SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Professional Outreach Support for National 9-1-1 Office
- Notice Date
- 2/13/2009
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541720
— Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities
- Contracting Office
- Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration HQ, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, District of Columbia, 20590
- ZIP Code
- 20590
- Solicitation Number
- 2009-012
- Response Due
- 2/27/2009
- Archive Date
- 3/14/2009
- Point of Contact
- Lloyd S. Blackwell,, Phone: 202-366-9564
- E-Mail Address
-
lloyd.blackwell@nhtsa.dot.gov
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- A. INTRODUCTION The “Ensuring Needed Help Arrives Near Callers Employing 911 Act of 2004” (hereinafter identified as “ENHANCE 911 Act” or the “Act”) was signed into law on December 23, 2004. It called for the Assistant Secretary of Commerce and the Administrator of NHTSA to create a national E-911 Implementation Coordination Office (National 9 1 1 Office) to implement the provisions of the Act. The National 9-1-1 Office is physically housed in the NHTSA Office of Emergency Medical Services (OEMS) and is charged with improving the Nation’s 9 1 1 system. The National 9-1-1 Office has three statutory responsibilities: 1.To increase and improve coordination among Federal, State and local emergency communication systems, emergency personnel, public safety organizations, telecommunications carriers, and telecommunications equipment manufacturers and vendors. 2.Develop, collect and disseminate information concerning practices, procedures and technology used in implementation of E9-1-1 services. 3.Administer grant program specifically for Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). To carry out these responsibilities, the National 9-1-1 Office seeks to directly involve constituents in the processes of fulfilling its duties. The National 9-1-1 Office must obtain policy, program, and project input from the broad constituency of private industry and public safety officials who are responsible for public safety, incident response and emergency communications. These include policy and program decision makers, as well as field personnel within a wide range of professional communities: transportation, law enforcement, fire and rescue, Emergency Medical Services, emergency communications and telecommunications, informatics, and telematics manufacturers and service providers) and State and local governments. Fundamental cultural and institutional differences separate professional communities. In addition to seeking program and policy input, the National 9-1-1 Office seeks to raise awareness and educate the public safety community about its programs and products. The National 9-1-1 Office seeks to promote the expansion and utilization of its successful projects by actively marketing projects of relevance to appropriate stakeholders. The ultimate success of the projects funded by the National 9-1-1 Office and the utilization and expansion of project results is dependent upon all appropriate stakeholders having awareness and knowledge of these projects and their potential benefits. Only through actively marketing specific National 9-1-1 Office programs and projects will this level of awareness be realized. In addition to these general responsibilities, a 9-1-1 Technical Assistance Center (TAC) has been created. The TAC will be a clearinghouse of 9-1-1 information with links to other information sources and personnel to answer a variety of questions related to 9-1-1 technology and operations. The National 9-1-1 Office seeks to make the Public Safety Community aware of the existence and purpose of the TAC. Current staffing of the National 9-1-1 Office will require contractor support to engage all appropriate stakeholders and raise awareness of its programs and products in a timely manner. The National 9-1-1 Office seeks professional support services to develop and implement a Strategic Communications Outreach Plan to accomplish these tasks. B.BACKGROUND As stated above, the National 9-1-1 Office has multiple statutory responsibilities, requiring the involvement of a very broad and disparate group of stakeholders. In addition, the work to be done is often highly technical and very specific to the operation of 9-1-1 networks and systems. Past experience with general marketing/public relations companies in providing support services to the National 9-1-1 Office have not been productive, due to the inordinate amount of time required to become even basically familiar with both 9-1-1 technology and the role of each group within the broad 9-1-1 constituency. It is imperative therefore, that any offeror is able to demonstrate working knowledge of 9-1-1 technology, operations and institutional issues, in order to provide the level of support required by the National 9-1-1 Office. While extensive experience in working with or as part of a 9-1-1 authority or organization is not required, it is preferred. The National 9-1-1 Office currently has under contract, the services of an outreach and marketing firm and they are in the process of completing and implementing a comprehensive communications plan. The contractor under this new proposed contract will be expected to review the existing communications plan and assess the progress made in implementation. The contractor shall then revise the comprehensive communications plan, to be consistent with activities to date, and to continue and expand outreach and marketing activities as appropriate and as directed by the staff of the National 9-1-1 Office, in conjunction with NHTSA’s Office of Communications and Consumer Information. The existing communications plan and the most up-to-date progress report on its implementation will be submitted to the Office of Acquisition Management (OAM) when OAM is ready to post this offering for proposals. C. PURPOSE The purpose of this task order is to engage services to provide professional marketing and outreach support for the National 9-1-1 Office. These services will include the development and implementation of a Strategic Communications Outreach Plan for the National 9-1-1 Office projects and initiatives, and to coordinate and facilitate the required general marketing and outreach activities. The Contractor shall coordinate with National 9-1-1 Office staff, to develop and maintain active relationships with multiple public and private organizations, and develop and utilize appropriate mechanisms for engaging stakeholders and maintaining their support and awareness of the progress of specific National 9-1-1 Office projects. D. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS The Contractor shall provide onsite services to the National 9-1-1 Office including: 1)Review of existing communications and outreach plan and assess progress in implementation. Revision and implementation of revised communications and outreach plan. 2)Design of supporting print and media support items. 3)Development of case studies, analysis papers and articles discussing various issues and/or projects as directed by staff of National 9-1-1 Office. 4)Development and implementation of strategies to “increase and improve coordination among Federal, State and local emergency communication systems, emergency personnel, public safety organizations, telecommunications carriers, and telecommunications equipment manufacturers and vendors,” as stipulated in the EHNANCE 9-1-1 Act. E. Format of Corporate Capabilities Statement: Any interested organizations should submit the Corporate Capability Statement which demonstrates the firm’s ability and interest in no more than 10 pages to perform the key requirements described above. All proprietary information should be marked as such. All respondents are asked to indicate the type and size of their business organization, e.g., Large business, Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, Women-Owned-Business, 8(A), Historically Black College or University/Minority Institution (HBCU/MI), educational institution, profit/non-profit organization, in their response. Interested offerors shall respond to this Sources Sought Notice no later than 15 calendar days from date of posting. E-mail is the preferred method when receiving responses to this Notice.
- Web Link
-
FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=0d72c5ce4dea8c47492cfb04e0cddd15&tab=core&_cview=1)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Washington, District of Columbia, United States
- Record
- SN01750437-W 20090215/090213215803-0d72c5ce4dea8c47492cfb04e0cddd15 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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