SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- DeCA RFI Space Management
- Notice Date
- 10/19/2012
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 541512
— Computer Systems Design Services
- Contracting Office
- Other Defense Agencies, Defense Commissary Agency, Contracting Bus Unit/Commercial Activities (HDEC08), 1300 E Avenue, Building P-11200, Fort Lee, Virginia, 23801-1800, United States
- ZIP Code
- 23801-1800
- Solicitation Number
- DeCASpaceManagementRFI2012
- Point of Contact
- Deborah L Wiggins, Phone: (804) 734-8000 x48654
- E-Mail Address
-
DeCA.Responses@deca.mil
(DeCA.Responses@deca.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- FedBizOpps - Request for Information (RFI) Defense Commissary Agency Space Management Solution This Request for Information (RFI) is issued in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e). The Government does not presently intend to award a contract, but wants to secure information regarding the capabilities of industry to meet Agency future requirements, for planning purposes. Responses to this RFI are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) is a United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DoD) agency, with its headquarters at Fort Lee, VA. DeCA operates a worldwide chain of commissaries providing groceries to military personnel, retirees, and their families. DeCA currently operates 248 military commissaries worldwide with annual sales estimated at nearly $6 billion. Of that total, 178 stores are located within the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii, and 70 stores are located in 12 countries outside of the U.S. A military commissary is a Government facility providing grocery products and other merchandise to authorized individuals, termed "patrons." It is a facility designed and operated similar to commercial supermarkets. DeCA's goals are to provide a significant price savings when compared to commercial markets; to provide courteous and informative assistance; to offer a variety of items in quantities and of a quality level to satisfy patron demands; and to provide products in a clean, safe, and wholesome environment. Overall management and operation of a commissary is the responsibility of the Store Director of each store, operating within Agency policy and standards. Commissaries typically stock approximately 25,000 line items consisting of grocery food and non-food items, dairy, frozen food, meat and produce, as well as several service departments such as delicatessen, bakery, and seafood. Enterprise Business Solution (EBS) is an overarching program, to modernize the DeCA supply chain, through a cohesive set of defined and prioritized program increments to deliver new capabilities through an incremental process. This strategy is aligned with the U.S. Chief Information Officer's guidance on modular development, " Contracting Guidance to Support Modular IT Development ", dated June 14, 2012. These increments will be managed as separate projects to be implemented within EBS, to ensure Agency decision makers and senior executives can identify, fund, and implement appropriate projects to reach the enterprise to-be state. One of the EBS increments will deliver fully integrated space management capabilities that are store specific. DeCA seeks information from commercial sources, regarding their interest and ability to provide a fully integrated space management software solution, to include a fully integrated store-level floor space planning capability. DeCA's current space management processes are not integrated and are comprised of two distinct processes: manually generated floor plans that show category placement within a store and generic planograms that show item locations on a shelf. Without an integrated system, DeCA modifies generic planograms to meet their store specific requirements and needs (e.g., demographics, regional items, floor and shelving dimensions). DeCA is considering the following approaches to achieve its space management needs: Approach Owner User 1. DeCA acquires the capability through a COTS software acquisition. DeCA DeCA 2. DeCA acquires the capability through a software as a service (SaaS) solution. Vendor DeCA 3. DeCA outsources the capability. Vendor Vendor Interested sources are asked to identify their approach to meeting DeCA's space management needs. The solution must support the category management process with optimized store-specific assortments and store cluster specific planograms, while maximizing sales per square foot. The solution must utilize the total linear feet of available shelf space, provide reliable planogram data that would best accommodate the unit sales anticipated for each category within a store, and then produce a planogram that is tailored for each store. DeCA is seeking responses from sources who have successfully implemented a space management solution within a commercial grocery environment. As part of the information, DeCA is seeking to obtain an understanding of the operational challenges of managing a space management solution in a retail grocery environment. DeCA requests that information provided be based on past experience and include any lessons learned. Contact with the individual DeCA stores and other DeCA employees, regarding this RFI, is strictly prohibited. In the event that interested sources have specific questions regarding this initiative, they are asked to refer those questions, in writing, to the e-mail address cited below. The cut-off date for the receipt of questions is November 5, 2012. The written query will be answered by an appropriate subject matter expert. Answers to all questions submitted will