Materiel Systems Contracting Division, 4375 Chidlaw Road Rm C022, Wright-Patterson AFB OH 45433-5006

D -- FIRST QUALIFICATION SCREENING SOL F33657-98-R-0350 POC Jeffrey Glendenning, Contracting Officer, MSG/PKA, (937) 257-3380 WEB: Click here to view FIRST Homepage, http://www.afmc.wpafb.af.mil/organizations/ESC/FN. E-MAIL: Click here to e-mail PCO, glendej@wpgate1.wpafb.af.mil. 17. The Electronic Systems Center is using an innovative, streamlined approach to select a contractor for the Financial Information Resource SysTem (FIRST) acquisition. NO SOLICITATION IS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. FIRST will be a five-year, $25M-$35M effort encompassing Department of Defense (DoD) installations nationwide. The FIRST Home Page address is: http://www.afmc.wpafb.af.mil/organizations/ESC/FN FIRST is a budget system modernization effort sponsored by the Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary (Budget). FIRST is a program designed to replace legacy budget systems with a modernized system architecture in order to provide Air Force financial managers with an integrated information system. FIRST will serve as the foundation for the corporate Air Force Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS) environment. FIRST will be implemented on a client/server network with distributed processing at Headquarters Air Force, Major Commands (MAJCOMs), and base installations. Currently there are three separate automated budget management systems which support each echelon in the Air Force budget process. These include the Automated Budget Interactive Data Environment System (ABIDES), serving the Secretariat/Air Staff; Command Budget Automated System (CBAS), serving MAJCOMs; and the Microcomputer-Based Automated System (MicroBAS), serving installation budget office and resource advisors. These systems run on three diverse platforms in a mix of different software programming languages. They have no automated interfaces with each other and few with other systems. FIRST will provide enhanced financial management functionality in a single system common to all users (Pentagon to base level) for funds management and chronology, budget formulation, budget execution, and cost modeling. Our vision is to build FIRST using a spiral development methodology governed by a general statement of functional requirements. FIRST will allow the Air Force to take advantage of Information Technology advancements. A great deal of work has been accomplished to identify and document new business practices and establish a requirements baseline. As we progress through FIRST, successive software releases will incrementally replace existing budget management systems. Current systems will be maintained until the same capabilities have been fielded in the new system. Old systems will not generally be turned off until their functional capability has been completely replaced by FIRST. During the transition there may be some instances where users may be required to use a combination of existing and new programs until FIRST is completed. Each software release will be field tested, corrected, installed on central servers, and publicized well in advance of release for operational use. In summary, FIRST will be a single Air Force-wide standard budget system incorporating electronic funds transfer and data sharing capabilities within budget and related functional areas resulting in a near-paperless business process environment. It will combine functional process improvements, a well-designed relational database, a dynamic report writer, and standardized data elements. FIRST will be built with flexibility and intent to share data with related functional areas. All of this will be connected to the standard suite of Windows office automation. FIRST will provide budget personnel, worldwide, with a flexible system capable of meeting new requirements with emerging technology. The Government intends on making one award, in the aggregate, for all tasks to be performed under this contract. Contract award is planned for April 1998 with initial deliverables twelve months later. The objective of the FIRST acquisition strategy is to reduce proposal preparation costs for industry (early in the process) by identifying only those sources deemed "best qualified" for the FIRST acquisition and reduce Government resources required to evaluate a large number of offerors. Therefore, the FIRST acquisition will consist of two phases. In Phase One, the Government intends to review the qualifications and capabilities of interested sources in order to identify "best qualified" firms. The Small Business determination will be made as a part of this process. The SIC for this acquisition will be 7373. The source's experience as a subcontractor can be considered as meeting qualification criteria but should clearly show "clarity of responsibility" for the work performed as the subcontractor. Phase One consists of three elements: (1) Customer surveys will be performed to assess past performance (2) A 15 page qualification package (which covers the areas described below) will be evaluated (3) Up