SPECIAL NOTICE
D -- RFI for Utilities and Telecommunications
- Notice Date
- 5/31/2006
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 518210
— Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Agriculture, Office of Procurement and Property Management, Procurement Operations Division, 300 7th Street, S.W., Room 377, Reporters Building, Washington, DC, 20024
- ZIP Code
- 20024
- Solicitation Number
- AG-3142-I-06-0037
- Response Due
- 6/30/2006
- Description
- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION MAY 30, 2006 The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) seeks Application Service Provider(s) (ASPs) to partner with USDA for modernizing and re-engineering the processing of payments while managing usage/rates and services for utilities, telecommunications and energy consumption/efficiencies. This is a Request For Information (RFI) issued solely for information and planning purposes. It does not constitute a Request For Proposal (RFP). USDA intends to assess the capa-bilities of the ASPs and may then issue an RFP. Please ensure that any sensitive or protected information is marked as such. BACKGROUND ? CURRENT STATE USDA maintains a telecommunications and utilities payments legacy automated information systems environment that includes more than five loosely coupled, non-integrated legacy applications. Many of these applications do not utilize commercial data bases and are reliant on legacy process which are no longer sus-tainable and are labor-intensive. These applications cannot address the nuances of the utilities or the telecommunications industry in the 21st century nor can they provide the basic elements of information required for USDA to meet the re-quirements of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Because of this environment, USDA is unable to respond to new and evolving needs of our user community, including tracking actual energy use to meet the annual reductions in energy use( e.g., savings of 2% in FY2006, 4% in FY2007 and so on). Telecommunications and Utilities applications currently managed by USDA are a suite of legacy applications, which focus on addressing telecommunications and utility accounting and payments. This suite of systems were not designed to track usage, analyze rates, provide comparisons month-to-month or annually, nor were assets inventoried in these payment systems. Although there are a variety of payment methods for paying telecommunications and utilities, the payment proc-ess currently designated for utilities and telecommunication involves the use of five applications?however, many other payment methods are available for pay-ing these services. Other less frequently used payment methods include process-ing through USDA?s two procurement systems, purchase card management system and direct entry into the financial system. The legacy utilities and telecommunications systems consist of five independent applications. The applications are: 1. Telecommunications and Utilities Maintenance Systems. This is the master account set-up application for the Telecommunications and Utilities feeder sys-tems. This application links the account number for each vendor to the unique agency accounting strip and provides input for these accounts to the Telephone (Telecommunications) and Utility Vendor Payment systems, described below. 2. Telephone System. This application consists of the set-up of a buck slip with approximately 8 data elements which constitute the payment elements for tele-communications. This application was originally set-up when AT&T had a mo-nopoly on the telecom services and prior to cell phones and the explosion of telecommunications services and plans. The application does not analyze rates, but provides the payment formats which interface into the USDA financial sys-tem. 3. Utilities Vendor Payment system. This consists of about 10 data elements to create payments for utilities. There is a code added to each payment element to indicate the utility consumption metric?such as BTUs, cubic feet or whatever the measure. This system formats the payments which interface into the USDA fi-nancial system. 4. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) ? This is a server application to provide Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) invoices into the Telephone system. This ap-plication re-constructs the buck slip to input this data into the telephone system to create payments. The detailed telecommunications data coming in the on EDI transmission is not used presently. 5. ENERGY Reporting system. This is a back-end reporting system, which uses data from the Utilities Vendor Payment system and the financial information from the financial system to provide the energy reporting requirements of the Ex-ecutive Order 13123 on Efficient Energy Management (!999) requiring reporting utility consumption for owned facilities, commercial leased spaces and GSA dele-gated spaces. Description - Concept of Operations - Future To further improve financial and energy conservation program performance and ensure that it can meet future needs, the USDA, Office of the Chief Financial Of-ficer (OCFO) has determined that USDA needs to partner with a Utilities/Energy and/or Telecommunications Application Service Provider (ASP) to implement a modern utilities, telephone/telecommunications and energy process that can meet current and future financial payments needs, analytic needs for energy consump-tion, rate and usage analysis and meet the reporting requirements for the Energy Policy Act of 2005. In particular, the OCFO is seeking to replace five (5) feeder applications and replace the processing, as well as incorporate value-added ser-vices in partnership with a service provider that hosts a modern Application Ser-vice that is cost-effective, with minimal customizations, that