SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- New Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) for CIO-SP2i and IW2nd
- Notice Date
- 4/30/2008
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541512
— Computer Systems Design Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Office of Administration, 6011 Executive Blvd, Rm 538, Rockville, Maryland, 20892-7663
- ZIP Code
- 20892-7663
- Solicitation Number
- CIO-SPNEW
- Point of Contact
- Wanda F Russell,, Phone: 301-402-3085, John Q Chiu,, Phone: 301-594-0814
- E-Mail Address
-
wr9i@nih.gov, chiuj@mail.nih.gov
- Description
- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION FUTURE CONTRACTS CIO-SPNEW 1. Background The federal government is committed to changing its business processes to achieve a world class standard of excellence. This is being accomplished by adopting best business practices and the latest technology to create a more efficient, citizen-centered federal government. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been designated as an executive agent for purposes of providing Information Technology (IT) to the government. Under this authority, NIH established three Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) to support the full range of IT needs across the federal government, with a particular emphasis on agencies like NIH and its parent, HHS that are involved in health care and clinical and biological research. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to open a dialogue with industry and potential federal government customer agencies as NIH formulates its sourcing strategy and request for proposals for the next generation contract (or contracts) to support government IT efforts, with a focus on health and research IT. This next general contract (or contracts) will be a successor to the current Chief Information Officer – Solutions and Partners 2 Innovations (CIO-SP2i) and the Image World 2 New Dimensions (IW2nd) GWACs, which will be expiring in December 2010. The third GWAC, the Electronic Commodities Store (ECS) III contract, is not expiring until 2012 and will continue to stay in effect. The government’s goal in this effort is to award the new contract (or contracts) to replace the CIO-SP2i contract and the IW2nd contract as far in advance as practical to facilitate effective contract transition. Although there is no guarantee of future work under the successor contract (except for the minimum guarantee normally included in Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contracts), approximately $2.95billion has been ordered through these two GWACs over the life of the contracts from all sources. Approximately 56% of that total was for HHS customers, including NIH. 2. Scope Using the current contracts as a baseline, the government may award one or more Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) in several functional areas. Contractors will be given an opportunity to qualify in one or more of these areas. Services are contracted for as needed via competitive task orders with the resultant GWAC holders. The government is also interested in ways to maximize opportunities for small and disadvantaged business concerns. The government currently envisions ten functional areas in the new contract (or contracts). Over the ten year lifetime of the anticipated contract, technology will evolve, and as such, the government is looking to industry for innovative solutions in helping to develop a scope of work that meets current and future needs of the NIH, HHS, and the government-wide IT community, with a focus on health care IT, aligned with the Federal Enterprise Architecture. The ten task areas described as follows are intended to be applied broadly to technology services and incorporate these technology advances. Specific details of task assignments, deliverables, documentation, training, applicable government/department/industry standards, etc., will be provided within individual task orders. Individual task orders may include components from one or more task areas. Task Area 1 – Chief Information Officer (CIO) Support. The objective of this task area is to provide support to CIOs in implementing relevant laws, regulations, and policies, such as Paperwork Reduction Act, the Computer Security Act, Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) #63, Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), and the Clinger-Cohen Act. Typical tasks may include services such as Total Cost of Ownership Studies, market research, agency enterprise architecture and information technology (IT) architecture support, A-76 studies, workforce management studies, IT Investment Board Process support, and SEI/CMMI analyses and implementation support. Task Area 2 – Outsourcing. The objective of this task is to provide the IT infrastructure and IT services required to assume management and operations of government IT resources and IT business functions. Task Area 3 – IT Operations and Maintenance. The purpose of this task area is to support the operation and maintenance of IT systems in a manner that is kept viable with current vendor releases or government-off-the-shelf (GOTS) applications software upgrades. Operations and maintenance on IT systems normally covers all software and hardware associated with mainframe CPU's, PC-client/server, network-backbone-front end processors and all networks. Task Area 4 – Integration Services. The purpose of this task area is to provide all activities necessary to develop and deploy an information system. These efforts can include the integration of technical components, organizational components and documentation. Systems integration may make use of program management, technical laboratories, prototypes, pilot systems, and tools and methodologies germane to business analysis and business process reengineering. Especially in the healthcare and research domain, medical imaging systems, electronic health records, patient management systems, clinical management systems, and laboratory management systems are often provided via integration of commercial components with existing infrastructure. Task Area 5 – Critical Infrastructure Protection and Information Assurance. The purpose of this task area is to obtain the services that provide for the protection of critical infrastructure and assurance of agency information in ways that ensure confidentiality, integrity, availability, accountability, restoration, authentication, non-repudiation, protection, detection, monitoring, and event react capabilities. This task area may include security certification and accreditation, disaster recovery, emergency