MODIFICATION
R -- AIR FORCE KNOWLEDGE OPERATIONS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION
- Notice Date
- 6/19/2012
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 541712
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Air Force, Air Force Space Command, 21CONS (Bldg 350), 21st Contracting Squadron, 135 Dover Street, Suite 2225, Peterson AFB, Colorado, 80914-1055, United States
- ZIP Code
- 80914-1055
- Solicitation Number
- FA2517-12-R-9002
- Archive Date
- 7/15/2012
- Point of Contact
- Rachel M. Hickenlooper,
- E-Mail Address
-
rachel.hickenlooper@us.af.mil
(rachel.hickenlooper@us.af.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a Request for Information (RFI), as defined in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e). The Government is issuing this RFI in an effort to understand market availability, technical characteristics, costs, and functionality of Information Technology (IT) tools, applications, or products capable of satisfying the technical, functional, and/or operational capabilities described in this RFI. This is not a request for proposal, request for quotation, or invitation for bid, nor does its issuance obligate or restrict the Government to an eventual acquisition approach. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of responses from this RFI or pay for the preparation of any information submitted or use of such information. All information received from this RFI will be used for planning and market research purposes only. All information received in response to the RFI that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. REQUIREMENT: The information requested will be used to perform an Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) on the availability, performance, and cost of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS), Government Off-the-Shelf (GOTS), and Modified Off-the-Shelf (MOTS) software applications to support the Air Force's requirements for Knowledge Operations (KO) capabilities. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, the Air Force conducted a KO Capability Based Assessment (CBA) that revealed the needs articulated in this RFI. That effort also revealed the Air Force's needs are consistent with those documented in the Joint Staff Global Information Grid (GIG) 2.0 Initial Capabilities Document (ICD); which will be the basis for the proposed FY12 Material Development Decision (MDD) for Enterprise Information Services (EIS). COTS, GOTS and MOTS are defined as follows: COTS: hardware, software, or firmware that is commercially available, leased, licensed, or sold to the general public and which requires no special modification or maintenance over its life cycle. GOTS: hardware, software, or firmware that was developed by an internal or external entity, specifications and funding came from a government agency and the government retains ownership of the item. MOTS: hardware, software, or firmware (possibly COTS) that has been modified or configured specifically for government use. REQUESTED INFORMATION SYNOPSIS: Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) Cyber Division (A5I) is in search of information/collaborative software applications to host upon multi-information technology networks provisioning the warfighter with information and collaborative services. This RFI is a first release to gain insight into COTS, GOTS, or MOTS software programs/suites or services that can support Air Force and Joint mission functions with information and collaborative services under the Air Force KO program which supports the Enterprise Services of the Joint Information Enterprise (JIE). KO supports the JIE Secure Access, Secure Share, and Secure Connect for management, monitoring and reporting. Knowledge Operations provides the warfighter information and collaborative capabilities through standard desktops configurations downward to the warfighters mobility devices. The information/collaborative software application is required to support various Air Force and Joint missions with a wide range of application tools/services to support the User Defined Operational Picture (UDOP), records management, task management, and Monitor, Assess, Plan and Execute (MAPE) functions. Information/collaborative software application/suites must be at least Technology Readiness Level 7 compliant or higher by the start of FY 2015. Specific capability needs have been identified to support the warfighter in the conduct of daily activities and mission accomplishment. Daily activities range from the performance of software application administrative duties upwards to the strategic, operational and tactical planning and execution of Air Force and Joint missions. Collaborative top level capability services for which product descriptions, performance, and cost data are requested include: • Finding, sharing, accessing, validating, and pushing information • Collaboration to prepare Courses of Action (COA) and plans • Presentation for decision making • Tasking for execution of the selected COA • Monitoring to identify the need for changes to the COA and provide situational awareness information to senior officials • Records retention and retrieval mechanisms for lessons learned and Continuity Of Operations Planning (COOP) • Knowledge Operations process creation An expanded list of the capabilities for which data is requested includes the following. Reference MIL-STD-881C Appendix K AIA WBS K.4.2.2 for other capabilities supporting Enterprise Services. • Knowledge Operations Services o Find information  Find known/unknown information  Supported search filters  Search engine - metadata and non metadata supported  Boolean filters supported  Prioritizes search engine results based on social graphs  Score search engine results o Broadcast information  Broadcast methods  Maximum number of user notification within a broadcast  User and group level notification capability  Ability to categorize and prioritize broadcasts o Manage workflow information  User modifiable capabilities  Create/route electronic forms  User/group role identification  Workflow status updates and monitoring  Community of Interest formation  User controlled COI/group membership  Workflow management tools o Collaborate  User is provided an environment for Collaboration through sharing capabilities inherent with solution  Transcend individual SA by supporting shared SA of distributed decision-makers through collaborative methodologies.  Chat  Blogs  White boarding  Instant messaging  Video teleconferencing and number of supportable nodes  Defense Online Connect  Audio  Maximum number of users in a session  Email o Share concurrent information  Data  Media  RSS supported o Present information  Visualize/create data view template(s) with appropriate data rendered in desired way.  