Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF APRIL 18, 2015 FBO #4893
DOCUMENT

R -- Design Services Support for VA Center for Innovation - Attachment

Notice Date

4/16/2015
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

541611 — Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
 

Contracting Office

Strategic Acquisition Center - Frederick;Department of Veterans Affairs;321 Ballenger Center Drive, Suite 125;Frederick MD 21703
 

ZIP Code

21703
 

Solicitation Number

VA119A15N0134
 

Response Due

4/26/2015
 

Archive Date

5/11/2015
 

Point of Contact

Caitlin Palmer
 

E-Mail Address

9-6285<br
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

Purpose: The purpose of this Request For Information (RFI) is for market research purposes. This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and should not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the Government to provide support for any ideas identified in response to it. Please note that the United States Government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for its use of that information. Responses will be compiled and shared internally with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Responses: All interested parties are invited to respond. All responses must be submitted to caitlin.palmer@va.gov by 2:00 EST, April 26, 2015. Please limit responses to 5 pages using font no smaller than 10. Responders will receive an electronic confirmation acknowledging receipt of a response, but will not receive individualized feedback on any submissions. No basis for claims against the U.S. Government shall arise as a result of a response to this RFI or from the Government's use of such information. Please review the attached Draft version of the Statement of Objectives. Based on the requirements contained within the Statement of Objectives, please provide responses to the following questions: 1.Name of Company, Address and DUNS Number; 2.Point of Contact and Phone Number; 3.Business Size (Large, Small, SDVOSB/VOSB, etc.) NAICS codes are 541611,541613 and 541990. 4.If your company is a small business, confirm whether your company has the capability to satisfy the Federal Acquisition Regulation's (FAR) Limitations on Subcontracting (see FAR clause 52.219-14) should you be awarded this contract. Specifically, confirm whether your company has the capacity to successfully perform at least 50% of the contract requirements with its own employees. 5.Does your company have a GSA Schedule? If so, provide GSA Schedule/Contract Number. 6.Is your company registered in the System for Award Management (SAM)? Your company must be registered in SAM to be awarded a contract. 7.Please indicate with a positive statement whether you intend to submit a quote as a prime contractor. 8.What labor categories would you use to perform the work? 9.Provide a brief description of contracts of a similar nature (size, scope, and complexity) that your company has handled in the past 3 years, to include responses to the following questions: a)Specify aspects of the human-centered design process that your company used successfully in past projects, and provide detail about how they contributed to project success and specific project outcomes b)Provide examples of bringing the human-centered design process into a large organization unaccustomed to the methodology. How did you develop the curriculum? What were the particular challenges? How did you navigate those challenges? What were the outcomes? c)Provide examples of Product and Service Design projects. What methods did you use, and why? What were the outcomes? d)Provide examples of Visual Design projects. What were the project goals? How did you frame (or re-frame) the challenges? What approaches did you consider, and why did you ultimately choose the direction you did? e)What other skills do you consider important in performing the work? f)Describe you company's experience leading customer-centric culture change. What is your approach and process? How do you measure outcomes? DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. Draft Statement of Objectives (SOO) U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) VA Center for Innovation (VACI) Design Services Support 1.0 BACKGROUND Since 2010, VACI has worked to identify, test, and evaluate new approaches to the agency's most pressing challenges. Balancing the practical with the aspirational, VACI ensures a steady flow of high value innovations from concept to implementation, within the largest civilian cabinet agency. VACI believes in innovation that provides a tangible value to Veterans and/or VA-not innovation for its own sake. The work of VACI is driven by a strong commitment to a Veteran-centered approach to service delivery, dedication to data-driven decision-making, design thinking, and agile development. From empowering patients with access to their own electronic health records, to providing clinicians with time saving and life-saving mobile technology, our innovations are measured by their ability to improve the quality of VA care and services, increase access to those services, reduce or control costs, and improve customer satisfaction. The VACI is a team of innovators and doers who are constantly looking for opportunities to improve VA's products, services, and processes. To enable its ongoing pursuit of well-designed high impact solutions to VA's greatest needs, VACI seeks to establish a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). This BPA will be used to fill anticipated repetitive needs for design services support. Through this BPA, VACI seeks to build out the capacity for (1) a better organizational understanding of VA customers by developing customer insights, and (2) the creation of seamless cross-channel experiences through the application of human-centered design processes. This BPA will build on prior work by VACI to apply the Human-Centered Design methodology as an approach to building a Veteran-centered agency. Customer insight will benefit VA by creating a consistent shared understanding