SPECIAL NOTICE
D -- Department of State RPA Draft Solicitation and Industry Day
- Notice Date
- 7/12/2021 1:41:24 PM
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541519
— Other Computer Related Services
- Contracting Office
- ACQUISITIONS - AQM MOMENTUM WASHINGTON DC 20520 USA
- ZIP Code
- 20520
- Solicitation Number
- 19AQMM21R1001
- Response Due
- 7/12/2021 7:00:00 AM
- Archive Date
- 07/27/2021
- Point of Contact
- Anna Urman
- E-Mail Address
-
UrmanA@state.gov
(UrmanA@state.gov)
- Description
- UPDATE TIMELINE AND ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS: The government expects to release a final solicitation NLT July 26th with phase one proposals due August 2nd.��With phase one notices going out NLT than August 6th with Phase 2 proposals due August 23rd. Award will be NLT September 30th. We recognize this is a�tight timeline on both sides so we will provide an updated draft asap. Here are the answers to the first round of questions we have recieved thus far: 1. The Problem Statement -�In the Department of State's Phase 2 draft solicitation, DoS appears to address multiple problems possibly requiring different medium- and/or long-term solutions. Is there a particular focus or emphasis that potential bidders should be aware of in the Problem Statement, or are all aspects of the Problem Statement as written of equal emphasis with the expectation that all portions are addressed in the short term? Answer: Many of the issues will be alleviated with UiPath Orchestrator ATO being completed. Otherwise the next challenge in terms of difficulty will be enabling the automation for remote work given our technical constraints around security policy and the need for our technicians to switch between personas during request fulfillment. 2. Creative Approaches to Consider -�Would the Department of State consider a managed service (Cloud PaaS) solution for the Service Desk RPA Opportunity? Answer: The Department of State leverages a several Cloud platforms.� 3.�Contract Requirements (a) In the Required Outputs/Definition of Done section of the draft solicitation, Department of State indicates one requirement is ""Enhancement of existing eight automations that were developed with UiPath automation software."" Is there more detail or bounding on the expected outcomes and enhancements for this requirement? Is there an expectation that the initial analysis step will create scope bounding this work for future pricing or work segments? Answer: There will need to be a gap assessment between the as-left automations and the current state of the systems with which the bot interacts. There have been several system changes to our ITSM tool, for example, and a migration of existing automations into Production Orchestrator is anticipated pending the ATO. 5.� The draft solicitation includes both a requirement to migrate existing processes into a new infrastructure, while also requiring an analysis/investigation step and allowing for the possibility of recommendation of replacement or enhancement of the existing platform. Does the Department of State expect these portions to be performed in parallel, allowing for potential re-work, or for an analysis and potential recommendation to be performed before migration and enhancement work? Answer: That depends on how the prospective vendor staffs the project team whether or not Development and Modernization can be occurring in parallel with Enhancement and Sustainment (O&M). It would not be cost effective to redo the existing automations, rather those automations need to be debugged, migrated, then enhanced to meet requirements, and re-deployed. 5. Is the referenced CoE intended to be enterprise-wide? (P6 - Required Tasks) Answer: Yes, the CoE is owned by the Systems Integration Office in IRM and is intended to support our customers Enterprise-wide. 6. Does the inclusion of an AoA indicate that the delivery of this effort might use a tool other than UiPath? (P6-Required Tasks) Answer: Yes, existing automations developed in Phase 1 were created with UiPath. However, given the use case(s), another product may be identified as a better choice upon completing an AoA. 7. The Video Submission Evaluation Factor -�Would the Department of State be amenable to considering a longer video submission? It will be difficult to highlight all the features of a robust intelligent automation solutions within a seven-minute submission. Answer: The government does not intend to lengthen the 7 minute limit. UPDATE SOURCES SOUGHT� Prior to 5pm on July 16th interested parties should fill out the following Microsoft Form:� https://forms.office.com/g/wKSCbMAg2D By July 21st all necessary attachments per Question 14 need to be sent to weakley-lugokf@state.gov. This Sources sought is issued for market research purposes only to identify U.S. small business concerns having an interest in and capabilities to provide RPA services. Responses to this notice will be considered in selecting the acquisition strategy and to determine the appropriateness of setting aside�for any one of the small business programs described in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 19. All information contained in this notice is preliminary in nature and is subject to change. This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposals (RFP), Request for Quotations (RFQ), Invitation for Bids (IFB), or a commitment on the part of the government to conduct a solicitation in the future. All information provided is strictly voluntary and no reimbursement will be made by the Government for any costs associated with providing a response to this notice or otherwise participating in market research activities. Further, the US Department of State offers no assurance that a solicitation will result from this notice. Any information submitted will become the property of the Government and will not be returned. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and must be clearly marked. All responses shall use the Appendix A format when submitting responses. The draft solicitation is attached to this notice. __________________ UPDATE: Due to the high number of registriants for�the industry day please submit your questions in writing by July 12th before 10am�to weakley-lugokf@state.gov�using the format attached to this announcement. We would like the focus to be on the technical portion of the work but if there are enough concerns about contract format and the solicitation we will address those as well during the industry day. Schedule: 1. Introductions of DOS Team 2. Government Presentation of the Requirement 3. Government Answers to most commonly submitted questions�with discussion after each answer with industry. The government will have interested parties type their questions in the chatbox and the government will select questions to answer directly and start a conversation, to keep things running smoothly�the moderator may at the beginning of the event announce additional guidelines. The government's intent is to learn as much as possible from industry during this event so the majority of the discussion will revolve around the requirement. The government will do its best to address all questions submitted prior to July 12th at 10am�and post answers after the event on sam.gov. __________________ ORIGINAL POSTING The government is co-hosting an industry day with AFCEA�on an DOS IRM Robotic Process Automation(RPA) project for IRM on July 12th.at 10am.� All interested parties should send an email to both��Anna Urman UrmanA@state.gov and Elizabeth Moon�emoon@afcea.org with the subject line ""IRM RPA AFCEA Industry Day.""� Attached is a draft solicitation that will be discussed on July 12th, in the interest of starting a conversation early the government is releasing this rough draft knowing there will have to be some changes made and all parts of the draft are subject to change. The government is specifically interested in feedback on the following during the industry day: 1. The Problem Statement 2. Overcoming Current Constraints 3. Creative Approaches to Consider 4, Contract Requirements 5. Major Errors or Omissions 6. The Video Submission Evaluation Factor The government through issuing this Draft Solicitation is not committing to releasing a final solicitation, this industry day is part of market research and does not constitute a formal solicitation. If the government does decide to move forward award is anticipated before September 30, 2021 with a base period of six months and four six-month option periods.
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
(https://beta.sam.gov/opp/c63ae8c0c2d64933afecbf2190930ce8/view)
- Place of Performance
- Address: DC, USA
- Country: USA
- Country: USA
- Record
- SN06057611-F 20210714/210712230114 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
SAM.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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