D -- OMNIBUS NETWORK IMPROVEMENT SERVICE AND SOLUTIONS

Notice Date

August 30, 2001

Contracting Office

Railroad Retirement Board, Bureau of Supply and Service, Purchasing Division, 844 North Rush Street, 9th Floor NE, Chicago, IL, 60611-2092

ZIP Code

60611-2092

Solicitation Number

2001-B-06

Response Due

September 19, 2001

Point of Contact

Paul Ahern, Supv. Contract Specialist, Phone (312) 751-7130, Fax 312) 751-4923, Email ahernpat@rrb.gov -- Paul Ahern, Supv. Contract Specialist, Phone (312) 751-7130, Fax 312) 751-4923, Email ahernpat@rrb.gov

Description

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a SEPARATE WRITTEN SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE ISSUED. This solicitation is issued as Request for Proposal (RFP) 2001-B-06. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular number 97-27. This solicitation is not a small business set-aside. I. Overview -- The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board (RRB), an independent Federal Government agency, with its headquarters located at 844 North Rush Street, Chicago, IL 60611-2092, intends to enter into a Blanket Purchasing Agreement (BPA) with firm-fixed hourly rates, through negotiated competitive procedures. The RRB thereafter intends to issue firm-fixed price task orders for multiple network related services and network systems upgrades as described in section III and any attachments cited therein. The award of the BPA shall be for a basic year with two one-year options. Detailed statements of work will be issued as part of the task order request for quotation (TORFQ), per attachment 15, for any given sub-project subsequent to the award of the anticipated BPA. II. A. PRICE SCHEDULE -- The offeror shall provide in the tables in attachment 11, firm-fixed fully-loaded hourly rates, both for RRB-site (Table II.A-1) work at the RRB Chicago headquarters and for contractor-site (Table II.A-1) work, during both (1) Regular Working Hours (RWH) and (2) Outside of Regular Working Hours (ORWH) for each of the listed labor categories, as needed to provide the required network services and/or systems. The RRB defines "Fully Loaded Rates" as the hourly price rates inclusive of direct wage, fringe benefits, all overheads, general and administrative (G&A) costs, profit and fee, and all travel and per diem costs for the contractor?s employee to perform the required services at either the RRB-site or the contractor-site as necessary to complete the work specified in any subsequent task orders. The RRB defines "Regular Working Hours" as the hours from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. central time for RRB-site and appropriately adjusted for the time zone of the contractor-site. The RRB defines "Outside Regular Working Hours" as those hours not included within those specified as regular working hours including week nights and weekends. B. The offeror may provide additional fully-loaded hourly rates for both RRB-site and Contractor-Site services for additional labor categories not specified by the RRB but that the contractor deems they would likely employ to fulfill the requirements of subsequent issued task orders. The Contractor shall provide rates for both Regular Working Hours and Outside Regular Working Hours in Tables II.B-1 and II.B-2 (see attachment 11). C. In addition to the pricing out of labor hours, the successful offeror shall price out for each RRB Task Order Request for Quotation (TORFQ) issued, firm-fixed prices for any hardware and software, which they propose as the solution to meet the RRB's Network System requirements for the issued TORFQ. The Contractor is required to extend the best available price for the hardware or software and at a minimum shall offer their best pricing from their competitive procurements, General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Contract for Information Technology (Schedule 70) or other Government-Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). Note the terms of any such contract shall not constrain the RRB from award of subsequent task orders to the successful offeror. Nor shall such terms cause any alteration in the prices offered in response to this solicitation, nor present any extra cost or fees to the RRB other than those offered. III. Statement of Work A. Scope of Work -- The RRB?s goal and intent is to upgrade the existing Information technology Network Environment from its current state, in attachment 3, to an end-state where the nine subordinate networking areas have been upgraded and work in a Windows 2000 server/advanced server/.net gigabit technology domain. This domain shall operate within the existing principles and framework of the agency?s technology (see www.rrb.gov/BISPublic/bisarchitecture.htm). Prospective offerors shall be able to provide system planning, design, engineering, acquisition, installation, configuration, testing, implementation, and maintenance support services, as well as the hardware