SPECIAL NOTICE
D -- Employment Information System (USAJOBS)
- Notice Date
- 3/15/2002
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- Contracting Office
- Office of Personnel Management, Office of Contracting and Administrative Services, Contracting Division, 1900 E Street, N.W., Room 1342, Washington, DC, 20415-7710
- ZIP Code
- 20415-7710
- Solicitation Number
- OPM-RFI-02-0014
- Response Due
- 4/30/2002
- Archive Date
- 4/30/2002
- Point of Contact
- Henry Wong, Contract Specialist, Phone (202) 606-1598, Fax (202) 606-1464, - Alfred Chatterton, Chief, Contracting Div., Phone (202) 606-1004, Fax (202) 606-1464,
- E-Mail Address
-
hlwong@opm.gov, afchatte@opm.gov
- Description
- Request for Information (RFI) 1.0 Background The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) operates and maintains the Federal Employment Information system, USAJOBS. It serves as the United States Government's official source for jobs and employment information. USAJOBS is available to job seekers through the Internet at www.usajobs.opm.gov. USAJOBS has a companion telephone system available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to ensure access to Federal employment information for all individuals. Studentjobs.gov is also a component of the USAJOBS system providing one-stop shopping for students. In addition to providing information to jobseekers, USAJOBS contains a job entry system so employers can enter job vacancies into the system. The OPM Employment Service (ES) program office in Washington DC administers the Federal Employment Information program, and develops and approves all requirements for enhancements, modifications, and changes to the system. OPM's Technology Support Center in Macon, Georgia is currently providing all programming and maintenance support for both the Internet and phone system. The OPM is the managing partner for the E-Gov Recruitment One-Stop initiative. The Recruitment One Stop seeks to leverage all existing functionality of USAJOBS and to expand services through providing improved on-line job application submission (one-to-many) for job applicants; integration of paper resume/job application data; on-line application status tracking; enhanced on-line resume integration with agency systems; on-line resume mining for agency hiring managers, recruiters, or human resources professionals; on-line employment eligibility determinations; and integration with a variety of automated assessment options and systems. The Recruitment One Stop will provide job seekers with a single, Government-wide port of entry for Federal employment consideration. The Recruitment One Stop is a fast track initiative with implementation of the first enhancements required no later than June 2002. It is unlikely that those enhancements will be implemented under this agreement. 2.0 Purpose of Solicitation The OPM is considering the award of a cost-sharing contract for the future development, operations, and maintenance of USAJOBS and Recruitment One-Stop. A cost-sharing contract is a cost-reimbursement contract in which the contractor receives no fee and is reimbursed only for an agreed-upon portion of its allowable costs. We are contemplating using this type of contract because of the fact we expect a contractor would realize substantial compensating benefit resulting from provision of Federal Job Information. In response to the human capital challenges facing the Government in carrying out the President's management agenda, OPM's is looking to develop a new model for the delivery of employment information and recruitment services. The challenge to find and keep talented public service workers, given retirement projections, programmatic reshaping, and a dynamic and shifting labor market, has reinforced "mission fundamentals". Reviving the image of the public service requires relentless pursuit so Government can enlist the best and brightest, and assure them that their career commitment to citizen service is valued. Pursuing this new model requires a more nimble approach to the way daily work is accomplished and services get delivered. We expect to be "on target" for the President's E-Gov initiative in the delivery of on-line recruiting services for citizens. Our planning strategy calls for increasing use of contractor expertise with our own small staffs serving as project managers. Entering into a cost-sharing contract for the operation of OPM's employment information systems would allow us to use the technological expertise of private industry leaders to deliver these services. That expertise permits rapid addition of features to the system, as well as the ability to take advantage of an established telecommunications infrastructure and disaster recovery platforms. 3.0 Scope of Work Functions within the scope of this proposed agreement may include the development, operation, and maintenance of all software and hardware systems (job entry and delivery) for the web sites (Recruitment One Stop, USAJOBS, Studentjobs.gov, and FirstGov jobs page portal) and the USAJOBS by Phone system. In entering into the arrangement our goal is to gain more consistent and reliable operations; more timely and effective technical support; quicker systems enhancements and modifications per OPM program office guidance; and enhanced on-line recruiting services to customers. The OPM will oversee contract performance, interface with agency customers and stakeholders, provide system vision and direction, explore new ideas/initiatives suggested by the contractor, ensure system integrity and requirements, determine enhancements/modifications, and make determinations regarding system marketing, recruiting guidance, and related activities. The OPM will use performance-based service contracting principles to monitor contract performance and ensure the contractor performs at its best including providing performance objectives, and standards. OPM's employment information systems must achieve a minimum level of 90% or higher customer satisfaction to maintain and increase the quality of service to citizens and agencies. In order to do this; we must design improved metrics to measure satisfaction with customer and technical support, and to provide quality control of systems operation. Reliability is critical-the Federal Employment Information and Recruitment systems must operate 24/7 with backup measures in place in the event of equipment failure or emergencies. The Federal jobs database must be refreshed at least daily if not in real time. Many system changes, such as updated Employment Information fact sheets, occur frequently and must be implemented rapidly (24 to 48 hours). More complex changes, such as new job search routines, occur two to three times per year and must often be implemented within one to two weeks. OPM will require the contractor to retain the unique identity and URL for the USAJOBS web site, Studentjobs.gov web site, and/or any other web site brands and/or URLs that may develop from the Recruitment One Stop initiative. We envision that the contractor's identity and branding may be incorporated into the OPM systems. We further envision that the Federal jobs database and functionality would be incorporated into the contractor's system adding value for the contractor, and increased exposure to Federal jobs and employment information for job seekers. The OPM is seeking to enter into this contract for an initial term of one-year with options to extend it for five years or longer. 4.0 General Description of Current Systems 4.1 USAJOBS via Web The USAJOBS system provides employment and vacancy information to the public and Federal employees. The system has a web-based program that agencies use to add jobs and vacancy announcements into the Federal jobs database. Many agencies also post jobs using an email template program that has been integrated into a number of vendor products. USAJOBS offers general employment information fact sheets; link pages to agency specific sites and information; and uses push technology for email notification of new job postings to registrants. The system also offers a resume builder service that includes an option for agencies to flag jobs to accept on-line resumes and an OPM process to transmit resumes to agencies via email. The USAJOBS Federal Jobs Database is also available via FTP. Approximately 16,000 to 18,000 vacancy announcements are available each day. The USAJOBS web site is accessed by over 17,000,000 unique visitors each year and more than 3,500,000 USAJOBS by Email messages were sent in FY 2001. We anticipate usage to increase at least 10% annually over the next two to three years. The USAJOBS resume database contains on average 175,000 resumes. Resume transmissions in FY 2001 were slightly in excess of 185,000. A goal of the Recruitment One Stop initiative is to substantially increase on-line resume/application transmissions and increase the security of the transmissions. USAJOBS does not currently contain features for applicant database mining, application status tracking, or paper resume/application data integration. USAJOBS via Phone The USAJOBS system provides employment information via a phone system. It uses the same job database file generated from the job entry system mentioned above. This system can be accessed at 478/757-3000 or TDD 478/744-2299. As with the web site, this system's hardware, software, and telecommunications are operational and available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The phone system delivers most of the same employment information as the web. Job seekers request copies of information from the phone system through a fax/mail request function. The USAJOBS by Phone system received over 428,000 calls in FY 2001. 4.3 Studentjobs.gov The Studentjobs.gov is a companion site to USAJOBS that runs off the same hardware/software/database. It's designed specifically to deliver job information to students while they are still in school. It contains a link to the job search function (USAJOBS), resume builder (USAJOBS), and the USAJOBS by Email function. It also has some specialty features that consolidate information about Federal agencies. Studentjobs.gov averages 35,000 unique visitors each month. The Studentjobs.gov web site is a new feature and usage is expected to increase, as the site becomes better known. 4.4 FirstGov Job Portal page This page is still under review and development but will essentially serve as the primary link page to all job pages. This feature will also run off the USAJOBS hardware/software applications. 5.0 Technical Description of Current Systems 5.1 Web Systems All USAJOBS systems are currently housed and supported at OPM's Technology Support Center in Macon Georgia. Currently, 25 servers support the USAJOBS system-5 HP quad processors, 2GB; 5 HP dual processors, 2 GB; 13 HP dual processors, 1 GB; and 2 Dell single processors, 64 MB. Of those, 18 are web servers, 2 are database servers, 2 are file servers, 2 are fax servers, and 1 is a mail server. Development and testing servers are also available (2 - 3) and are not included in the 25 discussed above. Web server software is IIS; database software is SQL server. Operating system is Windows. Coding language is ASP. The only off-the-shelf software applications used are Central Dispatch by Resonate for load balancing and Web Trends. It connects to the Internet via a T3 telecommunications line. USAJOBS also provides a link to Online Applications that are part of another OPM system using Oracle. OPM will make the existing hardware available for our contractor to use in providing the required solution. Our service, however, cannot be interrupted and the contractor would be required to provide all equipment during the cut over period. 5.2 USAJOBS via Phone The USAJOBS by Phone system is also housed and supported at OPM's Technology Support Center in Macon Georgia. The current system was just upgraded to Windows NT/2000 using Realspeak text-to-speech. Conversion of the phone system job searches to SQL server 2000 stored procedures is currently in process. OPM will make the existing hardware available for the contractor to use in providing the required solution. Our service, however, cannot be interrupted and the contractor would be required to provide all equipment during the cut over period. 6.0 Upgrades/Enhancements We believe that a cost-sharing contract will allow us to fully realize state-of-the-art functionality for job seekers and agency employers. USAJOBS and the Recruitment One Stop must be the premiere recruiting tool for Federal agencies and provide easy-to-use services for all job seekers, applicants, and agency users. All services must provide value-added enhancements for improving and modernizing the site to attract job seekers; support agencies in their recruiting efforts; improve citizen service; streamline the hiring process, and promote the Federal government as a viable and competitive employment site in the current job market. Listed below are some enhancements we believe are salient to this goal; however, we are seeking recommendations on these and additional features that could be achieved under this contract. Better/easier job search capability Applicant database mining for employers Integration of paper resume/application data Improved job entry system or processes State-of-the-art reporting system Applicant tracking function Vacancy announcement enhancements Career exploration module On-line forms Better customer satisfaction survey and reporting capability On-line/virtual job fairs Recruitment videos Effective banner ads Increased linking capability FAQ's Site Index Spanish versions of some information 7.0 Accessibility Requirements The USAJOBS system must meet all Section 508 accessibility requirements. Visit www.section508.gov for complete technical descriptions. 8.0 Submission of Information/Comments THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY AND THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT INTEND TO PAY FOR THIS INFORMATION. No cost or pricing information is requested. All responses must be in writing and include how the vendor proposes to operate the recruiting and employment systems under a contract with OPM, how the vendor proposes to enhance the system to meet our goals for recruiting and citizen service, and corporate experience and capabilities. This information will then be used to define requirements for the contract. Oral presentations may also be requested to fully understand proposed solutions. The Office of Personnel Management will use the submissions in response to the request for information to determine if this procurement may be set aside for small business concerns. The NAICS code for these services, if acquired under Federal contract today, is 541512 Computer Systems Design Services, and the small business size standard is $18 million. Respondents to this request for information are advised that the plan to use a cost-sharing contract will require the contractor to divulge cost information within its accounting systems in order for the Government to determine whether the invoiced costs are allowable, allocable and reasonable for purposes of payment. The contractor must demonstrate it has an adequate accounting system for this purpose; must open its books for possible audit by the Government to ensure efficient methods and cost controls are used; and must accept that certain costs are unallowable by regulation (Limitation of Cost clause at FAR 52.232-20 through 23). A formal Request for Proposals may follow. Responses to this request for information should be sure to include answers to the following questions: * What are your expectations and interests in entering into this cost-sharing contract? * What value-added would be provided to the Federal Government and U.S. citizens through this cost-sharing contract? * What experience in automated recruitment and hiring do you bring to the table? * What are the specific services you are prepared to offer? * What types of security are you prepared to provide to protect the system, the data, and data access by users? * How would you protect the privacy of users? * What would be your plan to guarantee system reliability for 24/7 access? * What would be your plan to guarantee uninterrupted service delivery in the event that you would cease operations? * What level of support and responsiveness would you be prepared to provide to OPM for system maintenance and upgrades? * What experience, if any, do you have in entering into such cost-sharing arrangements? * Describe contract agreements you have that utilize performance-based and or cost-sharing payment provisions, including describing the basis for the performance-based or cost-sharing payment provisions. * What suggestions do you have for OPM to consider on how to best structure a performance-based, cost sharing contract? Give the rationale for your suggestions. * List any concerns your company would have in disclosing information from your accounting systems to determine whether invoiced costs are allowable, allocable, and reasonable. * Provide your comments on what impact a five-year vs. a ten-year contract term would have on your proposal. 8.1 Supporting Materials Respondents are encouraged to provide supporting materials including more detailed descriptions of their capabilities that would clarify or enhance their responses. Other useful materials might include manuals, sales brochures, etc. References to supporting materials should be neatly organized and indexed to allow for easy location of the specific references. 8.2 Contact Information and Schedule Responses due - April 30, 2002 Contracting Officer - Fred Chatterton Information Contact - Henry Wong U.S. Office of Personnel Management Contracting Division, Room 1342 Washington, DC 20415 Phone: (202) 606-1598 Fax: (202) 606-1464 E-mail: hlwong@opm.gov
- Place of Performance
- Address: U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Contracting Division, Room 1342, Washington, DC
- Zip Code: 20415
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 20415
- Record
- SN00043779-W 20020317/020315213516 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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