MODIFICATION
D -- MARKET RESEARCH - DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT MODERNIZATION PROJECT
- Notice Date
- 4/18/2007
- Notice Type
- Modification
- NAICS
- 541511
— Custom Computer Programming Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, Office of the Secretary, Commerce Acquisition Solutions, Office of the Secretary, 14th & Constitution Avenue NW Room 6514, Washington, DC, 20230, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-MARKET-RESEARCH-02232007
- Response Due
- 6/4/2007
- Description
- MARKET RESEARCH ANNOUNCEMENT (Revised and Superseded) (1) GENERAL: The Department of Commerce is conducting market research in order to determine the capabilities of Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, HUBZone small businesses, HUBZone 8(a), and 8(a). The NAICS code associated with this requirement is 541511 and the size standard is $23 million. (2) STATEMENT OF REQUIREMENTS: The Department of Commerce is embarking on the next stage of its Financial Management evolution. The Department?s strategic vision is aligned with the President?s Management Agenda (PMA) and the Financial Management Line of Business (FMLoB) goals of standardization, consolidation and optimization in achieving and sustaining financial management excellence. Therefore, the Department is undertaking a comprehensive financial management modernization initiative focused on deploying the next generation of strategic, process, technology, change management and human performance components. (2a) Background The Commerce Business Systems (CBS) Solutions Center (CSC), located in Gaithersburg, Maryland is responsible for maintaining and enhancing the CBS suite of software. At this time, CBS consists of the Core Financial System (CFS) including the Commerce Purchase Card System (CPCS), and the Budget and Execution Data Warehouse. The CBS is integrated with the Commerce Standard Acquisition and Reporting System (CSTARS) (information pertinent to CSTARS is available at http://oamweb.osec.doc.gov/CASD_automatedProcSystem.html), the National Finance Center (NFC) Payroll System and the Automated Standard Application for Payments (ASAP). The CFS is a customized Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) application, providing financial management and accounting capabilities which support 12 of the 15 Commerce bureaus. The original business model was to allow each bureau to establish unique business rules, implement an instance of the system based on these rules, and run the system on the bureau's server. Over time, this model has proven inefficient, ineffective, costly, and time-consuming. The new business model of standardization, consolidation and optimization is intended to address these deficiencies, and allow the Department to achieve the goals of the Financial Management Line of Business (FMLoB). (2b) Commerce Financial Management Modernization Initiative To achieve the Departmental goals, the key initiatives identified are: 1) Financial Management Line of Business & other Lines of Businesses; and 2) Standardization, Consolidation and Optimization. The Department will also require a continuation of current system requirements for maintenance support, database administration and testing. Financial Management Line of Business (FMLoB) & other Lines of Businesses In March 2004, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) initiated a government-wide analysis of five lines of business (LoBs) supporting the President's Management Agenda goal to expand Electronic Government. The FMLoB goals include facilitating strong internal controls that ensure integrity in accounting and other stewardship activities; reducing cost associated with implementing and operating financial management systems; standardizing systems, business processes and data elements and providing seamless data exchange between the Department and other federal agencies. This initiative will include a business case assessing Shared Service Providers? capabilities in providing all four categories of service: technology hosting and administration, application management, business process services and system implementation services as outlined in FMLoB Migration Planning Guidance. We anticipate the Contractor may assist DOC with the selection process. The Department will undertake the broad scope of process re-engineering, systems implementation and deployment, change management, security management and integration activities necessary to achieve its vision. We envision the Contractor leading many efforts including, but not limited to, Business Process Reengineering efforts. Additionally, due to their interrelationship to FMLoB, this initiative must also include the following OMB defined lines of business and eGov initiatives: 1) Budget Formulation and Execution Line of Business (BFELoB); 2) Infrastructure Optimization Initiative Line of Business (IOILoB); 3) Human Resource Management Line of Business (HRMLoB); 4) Grants Management Line of Business (GMLoB); 5) Information Security System Line of Business (ISSLoB); 6) e-Loans; 7) e-Travel; 8) e-Payroll; 9) e-Training; and 10) e-Authentication. The Contractor will be responsible for analyzing and integrating all these lines of businesses into any cost benefit analysis. Standardization, Consolidation and Optimization This initiative serves to standardize, consolidate and optimize strategic, process, technology, change management and human performance components across the Department, in coordination with the FMLoB initiative, as well as, the BFELoB, IOILoB, HRMLoB, GMLoB, ISSLoB and the e-Gov initiatives for Loans, Travel, Payroll and Training. Some of the goals and outputs identified to-date for this initiative are: 1) Standardizing business processes: a) Standardizing use of data elements; b) establishing performance measures to assess implementation and execution of standard business processes; 2) Consolidation of services and/or processing; a) Auditing; b) Account Administration; c) Database Administration; d) Testing; e) Training; f) Helpdesk (both functional and technical); g) Portal and single sign-on (SSO); h) Data warehouses and data dissemination; and 3) Optimization of systems: a) Capability Maturity Model ? Integrated (CMMI) certification; b) Implementation of a Departmental Change Control Board (CCB); c) Definition and implementation of software configuration management (SCM); and d) Addressing system performance tuning. In furtherance of this new direction, the Department will be seeking contractor support to develop a Departmental Concept of Operations. This concept of operations includes high-level descriptions of information systems, their inter-relationships, and information flows. It also describes the operations that must be performed, who must perform them, and where and how the operations will be carried out. Further, it provides the foundation on which requirements definitions and the rest of the systems planning process are built. The Concept of Operations will also include a comprehensive strategy and detailed roadmap. The roadmap or plan will provide the overarching architecture around standardizing, consolidating and optimizing the Department?s business processes, administrative systems and technologies, user interaction and usability, data centers, security and integration components. The comprehensive strategy will also assess the feasibility of analyzing alternative options for consolidating financial management support to an application service provider to achieve financial management excellence. We anticipate a contractor ?assessing the feasibility of analyzing alternative options? or actually conducting an analysis for either maintaining the CBS and feeder systems or transitioning to a shared service provider. As a part of the comprehensive strategy, the Department also requires a continuation of current requirements such as both current system maintenance support and overarching support during transition/migration from its current financial management state to its optimal future state, including all design, architecture, integration, and deployment activities as well as sustaining this future state, including continual business improvements to achieve both high efficiency and optimization. It is essential the contractor develop, manage, and execute an all-encompassing solution that includes maintaining current applications in parallel while performing transition/migration. In addition, the CSC is responsible for maintaining the CBS/CFS application software and applicable interfaces. Each of the primary CBS bureaus; Census, NIST, and NOAA, are responsible for operating standard financial management software (e.g., CFS) on their own hardware platforms. Each of the separate bureaus has its own test and production environments within their respective data centers. The Department is currently in the process of a multi-year CBS/CFS server consolidation project. Its primary goal is to consolidate the three current Bureau production environments including the CSC environment, as well as other business system applications, to a single platform located at a single data center. As a part of this transition, current system requirements for maintenance support, database administration and testing must be preserved and managed while also establishing new requirements for maintenance support, database administration and testing in the consolidated environment. (3) ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: FAR Subpart 9.5 prohibits a Contractor from engaging in any actions that present an actual or apparent conflict of interest in the performance of a federal contract. OMB?s policy regarding the modernization of federal financial management systems such as DOC?s Core Financial System, is that, with limited exception, an agency seeking to upgrade to the next major release of its current core financial management system or modernize to a different core financial management system must either migrate to a Shared Services Center (SSC) or qualified private sector provider, or be designated as an SSC. It appears that OMB?s current directions may give rise to apparent or actual Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI) under FAR Subpart 9.5. For the performance of DOC's requirements, DOC is striving to obtain a robust competition. A current Shared Service Provider (SSP) may be precluded from performing both DOC?s prospective requirements and performing its function as a SSP, without engaging in an actual or apparent OCI under FAR Subpart 9.5 and relevant GAO decisions. Therefore, submissions from a SSP or a current subcontractor to a SSP shall explain how the two roles do not involve actual or apparent OCI, as prohibited under FAR Subpart 9.5. Further, such SSP or current subcontractor to a SSP must also describe how they would avoid, neutralize, or mitigate any actual or