MODIFICATION
D -- Administratiave Officer Action Request Tool
- Notice Date
- 11/2/2006
- Notice Type
- Modification
- NAICS
- 541512
— Computer Systems Design Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Division of Research Acquisition, 6100 Executive Boulevard, Room 6E01, MSC 7540, Bethesda, MD, 20892-7540, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-NIH-RFI-263-2007-01
- Response Due
- 12/8/2006
- Archive Date
- 12/23/2006
- Description
- This amendment/modification to NIH-RFI-263-2007-01, entitled Administrative Officer Action Request Tool, extends the date for submission of responses to December 8, 2006. All other information and specifications remain unchanged. Issuing Institute or Center: Office of Research Services/Information Technology Branch (ORS\ITB) This Request for Information (RFI) is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as either a solicitation or obligation on the part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), its Institutes or Centers. The purpose of this RFI is to help the NIH understand the market availability, technical characteristics, and functionality of solutions, tools, or products capable of satisfying the technical, functional, and/or operational characteristics described in this RFI. NIH will use this market research information in its evaluation of potential technical approaches for administrative workflow management. This request for information is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation for quotes or proposals or as an obligation on the part of the government to issue a Request for Quotes or award of a contract. The government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or for the government's use of that information. NIH welcomes comments from all interested parties on each or all of the questions contained in this RFI. NIH does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses nor otherwise pay for the preparation of any information submitted or NIH's use of such information. Acknowledgment of receipt of responses will not be made, nor will respondents be notified of the NIH's evaluation of the information received. Description of Objective: NIH seeks information on available Business Process Management solutions for an automated web-based application that allows customer entry of Administrative service requests, provides status feedback to users, and gives management the ability to track and balance staff workload. Due to the sensitive nature of this data, NIH will host any vendor proposed solution. Description of Environment: The Administrative Services Branch, Office of Administrative Management, is responsible for providing specific support services related to the direction, coordination, and conduct of administrative management activities and services provided to the Office of Research Services and Office of Research Facilities. OAM provides assistance in the areas of general administration, workforce planning and development, communications, and space management. The Administrative Officers (AO) use an automated system to enter, manage, and report requests for administrative services. The ASB is looking to replace this current system with an application that provides workflow and Business Process Management functionality. The replacement system will be a web-based application that will enable customers to request most AO services from their desktop computers and receive timely status information on their requests. The new application should make the process for submitting requests as electronic as possible, reducing the number of customer requests received by fax, email, walk-ins, and telephone sources. The system should provide customers with feedback on the status of their requests by email or on demand, route the request to the appropriate AO, and provide a system that is easy to use for both the AO and the customer. In addition, the application should provide a mechanism for the non-technical system administrator to develop/deploy forms and instructions and define and modify workflows (routings). AO/ART should also provide robust reporting capabilities such as dynamic ad hoc reporting, graphics, and dash board metrics reporting. The new system should support the following user roles: the Program Assistant Role (PA), the Administrative Officer Role (AO), the Administrative Officer Management Role (AO Management), the Administrative Officer System Administrator Role (AO System Administrator), the Ethics Coordinator Role, and the Procurement Role. 1 The PA Role will require the ability to enter requests and receive status updates on those requests. 2. The AO Role will need to have the capability to enter, process, and approve requests. 3. The AO Management Role will need the capability to adjust workloads and review reports. 4. The AO System Administrator Role should have the ability to define and modify workflows. The AO System Administrator Role will also need to be able to develop and deploy forms and instructions. 5. The Ethics Coordinator Role should have the ability to approve sponsored and foreign travel requests and view associated status and approval information. 6. The Procurement Role will require the ability to obtain statistical information related to request processing such as the number of phone calls, walk-ins, and customer contacts. Description of Evaluation Criteria: For the purpose of this RFI, the NIH defines the scope of this technical domain as Business Process Management capabilities required to provide a tailorable web-based application based on defined workflows which will increase productivity and provide a way to authorize, process, and manage administrative requests in an effective and efficient manner in order to meet OAM's mission. The information gathered through this market research, combined with information gathered through other research and analysis methodologies, will provide the NIH with important decision support information in its evaluation. NIH will base the selection of its technical standards on the following evaluation criteria: 1. Availability - Evaluates the availability, failover and performance of the collaboration technology as it relates to server uptime, client uptime and network uptime. 2. Cost - estimated total cost of ownership (based on market research statistics and independent research opinions). 3. Existing federal installed base - NIH or other federal government experience with the technology and the use and adoption of the standard or product. 4. Fit with existing NIH standards, technologies, and systems (for information about existing technologies at NIH, please refer to the NIH Enterprise Architecture website at http//enterprise architecture.nih.gov) - any known interoperability issues a potential standard may have with existing technology standards. 5. Flexibility - the breadth of the standard?s applicability to multiple NIH stakeholder classes. 6. Industrial installed base - the use and adoption of the standard throughout industry in general (both commercial and public enterprises). 