will provide online, real-time transaction and information capability and will be accessible to the cen-tral financial office and other USDA agencies/organizations, as necessary. USDA requires an ASP to not only replace all the existing applications and pro-vide expanded functionality on a modern web application, but also to dramatically alter the service-levels that the payments process can deliver to the USDA cus-tomers. This includes automatic routing of invoices to the USDA payments proc-essing personnel, and with the ASP offeror providing analysis of rates, analysis of usage, budget formulation/reporting for projections, energy conservation meas-ures and metrics, operations and maintenance costs and other value?added ser-vices. USDA envisions a concept of operations where an experienced utili-ties/telecommunications payments vendor, provides a hosted Application Service and trains USDA personnel to manage the revised business processes of payments and analysis through the software application provided by the utilities and tele-communications payments vendor. USDA desires a system/process that can be easily enhanced to meet future requirements; please describe your con-cept/process for meeting future requirements. USDA envisions a partnership with the offeror such that these services can support not only USDA but could be im-plemented with other federal agencies utilizing these services through USDA. USDA?s priority is to swiftly migrate to an ASP, re-engineer the end-to-end busi-ness processes by incorporating the tools available through an ASP with greatly expanded analytic capabilities, train the government work force to use the appli-cation to create the payments and train the government workforce on the analytics methods to use the data and information created in the data bases. Further, USDA requires a completely documented business process, with procedures that imple-ment appropriate audit trails, approvals if required, and documentation related to internal controls in the process. The Application (ASP) would need to support USDA processing of approxi-mately 27,200 Telephone invoices and 14,100 utility invoices per month. USDA requires that transaction details be retained near-line and available for a minimum of six years and three months. The offeror should discuss any archiving strategy, if necessary. Further, the USDA would require comprehensive reports for these detailed transactions. The offeror should include in the response, the suite of re-porting that is available and address the tools and processes for generating the re-ports and/or any files for reporting. There will be two interfaces required in addition to the ASP capabilities and other services which USDA is seeking: Interfaces Account detail and payment detailed data must be transmitted to USDA?s financial management system for recordation in the USDA general ledger and to make the payments to the utilities and telecom-munications providers. Energy reporting requirements ? require an interface to the USDA real property system, the Corporate Property Automated Information Sys-tem (CPAIS) Energy Policy Act of 2005 - requires specific energy reduction consumption percentages for federal agencies; requires electric metering; requires specific percentage purchase of renewable en-ergy. E.O. 13123 ?Greening the Government Through Efficient Energy Management? requires detailed information and reporting federal agencies energy/utility use. E.O. 13327 ?Federal Real Property Asset Management? promotes the efficient and economical use of Federal real property resources in accordance with their value as national assets, and more specifi-cally requires identification and reporting of operating and mainte-nance (O&M) costs for all owned and leased assets, both buildings and structures. Other data files for Business Intelligence, as specified by USDA. USDA will require the ASP to participate in two annual disaster recovery exer-cises and will require the ASP offerors to discuss continuity of operations for ASP hosting and other services to ensure the continuity of USDA?s business process. USDA will also require vendor participation in the annual fiscal year consolidated financial statements audit. This may consist of providing data extracts, source documents, application process controls or other types of information related to the audit. This Utilities and Telecommunications payments processing and analysis mod-ernization initiative will require integration with financial and real property sys-tems, realignment of affected business processes, and clear communication to stakeholders. A successful Utilities and Telecommunications process moderniza-tion will result in improved financial management reporting, accountability, and decision making throughout USDA and its agencies. It will also further USDA?s implementation of key provisions in the President?s Management Agenda, eGov requirements, and other regulatory mandates. USDA is pursuing an efficient and integrated approach that builds on government, industry, and project management best practices for securing the services of an ASP package and the system integration expertise to implement it. At its core, this approach will use a performance-based acquisition strategy that is based on effective planning and requirements gathering consistent with USDA IT policy and system development lifecycle (SDLC) guidance, and Capability Maturity Model (CMM) level 2 or other similar processes. USDA plans to manage the Modernization using critical components of earned-value management methods for program planning, reporting, and management. USDA Goals Among the specific goals established for this initiative are the following: Secure the services of an Application Service Provider for processing Utilities and Telecommunication payments and providing the executive