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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JANUARY 15, 2005 FBO #1146
MODIFICATION

D -- Mainframe Hardware Maintenance and Mainframe Software Maintenance Services

Notice Date

1/13/2005
 

Notice Type

Modification
 

NAICS

541519 — Other Computer Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), National Office Procurement (OS:A:P), 6009 Oxon Hill Road, Suite 500, Oxon Hill, MD, 20745
 

ZIP Code

20745
 

Solicitation Number

TBD
 

Response Due

1/28/2005
 

Archive Date

2/12/2005
 

Point of Contact

Shawna Petersson, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-283-1269, Fax 202-283-1437, - Cathy Mann, Contract Specialist, Phone 202-283-1520, Fax 202-283-1437,
 

E-Mail Address

Shawna.L.Peterson@irs.gov, Cathy.M.Mann@irs.gov
 

Description

The IRS hereby issues the following Request for Information (RFI) covering two separate new contractual requirements (1) mainframe hardware maintenance, technical support services, and program management, and (2) mainframe software maintenance, software upgrades, and program management. A. PURPOSE: The Internal Revenue Services (IRS), Modernization & Information Technology Services (MITS), is seeking industry capability statements for contract work in two specific areas of information technology (IT) support - hardware maintenance services and software maintenance/upgrade services. To this end, the IRS is conducting market research and analysis of industry capabilities for the two new contracts designed to replace the current Long-Term Maintenance Computing Centers (LTMCC) contract and the Corporate System Modernization/Mirror Image Acquisition (CSM/MIA) contract which expire on September 30, 2005. In addition, this effort will incorporate as an option, Tier 1 Mainframe hardware and software maintenance currently provided under several other IRS contracts. The two new resulting contracts will provide for performance measures with incentives and specific socioeconomic goals to include participation by small business firms. B. GENERAL: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposals (RFP). Responders are advised that 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 are the sole responsibility of the responding party. All information received by the Government in response to this RFI that is marked PROPRIETARY will be handled accordingly. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. The Government will not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Small Businesses, 8a companies, Hub-Zone Small Businesses, Small Disadvantaged Businesses, Woman-Owned Small Businesses, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses are encouraged to submit a response to this RFI in order to assist the IRS in determining the levels of competition available in the marketplace. In accordance with FAR 15.201-9(e), responses to this notice are not considered ?offers? and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. When the two solicitations are released, they will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website and the IRS Procurement web page. It is the responsibility of the interested parties to monitor these sites for additional information pertaining to any resulting RFP. C. BACKGROUND: The IRS MITS Organization?s Enterprise Operations Services mission is to provide efficient, cost effective, secure and highly reliable computing (server and mainframe) services for all IRS business entities and taxpayers, and to manage the day-to-day operations of the network and contact center environments. To accomplish this mission, Enterprise Operations Services (1) deploys and maintains an infrastructure capable of supporting the business and administrative needs of the Service for both the current environment and for the IRS? modernized operations; (2) standardizes, consolidates and manages the mainframe computing infrastructure, and ancillary systems/software; (3) maintains and modifies systems software products for the IRS mainframe-computing environment; (4) implements appropriate security and mission assurance tools, processes, procedures, and infrastructure related to corporate computing services; (5) provides services to business units/divisions within established Service Level Agreements (SLA); (6) provides enterprise network operational support; and (7) performs design, deployment, and maintenance of the contact center environment. D. DESIRED INFORMATION: MITS is in the process of analyzing and reviewing their approach, practices, and procedures for performing Tier 1 Mainframe Hardware Maintenance and Software Maintenance activities. The Government is interested in finding out about new approaches, best practices or industry standards that could better meet its needs. The information obtained from this RFI is intended to provide the Government with a better understanding of the methodologies, best practices, performance metrics, and service level agreements available to them in todays marketplace. The intent is to establish two Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts ? one titled Mainframe Hardware Support Maintenance Contract (MHSMC) and a second titled Mainframe Software Maintenance Contract (MSMC). The effort contemplated will cover two separate acquisitions. The first effort will cover hardware maintenance (remedial and preventive), warranty support, technical support, and project management. The second effort will cover software maintenance, software upgrades, and associated program management. The Government anticipates that the majority of resulting delivery orders issued against these contracts will be firm-fixed price. However, given the technical support services requirements, it is likely that there will be time and