and software (including licenses) required to provide the network systems covered in this project effort. The offeror shall also be responsible for consolidation and migration of files, data, applications, and users. The RRB envisions nine (9) distinct sub-projects for implementation through September 2002. To support the implementation of these projects, a list of foundational principles (or general requirements) governing the overall project has been established. A detailed statement of work will be issued as part of the task order request for quotation (TORFQ) for each sub-project. The referenced attachments are available for download at the Fed Biz Opps web page www2.eps.gov under RRB solicitation 2001-B-06 or alternatively at the RRB's website at http://www.rrb.gov/omnibus/menu1.htm. B. Foundational Principles/ Requirements. -- The following general foundation requirements are relevant to all sub-projects (task orders). 1. Hardware/Software Environment and Constraints -- (a) All shared files and data shall reside on the 1.5 terabytes available on the Enterprise Storage System (ESS). (b) All shared files and data shall be copied from servers as specified in Attachment 1 from NT 4.0 and Novell 4.2 servers to the ESS. (c) All hardware and software solutions provided shall be fully compatible with the RRB's current equipment and software. See Attachment 3 for the current hardware/software list and LAN environment. (d) Currently the RRB uses Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) by IBM as our server and database back-up and recovery tool of choice. The TSM client is Windows 2000 and the server is our IBM mainframe (S/390). The RRB has purchased the appropriate client and server licenses and software. The offeror shall configure, document, and test the backup and recovery procedures. (e) The offeror is responsible for installing the current RRB-owned version of Norton Antivirus Enterprise Edition on any provided network system/solution. 2. Migration Principles -- (a) The offeror shall verify proper installation of the application databases. All production database applications and specified utilities shall be run against the databases and be tested to ensure they are processing correctly and to the satisfaction of the RRB application owners. The RRB will require a testing and approval period. (b) The offeror shall take all due diligence measures to ensure there is no "down time" of RRB production operations during conversions. The hours of uninterrupted operation shall be Monday through Friday from 5 AM to 8 PM Chicago time. Weeknight and Weekend down time will be available at mutually agreed upon times. (c) The offeror shall duplicate file security parameters and permissions in the network operating system and in application file structures to reflect those at pre-migration. 3. Compliance with RRB?s and other Standards -- (a) The Contractor shall directly connect all new servers with gigabit fiber to the core Network Switches. (b) The offeror shall provide any server hardware and software with the minimum requirements specified in Attachment 2. (c) Servers shall be monitored and tuned to acceptable Microsoft standards by the contractor initially upon installation. The offeror will determine, recommend, and, with RRB approval, configure each server for the optimal performance. (d) The offeror shall adhere to RRB naming conventions and standards. See Attachment 4. (e) The offeror shall structure data and logs to reside on different physical disks. (f) Core switch ports must be configured and tested for every server connection made. (g) The offeror shall support connectivity specifications. See Attachment 5. (h) Products offered shall be compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act amendments (See Attachment 6). 4. Essential Deliverables Applicable to all Task Orders -- (a) The offeror shall document the installation parameters and procedures used for each of the servers installed. (b) The offeror shall provide testing and acceptance plans for installations and applications including network operating systems. (c) The offeror shall provide one (1) day of technology configuration briefing as onsite training in the RRB?s auditorium setting for executives, technical staffs of LAN/WAN administration, desktop administration, help desk, and data communications. These are a series of high-level briefings that will be supplemented by technical training sessions as specified in the various sub-projects. The following briefings shall be offered: (1) Executive session; (2) LAN/WAN administrators; (3) Desk top administrators; (4) Help desk personnel; (5) Data communications personnel. (d) Offerors are encouraged to suggest technical approach/design and operational improvements to the RRB's current design concept and proposed 9 sub-project orientation by proposing an technical alternate offer. In addition to the primary offer requested by the RRB, any alternative technical offer shall be accompanied by narrative and diagrams, which clearly demonstrate links between network system, outline probable cost savings strategies and/or implementation time savings. These principles for alternate proposals are true both for responses to this proposal for the BPA as well as for the individual task orders. (e) Written documentation consisting of two copies in hard copy and an electronic copy on disk or CD-ROM shall be provided. 