SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- Request For Information For Electronic Records Archives
- Notice Date
- 8/14/2002
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- Contracting Office
- National Archives and Records Administration, NAA, Acquisition Center, 8601 Adelphi Road, Room 3360, College Park, MD, 20740-6001
- ZIP Code
- 20740-6001
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-NAMA-02-R-ERA
- Response Due
- 9/4/2002
- Point of Contact
- LaToshia Madden, Contract Specialist, Phone (301) 837-0307, Fax (301) 837-3227,
- E-Mail Address
-
latoshia.madden@nara.gov
- Description
- Request for Information for Electronic Records Archives The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is considering the introduction of state of the art technology into the NARA infrastructure to achieve an Electronic Records Archives (ERA) capability. ERA is a strategic initiative for achieving NARA??s mission to preserve valuable electronic records of the Federal Government and to make them available to future generations. This RFI is intended strictly for market research purposes and may not lead to a solicitation or contract. The preliminary ERA business and contracting approach outlined below is for a full-and-open competition for a system that will meet the objectives stated in the ERA Mission Needs Statement, August 1, 2002. Full and open competition is the preferred approach in accordance with 41 U.S.C. 253, as implemented by FAR Part 6, Competition Requirements. The contract will be structured using modular contracting, an evolutionary acquisition approach that provides useable outputs at the completion of each increment, while taking advantage of developing technology for each succeeding increment. This evolutionary acquisition approach should lower overall program risk, take advantage of technology insertion, and, over time, save valuable budget dollars. The intent of this acquisition is to initially award two or three contracts for system design, using a best value competition, based on an open systems approach with maximum utilization of COTS components. The Government intends to retain unlimited rights in data for any systems, processes, or items developed under these contracts. Contractor retained rights will be the subject of further discussion. These contracts will have provisions for a final source selection down select to a single contractor at the end of the Design Phase. The Design Phase duration is expected to be eighteen months. The ERA will be implemented based on the selected design, using an incremental development approach. A maximum of five increments (options) is anticipated. The first increment will incorporate sufficient core functionality to achieve an Initial Operational Capability. Unimplemented requirements will be allocated to successive increments as needed to achieve Full Operational Capability. The acquisition strategy requires all offerors to compete for total program requirements in the form of priced options; therefore ensuring price competition through the design phase and all foreseeable increments. As discussed below, you are encouraged to provide comments on the ERA acquisition approach. The Government's preliminary view is that the design phase and first three incremental options should be Fixed Price Award Fee contracts (potentially, incentive fees could also be used). Later increments, if any, may be initially bound by not-to-exceed pricing, which would be fixed priced during best and final offers during the design down select. The Government is soliciting information to identify potential contractors capable of acting in the role of systems integrator to build the ERA. The Government is also seeking information from hardware and software vendors to ensure that all available commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products that provide capabilities applicable to the ERA have been identified. All manufacturers and suppliers of hardware and software technology that could be applied to support management of records across their lifecycles, and especially long-term preservation and access to authentic records, are offered this opportunity to describe how the Government can best employ their products to meet ERA mission needs. In addition to currently available products, the Government wants to understand the capabilities of leading-edge products currently under development that will be available by mid Fiscal Year 2004. The information submitted will be used to assist the Government in the continuing development of its ERA acquisition strategy. BACKGROUND NARA ensures ready access to essential evidence that documents the rights of citizens, the actions of Federal officials, and the national experience. NARA supports lifecycle management of records in all three branches of the Federal Government and provides sustained access to historically valuable records in the National Archives and the Presidential Libraries. The scope of NARA??s responsibilities include federal records, as defined at 44 U.S.C. 3301, presidential records, as defined at 44 U.S.C. 2201, records of the Congress and the Supreme Court, and also donated historical materials from non-federal sources. Increasingly, these records are created and maintained in electronic formats. NARA needs to respond effectively to the challenge posed by the diversity, complexity, and enormous volume of electronic records being created today and the rapidly changing nature of the systems that are used to create them. Electronic records pose unique difficulties. The most critical is advancing technology that renders record formats or media obsolete in a short period of time. NARA??s solution to these problems