materials task orders issued for services as needed. The duration of the planned contracts is one base year (FY06) and 4 option years (FY07 through FY10). In order to determine whether these contracts will be set-aside for small business concerns, interested vendors are encouraged to submit Capability Statements addressing their ability to perform the requirements for Area 1 - Tier 1 Mainframe hardware maintenance and/or Area 2 - software maintenance as described below. Interested vendors may submit Capability Statements for one or both of the following two areas. AREA 1 - TIER 1 MAINFRAME HARDWARE MAINTENANCE AND ASSOCIATED SUPPORT SERVICES (Estimated 5 Year Value $60M) 1. Hardware maintenance for all equipment described under Area 1 will consist of 24 X 7 remedial and preventative maintenance with a two (2) hour response time performed under a set of performance-related requirements. This includes coordination of warranty maintenance for equipment still under OEM warranties. Hardware maintenance services are currently required at the five (5) sites: Detroit Computing Center (DCC), Detroit, Michigan; the Enterprise Computing Center, Martinsburg (ECC-MTB), Martinsburg, West Virginia; the Enterprise Computing Center ? Memphis (ECC-MEM), Memphis, Tennessee; the New Carrollton Federal Building (NCFB), Lanham, Maryland; and, the Main IRS Building in Washington, D.C. 2. The BASE Hardware Maintenance requirement consists of IBM/IBM-compatible equipment located at DCC, ECC-MTB, ECC-MEM, and NCFB. DCCs inventory currently includes approximately 850 IBM/IBM-compatible peripherals including a large number of tape drives and printers and one IBM z990, Model 302. The inventory at ECC-MTB currently includes approximately 1,425 IBM/IBM-compatible peripherals including tape drives, monitors, and printers. The inventory at NCFB currently includes several printers and miscellaneous hardware items. 3. As OPTIONS, the Government will obtain hardware maintenance services related to Tier 1 systems at the following locations: Martinsburg Computing Center (ECC-MTB): (a) Security and Communications System (SACS): Two IBM ZSeries 800 mainframes and associated peripheral equipment. (b) MasterFile: Two IBM ZSeries 990 mainframes, Models 308 and 311 and associated peripheral equipment. (c) Integrated Collection System/Automated Collection System/Print System (IAP): One IBM ZSeries 900 (2064-103) and associated peripheral equipment. Enterprise Computing Center - Memphis (ECC-MEM): (a) Disaster Recover (DR)/Tri-Plex: Two IBM ZSeries 900 (2064-1C1) and associated peripheral equipment. (b) SACS: Two IBM ZSeries 800 mainframes and associated peripheral equipment. (c) IAP: One IBM ZSeries 900 (2064-103) and associated peripheral equipment. New Carrollton Federal Building (NCFB): (a) IAP: Include peripherals such as a Magnetic Tape Sub-system and ESCON Adapters. NOTE: The above references to ?and associated peripherals? encompasses numerous peripheral devices among the various systems. These include such items as various DASD sub-systems, Virtual Tape sub-systems, ESCON Directors, Magnetic Tape sub-systems, Tape Libraries, 9-track tape drives/controllers, 36 track tape drives, and various other peripherals. All peripheral equipment will be itemized in the RFP. 4. Technical Support Services: The support services shall include, but not be limited to: equipment relocation, equipment and cable deinstallation, on-site support during scheduled power outages/disaster recovery exercises, and configuration management. AREA 2 ? SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE, UPGRADES, AND ASSOCIATED SUPPORT SERVICES (Estimated 5 Year Value $110M) The IRS requires a vendor experienced in the administration of a large-scale, enterprise-class program of software license maintenance and upgrade support for a large inventory of IBM mainframe (ESA/390) compatible software products. These products are currently deployed across multiple computing center sites (DCC, ECC-MTB, and ECC-MEM). The IRS inventory of ESA/390 compatible software products includes more than 430 individual items, licensed for use on the various IBM mainframes (Enterprise Servers). The software inventory includes COTS titles from IBM and more than 30 other Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and third party publishers. Software License types include: Enterprise; Site; Dual-Site; MIPS; MLC-MSU; CPU; CPU-GROUP/Tier; LPAR(Sub Capacity); and FEP/Communications Machine. These assets represent an enterprise-class investment component of the IRS Tier-I IT infrastructure, and are central in supporting the processing of numerous critical IRS tax administration workloads. Interested vendors should possess capabilities specific to the following five (5) disciplines associated with software license maintenance and license upgrade support: (1) License Models (salient characteristics) and Licensee Rights: scope of use, migration rights, definitions, version and release rights, perpetual rights, renewable rights, transfer rights, end-of-term provisions, documentation rights, access rights, and object and/or source code rights. (2) Software License Support/Maintenance (full Software product life cycle): activation, codes and keys, technical support channels (electronic, telephone, on-site, hours of service), communication channels, DR testing policies, and methods of delivery. (3) Software Asset Management Trends and Practices: software product life-cycle costing model support, licensing trends (sub-capacity pricing, etc), product displacement trends, value investment, and pricing model trends, and ESA/390 specific pricing metrics and definitions. (4) Software License Upgrades and Conversions: residual value credits, new or replacement products (functionality assessment), bundling