be consolidated and posted to www.fbo.gov no later than November 19, 2012. The page limit for responses to this RFI is twenty-five (25) single-sided pages, to include a one (1) page Executive Summary. The preferred font size is no smaller than 12 pitch. Completed packages in response to this RFI may be sent via regular mail or electronically. The requested due date for all submissions is established as no later than 3:00 p.m. (Eastern) on December 3, 2012. The mailing location and e-mail contact information is as follows: Defense Commissary Agency Directorate of Acquisition Management (LEAS) 1300 E Avenue Fort Lee, VA 23801-1800 E-mail contact information: DeCA.Responses@deca.mil Project Reference #: DeCA-SpaceManagement-RFI-2012 DeCA maintains a commercial Web site ( www.commissaries.com ) that can be accessed to find additional information about our organization and stores. Responses to this RFI should include information shown below, at a minimum, and in the table format as shown. Additional response information can be provided outside the table format: Business Question Response 1. Company information: o Company name o Company business size with socioeconomic classification based on North American Industry Classification Code 541512 or 541511. o Company website address o Company point of contact and contact information (name, address, phone number, email address, and fax number) 2. What COTS solution or solutions can your company provide to satisfy the functional requirements and objectives of DeCA's desired Space Management Solution as outlined in this RFI? 3. Include the name of your product(s) and your three largest grocery commercial clients stating which of the three approaches was implemented. (Identify Approach 1, 2, and/or 3). 4. Do you have business case/return on investment/white papers regarding benefits and costs of implementing your product? If so, please provide them (not included in page count). Functional Capabilities Provide a response that identifies if your company's solution can provide this requirement "out of the box" (e.g., through currently developed software) or through customization [1]. Functional Requirement Provided "out of the box" Requires customization Comments 1. The system shall provide the capability to produce store-specific planograms and store specific floor plans based on store specific sales, local demand (demographics) and item characteristics. 2. The system shall provide the capability to create resale store specific planograms to include shelf fixture information e.g., shelf dimensional data and type (e.g. frozen, chill, dry). 3. The system shall utilize business rules to determine category and item locations, product mix, and quantity of items (e.g. mandatory stock items, shelf positioning and allocation of items). 4. The system shall provide the capability to use clusters (related categories) to define planogram allocation. 5. The system shall provide store specific planograms for off-shelf promotional items. 6. The system shall allow electronic and manual modifications and overrides (e.g. adds, deletes, and changes). 7. The system shall maintain an audit trail to track changes - user name, time/date stamp, information changed, and explanation. 8. The system shall provide a capability for headquarters, store employees and industry partners to collaborate on space management activities. 9. The system shall reflect changes on product assortments. 10. The system shall provide the capability to accept data electronically and manually (e.g. item dimensions: height, weight). 11. The system shall interface with DeCA's current and to-be supply chain systems to share and obtain data (e.g. item movement, lift, ordering). 12. The system shall provide the capability to set business rules based on quantity or percentage. 13. The system shall provide the capability to create resale store specific floorspace layouts with category placement (e.g. shelf dimensional data and type). 14. The system shall provide the capability to create a backroom store within a store planogram. 15. The system shall provide the capability to configure item allocations as a percentage of space (e.g. coffin freezers and upright display cases). 16. The system shall integrate floor space and planogramming capabilities. 17. The system shall support a hierarchical format. 18. The system shall provide canned reports, queries, and ad hoc reporting. Technology Platform Question Response 19. Application Type. On what type of technology is your COTS solution based? Do you require the technology to be licensed or purchased? Please provide a copy of your generic license agreement 20. Web Enabled. Is the COTS solution Web enabled? (Current DeCA-supported Web servers are Microsoft IIS 5.0 or greater and Apache 2.0 or greater.) Is the solution fully operational in a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networking environment and compatible with Internet Protocol Version (IPv6)? Is the solution IPv6 capable in addition to maintaining interoperability with IPv4 system/capabilities? 21. Operating System Software. Current DeCA-supported operating systems are HPUX 11.11 or greater, Windows Server 2003 SP1 or greater, and Linux Red Hat 4.5 or greater. Is the COTS solution supported on one or more of these? If not, what operating system supports the COTS solution? 22. Clients and Server Hardware. What clients and server hardware does the COTS solution support? 23. Database System. Current DeCA-supported relational databases are Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or greater and Oracle 10.3 or greater. Is the COTS solution supported on one or more of these? If not, what database management system supports the COTS solution? 