DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY, Internal Revenue Service, (M:P), 6009 Oxon Hill Road, Suite 700, Oxon Hill, MD 20745

70 -- RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM SOLVING SOL TIRNO97Q00213 DUE 081497 POC Purchasing Agent, Ida Cofield, 202-283-1162 The Internal Revenue Service intends to issue a purchase order for the following service: The contractor has to have expertise both in solving resource allocation and optimization problems and in the use of ILOG software tools. The contractor must also have experience in object oriented design methodology and in writing C++ applications. the contractor shall participate in a joint development effort with the IRS to design and develop a resource allocation system. The IRS will have sole responsibility for obtaining and formatting data for input to a resource allocation engine and for displaying results output from the allocation engine. The contractor will have sole responsibility for designing and developing the resource allocation engine. Joint activity will be in the form of designing and developing shared objects that will implement an interface between the allocation engine and the rest of the system.The contractor shall take a leading role in this design activity. The contractor shall write sections of the technical document. The contractor shall have primary responsibility for the architecture, object model, and objects and constraints sections. The contractor shall supply information for the top level requirements, and global constraints sections. The contractor shall be responsible for defining the resource allocation approach to be taken by the resource allocation engine. The objective of this approach shall be to maximize net revenue. The contractor shall develop the resource allocation engine. This engine shall be written in C++ using standard C++ code as supplemented by class libraries from the ILOG optimization suite (this included ILOG SOLVER, ILOG SCHEDULER, and if needed ILOG PLANNER). The function of the engine shall be to assign workload in a manner that gives the greatest net revenue (considering both direct and indirect revenues with in an established budget and given workforce constraints. In general, bundles of work will be selected for each organizational location and function given workforce availability within specific categories. Work selected to begin in one year may require several workforce categories over multiple years. In addition, selection of workload shall drive the composition of the workforce given a baseline workforce and parameters for hiring additional workforce, promoting workforce to needed positions, converting labor from an unneeded specialization to a needed one, and identifying surplus workforce. That is to say, the allocation engine shall obtain a near optimal solution for workload selected, new hires, surplus employees, employees to be retrained, and employees to be promoted over a 10 year period. A key feature of the engine shall be its acceptance of parameters. Parameters allow the engine to be run with different sets of constraints or even goals. The contractor shall conduct technology transfer training. After delivery of the completed resource allocation engine but before final acceptance, the vendor shall instruct 2 end users and 2 system developers on how to use the system and how to use the reference material. A minimum of 8 hours of instructions shall be provided. Also the contractor shall instruct 2 IRS developers on how to maintain and update the completed system. A minimum of 16 hours of instructions shall be provided. The contractor shall deliver the initial allocation engine 45 days after contract initiation. This engine shall represent a complete implementation of the agreed interface between the engine (otherwise without functionality) and the rest of the system. A partially functional resource allocation engine shall be delivered 105 days after initiation of the contract. Given any set of parameters, the engine shall return a near optimal solution solving for the workload to be selected. A solution shall include identifying the workload to be selected and the workforce required to accomplish this workload. The selected workload shall return the greatest net revenue. A fully functional resource allocation engine shall be delivered 135 days after initiation of the contract. In addition to the functionality described above, the engine shall determine when additional employees can be hired, what positions should be hired, and the workforce structure required to accomplish the workload. The engine shall take account of career promotions, competitive promotions, and the potential for job transitions from one specialization to another. In addition the engine shall provide a causal explanation for actions taken. Any modifications required to make the allocation engine fully acceptable shall be completed by 165 days after initiation of the contract or within a time frame acceptable to the IRS. The workings of the allocation engine, the interface functions, the resource allocation search strategy, the architecture, and the object model shall be fully documented in the technical document which is due 135 days after initiation of the contract. required to The technical document and all source code shall become the exclusive property of the IRS. The contractor shall submit a resume showing pertinent experience and identifying persons to contact. The evaluation criteria will consider the contractor's specific experience in using ILOG Solver and Scheduler as well as the contractor's general experience in resource allocations, programming in C++, and object oriented design and programming. All responsible sources may submit a quotation which shall be considered. Quotations shall include a price breakout which identifies separate prices for the contractor's services. The quotations must also provide FOB point, GSA contract number if applicable, payment terms, delivery date(s), Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) if required in accordance with Far Clause 52.204-3 (Mar 1994), and business size status (i.e., large, small, minority, or woman-owned) based on SIC CODE 7389. No FRO will be issued for this requirement. Requests for such will be considered non-responsive. All questions must be submitted in writing and can be mailed to the Contract Specialist at the address identifiedabove or if quotations are under 10 pages in length they may be fascimiled to (202) 283-1515. Quotations must be received by 4:30 p.m. EDT on the due date identified in the header of this announcement. Award will be made soon after receipt of quotations based on price and other factors, such as technical evaluation of contractor's resumes and experience in the four areas as previously identified in the CBD. This requirement is 100% set aside for small business concerns. (0211)

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