and unbundling, cross platform conversion rights/costs, market research and administrative capacity, and price proposal documentation and preparation. (5) ISV Practices, Policies, and Training Support: GSA schedule availability/plans, ISV discounting, Price Caps/Basis and Price protection, standard inclusions/credits, overlap period for processor or data center moves, training scope, cost and location, inspection, usage audit tools, policies and rights, suspension/reinstatement costs, and escalation procedures. E. SUBMISSION OF CAPABILITY STATEMENTS/AREAS OF INTEREST/INDUSTRY COMMENTS: The capability statements are not to exceed 20 pages and may be submitted via e-mail no later than January 28, 2005 to Tiffany.M.Levy@irs.gov. The Capability Statements shall include the vendor?s point(s) of contact name, address, telephone number, and email address; the company?s business size, including applicable NAICS code(s). The Capability Statement shall address the company?s capabilities in Area 1 and/or 2, and shall further address each of the ?Areas of Interest? listed below. The Capabilities Statement shall include a description of similar work performed within the past 5 years including the name and number of the contract, the contract scope, type of contract, period of performance, contract deliverables, dollar thresholds and limitations, the issuing Government agency, and the name and telephone number of the Contracting Officer. Information received in response to this RFI will be used to determine the acquisition strategy for any resultant RFP. Therefore, any small business concern with the capability to perform the required services is encouraged to submit a response to the RFI. SPECIFIC AREAS OF INTEREST: Following are examples of ?Areas of Interest? where the Government is seeking information. This listing is not intended to be exhaustive or all-inclusive, therefore vendors may provide additional information that they deem relevant as long as the total number of allowed pages (i.e., 20 pages) are not exceeded. (1) Program Management. The Government is interested in understanding how commercial vendors manage Mainframe Hardware Maintenance and/or Mainframe Software Maintenance contracts. What is the vendor?s philosophy? What is the vendor?s approach to development and management of Service Level Agreements (SLAs)? What is the vendor?s approach to performance metrics? What reporting mechanisms does the vendor employ? What is the vendor?s approach to continuous process improvement? (2) Mainframe Hardware Maintenance and/or Software Maintenance Processes and Procedures. How are vendors performing the maintenance lifecycle beginning with receipt of trouble tickets to close out of corrected action, asset tracking, capacity planning, and delivery methods? (3) Repair Services. How will the vendor plan, manage, implement, and monitor all components of the repair services cycle? (4) Preventive Maintenance. How will the vendor plan, manage, implement, and monitor required preventive maintenance services for the hardware and software? (5) Equipment Disposal. How will the vendor plan, manage, implement, and monitor the activities associated with the removal and disposal of excess, broken, and outdated equipment? (6) Warranty Management. How will the vendor plan, manage, implement, and monitor a comprehensive process for warranty management services? (7) Software Upgrades. How will the vendor plan, manage, implement, and monitor a comprehensive process to maintain and upgrade software (commercial and firmware) with the latest versions available? INDUSTRY COMMENTS: The release of this RFI affords industry the opportunity to comment on any perceived issues with regard to the initiative and to allow the Government to receive the benefit of industry comments. The Government?s purpose in providing an opportunity for industry comment is to identify potential problem areas and provide alternative recommendations in order to enhance the success of the initiative. The Government believes industry feedback is important. The Government is receptive to any and all ideas from industry which would result in limiting unnecessarily constraining requirements, realizing cost savings, or highlighting potential technical or contractual problem areas associated with the initiative. What new capabilities within the past five years have provided the biggest ROI? Describe what you see as the industry trend over the next five years. What has been your experience in performance-based delivery methods and techniques? Describe your experience with performance-based and/or incentives-based contracts. SERVICE LEVEL/PERFORMANCE METRICS. The Government is interested in Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Performance Metrics used by industry to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of hardware and software maintenance support. The Government is interested in operational metrics (those used to monitor day-to-day activities) and management metrics (those used by management to gauge key indicators of success, executive dashboard, etc.). Additionally, the Government is interested in how industry balances using leading (forecasting) and lagging (static) metrics. Since the Government is exploring the use of a performance-based contracting approach, it would be helpful to understand the service levels/performance metrics used to manage the operations, and those metrics used as a basis for payment. Questions to the Government may be included under separate cover for all submissions.
 

Place of Performance

Address: 6009 Oxon Hill Road, Oxon Hill, MD

Zip Code: 20745

Country: US
 

Record

SN00734790-W 20050115/050113212325 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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