Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 12, 2009 FBO #2635
DOCUMENT

D -- Department of Homeland Security Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading-Edge Solutions (EAGLE) II - Request for Information

Notice Date

2/10/2009
 

Notice Type

Request for Information
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Office of the Chief Procurement Officer, Washington, District of Columbia, 20528, United States
 

ZIP Code

20528
 

Solicitation Number

DHSEAGLE2
 

Point of Contact

Holly Donawa,, Phone: 202-447-5566, Donna Porter,, Phone: 202-447-5230
 

E-Mail Address

holly.donawa@hq.dhs.gov, donna.porter@dhs.gov
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) EAGLE II – Small Business Overview: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a significant and continued need for information technology (IT) services to support the execution of its mission. DHS has met that need principally through the use of the Enterprise Acquisition Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions (EAGLE). The original EAGLE suite of contracts was awarded to 25 large businesses (in June 2006) and 28 small businesses (in September 2006) across five (5) functional categories with a five year base period and two (2) one (1) year options. Under this arrangement, individual task order competition can be limited to small businesses within a selected functional category if there are two or more small businesses that can provide the required services. For details on the current EAGLE contract, please visit the DHS open for business website at: http://www.dhs.gov/xopnbiz/opportunities/editorial_0700.shtm. As required per the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), contractors are required to re-represent their size status for long-term contracts, those contracts in excess of 5 years, if a merger or acquisition occurs, or if there are contracts with novation agreements. The purpose of the re-representation rule is to improve the accuracy of small business size status reporting. This rule was added to all of the EAGLE contracts. Nine (9) of the original 28 EAGLE small businesses have since been acquired by larger firms; thus, they no longer have small business status but can compete for task orders which are not set-aside for small businesses. DHS expects that a majority of the existing EAGLE small businesses will not qualify as ‘small’ at the end of year 5 of the contract. With 19 small businesses remaining in the EAGLE suite of contracts and 2 ½ years of contract performance remaining, DHS does not plan to “ramp-up” (add contractors to the EAGLE suite of contracts). Instead, the plan is to consider proceeding with EAGLE II – Small Business. Background: The existing EAGLE contract serves as a department-wide platform for acquiring Information Technology (IT) service solutions in five functional categories (FC's): •FC1 – Engineering Design, Development, Implementation and Integration •FC2 – Operations and Maintenance (2 tiers; 1 without telecommunications and 1 with telecommunications) •FC3 – Independent Test, Evaluation, Validation and Verification •FC4 – Software Development •FC5 – Management Support Services In reviewing the EAGLE task orders awarded to date, DHS has observed that FC3 has rarely been used and FC5 is best leveraged when included as part of each EAGLE task order requirement. In addition, preliminary small business market research has indicated that the small business IT community is capable of providing services involved in categories FC1, FC2, and FC4. Further, DHS has noted that an increasing number of small businesses are capable of providing IT services that have a substantial telecommunications element - currently FC2 – Tier 2. Strategy: Accordingly, DHS has developed two one page charts summarizing alternative approaches (please see Attachment A – Alternative Strategy Using Small Business Category Tracks and Attachment B – Alternative Strategy Using Functional Category Tracks). Alternative 1 utilizes a small business category approach where task orders would be competed within separate pools for 8(a) small businesses, HUBZone small businesses, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned small businesses, small businesses, and IT/Telecommunications small businesses. Alternative 2, utilizes a functional category approach where award pools would be established using functional areas of work. The scope of each contract would be limited to that functional category and market research would determine which small business category would be the targeted pool. EAGLE II – Small Business will continue to be a suite of Indefinite-Delivery, Indefinite-Quantity services-based contracts that will enable all DHS components to acquire IT support services to accomplish their mission objectives. DHS believes that either of the proposed approaches provides outstanding opportunities for the small business community, while enabling DHS to benefit from a highly capable small business IT talent pool. Additionally, both approaches support our ongoing commitment of identifying opportunities for the various federal small business programs. Requirement: The DHS Office of Procurement Operations (OPO), invites interested vendors to respond to this notice by providing comments on the attached draft “EAGLE II – Small Business” proposed plans for the follow-on effort for the EAGLE contract (see Attachments A and B). It is important to note that vendor responses are solely for the purpose of requesting industry feedback and neither constitute pre-competition, nor will responses be evaluated in any way. These draft plans should not be construed in any way as the official EAGLE II – Small Business plans, nor do they commit DHS to a particular course of action or a particular timeline. This is a market research effort to gain insight into the capacity of the small business community to meet continuing DHS IT requirements. Vendors are invited to address any subject(s)/issue(s); however, the Government is particularly interested in feedback and comments in these areas: oAlternative Strategy using a Small Business Category (Attachment A) or Functional Category (Attachment B); oUtilization of a 2-Phase award process for EAGLE II, i.e. where phase 1 will evaluate vendors on a fairly limited basis short of full proposals such as capability statements and phase 2 would be full proposals including price for those small businesses invited to continue to phase 2; oPerformance-based considerations; and, oIndustry Best Practices that might be appropriate to consider in planning and executing EAGLE II-Small Business. All vendors interested in submitting a response should do so electronically to DHSEAGLE2@dhs.gov no later than 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, on Wednesday February 25, 2009. This submission should not exceed 10 pages. Efforts should be made to keep responses as BRIEF as possible, concentrating on substantive information. The Government will not pay for the cost of response submissions. Vendors must appropriately mark each page of their submission that contains proprietary information. DHS will adhere to Federal Acquisition Regulation policy on handling proprietary information. This is not a Request for Proposal and no contract will be awarded as a result of this RFI notice. The Government reserves the right to post additional notices relative to the RFI and request capability statements and/or similar documentation. Please note that no registration is required nor is a bid list maintained.
 

Web Link

FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=0325cd2ea1cc6c6e6829c9b9e8f2fbc3&tab=core&_cview=1)
 

Document(s)

Request for Information
 

File Name: Attachment A: Alternative Strategy Small Business Category Approach (Attachment A - Alternative Strategy Small Business Category Approach.doc)

Link: https://www.fbo.gov//utils/view?id=7dee57749861ee23040be7a144d34f3b

Bytes: 35.50 Kb
 

File Name: Attachment B: Alternative Strategy Functional Category Approach (Attachment B - Alternative Strategy Functional Category Approach.doc)

Link: https://www.fbo.gov//utils/view?id=73425892bb064c35599d92c133557e4c

Bytes: 37.50 Kb
 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Record

SN01747813-W 20090212/090210220332-0325cd2ea1cc6c6e6829c9b9e8f2fbc3 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

---

| FSG Index  |  This Issue's Index  |  Today's FBO Daily Index Page |