to a four-hour demonstration will be required. Although all sources are eligible to participate in the source selection (Phase Two of this solicitation), Phase One will allow interested sources the opportunity to more accurately assess their chances for selection as the FIRST contractor. Those sources determined to be "best qualified" will interact with the Government to formalize the Request For Proposal (RFP). Element One: A bibliography furnishing past performance Points of Contact (POC) which MUST relate to the experience described in the qualification package is required. This past performance information will include: (1) Contract number(s) (2) Contract name (3) Contract value (total contract value and, if Subcontract, value of the subcontract) (4) Performance period (5) Principal customer points of contact with phone number, FAX number, E-mail address, and mailing address (If Subcontract, provide POC for the Prime contract). This past performance information will be used to verify the experience and level of customer satisfaction on each of the contracts cited in support of the qualification areas. Contractor format is acceptable. Also, please include a short 1-2 page summary of your corporate history. Neither the bibliography nor the corporate history will be counted against the total response page count. Element Two: The Air Force is seeking sources with significant recent experience (within the last 18 months) relevant to a requirement of this scope and size. Therefore, interested sources must submit a qualification package of no more than fifteen pages clearly describing the source's depth of experience and understanding of the FIRST requirements in the following three areas: (1) Designing, developing, and integrating large, complex financial information systems for multiple on line transaction processing users at numerous geographically dispersed sites worldwide (2) Migration of multiple, dissimilar, custom-designed, legacy databases to a single seamless data structure of classified and unclassified data, while maintaining the interfaces to the existing systems (3) Managing a multi-disciplined team for incrementally designing, developing, and implementing a financial information system in a Rapid Application Development/JointApplication Development Environment. Contractor format is acceptable. However, for ease of review, each response should be sectioned by the areas listed above. Element Three: The demonstration will be used to assess your capability in designing and developing financial information systems. The requirement to be demonstrated will be specified in a subsequent CBD announcement to be published by 3 Dec 97. We encourage all sources to check the FIRST Home Page often for additional information. For example, the checklist the Government will use to evaluate the qualification packages will be published on the web in the very near future. Responses to this CBD announcement must be submitted in hard copy on company letterhead, signed by a corporate officer, and on virus free electronic media (3.5 inch floppy disk, readable in Microsoft Word (Office 97), Times New Roman font, size 12 point. Page size shall be 8.5 x 11 inches (not including fold-outs), with one-inch margins, and single spaced. Submit past performance information either via FAX (937) 257-4009 or E-mail: glendej@wpgate1.wpafb.af.mil Past performance information and corporate history is due by 1700 Eastern Standard Time (EST), 12 December 1997. The demonstrations will be conducted from 12 Jan 98 through 23 Jan 98. We will notify each source of the exact date for their demonstration. Submit the qualifications packages to MSG/PK, Attention: Mr. Jeff Glendenning, 4375 Chidlaw Road, Room C022, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 45433-5006. The 15 page qualification package is due by 1700 EST, 19 December 1997. The transmittal letter will not be counted against the total response page count. The Government will conduct a qualification review based on the responses. Respondents must indicate whether they are large, small, small- disadvantaged, woman-owned, and whether they are foreign or domestically owned and controlled. An Ombudsman has been appointed to hear concerns from offerors or potential sources. The purpose of the Ombudsman is not to diminish the authority of the Program Manager or Contracting Officer, but to communicate offeror concerns, issues, disagreements, and recommendations to the appropriate Government personnel. When requested, the Ombudsman will maintain strict confidentiality as to the source of the concern. The Ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of the proposals or in the source selection process. The Ombudsman should only be contacted with issues or problems previously brought to the attention of the Program Manager and/or the Contracting Officer which could not be satisfactorily resolved, or issues that require contractor confidentiality. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Colonel Lee H. Hughes (617) 377-5106. Note 26 applies. (0335)

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