of who VACI's customers are, what they want and need and how they perceive their interactions with VA. Instead of imagining what customers want and need, this discipline utilizes a qualitative research approach to gather and analyze trustworthy, valid data. Action is taken against this understanding in a proactive, disciplined way through the practices of design. Design practices will benefit VA by providing a formal process of orchestrating the cross-channel touch points VA has with its customers. Design spans the complex system of people, products, interfaces, services and physical spaces that customers encounter in settings such as: medical centers, over the phone, or through digital media- like websites, mobile applications, and kiosks. Design utilizes findings from the customer insight capability to focus and define requirements and design those touch points and make changes that matter to customers, employees and partners. Design uses iterative idea generation, prototyping, and evaluation to learn by doing, and adjust based on data about what works. VACI believes that truly transformational innovation requires a deep understanding of our customers: Veterans, their families, friends, and the broader community of supporters. VACI will provide, through partnership with industry under this BPA, access to communication design, visual design, interaction design, and service design to serve those customers better. These capabilities can be integrated by various teams within VA and will lead to customer-driven experiences that ensure that VA fulfills its mission. 2.0 PROJECT PURPOSE/GOALS With this SOO, VACI seeks design services support to provide design thinking and human-centered design capacity across VA. 3.0 PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES The Contractors shall be responsible for the completion of the following with VACI: 1.Design anew or redesign VA's business models, organizational structure, and/or systems to ensure customers' needs are met and VA's organization is positioned to deliver a customer-centered experience. 2.Design and develop service design strategies, frameworks, and projects for VA products and services (across channels) that incorporate the voices of VA's customers. 3.Design and develop educational programs for VA employees around human-centered design, design thinking, and service design. 4.Design health and wellness programs, and/or brands that support Veterans and their families. 4.0 PERFORMANCE DETAILS 4.1 PERFORMANCE PERIOD: The period of performance shall be a twelve (12) month base period with four (4) twelve-month option periods. The anticipated award date is TBD, 2015. 4.2 TYPE OF CONTRACT VA intends to award a firm fixed price BPA. 4.3 PLACE OF PERFORMANCE: The place of performance shall include a combination of work in Washington DC, field work across the United States, and work at the performer's offices. 4.4 TRAVEL: The government anticipates travel under this effort to perform the tasks associated with the effort, as well as to attend program-related meetings through the period of performance. Include all estimate travel costs in your firm-fixed price line items. 5.0 SPECIFIC TASK AND DELIVERABLES In order to accomplish the above Performance Outcomes, the Contractor shall perform the following tasks in accordance with this SOO: TASK 1 - Discovery - Veterans' journeys, the ecosystem around Veterans, and VA The Contractor shall conduct a thorough Discovery around VA's customers, the larger ecosystem of organizations serving Veterans, and VA's current business model, strategies, products, services, and organizational structure and processes. This will include: "Conduct the first-ever large-scale, comprehensive research study around the current state of Veterans, their families, supporters, and the broader community of Veterans-focused organizations. oConduct the first-ever national (and international, as appropriate) research study of Veterans and other VA customers. The research will be conducted using best practice design research techniques (ethnography, shadowing, in-home) in customers' natural environments to understand their abilities, aptitudes, and attitudes. This will include placing Veterans' identities in the larger contexts of their lives. oMap the ecosystem of Veteran support services - who is doing what, where. This will include mapping VA's current "as is" role in the larger system, how VA's products and services currently complement each other and relate to the broader ecosystem (including overlaps and gaps). oSolicit feedback from customers about their experiences with VA (surveys & other intercept formats) oDocument customer understanding in ways that are easy for employees to understand through the development of personas, customer journey maps, and reports of findings. "Analyze/synthesize the state of the organization against customer needs oMap VA's products and services oAnalyze customer insights from the research study to identify key customer obstacles (or "pain points") and opportunities oEnvision the ideal customer experience delivery opportunities oIdentify a path to get from current state to ideal state oIdentify redundancies and current gaps oHelp guide decision-makers to understand VA's situation in a new way, through the lens of design thinking oIdentify opportunities to synthesize our service offerings across all channels into a more cohesive, customer-centric brand Deliverables: "Comprehensive portrait of the current state of Veterans, their supporters, the greater ecosystem, and VA. The portrait should be delivered in a well-designed, distributable form that communicates clearly, eloquently, and thoughtfully about the research findings. "Customer journey maps TASK 2 - VA Product/Service Redesign "Conduct tactical redesign on key user flows of digital and offline tools and associated processes currently in place oDigital (web, tablet, mobile, kiosk) oPaper (printed communications, forms, wayfinding in facilities) oCustomer "acquisition" and outreach oSimplify and clarify written communications for key VA