99 -- CONSULTING SERVICES FOR THE MULTINATIONAL NAMING RESOURCE

Notice Date

January 26, 2001

Contracting Office

Social Security Administration, Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management, Office of Acquisition and Grants, 1710 Gwynn Oak Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21207-5279

ZIP Code

21207-5279

Solicitation Number

Reference-Number-3312-01-0702

Response Due

February 5, 2001

Point of Contact

Megan Robey, Contract Specialist, Phone 410-965-9474, Fax 410-965-9560, Email megan.robey@ssa.gov -- Wayne Mcdonald, Contract Specialist, Phone 4109659480, Fax 4109659560, Email wayne.mcdonald@ssa.gov

E-Mail Address

Megan Robey (megan.robey@ssa.gov)

Description

STATEMENT OF WORK FOR CONSULTING SERVICES IN SUPPORT OF THE MULTI-NATIONAL NAMING RESOURCE INTRODUCTION: During the past five years the Office of Systems Planning and Integration (OSPI) has been a leader in devising ways to reduce the number of items going to the Suspense File, thereby improving the Earnings Process. Recently, OSPI initiated a project to test the feasibility of using the Intranet to provide guidance to SSA field office personnel in the proper way to enter the names of certain nationals. The project, which is to be an inter-component effort, is one of the pieces in the development of fast response applications for the Intranet and Internet. This project, dubbed the Multi-National Naming Resource, brings together the recently organized I-Team of OSPI, whose function is to design and build web pages, with applications that continue to build on past efforts from the Suspense File Improvement Project of earlier years. The objective of the Multi-National Naming Resource is to provide information on the naming practices of cultures around the world. In addition to facts about personal names, the site contains cultural and language facts which may impact a personal name from that culture. It is expected that by the use of the web site, SSA_s knowledge of the wide variance in personal names will be enhanced. Supplying Intranet based training for field office components, and providing then with tools to aid in the proper formatting of non-English names is the essence of this effort. OSPI anticipates extending the service to the employer community via the Internet, after it has been tested extensively internally. During fiscal year 2001 it is anticipated that the service will be initially pilot tested using a selective set of SSA field offices, then extended to the entire field organization, and to other groups that need to examine, enter or parse names. The examination of the feedback of field office personnel to our Intranet available application packages, designed to improve the accuracy and correctness of the initial entry of names into the system, will be critical to subsequent improvement and extension of the planned web pages. By correcting fundamental errors at the front end of the system, i.e. at initial data entry time, it is hoped that the number of Earnings Items that cannot be posted to the Master Earnings File can be reduced at the back end of the system. BACKGROUND: The agency has been criticized for not moving faster in implementing improvements to the way that it handles Suspense File processing of Earnings records from employers. OSPI was instrumental in researching, testing, procuring, and implementing the Name Search software package from Intelligent Search Technology (IST), which may be used to rectify discrepancies among non-exact but similar names. The package has been incorporated into SSA_s production stream beginning with tax year 1998 and is credited with preventing a significant number of items from going to the Suspense File. The Multi-National Naming Resource is a project closely related to a number of efforts that OSPI has been engaged in during the past years. Several years ago OSPI initiated the Suspense File Improvement Project which laid out a long term plan to attack many of the shortcomings of SSA_s Suspense File processing procedures. OSPI recognizes that the Suspense File _problem_ is a many faceted one. The Office of Systems, through the years has borne the brunt of some harsh criticism in the press, and that criticism seems to reemerge periodically. The presence of employer fraud, illegal immigration, and the diversity of the immigrant population are all factors contributing to the number of items posted to suspense. The operational success of matching names and numbers currently is quite high, and has increased significantly since the implementation of the IST software for tax year 98 processing, although SSA never seems to get credit for that in the press. However, the volume of data is such that even a low percentage of unmatched records will translate into a very large number of entries into the Suspense File using SSA_s existing matching techniques. Prior to the IST effort OSPI had been advocating the use of Name Search software as one more way to improve the agency_s performance in this area. OSPI also initiated work on the linguistic and cultural aspects of naming conventions by having Language Analysis Systems, Inc. (LAS) perform a six month study of the name processing procedures used by the agency. This effort was followed by the development of web page based tools, building on the recommendation of the study, and OSPI will shortly be ready to pilot test the web page already developed. The Multi-National Naming Resource is to be a cooperative effort between OSPI and the Office of Automated Systems in DCO. The web pages being developed may be linked to from the Non-English test web pages that have already been developed with a limited number of field offices. After that will come evaluation and step-wise refinement by additional evaluation. The support required under this statement of work falls into the following interrelated areas: 1. Analyze feedback from the field offices. Consider both operational usability and criticism of the contents of the web pages. 2. Provide advise and technical guidance to the web page developers on the I-team of the Office of Systems Planning and Integration. 3. Provide technical guidance to the SSA personnel with responsibility for future web page content development. 4. Perform analytical tasks that management decides may need to be done from time as the project continues. 5. Provide consulting support related to name search technologies, web page development, and ethnic or cultural naming characteristics to the system project team and/or members of the system management structure. TASK STATEMENT: 1.0 Consultation Sessions 1.1 Task Description: Be prepared for consultation sessions with SSA officials and/or employees. Telephone consultation with the Project Officer may occur at any time during normal business hours, but whenever possible e-mail will be used. Specific consultation sessions may be scheduled at SSA with a one week notice. All queries from SSA whether about the web pages under consideration, the development of additional web pages, the feedback and/or input from the Office of Operation, or any other computer science topic of interest to the project will be presented via a single point of contact, i.e. the Project Officer. 2.0 Attendance at Working Meetings 2.1 Task Description: From time to time management will schedule working meeting with the project team, or with the contractor and selected members of the project team. These meetings may be for the discussion of strategy, for planning, for technical information exchange, for discussion of implementation proposals, or for reasons management considers appropriate for the project. The scheduling of all such meetings will be coordinated among parties including the contractor. 3.0 Analytical Tasks and Products Assigned 3.1 Task Description: Arising from the consultation sessions or working meetings will be identified tasks that require analysis or products that require development, editing, review, or comment. The contractor will be responsive to these generally short-term assignments by providing a level of effort consistent with the needs of the project. 4.0 Documentation Responsibilities 4.1 Task Description: The contractor is required to maintain a log of activities associated with the effort. At a minimum the log will include the dates and times of all meetings at SSA with a list of the principal attendees and the subjects discussed. The log will also contain entries to indicate dates and time spent on a given task. This log should be considered the contractor_s personal record of project activities, and it may be requested by future auditors. 5.0 Level of Effort and Duration The level of effort anticipated for this contract is 624 hours spread over a period of 48 weeks.

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Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010130/99SOL008.HTM (D-026 SN50B9H7)