SOURCES SOUGHT
R -- Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Technology Modernization IDIQ
- Notice Date
- 3/27/2017
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541511
— Custom Computer Programming Services
- Contracting Office
- Small Business Administration, Office of Chief Finanical Officer- Aquisition Division, SBA Contracting, 409 Third Street, S.W., Washington, District of Columbia, 20416, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20416
- Solicitation Number
- SBAHQ-17-R-0006
- Point of Contact
- Toni Hoskinson, Phone: 303-844-2026
- E-Mail Address
-
toni.hoskinson@sba.gov
(toni.hoskinson@sba.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- Sources Sought Notice | Request for Information Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) Technology Modernization IDIQ This is a SOURCES SOUGHT AND REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ANNOUNCEMENT to be used for market research ONLY to determine if there are a sufficient number of qualified and interested firms which can provide SBIC Technology Modernization IDIQ services and to provide details industry will need to develop a proposal. The primary NAICS code is 541511 but other NAICS codes may include 541512, 541513 and 541519. ALL SMALL BUSINESSES SHALL INDICATE SMALL BUSINESS SIZE STANDARD AND CLASSIFICATION. IF YOU HAVE A GSA SCHEDULE, PROVIDE DETAILS IN YOUR RESPONSE. NO SOLICITATION IS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. REQUIREMENT: Executive Summary The Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) of the Small Business Administration (SBA) intends to consider awarding either a Firm Fixed Price contract or a Firm Fixed Price Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to support and assist the SBA with execution of a Technology Modernization Pilot project for the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program, which will include continuing support for a current steady state web-based system. SBA estimates that a contract will be awarded during Q4 FY 2017 for the pilot phase outlined below. Based on the information provided your firm's response should annotate if this pilot could be accomplished between $150k to $500k. SBA may issue additional task orders in FY 2018 and subsequent years to deploy the modernized technology across the entire SBIC business process. Selection criteria may include companies with deep expertise with similar technology modernization projects, an ability to demo said projects, personnel with exceptional skills in Agile development, and a track record of highly successful long-term engagements with government agencies. OII proposes to modernize existing tools and information systems supporting SBIC program activities. OII seeks to integrate functionality and data related to all SBIC Program activities in order to support the full program lifecycle, from the initial inquiry for fund managers interested in becoming SBIC Licensees, through the licensing application and approval process, during the 10-year SBIC period of operations, through annual regulatory audits (examinations), and to the liquidation process for failing SBICs. Program activities currently depend on a collection of ad-hoc and/or paper-based processes and siloed applications used by the various offices that support the SBIC Program. Required functionality includes customer relationship management, document management, data extraction and sharing, automated forms generation, workflows, electronic signatures, a cloud and/or web-based User Interface, integration with a custom.NET application and SQLServer DB (SBIC Web), remote access to online tools, and data visualization, modeling, analysis, and reporting. The full scope of the SBIC workflow will be illustrated in the final solicitation. However, the purpose of this RFI is to start the process of identifying a solution to the needed integration described above by seeking sources that can execute a pilot delivering workflow automation using just one of the program activities. Beyond the pilot, future tasks are dependent upon the Agency's evaluation of the success of the solution as expressed through the pilot and the cost effectiveness of expanding the solution to other program activities. Problem Statement The SBIC program is a public private partnership. SBICs are privately owned and managed investment funds, licensed and regulated by SBA. At present, there are 317 SBIC funds. These funds use their own capital plus funds borrowed with an SBA guarantee to make equity and debt investments in qualifying small businesses. At present, the SBIC portfolio exceeds $28 billion. The U.S. Small Business Administration provides funding to qualified investment management firms with expertise in certain sectors or industries. The SBICs invest in roughly 1,200 small businesses totaling over $6 billion each year. There are a series of phases for SBICs during their 10+ years of existence. OII has offices dedicated to each and roughly 65 individuals working on the program overall: - Outreach: builds external awareness and handles initial inquiries about the program; - Licensing: reviews applications for SBIC licenses submitted by funds; - Business Operations: oversees data collection and funding of approved SBA debt; - Operations: oversees and monitors the financial performance of licensed funds; - Examinations: oversees and monitors regulatory compliances of licensed funds; and - Liquidation: maximizes recoveries from failing funds through liquidation. As the SBIC program has grown, OII has not invested in additional staff or technological solutions to keep pace. The office lacks the kind of integrated information management system for its documents, data, correspondences, and analyses that would help the office survive and thrive in this challenging, 21st century environment. Over the years, each of the six functional areas in the SBIC Program (listed above) developed independent systems for tracking information. The result has been duplicative processes and miscues in information transfer. What is needed is a cloud-based platform that serves as the central repository for all information pertaining to each SBIC Licensee and an intuitive user interface that is the primary access point for all users. The information that needs to be readily available is currently isolated within separate systems that do not communicate with each other. Ideally, this interface will be updated in real-time and will be capable of producing documents, reports, and analyses and substantially improve workflow across the program functional areas. Identifying and implementing an appropriate solution will improve the inputs, outputs, and outcomes from the six functional areas, which will greatly benefit senior decision-makers who need to get questions