SRCSGT | D | This is a Request for Information (RFI). DoD agencies are seeking information and comment regarding potential strategies for the design, development, installation and operation and maintaining of the world largest corporate intranet.

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JUNE 08, 2008 FBO #2386
SOURCES SOUGHT

D -- This is a Request for Information (RFI). DoD agencies are seeking information and comment regarding potential strategies for the design, development, installation and operation and maintaining of the world largest corporate intranet.

Notice Date: 6/6/2008
Notice Type: Sources Sought
NAICS: 541519 — Other Computer Related Services
Contracting Office: ACA, ITEC4, Directorate of Contracting , 2461 Eisenhower Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22331-0700
ZIP Code: 22331-0700
Solicitation Number: W91QUZ-08-R-0047
Response Due: 7/9/2008
Archive Date: 9/7/2008
Point of Contact: Woodrow Bell, 703-325-4760
Small Business Set-Aside: N/A
Description: This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP). This is a Request for Information (RFI). Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The RFP number W91QUZ-08-R-0047 was entered as a requirement to allow the posting of this RFI. Therefore, the use of W91QUZ-08-R-0047 is not an indication of future action, beyond this RFI. This is a request for information only, as defined in FAR 15.201e. It does not constitute a Request for Proposal RFP or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. Responses to this notice shall not be construed as offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested partys expense. Not responding to this RFI will not preclude participation in any future RFP if issued. The release of AKO/DKO documentation is limited to United States corporations and United States citizens. The Program Executive Office, Enterprise Information Systems (PEO-EIS) and other DoD agencies seek information and comment regarding potential strategies for the design, development, installation and operation and maintaining of the world largest corporate intranet. Known initially as Army Knowledge Online (AKO), this intranet is transitioning, expanding and being recast as AKO and Defense Knowledge Online (AKO/DKO). While a significant amount of the transformation has occurred, not all technologies, tools and methods have been finalized. PEO-EIS anticipates awarding an AKO/DKO follow-on support contract before March 2010. While the reengineering effort is not assured, the multi-service DoD team seeks to investigate potential solutions and architecture approaches that identify best practices, migration strategies, and technologies that will advance DoD knowledge management. Questions regarding this RFI will not be entertained. The Army intends to issue a draft RFP in the 4th Quarter of FY08 which will provide additional information. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the purposes of this RFI and eventual draft RFP is 541519, with an associated small business size of $23 Million dollars. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: Responses to this RFI will be in the form of a White Paper, not to exceed fifteen (15) pages, and supported by a Microsoft Power Point briefing, including notes, not to exceed ten (10) slides. Contractors are urged to limit marketing material in order to provide more substantive information in their response. Responses are to be submitted via e-mail, in Microsoft Word, 2003 compatible, to Woodrow Bell, at drow.bell@us.army.mil, not later than 9 July 2008. If there are any questions, Mr. Bell can be reached by phone at (703) 325-4760. AKO/DKO BACKGROUND: AKO/DKO is being built on the current AKO enterprise portal structure. AKO was started as a pilot project in 1997 and was so successful that the Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff mandated that all data, information and systems be moved behind this portal. The AKO portal represented the first step in building the Army intranet. AKO is the principal tool used in transforming the Army to a knowledge based organization. The current AKO/DKO is constructed around Appian Enterprise business process management (BPM) technologies with many customized Enterprise Content Management (ECM) features. The current AKO/DKO enterprise portal provides Army and DoD personnel with access to business related and mission-oriented knowledge in real time. At present, the AKO/DKO enterprise portal, consists of a primary site at Fort Belvoir, a secondary site in Maryland, and a third site in Southwest Asia. All sites are connected to both unclassified, but sensitive nonsecure internet protocol router (NIPRNet) and secret internet protocol router (SIPRNet) networks. The scope includes systems operation and maintenance, network and systems engineering support, hardware and software integration, software development and maintenance, application development and maintenance, Army-wide help desk support, and senior level technology and program management support services. Services are provided on a continuous 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year basis. AKO/DKO provides single sign-on access to over 400 applications and experiences approximately 800,000 unique users 15 million times per month with peak bandwidth usage of 500 Mbps. DKO also provides user access to the DODs core enterprise services of DISAs Net-Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) program. A key tenet of DKO is that it uses, and does not duplicate, services provided by NCES on the DODs NIPRNET and SIPRNET, for purposes of both cost efficiency and to promote interoperability and information sharing within the DOD, and amongst DODs Joint, Interagency, Intergovernmental, and Multinational Mission (JIIM) partners. GovWorks, Department of Interiors contracting office, competitively awarded the original AKO contract in June 2002. The final option period on that contract expired on 30 Sep 07. As an interim solution, a task order was awarded to Northrop Grumman (NG) on 5 March 2007 against the Air Forces NETCENTS contract until emerging requirements