SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- Request for Information (RFI) - Information Technology Modernization - Request for Information - CNCS IT Modernization
- Notice Date
- 5/8/2014
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541511
— Custom Computer Programming Services
- Contracting Office
- Corporation for National and Community Service, Procurement, Office of Procurement Services, 1201 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20525
- ZIP Code
- 20525
- Solicitation Number
- CNSHQ14RFI0003
- Archive Date
- 6/7/2014
- Point of Contact
- Henrietta Young, Phone: 202-606-6988, Christina M. Williams, Phone: 2026063232
- E-Mail Address
-
hyoung@cns.gov, cmwilliams@cns.gov
(hyoung@cns.gov, cmwilliams@cns.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- RFI - CNCS IT Modernization Appendix C - CNCS Technical Environment - 2014 Appendix B - CNCS System Diagram - 2013 Appendix A - CNCS Organization and Programs - 2014 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION BY THE CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE RELATED TO IT MODERNIZATION SECTION 1 GENERAL INVITATION The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is performing market research in support of an upcoming procurement for IT systems modernization services. CNCS invites all firms with expertise and experience modernizing enterprise scale, legacy, highly-customized, information systems using innovative, cost-effective approaches including "cloud" services (e.g., Platform as a Service (PaaS) Software as a Service (SaaS) and commercial off the shelf software (COTS)) to respond to this Request for Information (RFI), especially those with expertise in managing a hybrid environment of modern and legacy technologies through a phased transition period. SECTION 2 PURPOSE OF RFI AND INFORMATION REQUESTED Pursuant to FAR 52.215-3 Request for Information. The information requested through this RFI will assist the Federal Government in identifying current proven technologies and approaches to IT modernization and addressing challenges associated with integrating with, and migrating from, the legacy environment in a cost-effective manner. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. The Federal Government will not pay respondents for any information or administrative costs incurred by responding to this RFI. This RFI does not commit the Federal Government to any supply or service. Although "proposal" and "offeror" may be used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal. SECTION 3 PREREQUISITE REQUIREMENTS The intent of this RFI is to gather market research from responders who have proven experience modernizing enterprise scale, Federal legacy applications using PaaS, SaaS, or COTS and addressing the challenges of integrating with and migrating some modules from a legacy, operational system. Only providers who can meet the following prerequisites should respond. • Proven experience implementing a phased, modular approach to modernizing applications in a legacy operational system (based on Oracle, Java, and Oracle forms technology) using new, highly configurable and flexible technology (e.g., SaaS, PaaS) with minimal disruption; • Expertise integrating SaaS, PaaS, COTS offerings with legacy systems (e.g., Financial Management, Department of Treasury, and HHS Payment Management Systems); and • Tested approaches to cost-effectively and efficiently integrating and managing data across multiple databases hosted with differing service providers. Ideally, responders would have direct experience working with Grants Management and/or Member Management (including human resource management with functions including payroll, education award management) information systems. SECTION 4 RELEVANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION Established in 1993, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is a federal agency that engages more than 5 million Americans in service through its core programs -- Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and the Social Innovation Fund -- and leads President Obama's national call to service initiative, United We Serve. More information about CNCS and its programs is available in Appendix A (CNCS Organization and Programs). To support and manage its programs, CNCS utilizes one Oracle relational database with four major application modules collectively known as eSPAN (henceforth referred to as the CNCS AIS). The CNCS AIS application modules (eSPAN, eGrants (Classic and Phase 2), My AmeriCorps Portal, and Performance Measures Module) perform the grant application, grant management, and member management missions of CNCS. These application modules are critical to CNCS's core operations and are used by CNCS staff/contractors (approximately 800 people), grantees (3,000 organizations), and AmeriCorps members (850,000 active members and alumni). With the exception of staff/contractors, all other users access the system through public facing web based portals. All modules rely on a single, shared Oracle database. Staff largely execute functions and access data via a Staff Portal module (Oracle, JAVA), eGrants Classic, and eSPAN (Oracle Forms) whereas external stakeholders execute functions via Grantee Portal/eGrants Phase 2 or My AmeriCorps Portal (Oracle, Java). In addition to the modules that comprise the CNCS AIS, CNCS also maintains an Oracle data warehouse (ARES), several internal system interfaces with our financial system, Momentum, an external interface with the Social Security Administration, and a document management system, Indicium. CNCS uses both Crystal Reports and MicroStrategy to run reports against the ARES. Please refer to Appendix B and C for more information regarding CNCS's technical environment. Since 2010, CNCS has made limited, targeted updates to the AIS technical environment and functionality to respond to evolving mission needs resulting in a complex system and underlying data structure that