7. Maintainability/supportability - the effort and specialized skill sets required to support a technology standard. 8. Product Life cycle - evaluates the expected time the product will be in use and supported by the vendor and the ability to maintain currency of its functionality and operation. A longer life cycle is desirable from a training and hardware investment perspectives. 9. Security - the ability and/or effectiveness and fit of the technology within the NIH security environment. 10. Strategic value - the breadth of product capabilities in order to leverage an investment. 11. Vendor viability (vendor viability will be determined by its financial health, position in the market place, external research sources, and any market factors that could compromise the vendor's existence) - the health of the product vendor in terms of its stability, projected longevity, and likelihood it will exist in the future to support the product and later versions of the product. It is important to reiterate that this RFI is not intended to gather information needed to address each of the decision criteria above. Received data will be combined with information gathered through other research and analysis methodologies to support NIH's overall evaluation. Request for Information: To support the NIH's market research, the NIH requests responses to the following questions. Please limit your response to no more than 15 pages (not including illustrations) in Microsoft Word format. Additionally, please complete the Microsoft Excel attachment that accompanies this RFI, and submit both together no later than the due date indicated above (responses to the Excel attachment are to be entered directly into the spreadsheets and submitted in Microsoft Excel format). Responses may be submitted via email directly to rodrigur@mail.nih.gov. General Information 1) Please provide the following: (1) Your organization's name; (2) Your organization's website; (3) Contact Name; (4) Contact Telephone; (5) Contact E-mail address; (6) Number of employees in your organization; (7) Your organization's current and gross revenue for 2005; (8) Are the products you are considering included in the GSA Schedule? Or available on another GWAC such as NITAAC? Product Information 2) Please identify any product(s) or solution(s) you believe address the requirements for web conferencing, shared workspace, and instant messaging as listed in the Excel spreadsheet (included as attachment). For each product/solution you identify, please provide the following information as available/applicable: (1) Product/solution name; (2) Date of product's first production release; (3) Current production version; (4) Planned product schedule (i.e. future product enhancements, upgrade cycle of the product, Next major release plan); (5) Please discuss its features, functionality, and capabilities; (6) Revenue based on product sales; (7) Number of customers, by private and public sectors, using the version of the product being considered in this RFI. 3) Please discuss how your product(s) or solution(s) satisfy the evaluation criteria described above. 4) Do you currently have any products, solutions, or implementations at the NIH or other Federal Agencies today? If so, to what extent (e.g., which Agencies, Institutes or Centers? How many?). 5) Please indicate the depth and breadth of this product?s (these products?) usage throughout industry in general (i.e., private and public sectors)? How many customers (by private and public sectors) are using this product? In what industries? Please provide an overview of current or planned product and service partnerships for this market. Costs and Fees Structure 6) Pricing and implementation. (1) Provide an overview of the costs and fee structure associated with your solution offerings for a medium to large-scale federal solution; (2)Provide specific solution cost information, including software licensing, annual maintenance, discount schedules (if applicable), implementation and deployment costs. Please provide sample pricing for 100 to 2,500 users and provide sample hard ware requirements for 100, 500 and 1000 concurrent users.; (3) Please explain your pricing model(s) (i.e., license-based, unit based, usage, etc.) ; (4) Provide any training and/or certification program fees; (6) Provide any documentation fees and media type . Services 7) Provide an overview of NIH required resources and effort to meet implementation needs and/or describe your relationship with any 3rd party implementation partners if applicable. 8) Describe your approach to data conversion/integration/migration and how content is accessed, integrated, and retrieved. 9) Describe training methods (e.g., web-based, computer-based training (CBT), in-class, etc.) available with your product for both end users and system administrators. Technical 10) How does your product(s) or solution(s) address scalability when transaction volumes or number of users increases? What impact, if any, does scalability (increase or decrease) have on cost? 11) Provide an overview of your solution?s architecture and technology components. Please describe how this architecture can be distributed to provide better load balancing and availability. 12) How well does your product leverage the .NET environment? 13) Provide an overview of existing integration architecture including third-party products, modules, or Application Programming Interfaces (API). 14) Provide a brief overview of the security features (i.e. authorization and authentication services) of your product. 15) What other applications integrate with your product? 16) Describe the supported server hardware and operating systems for your solution 17) Does your solution require or support any third party relational database management system (RDBMS) or document management system. If so, please describe. 18) Please disclose any known security vulnerabilities inherent in your product(s) and current mitigation plans. 19) How extensible and customizable is your product? 20) Does your solution support the MS NTLMv2 standard and Single Sign On? 21) How does your solution support Active Directory group Authentication/Authorization. General 22) To what extent are you limited to conduct business under the Buy American Act with the Federal Government? 23) Is your product Section 508 compliant? NIH welcomes responses from all interested individuals and organizations on each or all of these questions. All questions should be submitted to rodrigur@mail.nih.gov. Responses are due by 3PM, EST on Friday, November 24, 2006 at the email set forth above (i.e, rodrigur@mail.nih.gov. Responses will not be accepted after this time.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Bethesda, Maryland
- Zip Code: 20892
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 20892
- Record
- SN01174992-W 20061104/061102220310 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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