SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Help Desk Support
- Notice Date
- 8/11/2009
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 561110
— Office Administrative Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Procurement Directorate - DC, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Room 1310 NP, Washington, District of Columbia, 20229, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20229
- Solicitation Number
- PR20048741
- Archive Date
- 10/6/2009
- Point of Contact
- Isabelle A. Nguyen, Phone: 202-344-3148
- E-Mail Address
-
isabelle.nguyen@dhs.gov
(isabelle.nguyen@dhs.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION PURSUANT TO FAR 15.201(e) INTRODUCTION The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Office of Information Technology (OIT) hereby issues the following Request for Information (RFI) pursuant to FAR 15.201(e) regarding available options for a Technical Support Center (Help Desk). BACKGROUND CBP's information systems network and data communications environment supports more than 1800 offices throughout the world with more than 500 non-CBP locations that also access various CBP systems. Currently, the CBP environment includes mainframes, server host systems, local and wide-area networks (LAN and WAN) systems, voice networks, and peripheral infrastructure (desktop systems). CBP’s Office of Information Technology (OIT), Enterprise Network & Technology Support (ENTS) Division, Level One Help Desk is the initial point of contact (POC) for information system problem reporting worldwide for the CBP user community. The CBP Technology Support Center (TSC) was established in June of 1991 and provided support for one application. In 1993, it was consolidated to support services within CBP under one organization. Through strong leadership and high professional standards, it is the goal of CBP to provide excellent support to its customers. CBP strives to handle all help desk requests in a timely, professional manner and to provide the fastest, most reliable service possible. Task order personnel play an integral role in providing support to customers and support in meeting CBP needs. TSC provides information systems and telecommunications support to approximately 60,000 internal customers and 160,000 external customers with a mission of keeping all systems owned by CBP running efficiently, cost effectively and allowing all customers to successfully operate within these systems. Call volumes average 55,000 per month and emails average 500 per day. The contractor shall provide professional technical staff that will answer and log all incoming requests in the Remedy ticket tracking system. SUPPORTED AREAS Program Offices support consists of taking requests from three major component groups with CBP. These are; Trusted Traveler Programs, Trades Programs, and employees & associates of Customs and Border Protection. Within these three major groups requests are received from, Office of Border Patrol, Internal Affairs, Training and Development, Human Resources Management, Field Operations, Office of Finance, other local and Federal Government agencies. Typical reported service requests or incidents include desktop application management (Tivoli pushes, create end points, connectivity issues, and application FAQs), Web interface availability checks, WAN/LAN Monitoring, Customer Account Management (add, create, modify, delete LAN accounts), and Monitoring Critical Systems. PURPOSE OF REQUEST FOR INFORMATION To provide the best possible support for CBP, internal customers, external commercial carriers, partners and all trusted travelers. CBP is seeking industry feedback regarding a methodology to accomplish third party Technology Support with minimum impact to CBP and its customers. This TSC request is separate and not in addition to any request made for Technology Support with CBP. CBP wishes to identify industry specific information provided by suitable industry business partners to help better define and support system requirements that would provide the best possible support. CBP envisions this industry Support to meet at a minimum the following requirements: a) Provide qualified Program and Help Desk management who shall be responsible for all Contractor work performed. b) Provide qualified technical staff to resolve reported incidents and service requests. c) Maintain a high percentage of calls answered, correctly processed and resolved IAW the service levels negotiated in the order. d) Maintain a high customer satisfaction rating. e) Provide consistency with Incidents and service requests processing. f) Minimized incident impact. g) Meeting cost, schedule, and performance constraints. h) Aggressive identification of risks, issues, and dependencies that results in cost savings and/or performance improvements i) Management and planning of day to day operations to ensure minimal impact to CBP and its customers. j) Statistical analysis and reporting that supports management information requirements and performance improvement. SCHEDULE CBP anticipates achieving full operation capability in October 2010. This schedule is notional and subject to change. RESPONSES REQUESTED In an effort to assist CBP in developing and maintaining a twenty four hour by seven days a week Technology Support Center please provide responses to the following questions and requirements. CBP understands that some responses may be conceptual, while other shall be limited to requirements. Describe the technologies and infrastructure currently employed by best practices using technical requirements by “Industry Standards”, including the following minimum requirements: -Work Breakdown Structure -Transition Plan Incoming / Outgoing -Management Plan: *Staffing (maximum ten pages) providing the following information: 1) Recent (performance within last three years) Help Desk experience relative to the items in the Performance Work Statement (PWS). 2) Address the appropriate number of staff required. (3) Qualifications of person or persons who will staff the contract. 3) Three contract references for work similar conducted. 4) Address training of new staff and the continuation of training requirements. 5) Quality Assurance Plan 6) Contingency Operations Plan a. Technologies implemented to ensure availability and performance. b. Estimated time frames to implement technical solution as described in the “Schedule” section. c. Describe your capability to provide and operate a potential technical help desk solutions, including current operations experience in delivering high-availability operational service levels. d. Describe your approach to providing a reporting capability (e.g. to report on: system performance, operational statistics, and staffing statistics etc.) e. Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate for help desk staff. Performance Assessment Plan: (1) Measurement/Metric - The contractor shall be measured (statistically) incoming requested and logged responses. Task results include: First Call Resolution to end results and timeliness. (2) Performance Standards - The contractor shall provide deliverables as specified for each task. (3) Acceptable Quality Level (AQL) - 98% answer rate and 75-80% first call resolution. (4) Method of Surveillance – Program Manager, and or Help Desk Manager, Government oversight and Customer Feedback. (5) Incentives - Inspection/Acceptance: Favorable performance reviews. INSTRUCTIONAL AND RESPONSES GUIDELINES RFI responses are due by 3:00 P.M. EST (Washington D.C. local time), Monday, September 21, 2009 and shall be limited to a total of 25 pages not including foldouts and full size page organizational charts. Page size is limited to 8.5 by 11 inches and shall be Times New Roman and 12-point font with 1 inch margins in a Microsoft word format. Both sides of the paper may be used but each side shall be included in the page numbering. Please provide the information you deem relevant in order to respond to the specific inquiries of this RFI. To support budget and planning purposes, you may also include cost estimates based upon the objectives. Information provided will be used solely by CBP as market research and will not be released outside of CBP TSC requirements team. This RFI does not constitute a Request For Proposal (RFP), invitation for Bid, or Request for Quotation, and it is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to enter into a contract, nor will the Government pay for the information submitted in response to this request. All information contained in this RFI is preliminary as well as subject to modification. The subject line shall read Technology Support Center. Reference the solicitation number on your quote. NOTE: We request that offers be Firm Fixed Price and labor rate sheets are included with information. PLACE OF PERFORMANCE: DC Metro Area or as directed by CO *All staff and any staff associate must be a citizen of the United States of America and be able to pass a Government Background Investigation. CBP intends to procure technical support services using a Performance Based Service Acquisition (PBSA). HOW TO RESPOND Please submit your response to this RFI via email to Isabelle Nguyen at isabelle.nguyen@dhs.gov no later than 3:00 P.M. EST (Washington D.C. local time), Monday, September 21, 2009. The capability statements are not to exceed 25 pages not including foldouts and full size page organizational charts.
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