is both costly to maintain and unable to keep pace with emerging business requirements. In response, CNCS has developed a multi-year road-map for modernizing its AIS with the target technical environment that is data-centric, flexible, and highly configurable enabling the CNCS Office of Information Technology (OIT) to quickly, and cost effectively respond to emerging business requirements. With this RFI, CNCS is seeking industry input to inform technical alternatives planning and support acquisition planning. SECTION 5 TECHNICAL QUESTIONS (5 PAGE LIMIT FOR RESPONSES) 1. Given CNCS's existing technology (e.g., Oracle, Oracle Forms, Java) and desired target technical state (flexible, configurable, and cost effective to maintain), what specific technologies (e.g., SaaS, PaaS, COTS) would you propose that CNCS use to build its next generation Federal Agency grants and member management system and why? Also, provide an example of where your firm has successfully used this technical solution to help a government agency modernize. 2. As a follow-on to question 1, describe your recommended approach including high-level sequence of activities for an iterative, transition to the target technologies, including migrating the oldest technology in the AIS (i.e., Oracle Forms) with enhancements to the new platform with minimal interruption to the operational system? Please also describe your proposed solution for integrating and effectively managing (including synchronizing) data in the legacy database, the ARES data warehouse, and any other new databases that may be associated with the proposed technologies. 3. Based on your experience executing enterprise IT modernization for other federal Agencies, what are some of the critical success factors and lessons learned that CNCS should consider as part of its planning? 4. What specific information does industry require to adequately estimate the level of effort and to price IT modernization support/integration services which would likely include program management, PaaS, SaaS, COTS set-up and configuration/software development, testing, and deployment? [Note: Most of the projects will involve replacing or optimizing screens/functions included in legacy environment; however there will be some completely new applications as well]. 5. Are you a vendor that is currently on any Government Wide Acquisition Contract(s)? If so, please provide specific references to which. SECTION 6 HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR RESPONSES VENDOR RESPONSES All responses are to be submitted to hyoung@cns.gov Questions for this RFI will be accepted until May 16, 2014, 3 pm (EST) Responses to Questions will be released on May 20, 2013, 3 pm (EST) The closing date for responses is: May 23, 2013, 3 pm (EST) Vendor Response Template: Contact Information The template below can be used for these initial responses, or you can use your own documentation format to provide the same information. VENDOR CONTACT DETAILS SAM Registered Company Name DUNS Number EIN Registered Address Trading Address Main Telephone Number Website INDIVIDUAL CONTACT DETAILS Primary Sales Contact : Name Primary Sales Contact : Phone Primary Sales Contact : Email Secondary Service Contact : Name Secondary Service Contact : Phone Secondary Service Contact : Email VENDOR BACKGROUND (EACH NO MORE THAN 150 WORDS.) Capability Statement Number of Employees Vendor Experience. (Number of similar projects) Consulting resource pool, ( Split by employed and associate consultants ) Vendor Offering (Each no more than 150 words.) Overview of service offering Implementation Methodology Unique selling point VENDOR FEEDBACK (EACH NO MORE THAN 150 WORDS.) From past experience has enough information been provided within the RFI? Lowest to Highest indicative budget estimate: Shortest to Longest estimate for project duration: Additional considerations or project components that we might look to include: Vendor References Provide details of similar projects undertaken (up to 150 words ) which can be used as reference sites. Example 1 Example 2 Example 3 RFI PROCESS & RULES INITIAL RFI • Responses are to be received no later than 3 pm May 23, 2013 (EST) • NO INTERVIEWS WILL BE GRANTED/DONE AT THIS PHASE. • The submission of a response to any tender documents ( RFI,RFP,RFQ,RFT,RFR) does not give rise to any enforceable rights by the tenderer. • We reserve the right to cancel the RFI process at any time and reserve the right to re-tender for the same requirements. • Any existing or potential conflicts of interest by the vendors must be disclosed at the RFI stage. COMMUNICATION DURING THE RFI PROCESS • During the RFI process all communications and questions should be addressed to the Contracting Officer, Ms. Henrietta Young at hyoung@cns.gov. RFI RESPONSE CRITERIA • Vendor responses are to be submitted as an attached file via email to the Contracting Officer at hyoung@cns.gov • Vendor responses must clearly identify their responses to Section 5 Technical Questions separate from information provided. • Section 5 Template Questions has a 5 Page limit • The purpose of the RFI is to gather information to support planning and development of an RFP document in the near future. • The criteria when reviewing the RFI's will be as follows: • The supplier has demonstrated through references and technical aptitude that they have successfully delivered similar projects in the past and capabilities to support CNCS IT modernization.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/CNS/CFO/WashingtonDC/CNSHQ14RFI0003/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Corporation for National and Community Service Headquarters, 1201 New York Ave., NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20005, United States
- Zip Code: 20005
- Zip Code: 20005
- Record
- SN03360550-W 20140510/140509021534-00c7d8b06fc5bd0df77b72797407890b (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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