service offerings "Engage VA customers, partners and employees as part of the experience design process (co-creation) "Use iterative ideation, prototyping, and evaluation as part of the experience design process for key projects the results of which will include strategies, frameworks, service designs, and projects "Design key customer touch points and service delivery oPhone: Call center consolidation, scripts and 1-800 number consolidation oDigital: Self-service omnichannel experience oMail: All letters, forms, communications oCommunications strategy: Across media including digital, video, print, advertising, etc. oOutreach/touching the community: Solidify partnerships "Design and conduct pilot projects in partnership with VA stakeholders Deliverables: "Redesigned service flows and end-to-end design that spans research, through concepting, detailed content strategy, visual design, interaction design, development and iteration. TASK 3 - Training and Organizational Development "Conduct training on and facilitation around the human-centered design methodology (train the trainers) to build capacity in human-centered design, design thinking, and service design oWork with employees across all business lines at VA to enable them to adopt new design methods and approaches to thinking about service delivery "Create supporting materials, frameworks and tools to accompany training oProvide employees with support, guidelines, frameworks and practical tools to be able to lead change within VA with confidence, and greater abilities, the results of which will include increased employee confidence, ability to know the next step in complex situations, insight into the roots of the challenges we face at VA and clarity on how to move forward toward the goal of a customer-centered organization. Deliverables: "Instructional material and associated facilitator guides for a workshop-based course for VA practitioners "Instructional material and associated facilitator guides for courses for VA leaders who would use human-centered design "Self-directed online course for all VA employees to think about how they can use design in their daily lives "Pilot tests of each course in several locations "Job aids, "smart cards," and other leave behind collateral and reference material 6.0 SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES Note: Days used in the table below refer to calendar days unless otherwise stated. Deliverables with due dates falling on a weekend or holiday shall be submitted the following government work-day after the weekend or holiday. All items will be delivered to the COR. TaskDeliverableDue Date (from contract award) TASK 1 - Discovery - Veterans' journeys, the ecosystem around Veterans, and VAComprehensive portrait of the current state of Veterans, their supporters, the greater ecosystem, and VA. The portrait should be delivered in a well-designed, distributable form that communicates clearly, eloquently, and thoughtfully about the research findings.182 days Option: update after 365 days Customer journey maps182 days TASK 2 - VA Product/Service Redesign Redesigned service flows and end-to-end design that spans research, through concepting, detailed content strategy, visual design, interaction design, development and iterationAfter 365 days up to 5 years TASK 3 - Training and Organizational Development Instructional material and associated facilitator guides for a workshop-based course for VA practitionersFirst drop: 182 days Revised every 6 months as needed Instructional material and associated facilitator guides for courses for VA leaders who would use human-centered designFirst drop: 182 days Revised every 6 months as needed Self-directed online course for all VA employees to think about how they can use design in their daily livesFirst drop: 365 days, Revised every 6 months as needed Pilot tests of each course in identified locationsThe first pilot should be completed no later than 90 days before the delivery Each pilot thereafter should no later than 30 days before final delivery Job aids, "smart cards," and other leave behind collateral and reference materialFirst drop: 182 days. Revised every 6 months after as needed (option) 7.0 KEY PERSONNEL The Contractor shall be responsible for managing and overseeing the activities of all Contractor personnel, as well as, subcontractor efforts used in performance of this effort. Contractor management responsibilities shall include all activities necessary to ensure the accomplishment of all tasks and deliverable requirements contained in this SOO. Contractor personnel shall have the level of experience necessary to accomplish the requirements of this SOO. 8.0 GENERAL REQUIREMENTS 8.2 CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION: A COR will be identified for this contract. The Contractor shall coordinate the service to be performed for the project with the COR before the start of work. The Contractor shall coordinate daily work with the daily activities VACI and the COR. The COR will provide Quality Assurance oversight to ensure contract work is being performed accurately and on schedule. COR will measure contractor's performance with Quality Assurance Plan Report. 9.0 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED INFORMATION VA will provide the Contractor with access to personnel, subject matter experts, and reference materials to meet this requirement. 10.0 GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY None.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/VA/AFMLOVASS/VASSMD/VA119A15N0134/listing.html)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: VA119A-15-N-0134 VA119A-15-N-0134_1.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=1987868&FileName=VA119A-15-N-0134-003.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=1987868&FileName=VA119A-15-N-0134-003.docx

 

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

Record

SN03701836-W 20150418/150416234656-ec60f7345c7929f6af9dd0475c90a19a (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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