SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Database Consulting Support
- Notice Date
- 1/11/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541611
— Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Acquisition and Property Division, Acqusition Branch (DC), 1280 Maryland Avenue, SW Suite 580C, Washington, DC, 20024-2142
- ZIP Code
- 20024-2142
- Solicitation Number
- NASS-KLN-061124001
- Response Due
- 1/25/2006
- Archive Date
- 2/9/2006
- Description
- The United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Services has a requirement for consulting services per the Statement of Work described below: Background The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) first utilized database consulting services for Sybase in 1997 when the Agency implemented the Enhanced List Maintenance Operations (ELMO) database on the IBM platform under AIX. This was the first use of relational databases in NASS and the database server was Sybase. These services were very beneficial in helping us size and configure the database resources. We needed expertise in both data placement and storage options to optimize the Sybase databases. These consulting services were instrumental in setting database configuration parameters for CPU and memory utilization. This included SQL Server configuration, device setup, memory allocation and utilization, and locking/blocking issues. The consulting included knowledge transfer to help the administrators and developers gain an understanding of the ELMO application and its performance, implementation and design. The work done then is still in place today, after nearly eight (8) years. Over the next couple of years NASS utilized these Sybase consulting services to evaluate backup requirements for the various processing systems and to work with developers to create scripts to automate many of the functions being developed. This work was invaluable in setting up our production environments. When NASS began gearing up for the 2002 Census of Agriculture, we again turned to expert advice and consulting on Sybase to assess and recommend improvements to the new processing systems being developed for that effort. Again the consulting effectively leveraged the expertise and knowledge of our applications which allowed that consulting to significantly enhance many queries and improve the systems performance. The service also provided explanations on how Sybase performed various operations, which provided NASS staff with valuable, applicable information. In June 2004 our Sybase transactional consulting began to partner with our IBM analytical database consultants to develop an enterprise data model that would not only handle the 2007 Census of Agriculture, but our survey processing as well. This work continued through the contract period in 2005, and is expected to continue for the next 5 years. Their institutional knowledge of NASS and the continuing work on our Enterprise Data Model is critical for this ongoing development work. The Enterprise Data Model is a key component of our Enterprise Architecture and is needed to fulfill the Government mandate on systems development alignment with business imperatives. Place of Performance NASS is looking for a contractor to provide on-site consulting and mentoring services, as described below, at 1400 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, D.C. 20250. These services will be provided for up to 240 hours not to exceed six one week long engagements during the contract year. The primary tasks to be performed are as follows: Current Needs: Contractor shall work closely with IBM consultants to implement the NASS enterprise data model and to guide the applications developers on best practices in a statistical environment. The Contractor shall work with other consultants to continue with progress in producing the most cost efficient solution to the future Survey and Census. Task 1 ? Discussions, re: Data Storage, Retrieval & Processing Participate in person and via conference calls where appropriate in discussions regarding data storage, retrieval and processing in a Sybase, Redbrick, and SAS processing environment on IBM RS6000 executing AIX including the implementation of Sybase row level security and Sybase Replication Server. Due Date: 1 month from the date of award. Task 2 ? Continue Development & Implementation of Enterprise Data Model Participate in person and via conference calls where appropriate in discussions to continue the development and implementation of an enterprise data model that covers current and historical farmer reported data, survey indications, and official published estimates. Due Date: 2 months from the date of award. Task 3 ? Re-Examining Application Code and Review existing applications Assist in person and via conference calls where appropriate in reexamining through application code review existing application such as ELMO, census processing systems, survey processing systems, and estimates systems to align them with our enterprise data model and optimize them to existing database technology. Due Date: 10 months from the date of award. Task 4 ? Mentoring and Knowledge Transfer Provide in person and via conference calls where appropriate mentoring and knowledge transfer for administering and maintaining very large real-time Sybase databases in the IBM RS6000 environment utilizing AIX 5.1 Due Date: 10 months from the date of award. Task 5 ? Insight into Upcoming Features and future releases of Sybase Provide in person and via conference calls where appropriate insight into upcoming features and future releases of Sybase and how to take advantage of their interaction and interconnections with Redbrick and SAS Due Date: 2 months from the date of award. Task 6 ? Re-Engineering of existing NASS Processing Systems to Process 2007 USDA Census Participate in person and via conference calls where appropriate in discussions regarding the reengineering of existing NASS processing system needed to process the 2007 Census of Agriculture and to begin migrating current survey processing systems to the new data models. Provide recommendations in a written report. Due Date: 10 months from the date of award. Task 7 ? Development of Future Census and Survey Processing Systems Participate in person and via conference calls where appropriate in discussions about the development of future census and survey processing systems. Provide observations and recommendations about the future processing systems. Due Date: 10 months from the date of award. Task 8 ? Written summaries of recommendations/solutions proposed for each task. At the completion of each task, the contractor shall provide to USDA/NASS a written summary in Microsoft Word format of the proposed recommendations and solutions for each of the tasks listed above. Due Date: Within 2 weeks of the end of each task. Offerors will be evaluated on past performance, technical knowledge and price using the following: Intimate knowledge of the NASS mission and work environment, as well as the applications being developed from the enterprise data model. Intimate knowledge of the model itself. Contractor must have a vast knowledge of the NASS transactional environments, Contractor will furnish their own equipment. Please email your quotes to knewton@ars.usda.gov by 1:00 p.m. on January 25, 2006.
- Place of Performance
- Address: USDA-NASS, 1400 INDEPENDENCE AVE., S.W., WASHINGTON, D.C.
- Zip Code: 20250
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 20250
- Record
- SN00964482-W 20060113/060111211712 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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