5. Ease of Network Administration -- (a) The offer shall ensure all network administrative functions are accessible and configurable at the desktops of six administrators. (b) The offeror shall ensure that the RRB's alerts (for example, e-mail and SQL mail) and automated tasks are working correctly. C. Sub-Projects for Network Improvement/Task Orders -- The following are high-level views of the RRB's requirements specific to the sub-project networking components/ areas in order of priority and anticipated sequence of implementation. As previously mentioned, a detailed statement of work will be issued as part of the task order request for quotation (TORFQ), per attachment 15, for any given sub-project subsequent to the award of the anticipated BPA. Please note that referenced attachments are available for download at the Fed Biz Opps web page http://www2.eps.gov under RRB solicitation 2001-B-06 or alternatively at the RRB's website at http://www.rrb.gov/omnibus/menu1.htm. The planned components or sub-projects of the RRB networking system are: 1. Applications server -- Microsoft Application Center 2000 -- The current applications include those listed in attachment 7. This project shall include Migration of production applications, test applications and development applications. 2. Microsoft SQL 2000 -- Contractor shall install and configure the latest build/version. Contractor shall install and configure three servers for testing, development, and production. Contractor shall also migrate existing user and system databases as listed on attachment 8. Databases identified on pages 1 ? 4 of attachment 8 as "Test and Development" are to be ported to the new Test and Development servers. Additionally, all databases, except those designated as "Test and Development", on page 5 and beyond of attachment 8, are to be ported to the new production server. 3. Microsoft Exchange 2000 -- Contractor shall install and configure the latest build/version. Contractor shall complete the production, migration of users, directories, files, resources, listed on attachment 9. Contractor shall also provide the following features or configure the system to include (a) a Mirror of Production, (b) Microsoft Conferencing Server, (c) Netmeeting, and (d) Streaming. 4. Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server 2000 -- Contractor shall install and configure the system(s) to include (a) an Enterprise firewall, (b) Web Cache, and (c) Secure Server Publishing. 5. MS Windows 2000 Advanced Server -- Contractor shall create a new agency domain using W2K Advanced Server primary domain controllers infrastructure, including: (a) Primary domain controller (PDC), (b) Backup domain controller (BDC), (c) Active Directory Services (ADS), (d) Dynamic Host Communication Protocol (DHCP), (e) Domain Name Server (DNS, (f) Windows Name Server (WINS) (g) a two-way trust relationships with (the RRB?s current ) NT "Mercury" Domain. 6. Network Tools -- Contractor shall upgrade or replace RRB's current network administration tools to: (a) Cisco Works 2000 latest upgrade, (b) Visual Networks Visual Uptime latest upgrade, (c) Castle Rock SNMpc Network Manager latest version, and (d) Cisco TFTP. 7. Improve and configure Network Print Services, using Hewlett Packard (HP) Document Router technology and including (a) Recreate existing network printers from tables on attachment 10, and (b) Balance number of printers across three devices. 8. Server Migration/Upgrade -- Provide a hardware/software upgrade/migration of a minimal number of servers to include (a) NOS upgrade from NT 4.0 to MS W2KS for servers shown on attachment 1, and (b) RAM and/or hard drive upgrade for five servers as reflected on attachment 1. 9. Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Farm for Imaging -- Contractor shall prepare NOS servers. IV. MISCELLANEOUS CLAUSES: A. The following clauses are incorporated by reference: Availability of Funds for the Next Fiscal Year 52.323-19 (Apr 1984). FAR provision 52.212-3 must be completed and submitted with the offer (see attachment 12). FAR clauses 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions -- Commercial Items and 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders -- Commercial Items apply to this solicitation. In accordance with FAR 52.212-5, the following clauses are hereby incorporated by reference in paragraph (b): 52.203-10 Price or Fee Adjustment for Illegal Improper Activity; 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity; 52.222-35 Affirmative Action