User Augments the UDOP visualization generated for an analysis and generates summary reports  Create mission picture(s) at multiple levels of abstraction, from detailed theater-level (C2 perspectives to decision-focused pictures for national civilian leadership  Customization of multiple data views, within a single UDOP, presenting the C3OP in order to make associations  Transform data into a meaningful story that can be understood at a glance, and animated backwards and forwards in time.  User template development capability  Presentation capabilities  Number of languages supported (minimum of English language)  Live data stream supported for presentation o Access information  Web browser supported  From multiple domains and networks  Scalable architecture  Accessible from mobile devices • Knowledge Operations Data Storage o Records management  Discover and select data store(s) and Data Fusion engine(s).  Records validation  Cataloging (file plans)  Archiving  Historical logging  De-duplication of records capability  Ability to delete data o Data availability  Tagged metadata  Untagged data • Knowledge Operations Management o Extensibility  Multiple operating systems  APIs supported  Multi coding languages  Rollback capability o Security  DIACAP certified or ability to meet DIACAP certification o Service Analytics  Usage metric and statistics  Types of metrics collected for auditing  Training metrics  Access and failure metrics  Security data metrics o Performance Assessment  User performance feedback capability  Access success and failure data  Bandwidth usage performance metrics  Benchmark performance o Provide Resiliency  COOP capability  Automated recovery  Live versioning capability  Mean time to recover from backup • Knowledge Operations Support o Training  User • Contextual assistance • Frequently asked questions • Help blogs  KO administration, operations and maintenance  Initial implementation  Helpdesk function o Assistance  Installation, configuration Cost information is requested to enable the Air Force to characterize the life cycle costs of the applications. This information includes the Government costs associated with the following items: • The Government will use a ten (10) year period for the Life Cycle Cost Estimate (LCCE). This is intended to capture the cost of the first refresh cycle. • Provide annual, recurring amounts where applicable • Specify any relevant assumptions • Requested elements (where pertinent): o Software (S/W)-identify if commercial and/or company self-developed  Enterprise license agreements (Identify type-e.g., individual, network, software-as-a-service, etc.)  Maintenance/warranty-identify if in enterprise license agreement, separate service/assurance agreement, other means  Any specialized or other software costs o Hardware (H/W)  Hardware items (e.g., servers, workstations, etc.)  Initial spares/repair parts  Hardware maintenance (e.g., service agreements, in-house repair, hardware refresh/replacement cycle)  Other, specialized hardware o Integration of HW and SW for operational activation (i.e., integration, assembly, lower-level testing, etc.) o System (overall) test and evaluation  Initial  Recurring program (e.g. a planned on-going program to sustain the system/capability) o Training  End user  System administrator  Equipment and/or Services-identify if internal or outsourced  Travel o Other Support  Help desk (if in addition or amount can be identified separate from other support/maintenance costs). Assume 24 hours per day, year round.  [Recurring] Spare part stock (if in addition to above and/or outside H/W refresh cycle)  Disposal of old H/W, S/W • Questions (may require a cost input). o Does the vender cost include:  Full costs to integrate the HW and SW for operational activation (i.e., integration, assembly, testing, etc)?  Training equipment and services (internal or outsourced)? Associated training travel costs?  Initial training for your employees and/or the Government's trainers? Initial cost for system administrator training?  Initial and continuing training for users (e.g., on-line training and/or contractor staffed classroom training). o How would you measure user proficiency and to what level would you recommend they be trained? o Would you recommend the government operate a testing lab to detect enhancements or degradation in the integrated capability as patches and changes are fielded? Should this include vender support? At what cost? o Refresh cycle. How long is the software sustainable? What is the expected refresh (with a new version) cycle? RESPONSES: Product capability responses to this RFI are requested to be submitted by e-mail to srikant.mantravadi@us.af.mil, brian.millburn.ctr@us.af.mil, and henry.akin.ctr@us.af.mil no later than 1500 hours MT on 30 June 2012. Responses should be single-spaced, Arial, 12 point font, with one inch margins all around, compatible with MS Office Word 2007. While there is no mandatory page limit, responders are encouraged to focus their responses on technical descriptions and data. The desire is for a page count of no more than fifty. A response should not exceed a 5 MB mail limit to assure it is below the email filter limit in the Air Force's network. Responders should separately send an email to let the personnel listed in this paragraph to know to expect a response. This will allow them to contact the responder if a response is not received. This occasionally happens due to another filter on embedded links; which are allowed by Word 2007. Responses to this RFI will be reviewed by military personnel, Government civilians, DoD contractors, (e.g., the LinQuest analytic and Booz Allan Hamilton support teams), The Aerospace Corporation, and Mitre Corporation. The Aerospace and Mitre Corporations are Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) and, as such, fulfill an unbiased, non-profit role for the Air Force. The Government has authorized direct coordination among these FFRDC and contractor personnel with the RFI responders. It is expected the direct coordination will be needed to clarify the initial responses and to request additional information. The responses may be forwarded to other Government entities in consideration for applicability to other programs. Be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. All Government, DoD contractor and Aerospace personal reviewing RFI responses will have signed non-disclosure agreements with the Government and understand their responsibility for proper use and protection from unauthorized disclosure of proprietary information as described 41 USC 423.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/USAF/AFSC/21CONSb365/FA2517-12-R-9002/listing.html)
- Record
- SN02779860-W 20120621/120619235442-dafb893996f627145caaa900c6e802b2 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |