MODIFICATION
R -- Electronic Directory Services
- Notice Date
- 8/18/2005
- Notice Type
- Modification
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- General Services Administration, Office of the Chief Acquisition Officer (V), GSA Headquarters Contracting Division (VC), 18th & F Streets, NW Room 4020, Washington, DC, 20405
- ZIP Code
- 20405
- Solicitation Number
- GS00V05PDI0044
- Response Due
- 9/9/2005
- Archive Date
- 9/24/2005
- Description
- Request for Information (RFI) I. PURPOSE The Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) is seeking sources for a possible future acquisition. This RFI solicits the contractors? interest and capability to meet stated objectives, and is for information and planning purposes. It does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. Respondents to this RFI will form the basis of a selected bidders list concerning any subsequent PM ISE RFP actions relevant to Electronic Directory Services or the functional equivalent. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.215-3, Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997): 1. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18, Bid and Proposal costs of the FAR. 2. Although ?proposal? and ?offeror? are used in this RFI, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal. 3. This solicitation is issued for the purpose of determining interested contractors for the proposed ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) acquisition. This RFI serves two purposes: 1) to inform the Government on the type and scope of work expected; and, 2) to receive information and feedback on interest and capabilities of potential sources. We request that contractors replying to this RFI provide a response to each of the questions listed in Section III. II. BACKGROUND The intent of this RFI is, consistent with the direction in the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004, to provide Electronic Directory Services (EDS), or the functional equivalent, to enable authorized participants to locate and access information, organizations, services and personnel in support of their respective mission requirements for terrorism information. Recognizing that successful counterterrorism efforts require an effective information sharing capability, section 1016 of the IRTPA requires creation of an information sharing environment (ISE) for counterterrorism information in a manner consistent with national security and the information privacy and other legal rights of Americans. In accordance with the INTELLIGENCE REFORM AND TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT (IRTPA), the INFORMATION SHARING ENVIRONMENT (ISE) will reflect the combination of policies, procedures, and technologies linking the resources of the Federal, State, local and tribal governments, the private sector, and foreign allies, to facilitate information sharing, access, and collaboration among users to combat terrorism effectively. The ISE will support the sharing and access to terrorism information, which includes information from the intelligence, law enforcement, military, homeland security and other communities. Section 1016 further specifies that the ISE will have an ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) capability or the functional equivalent. The ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) is intended to enable authorized users, including operators, analysts, responders, planners and policy makers, to locate and access information, organizations, services and personnel in support of their respective mission requirements. This includes finding experts and possible collaboration partners. Therefore, this RFI is intended to seek ideas from the broadest possible audience to meet the needs of each of the users of the EDS. Responses should describe what the EDS capability will look like as it matures, identify an initial capability that could be established in the short term (30-60 days), and what a phased approach would provide for a mid- and long-term expansion (1 and 3 years, respectively). An initial capability must at a minimum, contain terrorism information and be accessible to the Federal government with a clear path for early expansion to State, local, and tribal officials, law enforcement, the private sector, and foreign allies. The rough order of magnitude capacity of the ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) for the long term is thousands of organizations and, potentially, millions of individual users, and hundreds of thousand or millions of accesses each day. III. RFI QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSE Based on information provided in response to this RFI, the PM INFORMATION SHARING ENVIRONMENT (ISE) will determine the potential offeror?s capability to perform functions as described in this RFI. Respond in the provided Question/Answer format for each question in the RFI Questionnaire section. The Government recognizes that many potential offerors will only have information pertaining to a portion of this RFI. However, this limited ?best of breed? information could still be of high quality and significant value to the ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) initiative. Therefore, while the government seeks an EDS solution, it does not discourage partial responses. If you choose not to respond to a question, indicate ?no response? and indicate the rationale. No more than 20 total single-sided pages with print no smaller than 12 point is suggested; however, text included in graphics, tables, and figures can be smaller than 10 point. The submissions must be in sufficient detail and clarity to provide the information needed to assess your solution approach. Marketing material and reference material may be placed in appendices. Responses must be submitted in Microsoft Word 2000 or later. TABLE OF CONTENTS RFI QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONDENT INFORMATION 1 COMPANY BACKGROUND AND CAPABILITIES 1 WHITE PAPER SOLUTION 1 Vision and Strategy 2 Business Policy and Practice 2 Homeland Security and Counterterrorism User 3 Design and Development 3 Characteristics 4 Protecting Information Privacy and Other Legal Requirements of Americans 4 IT Security 5 Implementation 6 Maintenance 6 COMPANY CORE COMPETENCIES FOR DATABASE SERVICES AND ANY RELATED WEB IT EFFORTS 6 ROM Estimate for White Paper Solution 7 RFI EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 7 RFI QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONDENT INFORMATION Fill in the table below with information about your organization. Organization Name: Type of organization (e.g. federal agency, non-profit, state, private): Describe the size of your organization (e.g., number of employees): Are you responding as a User Vendor Both Industry Information Technology Education Manufacturing Government Transportation Other COMPANY BACKGROUND AND CAPABILITIES Describe your company?s capability to meet the needs and constraints outlined in this RFI and more specifically: 1. Describe the level and extent of your involvement in the development and implementation of database services and similar functions. 2. Describe projects and related activities where database services and technologies were used to provide secure services to customers. 3. Describe your ability to provide personnel, cleared for PM INFORMATION SHARING ENVIRONMENT (ISE) (system high) access, possessing the technical skills outlined in this RFI to develop and sustain the ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) or equivalent function. WHITE PAPER SOLUTION Propose a white paper solution that provides a means to deliver an Electronic Directory Services capability or the functional equivalent thereof (EDS) in a manner that would provide timely responses to all appropriate requests and would provide a means for users to access the system to meet routine and emergency support requirements. The proposed solution should ensure that all authorized participants, including operators, analysts, responders, planners, and policy makers can locate and access information, organizations, services and personnel in support of their respective mission requirements. Your white paper should address, at a minimum, the following areas, along with a indication/reference to the questions to which you are responding. Vision and Strategy 4. What is your vision for how the EDS would support/facilitate the INFORMATION SHARING ENVIRONMENT (ISE)? 5. How should the EDS be implemented ? in what stages? 6. The INTELLIGENCE REFORM AND TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT (IRTPA) requires that the ISE build upon existing capabilities in use across the Federal Government. Identify any EDS capabilities that an individual Federal department or agency is currently using or developing that could be leveraged for the ISE EDS capability. 7. Identify significant concerns, potential pitfalls and/or risks related to EDS implementation. Business Policy and Practice 8. What common business processes would you recommend to enable participating agencies to make the best use of an interoperable terrorism information sharing environment and maximize its value in efficiency and effectiveness? 9. What would be the best way to implement your business process solution? Provide an estimated duration for implementation? 10. From your knowledge base, what are the best sources of documentation of business rules, i.e., applicable law, regulation, policy and operational doctrine, applicable for determining appropriate access to the planned EDS? Homeland Security and Counterterrorism User 11. What types of user interface/initial user access to EDS would you propose? How would you make the EDS user friendly? 12. How should directory information be kept current? Who should bear responsibility for ensuring information is kept current? 13. What functionalities would help streamline EDS performance? 14. What functionalities would make EDS more useful? Design and Development 15. Describe the proposed architecture. How would the proposed solution address the use of directory services at multiple classification levels? Seamless access to directory information at multiple classification levels may/will be required. 16. What commercial off the shelf (COTS) solutions are available that are relevant to the EDS? 17. Explain how your proposed solution complies with or maps to the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA). 18. Describe how your proposed architecture?s use of metadata aligns with direction in the FEA Data Reference Model (DRM). 19. Identify any existing or planned ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) in Federal agencies that might provide the initial or full capabilities required. 20. How would you integrate your solution with the existing common services on the applicable networks? 21. How would your proposed solution integrate with the common authentication/authorization service recommended for the INFORMATION SHARING ENVIRONMENT (ISE)? 22. Describe the type and duration of training that would be required or recommended for systems administrators, users, and personnel to effectively use and maintain the proposed EDS systems. 23. Would the proposed solution operate in multiple technical environments; e.g., fixed workstations, PDAs, variable network speeds, etc.? 24. What would be the low bandwidth and high latency characteristics of your solution? 25. Describe how your solution could be used in a mobile environment. 26. Describe what you see to be the major issues the Government would encounter. What would be the near- term and long-term considerations? What would be the significant risks associated with the system? 27. What are the estimated costs (services, products, and people) of implementation? What are the business risk factors influencing cost decisions? Characteristics 28. Is the proposed solution an open source or proprietary technology? Proprietary technologies would become the property of the U.S. Government in the course of this acquisition. 29. Identify the main technical standards your proposed solution supports. 30. Was the proposed solution developed by a U.S. or foreign owned company? 31. How would your solution comply with Federal accessibility requirements? Protecting Information Privacy and Other Legal Requirements of Americans 32. How would you address considerations related to information privacy and other legal rights of Americans with respect to policy governing the EDS and EDS technology? 33. What efforts could be made to assure users and the American public that the ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) will not violate those rights? 34. How would you address National Security concerns? 35. What mechanisms would you have in place to enhance accountability and facilitate oversight? 36. Would the proposed solution provide for routine auditing? 37. What mechanisms would you have in place for authentication, access controls, management, and operations (remote vs. local)? 38. How would the solution best make use of private sector data while protecting information privacy and other legal rights of Americans and avoiding excessive costs? 39. What would you see as the legal and policy implications of building the EDS with both government and private sector information? 40. How would you ensure continuity of operations? What alternatives would you have; e.g. centralized, decentralized, mirroring, replication? IT Security 41. How does the proposed solution implement each of the components of IT security ? authentication, availability, confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation? 42. How does the solution assure friendly-force use and avoid the possibility for adversaries to use the information against us? 43. Will the proposed solution capture the directories of all parties, i.e., government, private, commercial, non-government organizations, media, educational entities, research, international, etc.? If not, what has been omitted? 44. How will the solution avoid a single point of failure? 45. What protections would you recommend be in place to allow any number (magnitude) of users to simultaneously access the EDS without ?crashing?? 46. How would the proposed solution provide separation of directory information at differing levels of classification as the solution evolves over time? 47. How would this solution provide for the integrity of information over time? 48. What would be your approach to identification and authentication of users of directory information? 49. What would be your approach to access control of directory information? 50. What would be your approach to integrating and deconflicting differing policies within the Federal government for access to directory services? 51. Would users be able to discover the existence of information at levels of classification which exceed their access or needs? How would this capability be controlled? Implementation 52. What deployment model would you recommend? 53. What capabilities could be implemented within the short term (30-60 days)? 54. What potential exists for mid- and long-term expansion (1 year and 3 years, respectively)? How would it be phased? 55. How would your technical solution be implemented? 56. How would you ensure continuous availability of the solution, e.g. operating in a 24X7 environment? Maintenance 57. How would your technology be maintained? 58. If you are a vendor, who are your customers for the technology? 59. Describe initial and recurring training that would be required for system administrators, users, and personnel required to utilize and maintain the system. 60. Describe your future position/objectives for electronic directory services or equivalent programs. What do you see as the major issues that you will encounter? What are some near-term and some long-term considerations? What are significant risks that you see? 61. What would the costs of ongoing operations be for your proposed solution? (Provide information Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM)estimates). 62. What measures would you use to evaluate the effectiveness of your approach (costs and benefits)? How would you track and manage the critical risks around your approach? COMPANY CORE COMPETENCIES FOR DATABASE SERVICES AND ANY RELATED WEB IT EFFORTS 63. Discuss your ability and experience in providing the following categories of expertise for the PM ISE tasking: Web page application, authoring and development. Coordination and communication. Web site management, monitoring, and optimization. Database and access development. IT services. Application and creation of web technology standards and policies. ROM Estimate for White Paper Solution 64. Provide full up ROM values for these services and identify any other scope you recommend with your proposed technical solution. Also provide a loaded ROM price for your fee-for-service support. RFI EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 65. Based upon your proposed solution and recommended approach, what changes would you suggest be implemented in this RFI? Please identify any ambiguities or areas requiring further explanation and/or suggest changes, as you deem appropriate. 66. Are there specific issues the government should keep in mind in building ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) for the terrorism information sharing environment? IV. INSTRUCTIONS TO PROSPECTIVE OFFERORS Offerors? are invited to attend the Electronic Directory Services Practitioners Day for Government & Industry on August 25, 2005, at 1:00 p.m. EDT in Washington, DC. You are requested to RSVP, with attendee names, by noon EDT, August 19, 2005 to eds@gsa.gov. Location and direction information will be forwarded to you with attendance confirmation. Please provide one electronic copy of your response to eds@gsa.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. EDT, on September 7, 2005. Your e-mail should be clearly marked with reference to RFI-#GS00V05PDI0044 and include the primary point of contact in your organization. Technical and procedural questions should be referred to Arthur Brunson, COTR at eds@gsa.gov. Mail one-hard copy of all response files to: Arthur T. Brunson Contracting Officer Technical Representative Office of Governmentwide Policy Office of Information Architecture and Strategies Division General Services Administration 1800 F Street, NW Room 2015 Washington, DC 20405 Ph: (202) 501-1126 Fax: (202) 501-6455 eds@gsa.gov Questions regarding any aspect of this RFI should be emailed to eds@gsa.gov. Questions and/or responses concerning the RFI process may be posted on the ELECTRONIC DIRECTORY SERVICES (EDS) Information RFI Portal, https://eds.core.gov/servlets/ProjectDocumentList, at the Government?s discretion. As a reminder, offerors? are invited to attend the EDS Practitioners Day for Government & Industry on August 25, 2005, at 1:00 pm in Washington, DC. You are requested to RSVP, with attendee names, by noon, August 19, 2005 to eds@gsa.gov. Location and direction information will be forwarded to you with attendance confirmation. V. DISCLAIMER (1) All information submitted in response to this request will be subject to public release. Therefore, do not include proprietary or confidential business information in your response. Vendors responding to this notice assume the risk of public disclosure if confidential information is included. (2) This notice is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation or Request for Proposal. This notice is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to contract for services. Please be advised that the Government will not pay for any information provided as a result of this notice and will not recognize or reimburse any cost associated with any RFI submission.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Washington, D.C.
- Zip Code: 20405
- Country: United States
- Zip Code: 20405
- Record
- SN00874185-W 20050820/050818213437 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
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