preparedness, information assurance, information systems security, facility protection planning, risk management, critical infrastructure asset identification, Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) support, records management, electronic messaging, and intelligent data collection and analysis. Task Area 6 – Digital Government. The purpose of this task area is to provide government services through digital, electronic means. This task area may include business intelligence, customer relationship management, data mining, data warehousing, electronic commerce/electronic data interchange, internet/intranet/ extranet, B2G solutions, IT-enhanced public outreach services, performance management, knowledge management, workflow management, strategic planning, and web development and support. Task Area 7 – Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The purpose of this task area is to provide for the support needed to implement ERP applications in the federal government, such as financials, human resources, supply chain management, manufacturing projects, and front office support. Task Area 8 – Healthcare and Biomedical Research. The purpose of this task area is for the operation and maintenance of IT systems, IT equipment, hardware, software, IT processes, and IT procedures that support government healthcare functions and biomedical clinical and research activities. This task area supports researchers and clinicians by performing health care systems studies, and providing operational, technical, and maintenance services for the systems, subsystems, and equipment that interface with and are extensions to information systems. This task area also supports intramural researchers (computational bio-science, etc.) as well as healthcare functions throughout the federal government. This task area may include services such as Bioinformatics software (e.g. gene array design, gene array analysis, proteomics software, etc.) and services, biological databases, natural language processing software and services (focused on biology and medicine), biomedical information services, patient management systems, electronic medical record software and services, laboratory management systems, clinical support systems, medical decision support software, and other healthcare systems studies and scientific computing services. Task Area 9 – Software Development. The purpose of this task area is to provide for customized software applications, database applications, and other solutions not available in off-the-shelf modular software applications. Task Area 10 – Imaging. The purpose of this task area is to provide for the systems and services that collect, store and retrieve digital images. Such images can include scanned documents, medical images, geographical information systems, video, and photographs. Examples of the type of work to be performed under this task area include Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), Geographical Information Systems and their applications, Document Management Systems, Workflow management for digital imaging functions, Digital library management, biometrics (face recognition, iris scans, fingerprint/palmprint recognizers, computationally intensive surveillance and related systems. 3. Approach This RFI focuses on the technology and best business practices that would be required to implement a new contract (or contracts) to replace the current CIO-SP2i and IW2nd GWACs. Vendors and potential government customers are requested to follow the format of the Directed Topics for Responses, Section 5. NITAAC will evaluate and analyze all responses to this RFI. The information received may be: • used in developing a business case for the project • considered in the preparation of a subsequent Request for Proposal 4. Responses Prospective vendors and government agencies are invited to resond to the RFI by sending email to RFI-NITAAC@mail.nih.gov no later than 9AM EST, May 15, 2008. Responses should include the name, telephone number, and e-mail address of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with us. Responses from vendors should be in Microsoft Office product format (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and, where possible, include the following: 1. A brief description of the firm including the corporate Web site, the firm’s business size, and NAICs code (see http://www.sba.gov/size/indextableofsize.html 2. A declaration of any potential conflicts of interest the firm may have in performing the work. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 9.504, the Government is seeking to identify and evaluate potential organizational conflicts of interest as early in the acquisition process as possible. The Government will evaluate such information and will, if deemed necessary, impose an appropriate mitigation strategy, which could include restricting the competition on a case by case basis. 3. A statement of qualifications for the firm including a brief description of the firm’s quality control processes for deliverables. 4. A summary of the extent of involvement of small and disadvantaged company sub-contractors in past contracts. 5. A response to the sections and paragraphs according to the paragraph numbers listed in section 5, Directed Topics for Responses. NIH would appreciate respondents referencing the paragraph numbers in Section 5 for each part of their response. Respondents are invited to answer some or all of the sections. The government appreciates focused responses for each topic. Respondents to this RFI may be requested to provide additional information or details based on their initial submittals. This RFI is for planning purposes only and there is no intention to acquire any products or services, or award any contract, based on this RFI. Information contained in this RFI is the result of experience with the current GWACs and is therefore potentially subject to modification and is in no way binding on the government. An appropriate RFP process may follow in the June 2008 timeframe, contingent upon final approval for the project. The government does not intend to pay for the information solicited. