U.S. Department of Education, Contracts and Purchasing Operations, CPO, 7th & D Streets SW, Room 3616, Washington, DC 20202-4443

D -- FEDERAL FAMILY EDUCATION LOAN PROGRAM SOL n/a POC Brenda Jefferson, Contract Specialist (202) 260-6219, Janet Scott, Contracting Officer The Department of Education (ED) is responsible for administering student financial assistance programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, P.L. 89-329. Student loan programs currently include the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) and the Perkins Loan Program. Under the FFELP, students receive Government guaranteed, low-interest loans from lending institutions. Under the Perkins Loan Program, students receive loans directly from schools from a revolving fund replenished by the repayment of earlier loans and Government contributions. The FFELP/Perkins System Support Project provides automated and manual support for all Departmental loan processing and debt collection activities required to administer the student loan programs. This support includes batch and interactive processing, software enhancement and maintenance, data entry, document handling and support functions. The system also supports the Student Loan Processing Center (SLPC), the National Payment Center (NPC), and a Customer Service Center (CSC). The anticipated period of performance for this effort will be one (1) year and two (2), six (6) month options. The contractor will perform the tasks and fulfill the requirements contained in the Statement of Work (SOW); project management, software modification, system implementation, system operation, systems development, management analysis tasks, and customer support. These tasks and requirements will be performed in accordance with the policies, procedures, and provisions for automated information systems within the Title IV Programs and the Department of Education. Also, the Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) has hired Andersen Consulting as its Modernization Partner to maintain and implement the Modernization Blueprint. (The Modernization Blueprint defines the Student Financial Assistance's strategy to integrate, consolidate and replace legacy systems to eliminate the "hairball" of systems that currently exits.) If the contractor's primary processing location is other than the Washington D.C. Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area, the contractor must maintain an office within the Washington D.C. Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. This site shall also provide sufficient space and terminals to accommodate training programs for up to 25 Department or external participants. The SLPC/NPC Processing Center shall provide the following:  The contractor shall provide sufficient office/warehouse space to perform all aspects of FFELP operations.  The processing center shall be within 100 miles of a District Operational Center of the Federal Reserve Bank to ensure timeliness of deposits.  The Processing Center shall be within 100 miles of a regional mail processing center and centrally located within the contiguous states to ensure timeliness of mail delivery.  The Processing Center shall provide government workspace and space for clerical support.  The Processing Center shall be connected to aback-up power grid that provides electrical redundancy for the entire center. Due to the nature of the FFELP project the contractor shall have space available for expansion should volumes and/or contractual modifications dictate. The Contractor shall provide warehouse and teleconferencing support, courier and mail services, including overnight guaranteed delivery. The CSC shall log, and respond to inquiries or problems reported by system users. These problems or inquiries may relate to application software, procedures, system processing or hardware. The contractor shall maintain staff and operate a CSC Monday through Saturday from 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM EST. The contractor shall receive an ED provided FTS 2000 800 number service and shall commit to publicize and utilize this service for the provision of customer or user service without recourse to voice message, voice mail box, or answering machine use. The Support Services Subsystem consists of various support functions performed by the contractor: General Project Support, Project Status Reporting, On-Site Monitor(s) and Independent Testing Support, Delivery Services, Quarterly Updates to Documentation, and System/Staff Resource Reporting. Except where otherwise noted, the contractor shall utilize its own facilities to house personnel assigned to the project and shall furnish its own equipment, supplies and materials. All of the information sought should be conveyed in no more than 10 pages. Each response must reference the sources sought title. Interested sources are requested to submit a package by close of business on April 25, 2000, no later than 3:00 p.m. local time to the following address: U.S. Department of Education, Contracts & Purchasing Operations, CPO, 7th & D Streets SW, Room 3616, Washington, DC 20202-4443. For information regarding this sources sought, contact Brenda L. Jefferson at (202) 260-6219 or Ellen Mason at (202) 708-8603. Availability of any formal solicitation will be announced separately. This is NOT a request for proposal (RFP), invitation for bid (IFB), or an announcement of a solicitation and no solicitation package exists at this time. No contract will be awarded as a result of this market survey, which is for informational purposes only. The Government will not pay for any materials provided in response to this synopsis and submittals will not be returned to the sender. For assistance in interpreting the CBD announcements, please see the CBD Reader's Guide. Posted 03/29/00 (W-SN438952). (0089)

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