in-formation for analysis of usage, rates, energy efficiency and other attrib-utes. Utilities and Telecommunication invoices include Electric, Gas, Water, Sewer, Telephone (voice), data lines and cultural services, as ex-amples. Provide real-time or batch interfaces to USDA?s financial management system and CPAIS (real property system) Accurate matching of utility bills to the actual using USDA facility and/or individual or agency using the service Capability to analyze utility bills to validate cost/unit, charges, etc; usage or unit charges out of normal range; rate review Exception reporting for invoices not received and/or zero units or services used for the period Creation of historical records for tracking utility use by type (elec-tric/gas/etc) and facility; creation of trend analysis Notification to USDA facility or utility of discrepancies/usage/cost/cost savings opportunities; meter malfunctions, etc. preferably through the sys-tem Capability to identify factors impacting ?out of range? energy costs/use (weather, extreme events, rate spikes) Analysis of opportunities presented by utility vendors for better rates, in-cluding bundling opportunities Satisfy the requirements of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Executive Or-der (E.O) 13123 ?Greening the Government Through Efficient Energy Management? and E.O. 13327 ?Federal Real Property Asset Manage-ment?. Direct integration of actual utility related operating costs identified to a specific building/facility into CPAIS; this requirement must include: recurring maintenance and repair costs; utilities (includes plant operation and purchase of energy); cleaning and/or janitorial costs (includes pest control, refuse col-lection and disposal to include recycling operations); roads and grounds expenses (includes grounds maintenance, land-scaping and snow and ice removal from roads, piers and airfields). Identification and validation of cost-savings realized from this process Analysis of opportunity and associated cost for purchase of renewable en-ergy (direct or tags) from utility vendors Meet USDA cyber security requirements for Sensitive But Unclassified data and provide appropriate assurances that meet USDA?s requirements for certification and accreditation for ASPs Proactively implement the challenges identified in the President?s Man-agement Agenda for improving overall management of all federal agen-cies Integration of financial, usage and efficiency performance information to support decision making, including the capability to formulate utilities and telecommunications budgets for future years predicated upon the analytic data Provide increased analytical reporting capabilities, using modern analytic processing techniques, to real property personnel, facilities managers, ac-countants, financial analysts, energy specialists, economists, telecommu-nications specialists and executives Improve and modernize the utilities and payments processing services for all USDA, with a modern Application Service, value-added services and data /information reporting for enhanced financial management and busi-ness information needs. On-line analytics and viewing of vendor invoices Instructions to Prospective ASP Offerors Responses to this RFI must be no more than 40 total single-sided pages with print no smaller than 10 point; however, text included in graphics, tables, and figures can be smaller than 10 point. The cover page, cover letter, table of contents, and the ASP Assessment Checklist (Enclosure) is not included in the 40 total page count. Any material submitted in excess of the 40-page limit and the page limitation exclusions will not be considered. The submissions must be in sufficient detail and clarity to provide USDA with the information it needs to assess your company?s capabilities. Describe your pricing model and provide a Rough Order of Magnitude pricing for supporting the USDA model of providing the ASP and specific value-added services. Published price lists for your ASP services, and /or any pricing standards or methodologies for the ASP and other services need to be clearly delineated along with any assumptions which pertain. Responses must be submitted in Microsoft Word 2000 or later. Offerors? responses to the RFI must be submitted to USDA by 5:00 p.m. EDT June 30th, 2006. Your company should only contact the contracting officer issu-ing this letter if there are questions about any aspect of this request for informa-tion. Interested parties may not contact USDA technical personnel about this acquisition. Three hard copies and three CDs of all response files must be sub-mitted to: Mr., Richard Storie, Contract Specialist USDA Office of Procurement and Property Management Reporter?s Building, 300 7th Street, S.W. Room 367 Washington, DC 20024 Phone (202) 720-3211 Fax (202) 720-4529 E-MAIL: richard.storie@usda.gov RFI responses must conform to the below format and provide the following in-formation: Cover Letter The cover letter must include the following information: Company name Company point of contact and telephone number Date submitted Applicable company GSA schedules. Section 1?Corporate Capability and Anticipated Project Team Offerors must briefly describe their corporate capability to serve as an ASP for this initiative. Offerors must describe their anticipated project team members (subcontractors), including their primary project roles and responsibilities. Offer-ors should describe their approach to working with the USDA to ensure a cohe-sive team utilizing the capabilities and experience of the ASP vendor. Offerors must indicate if any subcontractors are small, and disadvantaged, or other minor-ity business concerns. Offerors must also describe their proposed methodology and approach for implementation of the ASP and provide a proposed project plan including any