apparent OCI that are perceived to exist. (4) SOURCE OF INFORMATION: Interested firms are encouraged to become familiar with the FSIO website at http://www.fsio.gov/fsio/fsiodata/ in order to understand the requirements of Federal agencies to meet the standards, performance measures, and compliance requirements established by the Office of Management and Budget task force. Many of these requirements most likely will be incorporated into a prospective contract as well as the performance measures regarding timeliness and quality standards. (5) INSTRUCTIONS ON THE PREPARATION OF A RESPONSE TO THIS MARKET RESEARCH. Interested parties shall provide a response in accordance with Attachment 1(Revised and Superseded) ? Instruction on the Preparation of a Response to the Market Research. Interested small businesses shall complete the template so that the information reflects the experience and capabilities of the small business as a prime. If the small business would like to identify a potential subcontractor, the information shall be provided in response to block 11 of the template and a separate form may be completed that represents the experience and capabilities of the prospective subcontractor. If the subcontractor is also a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, HUBZone, HUBZone 8(a) or 8(a), the Government may consider the information as an individual and separate submission. If the subcontractor is a large business or small business, the information will not be utilized to make a set aside determination at this time. The intent here is to review the information of the Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, HUBZone, HUBZone 8(a) or 8(a) in order to determine its capability to prime the work based on its experience and capabilities in meeting the various requirements specified in the template in Attachment 1(Revised and Superseded). If the small business does not have experience or techniques to address a specific area, it shall be clearly stated in the response to the template. In addition, the small business would need to address the obvious weakness in managing, as a prime, an area of the requirement in which it lacks direct experience. Block 11 should also be used to make recommendations to the Government, such as, the type of information regarding the system that would assist in the preparation of a proposal, contract type, and performance measures identifying the standards and application. (6) PROPOSED STRATEGY: The Government intends on reviewing all submissions received in response to this market research announcement. Firms may be requested to submit additional information in the form of a face-to-face meeting with a panel of Government representatives. Upon completion of the market research, the Government will develop requirements, performance measures, inspection and acceptance procedures, as well as other areas of a Request for Proposal (RFP) taking into consideration the information provided in response to this announcement. The Government anticipates conducting a presolicitation conference. Information about the presolicitation conference will be provided in the future. If an RFP is issued, it will be performance based and include performance measures. The submissions in response to this announcement are your opportunity to provide input to performance measures and standards, requirements, and other elements of the solicitation. (7) RESPONSE DUE DATE: Responses shall be provided in five hardcopies and include one electronic version on a compact disc (CD) formatted in Word. Submission shall be mailed to: CBS Solutions Center, 209 Perry Parkway Suite 5, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877-2143 ATTENTION: Linda Shariati, Contracting Officer on or before 12:00 noon on June 4, 2007. THIS SYNOPSIS IS FOR INFORMATION AND PLANNING PURPOSES AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED FROM THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. NO REIMBURSEMENT WILL BE MADE FOR ANY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH PROVIDING INFORMATION IN RESPONSE TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND ANY FOLLOW-UP INFORMATION REQUESTS. ALL INFORMATION SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT MUST ARRIVE ON OR BEFORE 12:00 NOON (Gaithersburg Maryland time) on June 4, 2007. Point of Contact - Linda H. Shariati, Department of Commerce, Contracting Officer, telephone number (301)258-4505 extension 277. (8) DISCLAIMER: It is emphasized that the requested information is for preliminary planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that Department of Commerce will solicit you for such procurement in the future. The Government shall not be responsible for any costs incurred by you in furnishing this information. You are advised that any information provided shall be deemed to be furnished with unlimited rights to the Department of Commerce and the Department of Commerce assumes no liability for the disclosure, use, or reproduction of such data. Your submission of a response to this market research shall be deemed as your understanding and acceptance of these terms.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Gaithersburg, Maryland
- Zip Code: 20878
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 20878
- Record
- SN01275715-W 20070420/070418220502 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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