answered before putting taxpayer dollars at risk. At the same time, OII needs to maintain its current, steady state web-based system which serves as an online data collection portal through which critical financial data and documents are collected from SBIC Licensees. Accordingly, OII is looking to adopt a modern technology platform that better addresses user needs. Such platform would: ● Vastly improve communications and resource sharing across all SBIC offices; ● Reduce duplicative efforts while supporting document retention and access, risk management, and data security; ● Enhance reporting capabilities, data analysis, and asset tracking; ● Codify work processes; and ● Facilitate program operations through better customer service and employee engagement. For the purposes of this RFI, we are seeking information on the best means to implement this technology for the auditing process (Office of SBIC Examinations) only as a pilot and initial task order. To accomplish this, SBA will require services and functionality for the SBIC Program Technology; Modernization that includes the following at a minimum: • Customer relationship management to manage customer data and interaction. Capabilities to tag, track, and integrate SBIC correspondence within the document management system, organize file attachments, automate routine communications, and provide easy access to customer support. • A document management system capable of adding and deleting files, uploading and downloading files, generating and saving standard documents, populating documents with real-time data, automating and enforcing naming conventions and version controls, displaying metadata descriptions and analyst comments, adding electronic signatures, and universal searching and sorting of all document content and metadata. Capabilities to tag, track, and search SBIC documents, enable automated and manual metadata tagging, provide greater administrator control over documents and templates, and manage read, write, and other permissions. • Automated forms generation to collect and manage data. SBIC processes involve completing many legal forms and data collection electronic worksheets by many users of the system. The data is manually being filled in resulting in increased effort and manual errors. OII needs to be able to auto-populate forms and data collection electronic worksheets based on data already stored in the system. Functionality should be available to auto-populate standard forms with existing data, auto-populate data for workbook used by auditing staff (examiners) to be used while at site visit, ability to create new form templates and mapping of data elements, and generate PDF version of completed forms. • Workflows to provide automation for business processes such as approvals. (The referenced workflows are very high level processes. The SBIC lifecycle processes include many granular workflows that need to be captured in detail. This process is currently being undertaken through the creation of a data inventory and will be made available to the contractor.) • Electronic signatures to facilitate approvals and minimize the need for archiving of paper documents, including the functionality to generate and e-sign certificate forms. • A cloud-based or web-based User Interface that uses modern user testing and graphic design techniques to unify and manage all front-end components, display real-time dashboards and notifications, and engage all employees in a delightful, highly productive work environment. To enable OII Office staff, partners and other users to perform their day-to-day activities and to facilitate collaboration across offices, OII desires an easy-to-use, secure, and modern web interface. Functionality should be available to: o Allow controlled access to external(SBIC Partners, Inquirers) and internal users (OII Staff, Other SBA staff members) with appropriate authentication; o User-tested and process-driven UI/UX and graphics design; o Unify document, customer relationship, and data management systems o Integrate legacy systems, forms, and documents o Be 508 compliant o Provide administrative capabilities to manage users and user groups • Data sharing that enables SBICs to digitally submit and retrieve all official documents, correspondence, and other data with the requisite security and according to strict permissions. A critical need for OII is to enable real time access to information to all stakeholders. Data needs to be collected throughout the lifecycle and stored in a centralized repository where it can be shared across any and all tools and information systems used by the SBIC Program. The data store may include databases, document repositories, etc. Additional functionality should include: o Legacy data currently residing in disparate sources should be migrated so as to be accessible via this single repository and to be available for the purpose of reporting and analysis. o A role-based access control policy should secure the data against unauthorized access. • A data analysis, visualization, modeling, and reporting environment that can automate standard reports and analyses, allow users to run custom queries, clearly display and drill-down on data as needed, and export data, reports, and graphs to other applications and external parties. OII requires robust data analytics and visualization and reporting to support business analysis and decision-making. Functionality should be available to: o Automate standard fund, portfolio, and system-wide reports (e.g., performance management) o Run custom reports and queries for power users (e.g., analytics, evaluation) o Export data, reports, and graphs to other applications and external parties (e.g., Word, Excel, PDF, Access, SAS) o Modular with capacity for expansion (e.g., addition of new apps, service models) o Both ad hoc and canned reports will be defined based on the needs of the internal program as well as of external stakeholders including Congress. • Remote access to online tools as well as offline data capture that allow for reach-back to the SBA network for auditors during onsite visits. The staff members from the Office of Examinations are required to perform site visits. Staff members currently do not have access to SBA's network at these partner sites. Ensuring that all team members have SBA-issued laptops to facilitate their ability to access SBIC tools and information systems will be a first step in addressing this issue. For situations in which no internet connection is available, certain forms or documents need to be available offline, with an option to sync or upload data once a connection is available. • Audit tracking that captures the history of transactions and communications. For audit purposes, the history of transactions and communications, along with the users