SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- Record Center Operations System
- Notice Date
- 6/16/2005
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 518210
— Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
- 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-05-RFI-0001
- Response Due
- 7/15/2005
- Archive Date
- 7/30/2005
- Description
- The National Archives and Records Administration (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. Since 1950, NARA has provided high-quality, cost-effective storage and servicing of temporary records to Federal and public customers. NARA has safeguarded the nation's records including citizen tax returns, Official Military Personnel Folders, passport applications and Top Secret military records for their scheduled life. Under the direction of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) instituted a fee-for-service revolving fund on October 1, 1999, for its records centers? storage and servicing operation. NARA organized a Records Center Program (RCP) to carry out this function. Key statistics about the Federal Records Center Program: 17 facilities in 9 regions throughout the United States Total holdings of over 24 million cubic feet of records 13 million reference requests serviced annually 18,000 tons of paper recycled annually Professional staff of approximately 1,100 Federal employees Nearly 400 Federal agency customers For additional information visit the NARA website: http://www.archives.gov/records_center_program/about_rcp.html Request for Information (RFI) for the NARA Record Center Program (RCP) Operations System (RCPOS). NARA is considering the introduction of technology into the RCP to achieve customer improvements and operational savings. Currently, there is comparatively little coordinated activity among different centers in terms of the processes and information dissemination mechanisms used to serve customers. Across the board, the current NARA system is mostly manual, paper-intensive, fragmented and often redundant. The situation is complicated further through each center?s individual processes, data, and requirements, and, sometimes, regulations. Where automated, the systems are not integrated, are inflexible to change, and are technologically obsolete. The NARA RCP program currently uses existing information technology (IT) systems that are typically legacy mainframe applications. It is imperative to note that the Government seeks a system solution composed of Commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) products. The Government seeks to avoid the creation of yet another legacy system, so a primary feature of this system is that it has the ability to remain as contemporary as practicable. This RFI is intended strictly for market research purposes and may not lead to a solicitation or contract. The preliminary contracting approach outlined below is for a full-and-open competition for a system that will meet the requirements of the NARA RCP program. 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 as a service contract. The NARA RCP does not want to pay for the implementation of an IT system, but desires to enter into a contract for the delivery of IT services that meet the functional needs of the NARA RCP for five years (base year plus four option years), using a best value competition. The Government intends to retain complete ownership and unlimited rights to the data collected and processed under this contract. The NARA RCP does not want any ownership of hardware, software or configuration. Contractor retained rights will be the subject of further discussion. The Contractor, therefore, must accept the risk of compiling a set of COTS products into a system that handles the functional requirements of the RCP. Under this scheme, the Government would not exercise the first option of the contract until the Contractor has provided a bona fide COTS system solution. The Contractor would be working at risk, although a termination charge offers some protection, until this point. The Contractor will be able to recover initial costs as part of the monthly payments made by the Government for the IT services provided once the Contractor has provided its solution. The NARA RCP is now updating Concept of Operations, Functional and Technical Requirements, testing and Sequencing Plan documents that will be used as the basis for the service contract. A Concept of Operations draft is available by email from the point of contact shown below. Final documents will be available by Sept. 30, 2005. Generally, the RCPOS will need to address and meet the following business needs: 1. Inventory and space management. Track records location, movement and status. Provide enhanced search and retrieval functionality across all data. Holdings information: hierarchical and box level control, disposition schedules, and billing data. Collections management information for permanent and electronic records. 2. Automated support for the records operations. Streamline the transfer and reference processes using the web and bar-coding technology, and facilitate automated workflow of transactions for processing. Improve quality control to eliminate erroneous disposals of records and lost records. 3. Automated support for activity measurement. Maintain information about the completion of tasks within records center operations. Allow workload measurement system wide, at each records center, and by individual product/service offered by the RCP. Collect data to support product pricing. 