on residency on a specific hardware configuration, frequency of duration of use, or other limiting criteria. If any such disabling code is present, the Contractor agrees to indemnify the Government for all damages suffered because of a disabling caused by such code, and the contractor agrees to remove such code upon the Government s request at no extra cost to the Government. Inability of the Contractor to remove the disabling software code will be considered an inexcusable delay and a material breach of contract, and the Government may exercise its right to terminate for cause. In addition, the Government is permitted to remove the code as it deems appropriate and charge the Contractor for consideration for the time and effort expended in removing the code. PRIVACY TRAINING The Contractor shall submit status of VA Privacy and Information Security Awareness training for all individuals engaged on the task. The status reporting shall identify; a single Contractor Security Point of Contact (POC), the names of all personnel engaged on the task, their initial training date for VA Privacy and Information Security training, and their next required training date. This information shall be submitted as part of the Monthly Contractor s Progress Status and Management Report. The Contractor shall submit VA Privacy and Information Security training certificates in accordance with Section 9, Training, from Appendix C of the VA Handbook 6500.6, Contract Security . MANUALS AND PUBLICATIONS Upon Government request, the Contractor shall furnish the most current version of the user manual and publications for all products/services provided under this Contract/Order at no cost. MISCELLANEOUS: The Contractor, their personnel, and their subcontractors shall be subject to the Federal laws, regulations, standards, and VA Directives and Handbooks regarding information and information system security as delineated in this contract. The Contractor will establish and maintain in good standing a Business Associate Agreement with the VA. The Contractor must have, or be able to establish and maintain the following agreements/certifications prior to the start of the contract: Memorandum of Understanding or Interconnection Agreement (MOU-ISA) Authority to Operate (ATO) Privacy Threshold Analysis (PTA) The Contractor will provide interoperability with VA s Electronic Health Record Modernization initiative synchronized with site implementation plan. The Contractor will provide prorated refund if unable to maintain interoperability due to national decommissioning efforts related VA enforced protocols, changes in operational platforms, nationally implemented programs, or the like.
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
(https://sam.gov/opp/5f8c50ca466f432eb1ae58d980fcef24/view)
- Record
- SN06904896-F 20231208/231206230050 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
SAM.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's SAM Daily Index Page |