for Disabled and Vietnam Era Veterans; 52.222-36 Affirmative Action for Workers with Disabilities; 52.222-37 Employment Reports on Disabled Veterans and Veterans of the Vietnam Era (38 U.S.C. 4212). Option to Extend Services 52.217-8 (AUG 1989); Option to Extend the Term of the Contract 52.217-9; Indefinite Quantity 52.216-22; Ordering 52.216-18. B. Minimum Guarantee -- the RRB shall issue task orders in the minimum amount of $685,000 during the initial contract term. V. CONTENTS OF PROPOSAL SUBMISSION. A. Offerors shall submit their quotations/proposal in two volumes: 1. Technical Proposal -- The offeror shall submit seven (7) copies of the technical proposal. The offeror shall fully and clearly address their project approach and address each of the RRB's networking subprojects in sufficient detail so that the RRB's technical evaluation panel can identify and comprehend the capability and resources the offeror intends to bring to this procurement and the anticipated BPA. (See Section III). The technical Proposal shall include (a) Contractor project plan. This should include a detailed narrative outlining the proposed technical approach, projected time-line/milestone chart, corresponding staff assignments, an estimate of the hours needed by labor category for each sub-project, and work steps involved in completing each necessary task. Information should also be provided explaining how disruption to the RRB's ongoing operations will be avoided during installation, cutover and any other potentially disruptive phase(s). If an alternate proposal is provided, variations should be clearly delineated. (b) At least three references for similar engagements where the offeror has performed multifaceted network improvements including server hardware and software installations and system/file migrations of the type proposed within the last 18 months. Each reference shall contain, at minimum, two knowledgeable contacts, along with their phone numbers. Federal government references are preferred. (c) Staff qualifications such as experience, education, certifications, and technical courses shall be provided. 2. Business Proposal -- the contractor shall provided in two copies of their business proposal The offeror shall submit: (a) two (2) (total) original signed copies of Standard Form (SF-)1449 (attachment 14) with Blocks 12, 17a. and b., and 30a., b., and c. completed. (b) Price offering in the form of firm-fixed hourly rates in the tables in attachment 11 and per the instructions in solicitation section II above. The offeror certifies that the offered price in Section II and attachment 11 shall be valid for 90 days and, if accepted, shall be valid for a total of 3 years after the date of contract acceptance. (c) Signed and completed Offerors Representations and Certifications -- Commercial Items (FAR 52.212-3) at attachment 12. (d) Certification of compliance with EIT Accessibility Standards -- Under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d) acquisitions of Electronics and Information Technology (EIT) supplies and services must meet the accessibility standards as set forth in attachment 6 to this solicitation. Offerors are required to complete the certificate at attachment 6, and certify which accessibility standards their offered EIT products and/or services meet. (e) Contractor information as specified on attachment 13. B. Other information the contractor determines appropriate and relevant to the evaluation team. =20 VI. EVALUATION OF THE OFFERS -- Evaluations shall include all of the items above and other information available to the Contracting Officer. A. Offers will be evaluated on a technical-to-price ratio of 3:1. The award shall be based upon the offer that provides the best value to the Railroad Retirement Board, price and other factors considered. B. Technical Proposals shall be evaluated using the following factors in order of importance: 1. Quality of the proposed project plan and design/implementation approach. Consideration will be given to detail proposed, the technology to be employed, and other factors that demonstrate quality, thoroughness, appropriateness, and completeness. Consideration will also be given to steps proposed to assure that installation and cutover will not cause any disruption to ongoing RRB operations. 2. Past performance: (based on results of a reference questionnaire and interview). 3. Quality of staff to be assigned to the project: C. Business Proposal Evaluation shall be evaluated by taking the cumulative sum for the basic and both option years of the sums of the products for offered hourly rates for each labor category times the following hours: Network Services Engineer -- 1000; Hardware/Software Conversion Specialist -- 750; Installation Special

Web Link

Visit this URL for the latest information about this (http://www.eps.gov/spg/RRB/BSS/PD/2001-B-06/listing.html)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010904/DSOL004.HTM (D-242 SN50W512)