transition planning milestones or conversion tasks, and recom-mended types of training for USDA personnel to use the application, within a stringent timeframe. The methodology proposed must ensure that produced prod-ucts demonstrate performance and auditability of the process. Section 2?Related Experience Offerors must describe their related experience for all proposed team members (prime and subcontractors) in the following categories: Government and/or commercial utilities and/or telecommunications ser-vices and application services and implementation efforts for organiza-tions with more than 100,000 employees Using innovative technology to reduce paper invoices, such as experience and capabilities with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), scanning, optical character recognition software/hardware, and electronic data interchange protocols and implementations, as examples Large-scale complex projects involving ASP system implementation ef-forts with concurrent business process reengineering activities Large-scale complex projects involving ASP application software, and production support services for government and federal customers Performing data conversion and/or transition from legacy systems Performance-based contracting efforts and current references For each related experience the Offeror must complete the attached Related Ex-perience Template (Enclosure 1). Offerors must provide the client name, name of project, contract value, period of performance, name of prime contractor, scope of work, and business value to client. The intent of this section is for the Offeror to demonstrate concisely the depth and breadth of experience in the above described related experience categories. The format envisioned is to list each related project in a table with each of the requested elements as fields. Each project would be de-scribed in a row of the table with limited descriptions focused on the most rele-vant and important information. From this table, specific projects will be selected and elaborated further in the past performance descriptions required and explained in Section 3, Past Performance, of the Offeror?s response. Section 3?Past Performance Offerors must provide no more than five past performance descriptions that have been completed within the last 3 years or are ongoing. Each past performance de-scription must be no more than one page long. Preference will be given to past performance for ASP package implementation efforts. For current and past performance descriptions involving implementation of your ASP package, offerors must complete the ASP assessment checklist (enclosure 2). Each reference must contain the following information: Project description Functional environment ASP core product implemented including version number Business functions supported by ASP product Level and kinds of customizations performed for the ASP product Types and/or names of other packages integrated or interfaced to the core package Technical environment Application server and operating system Database server and operating system Client workstation and operating system Database management system Security level attained and certification and accreditation level(s) Section 4? Pricing/Costing Methodology Offerors should provide their proposed costing model for providing Applications Services for USDA, with a logical and secure segregation from any commercial or other government entity. Please provide this pricing in a separate Word document or an Excel spreadsheet at version Office 2000 or higher. These pages do count toward the 40 page limit. Capability Assessment Method The government will use the information in your response to the RFI, as well as other information available to the government, to assess the industries capabilities and maturity to host and partner with USDA in this operation. ENCLOSURE 1?RELATED EXPERIENCE TEMPLATE This template should be used for all related experience categories as described in the RFI. All rows and format rows and columns as re-quired. Government or Commercial ASP Implementation EffortsRelated Experience Category 1Does not count toward page limit Client name Project name Contract value Period of performance Prime contractor name Scope of work Business value Repeated in other related experience categories (answer yes or no) Date received _________________ ENCLOSURE 2?ASP ASSESSMENT CHECKLIST ASP Assessment Checklist ----not counted toward page limitASP Product Vendor Name:ASP Product Name: ASP product question Answer Clarifying comments Name of Application Utilities and telecommunications And/Or Telecommunications (specify) First release date Current version number and release date Next version number and release date Installation base?federal government (number) Installation base?all sectors (num-ber) Representative federal government clients Representative other sector clients ASP product market share ASP product independent rank-ing/evaluation ASP vendor revenues for past 5 years ASP product licensing terms ASP product direction Types of support services provided by the ASP vendor, e.g., help desk and online support Other modules that fully integrate with the proposed ASP utilities and/or telecommunications system Security certifications (include SAS70) Customizations for other clients(explain the extent of these) Software Practices Implemented (describe those) Technical platforms supported Client workstation operating systems Server operating systems Database management systems Development languages
- Place of Performance
- Address: 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC
- Zip Code: 20250
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 20250
- Record
- SN01059531-W 20060602/060531220321 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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