performing these actions, must be captured. • A legacy file importer (including data extraction) to convert the past three to five years of program documents from paper to electronic files for inclusion in the document management system. • Security and backup capabilities, including compliance with all Federal Government security mandates (such as FedRAMP). • A virtual data room that enables SBICs to digitally submit and retrieve all official documents, correspondence, and other data with the requisite security and according to strict permissions as an expansion to our existing system, SBIC Web. Functionality would also include the ability to generate and e-sign certificate forms and the requisite permissions and cybersecurity infrastructure to manage PII, such as a tamper-proof log of events for document version control. • SBIC Web, the current OII portal for data and document collection, must be subject to programming, updates and general maintenance while the other features of the pilot are under development. • Interconnectivity with other systems to support data sharing. The system shall connect to other internal SBA systems for push/pull of relevant data. These include: o eTRAN Loan Accounting System (Oracle Financials) o Partner Information Management System (PIMS) o SBIC Web (Custom.NET application using SQLServer DB) o Investment Division Information System (Microsoft Access-based application with front-end forms) o SharePoint (sync and manage documents) o Salesforce (initial marketing and contacts management) • Follow a Software as a Service (SaaS) model to the extent possible. • Be modular with capacity for expansion (e.g., addition of new apps, service models). • Support mobility such that all OII users, specifically auditors (examiners), may connect remotely to the system. • Provide a redundant backup system for all data as well as a revised enterprise data security regime. • Provide secure authentication and Role based Access Control. • Provide adequate system security to ensure the application acquires Authority to Operate after meeting the security requirements. • Support structured and unstructured data and files. • Hosted in the Cloud (Azure) with FedRAMP certification. • Provide periodic staff training on the new system. • Developed using an agile methodology and principles, as well as the standards and principles outlined in the U.S. Digital Service Playbook (https://playbook.cio.gov). It is the intent that an IDIQ be established to meet the above needs of SBA. It is estimated that this initial Task Order is between $150k and $500k. Industry is requested to acknowledge whether this estimate is satisfactory to accomplish the initial Task Order. Industry is also requested to suggest Contract Line Items or suggestions on additional information required in the final Statement of Objective. As part of this SS/Request For Information (RFI), interested parties are requested to comment on the possibility of accomplishing the requirement based on the above parameters. Requested Responses: Capability Statements Must Answer the Following Questions: Companies, educational Institutions or non-profit organizations who desire to participate in this market survey are encouraged to submit a white paper which supports their entity's claim that it presently has the qualifications and capabilities to satisfy the performance objectives as addressed below. The following questions should be answered within the white paper response: 1. What products and services should be contracted and/or developed internally to implement the functionalities above (i.e., the solution)? Please include any relevant documentation to support this solution-such as diagrams, demos, and case studies-as well as any alternative solutions that should be considered. 2. Are there similar solutions in use elsewhere? If so, please provide examples. 3. To what extent would COTS products and services be used vs. customized development solutions or specialized configuration of existing software/platforms? 4. What percent of these requirements would you estimate could be developed, implemented, and/or maintained in-house by the Office of the Chief Information Officer? 5. Which Agile or other methodology would be recommended to ensure that the project is proceeding at an appropriate pace? How should that development process be managed by the Agency? Also, please provide: 1. The full name of Contractor, Contractor's DUNS number, address, two points-of-contact with both email addresses and telephone numbers; 2. Contractor's socio-economic status and the related NAICS codes for which Contractor is registered in the System for Award Management (SAM); 3. A description of Contractor's core business, including its core competencies and services it currently provides; and 4. A description of Contractor's relevant experience in performing services covered by one or more of the NAICS codes listed above. Include any relevant contract numbers, Government or business names of parties, periods of performance, and value of contract. Include any GSA Schedule or other Government contracting vehicle to which Contractor is a schedule holder or party. For each contract reported, include whether Contractor was the Prime Contractor. 5. A description of Contractor's expertise and abilities to accomplish the SBIC Technology Modernization IDIQ under the discussed parameters. The company shall include a brief description of its SBIC Technology Modernization IDIQ plan to fulfill each of the items identified. Alternatively, the company shall provide a brief explanation of why the item identified is not achievable. The Government does not intend to award a contract based on this SS/RFI or otherwise pay for information solicited. Please identify any proprietary information submitted. All information submitted will be held in a confidential status. Responses should be limited to a maximum of five pages and should be submitted to Toni Hoskinson, Contracting Officer, toni.hoskinson@sba.gov, no later than April 6, 2017 by 3:00p.m. Mountain Time. Any appendix, graphs or tables included count toward the page limitation. Please note that this is not a request for quotes or proposals; the Government is seeking information for market research purposes only. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method. A solicitation is currently not available. The Government may or may not issue solicitation documents.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/SBA/OOA/OPGM/SBAHQ-17-R-0006/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: 419 3rd St, Washington, District of Columbia, 20416, United States
- Zip Code: 20416
- Zip Code: 20416
- Record
- SN04449072-W 20170329/170327235251-712741b1f80d8594ddef9b2bb0239b6b (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 |