24. Service Oriented Architecture. What type of service oriented architecture does the COTS solution support? Does the software run in an Enterprise Service Bus or proprietary bus-based product suite? 25. Virtual/Cloud Environment. Is the COTS solution certified to operate in a virtual (i.e., VMware) or cloud environment? 26. Audit. Does the solution support both full and partial archiving of historical data with user-defined frequency and storage media parameters? Does the solution generate read-only security audit logs? Does the solution have an independent role to view security audit logs, with no other roles defined in the system to be able to view the security audit logs? 27. Information Security Requirements. Federal IT implementations entail significant security requirements and compliance with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) mandates. Has your software and/or hardware been certified and accredited by a federal agency using either NIST or the DoD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process ( DIACAP)? If not, how do you plan to satisfy those requirements? 28. Section 508 of the United States Workforce Rehabilitation Act. Is the solution Section 508 compliant? Schedule Question Response 29. Implementation Sequencing and Durations. Given your understanding of our requirements and environment, what is your typical implementation model? What is the estimated timeline from project initiation to full deployment? Please provide key milestones and the time it will take for each milestone within the timeline. 30. Risk. What are the five major risks associated with using your proposed solution to meet DeCA's requirements? Vendor and Product Viability Question Response 31. General Services Administration (GSA) Schedules and Other Contract Vehicles. What GSA Multiple Award Schedule contracts, Government-wide Acquisition Contracts, Multi-Agency Contracts, or other contract vehicles does your company have to support the purchase of the proposed COTS solution? 32. Enterprise Vendor Viability. As the vendor of the COTS solution, provide a description of your customer base and your presence in the market (please specify retail or grocery customer base). 33. Vendor Support Services. What is the extent of support services for the COTS solution proposed, including technical support, training, and consulting operations? 34. Product Maturity. How long has the product you are recommending been used commercially? How often are releases scheduled? Cost 23. Provide a rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimate for the software, hardware, implementation, training, and maintenance for the recommended solution using the attached Microsoft Excel file. Identify at least three significant cost risk factors that could potentially increase (drive up) the cost of the projected ROM estimate submitted. Also indicate the risk rating (high, medium, or low) for each cost risk. Add cost elements or adjust the price template where applicable to appropriately price the proposed COTS solution. Investment Cost Elements 1.1 Software. Include costs for system software, including licensing, user fees (assume 30 planogramming staff), and application server fees for new Space Management software. 1.2 Interfaces. Include the cost to develop system interfaces required for the Space Management solution to conform to the requirements of DeCA's technical environment. 1.3 Integration and implementation. Include the cost to review requirements, define business rules, configure the system, and customize software as needed. 1.4 Testing. Include costs for system testing in the DeCA environment. 1.5 Initial training. Assume a one week initial on-site training class at DeCA Headquarters in Fort Lee, VA (i.e., "train-the-trainer" training) and ongoing Web-based training. If the vendor recommends additional training, include pricing and provide basis of estimate. 1.6 Deployment. Include the cost to install and activate an executable COTS solution, including initial operating capability and full operating capability activities. Sustainment cost elements 2.1 Software maintenance. Annual cost to provide software maintenance, including modifications, revisions, enhancements, corrections, and updates. Includes the cost to provide major software releases (assumed every 3 years). 2.2 Help desk. Include the annual cost to provide level 3 help desk support. 2.4 Training (Recurring). Include the costs for annual follow-on training based on employee attrition (turnover) rates. This RFI is for DeCA planning purposes only and shall not be considered as an invitation for bid, request for quotation, request for proposal (RFP), or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. Your response to this RFI will be treated as information only. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this RFI or the Government's use of such information. Failure to respond to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future associated RFP that may be issued. Information provided in no way binds the Government to solicit or award a contract. In the event that DeCA determines that it wishes to pursue a formal contract for this requirement, a separate advertisement will be issued, following federal acquisition guidelines.
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(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DeCA/DeCA-CICS/DeCASpaceManagementRFI2012/listing.html)
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- SN02916902-W 20121021/121019234341-cfa10864e82c4904bdb676bebaff4615 (fbodaily.com)
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