could be stabilized. If the final option period is exercised, this task order will expire in March 2010. Since 2002, the Army has spent approximately $425M on the Program. The Not to Exceed Amount on the present task order is $267M with a remainder of approximately $112 million before expiration of the task order. ADDITIONAL REFERENCE MATERIAL: The Government may make reference/reading material available. If reference/reading material is made available, an amendment to this notice will be issued with instructions. ACQUISITION OBJECTIVES: The primary acquisition objective of AKO/DKO is to obtain a solution that efficiently, effectively, and economically provides and maintains a standard Information Technology infrastructure to support the Government in meeting both the AKO and DKO missions. As such, the Government anticipates that some or all of the following objectives of this requirement will be as follows: a. Building on the current AKO/DKO solution (hardware, software, infrastructure), provide a best-in-class, secure, interoperable, scalable, and upgradeable solution for AKO and DKO that focuses on a user-friendly interface, rapid access to on-line content and applications and outstanding customer service for approximately 2.5 million AKO and 8 million DKO end-users. Note: The number of users is an initial estimate only. The number of users ultimately provided service pursuant to AKO and DKO could vary drastically, either more or less, than the stated number of users. As a rule of thumb, the population of users to be supported on the SIPRNET is approximately 15% of those on unclassified networks. b. Ensure a seamless/transparent transition from other portals to DKO per the DKO Continuity of Operations (CONOPS), and from the existing contract to this contract, improving current process standards and procedures. c. Under a performance-based arrangement, award to a contractor committed to delivering a, highly reliable, user friendly, timely, and secure IT solution that meets or exceeds customer requirements and expectations. Incentives that reward offerors that provide a method for DoD to save costs and encourage the shutdown of other portals across DoD in favor of using DKO are being contemplated. d. Provide evolutionary, robust and user-friendly enterprise portal Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) toolsets capable of integrating best of breed in messaging, work flow, collaboration suites, content management, data retrieval search, taxonomy, and other services as required. e. Assure that AKO and DKO services are provided to any connected AKO and DKO user anywhere at any time to include a network-challenged environment. The system must be responsive and reliable to users at the network edge. Provide responsive and competent user assistance available 24/7. f. Assure DKO provides ubiquitous access to DoD and non DoD web-based business applications and is interoperable with the DoD Enterprise Architecture. g. Ensure security compliance/information assurance, including physical security, for AKO and DKO, its data, and users. h. Provide security architecture that is scalable to 8 million users. Consider DODD 8500 series including FIPS 140-2 compliance for both data in transit and data at rest. i. Provide the single entry point (single sign-on) into the DoD network through DKO allowing common access, security, authentication, and presentation solution (common look and feel) for all DoD network services. Solution should be a modular, plug-and-play, standalone design. As single sign-on may alternatively be provided from some other government source, a standards-based interface would have to be provided to enable this function to operate seamlessly within the DKO enterprise portal. j. Provide an architecture that demonstrates the capability to provide external policy management capability for AKO and DKO, and the ability to deny access to areas within the portal based on policy management decisions, in compliance with DoD standards. k. Ensure DKO continues to operate at required levels (including Continuity of Operations (COOP)/DR) (spell out DR) during any software or hardware changes, upgrades or disasters. l. Ensure new capabilities are adequately tested to prevent adverse impact to operations or the users experience during portal modifications and upgrades. Provide user training to increase awareness of DKO functionality. m. Provide market research and recommendations focused on continuous capability improvements. Provide a roadmap for future DKO improvements with an established and predictable release cycle. n. Provide Help Desk services for customer service and technical reporting purposes. Operations should be 24/7/365 and available to all AKO and DKO users. Offeror may, but is not required to maintain the current Help Desk operations and can propose alternative arrangements. Offeror must propose performance standards applicable to this type of operation. o. The AKO/DKO enterprise portal must be able to support both convergence and federation of other DoD portals depending on business and mission needs. ACQUISITION STRATEGY ISSUES: This contract will be a systems integration contract to both operate and maintain the current AKO/DKO enterprise portal and to design, install, transition and maintain the future AKO and DKO portal(s) in accordance with the concepts outlined in the DKO Strategic Concept of Operations (CONOPS). The DKO enterprise portal will provide universal, secure access for world-wide DoD operations. DKO will be the single point of entry into the DoDs Intranets (including AKO) for both the business side and for deployed personnel to achieve reach-back to their sustaining bases for essential mission and critical support processes, especially for forces in remote geographic areas such as Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The future AKO/DKO enterprise portal(s) will be designed in such a way that there will be no virtual loss of functionality to the current AKO requirements. SCOPE: CURRENT SYSTEM: It is expected that the successful offeror will have complete program management responsibility at all three sites. The scope includes systems operation and maintenance, network and systems engineering support, hardware and software integration, software development and maintenance, application development and maintenance, DoD-wide help desk support, and senior level technology and program management support services. Services must be provided, without disruption, on a continuous 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year basis. The successful offeror will provide the necessary infrastructure and tools to DoD personnel (Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines); Active, National Guard, and Reserve soldiers and their sponsored guests; DoD Civilians; applicable contractors; and JIMM partners. FUTURE SYSTEM: Contingent on available funding, the future AKO and DKO enterprise portal(s) system(s) may be moved into an Army Area Processing Center (APC) and/or within Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Defense Enterprise Computing Centers (DECC). These systems may either entail the use of space leased within these facilities with government-purchased equipment and application software installed (but with government rights instilled) or the use of DISA or contractor-provided managed services for equipment needs and the contractor application software installed. The contractor would be responsible for all coordination efforts necessary for the moves. In addition to the three current physical sites, additional in-country and/or overseas sites may be added to add security, capacity and functionality. The reengineered AKO/DKO intranet must scale to 8 million users, including active duty and retired service personnel, their family members and contractors, and possibly other government agencies. ARCHITECTURAL DEVELOPMENT: a. A successful offeror must be able to operate the AKO/DKO enterprise portal as soon as possible after contract award; complete implementation of the ongoing system upgrades already in progress; and then transition to a leadership role in the technical, managerial and organizational evolution of the AKO and DKO enterprise portal without disruption to current AKO/DKO services and capabilities. b. The successful offeror will play a significant role in creating the most efficient and effective AKO/DKO enterprise portal using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) concepts in the DoDs Service Oriented Environment, and the most up-to-date, modular plug-and-play applications. The Government will consider both new and existing system designs in both software and underlying hardware platforms to provide a continuous, high-quality service to AKO and DKO users. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT: a. The AKO/DKO Enterprise Services contractor will have the responsibility for the continued development of AKO and DKO functionality. The Government seeks help in identifying AKO and DKO user needs, back-end business application needs, and overall functional enhancements. The Government also seeks the establishment of strong processes to formalize the development and facilitate the prioritization of AKO and DKO improvements. b. With regards to FAR subpart 27-Rights and Copyrights, the contractor shall be required to provide the Government with sufficient technical and non-technical data and data rights, computer software, software documentation and software rights, as well as rights in other relevant information and documentation. The rights received or retained by the Government must be sufficient to ensure that the form, fit, function and appearance of the AKO and DKO can be preserved for any follow-on award. CONTRACT CONSIDERATIONS: The current AKO/DKO systems infostructure consists mainly of contractor and government-owned components. The Government furnishes some government furnished equipment (GFE), as well as the facilities at the primary and secondary sites. The primary and secondary sites are exact images of each other, each sharing the AKO/DKO user load. The current contractor provides AKO/DKO as a service using, in part, the GFE. The Government is presently considering several alternatives with regards to the acquisition strategy. They include but are not limited to a managed solution, also called managed services, or a co-location arrangement: For the purposes of this potential acquisition a Management Service Provider or Managed Service Provider (MSP) is an organization that would manage AKO/DKO computer systems and networks which are located on DoD premises or at a third-party datacenter. MSPs offer a variety of service levels from notifying the Government if problems occur to making all necessary repairs. MSPs may also be a source for hardware and staff for its AKO/DKO customers. A service provider may also simply deliver infrastructure management services on a subscription basis, similar to the model used by application service providers. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), also known as on-demand software delivery. The Government may seek to move existing Army GFE from the Fort Belvoir and Maryland sites to a Defense Enterprise Computing Center (DECC) and procure system management support services. In this case, the Government would require the Army GFE be moved to the DECC. Any additional equipment needed for the system would be Government provided through the DECC. The Government is presently considering two options to meet its requirements as follows: Option 1. a. In this option, the contractor will be required to operate and maintain the current system in one or more possible scenarios. Under one scenario, it is expected that the Government will provide the necessary hosting facilities at the current location. However, funding constraints may prevent the Government from acquiring or leasing all the equipment necessary for AKO/DKO to function. Consequently, the Government may not be able to provide as all GFE necessary to operate and maintain AKO/DKO. In this event, the selected contractor may be required to use its own equipment and resources to operate and maintain the AKO/DKO. As part of this option, the contractor will likely also be required to propose to operate the system as a managed service at the present three locations. The offeror will be required to propose such a solution and an associated transition plan. b. A different scenario involves moving the equipment presently owned by the Government from its present location at the Fort Belvoir and Maryland sites to a DECC. In this case, the offeror would be required to move the GFE to the DECC. Any additional equipment needed for the system would be furnished by the DECC and furnished to the contractor as GFE. The offeror would be required to coordinate the effort on behalf of the government. The offeror will be required to propose such a solution to ensure operation during and after the transition to the DECC, and an associated transition plan. c. In either case, the contractor will be required to design a future solution for an entirely new AKO/DKO system to be located in at least two DECCs and the associated transition plan. The equipment at the Southwest Asia site will remain in place. Option 2. Depending on the supporting business case and availability of funding, a different approach may be pursued. Instead of being required to maintain the current AKO/DKO system in-place, the contractor would be required to immediately design, install, and maintain a new AKO/DKO equipment and software design at two or more DECCs using managed services. The offeror would be required to coordinate the effort on behalf of the government and to provide a plan for the transition of services from the existing contractor to the new DECC facilities. The contractor would be required to show that this approach was technically superior, and could be provided at a reduced cost. Alternative Solution. The contractor may present an alternate solution under the RFI.. PERFORMANCE-BASED ACQUISITION (PBA): The AKO/DKO contract, if awarded, may use performance-based service contracting principles including use of a Statement of Objectives or a Performance Work Statement. TERM: The AKO/DKO contract term is anticipated to include a base period of one year, with at least four one-year options. QUESTIONS: The Government is requesting comments on the above options, and is interested in obtaining the following information from industry to consider in determining its acquisition strategy and development of the RFP. 1. How difficult would it be to implement a solution in which the Government provides a limited set of equipment as GFE? In this event the Government would likely not be in a position to acquire or lease all equipment necessary for AKO/DKO to function. Rather, the contractor would be required to provide AKO/DKO as a service using its own resources. Please explain the advantages and disadvantages with this approach. 2. What factors should the Government consider when determining whether to transition DKO from one Content Management System (CMS) to another, i.e., from one support model to another? 3. Is a partial managed service agreement practical, where the Government and service provider divide AKO/DKO services in both the classified and unclassified environments? What about dividing between the classified and unclassified environments? Is a public-private partnership feasible to deliver AKO/DKO? 4. With regards to FAR Subpart 27, what other factors should be considered regarding software licenses and Configuration Management? How would you recommend handling software licenses issues? 5. What specific detail or additional information beyond the information provided in the reading room is needed in order to bid on the complete requirement? 6. What contract type(s) would be most beneficial to both the Government and the contractor? 7. How long would it take to transition from the existing contract to the new contract? 8. What logical portions of work are suitable for small business (SB) participation on an effort of this size? What SB subcontracting goals have you achieved on similar efforts? 9. What contractual incentives would motivate outstanding performance? In what areas can performance most effectively be incentivized? 10. If the Government decides on a fully MSP, what performance areas should be incentivized? What metrics are typically used?) 11. What portal and data/content management best practices are used by industry? 12. How does industry leverage portals to ensure effective support to multi-functional elements of the organization, and what lessons learned can they share? 13. How would you monitor DKO service availability and quality? 14. With regards to future trends, what should the Government consider in assessing future capabilities? 15. What are the industry standards for portal maintenance? What are the cost drivers unique to portal maintenance? 16. If the Government chooses SaaS, how would you propose the Government determine ownership of the services? 17. What would be a rough order of magnitude of cost for both Option 1 and Option 2 and any proposed Alternative Solution? 18. How could DKO best improve information sharing within DOD and with DODs mission partners in accordance with the DOD Net-Centric Data and Services Strategies while maintaining information assurance? 19. DKO provides one of the core enterprise services of DISAs NCES program: User Access. As such, DKOs User Access is the requirement, and must fully integrate with and use the other services provided by NCES. What special contract provisions, if any, are desired to assure reliable and cost-effective service to DOD end-users in this scenario?
Web Link: FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=4917efb32a4e3fc0040a2c3d537e3cb2&tab=core&_cview=1)
Place of Performance: Address: ACA, ITEC4 Directorate of Contracting , 2461 Eisenhower Avenue Alexandria VA; Zip Code: 22331-0700
Record: SN01588907-W 20080608/080606220435-4917efb32a4e3fc0040a2c3d537e3cb2 (fbodaily.com)
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D -- This is a Request for Information (RFI). DoD agencies are seeking information and comment regarding potential strategies for the design, development, installation and operation and maintaining of the world largest corporate intranet.