must defeat technological obsolescence and ensure that electronic records are as authentic decades in the future as they were when first created. NARA's existing solutions for electronic records also will be unable to accommodate the enormous volume of data, and the number of records that are likely to be transferred to the National Archives or Presidential Libraries over the next few years. For instance, a conservative 1999 estimate indicates that the yearly volume of email traffic in the Federal Government is approaching 36.5 billion messages per year. Although only a percentage of those messages may be permanently valuable, the volume is still orders of magnitude larger than what NARA has had to manage in the past. Moreover, the Census Bureau will be transferring images of up to 600 million pages of information, comprising tens of terabytes of data, from the 2000 Census. In comparison, in its thirty-year history, NARA has captured and fully-processed only between one and two terabytes of data. NARA intends to make an investment in Electronic Records Archives capabilities to capture, preserve, and provide access to electronic records indefinitely into the future. NARA is currently developing formal system requirements that will be used as the basis for implementation of the ERA. NARA has entered into research partnerships aimed at developing standards for preserving and delivering authentic digital records over indefinite periods of time, including the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model. NARA is participating in a number of research activities and prototypes aimed at improving the knowledge base for developing and evaluating potential technical solutions. These include the Persistent Archives project being performed by the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure, and the Presidential Electronic Records Processing Operational System (PERPOS) project, a collaborative effort by the Army Research Laboratory and Georgia Tech Research Institute. The existence of these demonstration programs and prototypes does not imply a commitment by NARA to require incorporation of the associated technologies and architectures into ERA. More detailed information is available at the ERA web site, http://www.archives.gov/electronic_records_archives. Acquisition related information, including the ERA Mission Needs Statement, can be located on the ERA web site by selecting the ERA Acquisition Information heading on the site??s main page; or go directly to: http://www.archives.gov/electronic_records_archives/acquisition_information. This RFI is the first of several steps NARA plans to take to solicit input and interest from the vendor community and to promote competition in response to our intended RFP for ERA. We expect to issue other RFIs, conduct a vendor conference and issue a draft RFP for comment. RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS Responses are limited to a total of 20 pages, and must be in Microsoft Word 97 format. Page size must be 8.5 x 11", font must be 12 point or larger, and margins must be at least 1". Briefly describe your company, your products and services, history, ownership, financial information, and other information you deem relevant. Provide points of contact, including name, address, phone/fax number, and email. You are encouraged to provide comments on the ERA acquisition approach. Responses from potential systems integrators should describe conceptual technical and architectural alternatives to satisfy ERA mission needs including use of COTS or GOTS hardware and software components. Discuss technical feasibility alternatives and provide non-binding order of magnitude cost and schedule estimates for the alternatives. Indicate the maturity level of your software or systems engineering processes, e.g., SEI CMM, CMMI, etc. If a level has been achieved, indicate what evaluation or assessment method was used and what organizational units were covered. Hardware and software vendors should submit a concept paper describing potential solutions using your products that relates them to the ERA mission needs. Indicate whether your product is commercially available or is on the General Services Administration Federal Supply Schedule. Supplemental product brochures or marketing materials outlining specifications and capabilities may also be submitted, and will not be counted in the overall page count limits. CONTACT INFORMATION Please submit responses via email not later than 4:00 PM on September 4, 2002, to ERA.Acquisition@nara.gov. The subject of the email should be "ERA RFI 1 Response". Responses submitted after this date and time will not be accepted. Submit 3 copies each of any supplemental hardcopy materials or electronic materials on hard media (CD, diskette), to: ERA Acquisition (NH-ERA) National Archives at College Park, Room B-550 8601 Adelphi Road College Park, MD 20740-6001 The Government will not request additional information or discuss submissions received in response to this RFI with individual responders. The following is a tentative schedule of remaining pre-solicitation events: RFI 2 1Q FY03 Industry Conference 2Q FY03 RFI 3 2Q FY03 Draft RFP 3Q FY03 DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or to otherwise pay for information received in response to this RFI. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Information provided in response to this RFI will be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for determining how to proceed in the acquisition process for the ERA and may lead to the development of a specification for the ERA. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI.
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