4. Cross-system integration. Conform to the NARA target architecture. Allow data to flow to and from NARA financial, property, and acquisition systems, including ERA, RCPBS and CMRS. Integrate with other Federal agency systems in order to transmit and receive necessary data. 5. Real time transactional data. View information about available space, holdings, reference requests, and billing information that is accurate and up-to-date. Provide to customers the information they need concerning their holdings and services. Provide to Records center staff immediate access to the information they need, facilitating better customer service. The Government's preliminary view is that the RCP functional requirements can be fully met with integrated COTS software. The NARA RCPOS will be implemented incrementally with a minimum of two new increments per year. The first increment will incorporate sufficient core functionality to achieve an Initial Operational Capability (IOC) that can turn off the existing legacy applications. Requirements will be allocated to successive increments as needed to achieve Full Operational Capability. The NARA RCP will purchase functional services in accordance with the negotiated contract schedule and as the services pass Government testing for functionality and performance. Firm contract requirements will be available prior to the issuance of the solicitation. As previously stated, the Contractor must provide the system at no initial cost to NARA. The Contractor would recoup the initial cost of the system as part of the monthly service charge over the five year period of the contract. The Government also, during the course of the contract, expects to introduce some enhancement requirements not included in the final requirements document as new business opportunities arise, as new technologies are introduced into the marketplace and as lessons learned with the IOC demonstrate opportunities to further enhance the NARA RCP with an acceptable return on investment (ROI). The current acquisition strategy requires that all offerors compete for total program requirements to ensure best value using full life cycle costing. As discussed below, offerors are encouraged to provide comments on the NARA RCP acquisition approach. NARA is soliciting information to identify potential Contractors capable of acting in the role of system developer and service provider for the NARA RCPOS. This RFI is the first step that NARA plans to take to solicit input and interest from the vendor community and to promote competition in response to the forthcoming solicitation. Response Instructions: Responses are limited to a total of 20 pages, and must be in Microsoft Word 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 RCPOS acquisition approach. Respond only if you can provide the total solution to the RCPOS acquisition. Discuss technical feasibility alternatives and provide non-binding order of magnitude cost and schedule estimates. 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. Furthermore, please include substantive responses to the following questions: 1. Address your experience implementing and sustaining web-based and e-commerce solutions. Provide details of at least three past engagements occurring within five years of issuance of this questionnaire and COTS products used. Provide number of users supported by solutions and the number of transactions processed daily. 2. We know there will be a lot of communication needed between the provider and government to ensure there is an understanding of all business rules and requirements. How do you plan to communicate with the RCPOS Program Management Office (PMO)? 3. Describe your technical approach to design, build, test, deploy, and sustain a solution built on COTS products. 4. Provide feedback on our requirements. Specifically provide comments on any that you believe cannot be implemented with a COTS product without modifying the COTS software. Describe how you would organize the requirements so that a new version could be released every six months. 5. The Initial Operating Capability is the minimum functionality required to turn off the legacy applications. Provide a high-level cost and schedule estimate for the Initial Operating Capability (IOC). Please indicate the minimum amount of time to accomplish IOC. 6. Identify possible constraints or potential risks. 7. What tools and metrics do you use to measure system performance? 8. What type of workload data will you require in order to adequately build RCPOS? 9. Describe your security program. 10. Describe your disaster recovery program. 11. Would your firm be interested in giving an informational presentation to the Government? Contact Information: Please submit responses via email not later than 4:00 PM on July 15, 2005 to james.newell@nara.gov. The subject of the email should be "RCPOS RFI 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: James Newell (NAA) National Archives at College Park, 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: Industry Conference June/July 2005 RFP Oct. 1, 2005 Award Dec. 31, 2005 IOC Dec. 31, 2006 (No later than) 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 RCPOS and may lead to the development of a specification for the RCPOS. 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. Original Point of Contact: James Newell, Contract Specialist, Phone (301) 837-1502, Fax (301) 837-3227, Email james.newell@nara.gov
- Record
- SN00831483-W 20050618/050616212600 (fbodaily.com)
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