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

D -- FINANCIAL INFORMATION RESOURCE SYSTEM (FIRST) DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION DUE 120699 POC Holly Deuser, (937) 257-3599, fax (937) 257-4009; Jaclynn Shook, (937) 656-0593 E-MAIL: Click here to contact the Contract Specialist via, Holly.Deuser@wpafb.af.mil. PRE SOLICITATION NOTICE The Financial Information Resource SysTem (FIRST) Program Office (ESC/FNB) intends to select a prime contractor to develop the Air Force budget applications. This is NOT a Request For Proposal (RFP), Invitation For Bid (IFB), or an announcement of a solicitation. Under this program, a budget domain solution will be acquired and developed through use of a contract awarded using full and open procedures at a future date. The Government will not pay for any information submitted in response to this Request For Information (RFI). NO SOLICITATION IS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. The basic contract will be a 6-year, $ 42M effort encompassing Air Force installations worldwide. The Government will make one award for all tasks to be performed under this contract. Contract award is planned for May 2000. Pricing will be negotiated in accordance with FAR Part 15. Contract period is six years with four option years for a total of ten years. The SIC code for this effort is 7379. The solicitation will be for the planning, design, development, implementation, and sustainment of a new budget system. This modernization effort is sponsored by the Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary (Budget). The resultant capability will replace the legacy budget systems with a modern system architecture providing 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. It will be implemented at Headquarters Air Force, Major Commands (MAJCOMs), Field Operating Agencies (FOAs), Direct Reporting Units (DRUs), and base installations. Our system development vision is to construct 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. New business practices have been identified and a functional requirements baseline established. Deployment planning must consider successive software releases incrementally replacing existing budget management systems. The current systems will be maintained until the same capabilities have been fielded in the new system. Generally, the old systems will not be turned off until their functional capability has been completely replaced. Each software release will be fully tested, corrected, and deployed. In summary, FIRST will be a single Air Force-wide standard budget system incorporating electronic funds transfer and data sharing capabilities within budget, related functional areas, and other domains resulting in a near-paperless business process environment. FIRST will combine functional process improvements, a well-designed data environment, dynamic report writer capabilities, and standard data elements. All of this will be connected to the standard suite of office automation. FIRST will provide budget personnel, worldwide, with a flexible system capable of meeting new requirements with emerging technology. An 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" to develop FIRST, 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 past performance, qualifications, and capabilities of interested sources in order to identify "best qualified" teams. 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 will allow interested sources an opportunity to more accurately assess their chances for selection as FIRST contractor. Phase Two is the solicitation. Phase One consists of two elements: Element One: A bibliography furnishing recent past performance information and Client Points of Contact (POC) that MUST relate to the team experience described in the qualification package. Work must be ongoing or have been completed during the past three calendar years. A maximum of 10 contracts may be submitted, one page per contract. This past performance information shall include: Contract number(s) Contract name Total Contract value If Subcontract, value of the subcontract Performance period Contract summary of work performed 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 the contracts cited in support of the qualification areas. Contractor format is acceptable. Also, please include up to a 2-page summary of each team member's corporate history. Element Two: The Air Force is seeking teams with significant experience relevant to an effort of this scope, complexity, and size. Therefore, interested teams must submit a qualification package of no more than 10 pages clearly describing the team's experience and qualifications to develop, field, and sustain the FIRST requirements. Qualification package criteria may be found on the Hanscom Electronic RFP Bulletin Board (HERBB). All status and future solicitation information and any updates and changes will also be announced on HERBB. The HERBB address is: herbb.hanscom.af.mil. We encourage all sources to register and check the HERBB Page often for additional information. Documents describing FIRST capabilities and evaluation qualification criteria will be published on the web in the very near future. Documents must be provided in 12-pitch font, single spaced format, MSOffice 97 compatible. Submit one hard copy (and one electronic copy via e-mail) of the qualifications packages and past performance information to MSG/PKB, Attention: Holly Deuser, 4375 Chidlaw Road, Room C022, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, 45433-5006; e-mail Holly.Deuser@wpafb.af.mil. These documents are due by 1700 EST, 6 December 1999. 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. Direct questions to Holly Deuser, the Contract Specialist, (937) 257-3599, fax (937) 257-4009, or Jaclynn Shook, the Contracting Officer, (937) 656-0593. 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 Col Steven Sheldon, ESC/CO, phone (781) 377-5106. Posted 11/17/99 (W-SN401615). (0321)

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