Social Security Administration, Office of Acquisition and Grants, 1710 Gwynn Oak Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21207

D -- ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES DRAFT SOLICITATION SOL SSA-RFP-98-3497 DUE 032798 POC Wayne McDonald 410-966-1323 WEB: Download Solicitation when available, http://www.ssa.gov/oag/oag1.htm. E-MAIL: Contracting Officer, Wayne.McDonald@ssa.gov. The Social Security Administration (SSA) is contemplating a full-and-open competitive acquisition for integrated programmatic and administrative/management information software support services. The name of the new acquisition is the Enterprise Technology Services Contract or ETSC. A draft solicitation, number SSA-RFP-98-3497, will be available for industry review and comment on or about February 27, 1998 for a period of thirty days. The draft solicitation will be available to interested parties through SSA's Office of Acquisition Grants Internet Web Page. Draft solicitation number SSA-RFP-98-3497 will only be available in electronic form by download at URL http://www.ssa.gov/oag/acq/toc.htm. The draft solicitation is not a request for competitive proposals. Proposals submitted in response to the draft solicitation will not be evaluated. No contract will be awarded as a result of the draft solicitation. No cost or pricing data is desired or required. The proposed requirement is expected to be an indefinite delivery indefinite quantity type contract. The proposed pricing will be fixed loaded labor rates with materials being reimbursed at cost. The proposed contract is anticipated to cover a 7-year period (base term of 1 year plus six 1-year options to extend the term of the contract) requiring a minimum of approximately 146 work years of effort for each contract year. The support services will cover all stages of the application software development life cycle, with a strong emphasis on requirements analysis, design, development, testing, implementation, documentation, and support of the programmatic and administrative/ management information needs of the Agency. Independent verification and validation type activities will also be supported. This contract is to provide the SSA with enterprise technology support services for developing application software systems and accomplishing application software initiatives and activities to supportSSA's programs and mission. Contract support is needed to assist SSA in developing the information systems necessary to prepare the Agency for the 21st century and beyond. Many of the Agency's systems will continue to migrate to an online interactive environment using cooperative processing and intelligent workstations while new cost-effective technologies, such as expert systems, data warehousing, object-oriented software development, Internet/Intranet and document imaging management are also pursued. Contractor support will provide the specialized technical skills needed to build a systems environment that will allow the Agency to continue to provide customers with world-class service. There are five (5) major Technical Areas within which work will be issued under this contract. These Technical Areas are:(1) Application Design, Development and Maintenance; (2)Data Administration and Data Base Administration Support; (3) Software Engineering and Technology; (4) Emerging Technology (ET); and (5)Software Engineering Management. The preceding five Technical Areas will define the Scope of Work for this contract. Work will be issued to the Contractor through individual Work Orders that will precisely define the scope, deliverables and schedule for each assignment at the time that each Work Order is issued. Contractor performance will be assessed regularly by SSA, with results of these assessments becoming part of the official contract log and the SSA past performance database. The draft solicitation will, to the maximum extent practicable, include only those clauses and provisions applicable to the acquisition of commercial items. The services to be acquired are considered to have met the definition of commercial items at Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 2.101. Therefore, the acquisition of the ETSC will be subject to the policies of FAR Part 12 as well as Part 15. When a policy in another part of the FAR is inconsistent with a policy in Part 12, Part 12 shall take precedence for the acquisition of commercial items. The draft solicitation will be comprised of Addenda A through I inclusive. An original and five (5) copies of all comments, observations, and/or questions concerning this draft solicitation are due, in writing, by not later than 3:00 PM March 20, 1998. All such comments, observations, and/or questions may also be presented in electronic format which will be machine readable on a Pentium PC or compatible machine, using Microsoft Word 97, on a 3.50 inch, MS DOS formatted, virus-free, floppy diskette. All issues pertinent to this draft solicitation shall be raised by this deadline so that any suggested adjustments may be considered by the Government prior to release of the finalized solicitation. Any responses received after this deadline will not be considered by the Government. Please address all mailed and hand carried submissions to the following: Social Security Administration, Office of Acquisition and Grants, 1710 Gwynn Oak Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21207, Attention: Mr.Wayne McDonald, Contracting Officer. To assist all prospective offerors in reviewing this draft solicitation and in preparing any comments, observations, and/or questions in response thereto, the SSA has assembled pertinent material containing background information directly related to the SSA software development environment. Although this material is referenced in this draft solicitation, it is not, because of its voluminous nature, included in the draft solicitation document. This material has been assembled as a "Technical Reference Library" and is also available for inspection and review as a separate file on the OAG Internet Home Page. (0056)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0026 19980227\D-0003.SOL)