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the government will arise because of submission of responses to this RFI and the government’s use of such information. The government prefers that no proprietary or confidential business data be submitted in response to this RFI. However, responses to this RFI that indicate that the information therein is proprietary, or represents confidential business information, will be received and held in confidence. Proprietary information submitted, as part of responses to the RFI, should be clearly identified as COMMERCIAL IN-CONFIDENCE and it will be treated in-confidence. Prospective vendors and government agencies may also submit questions regarding the project. Questions should be addressed to the same email address: RFI-NITAAC@mail.nih.gov. Answers to questions received on or before May 7, 2008 will be posted on FEDBIZOPPS. The government may consider questions received after that date, but there is no obligation for the government to post any further answers. 5. Directed Topics for Responses The government requests vendors respond to the RFI in the order specified in the sections below. 5.1Sourcing 5.1.1 Currently, NIH is obtaining these services under two separate GWACs, the CIO-SP2i and IW2nd. Considering how imaging is being integrated throughout other IT systems, NIH is planning on combining these two contracts into one. Please describe any advantages or disadvantages and whether imaging should be a separate functional area in the contract or integrated with the other functional areas. 5.1.2 What strategies should be employed in the RFP to assist in a Best Value award determination? What best practices have been employed in other similar types of contracts? 5.1.3 To maximize opportunities for small (SB) and small disadvantaged business (SDB), NIH is considering the possibility of having a separate bidding category for task orders that are set aside for SB and SDB. Do you think this is a necessary feature to improve opportunities for small businesses? Are there other ways NIH can improve opportunities for SDBs? 5.1.4 How should NIH best incorporate small business into the sourcing strategy that will provide maximum opportunities for the various small business categories, such as woman-owned, service disabled veteran owned, small disadvantaged, HubZone, etc.? 5.1.5 Should incentives be built in for small disadvantaged business, and if so, what should these be? 5.1.6 What strategies should be employed to take a successful performance based approach? 5.1.7 What off-shoring issues should be considered to ensure that national interests and sensitive information is protected, quality and reliability is high, and that the IT solutions are aligned with NIH and federal government practices and standards? 5.1.8 CIO-SP2i included an explicit task area for ERP. Is this task area still important to identify as a separate focus area? 5.1.9 In the interest of attracting capable contractors who specialize in areas of interest to NIH, contractors may be qualified on a subset of the 10 task areas. What do you see as the advantages and disadvantages of partial qualification? Should this strategy be applied to all contractors or just SDBs as it was on CIO-SP2i? 5.1.10 Should there be any limitations on administrative fees that are remitted to NIH to reimburse NIH for the cost of administering the contract and task orders? 5.1.11 Considering that a 10-year contract is being envisioned, and considering the quickly changing technology anticipated during that period, what provisions, if any, should be made to allow additional contractors to participate during the course of the contract? Are you familiar with any other procurement where this was done successfully? 5.1.12 What provisions should be included, if any, to allow contractors to qualify for additional functional areas during the course of the contract? 5.1.13 Should the contract include restrictions on the use of subcontractors, e.g., having vendors list their subcontractors in the contract and restricting subcontractors to work with only one prime contractor at a time? 5.2 IT Policy Compliance 5.2.1 Support to the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) will be maintained through a mapping of contract functional areas to the FEA, rather than a direct citation of the FEA elements as the scope. The assumption is that this will provide a more familiar and understandable depiction of the scope and make it easier for vendors to qualify for individual task areas. Is this assumption valid? 5.3 Scope 5.3.1 Are there other functions, capabilities, and features beyond those currently contained in the CIO-SP2i and IW2nd GWACs that should be added to the new contract scope either because they are related services or that they represent directions that industry or potential government customers predict will become more germane to this domain area in the future? 5.4 Architecture 5.4.1 Are there issues to be considered when mapping to the Federal Enterprise Architecture? 5.5 Security 5.5.1 Are there recommendations to consider regarding architectural and technical information on the security provisions that would be suitable for this contract (s). 5.5.2 What risks exist and what mitigation steps can be taken? 5.5.3 How is privacy information secured and protected in your data base? 5.5.4 How and where is authentication done? 5.5.5 How is the information secured during transmission? 5.5.6 What challenges, if any, are there for your company to comply with the Federal Information Security Management Act of 2002 (FISMA) requirements? 5.5.7 What challenges, if any, are there for your company to comply with and utilize standards and guidelines promulgated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in its entity-wide information security program? 5.5.8 What challenges, if any, are there for your company to comply with the applicable standards, implementation specifications, and requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security rule, found at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/SecurityStandard/Downloads/securityfinalrule.pdf covering electronically protected health information? 5.6 Best Business Practices 5.6.1 Are there best business practices you could recommend that are pertinent to this project? 5.6.2 Are there best business practices you could recommend that are specific to the IT industry? 5.6.3 Are there best business practices you could recommend that would better automate task order processing? 5.6.4 Are there any other suggestions or ideas for NIH to consider in this requirement?
- Web Link
-
FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=88ffcbd3a463db50f577db6f63cac9a4&tab=core&_cview=1)
- Place of Performance
- Address: National Insitutes of Health Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center, 6011 Executive Blvd, Ste.503, Rockville, Maryland, 20852, United States
- Zip Code: 20852
- Zip Code: 20852
- Record
- SN01563952-W 20080502/080430221414-88ffcbd3a463db50f577db6f63cac9a4 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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