02 September 2008 To: All From: Acquisition Services Directorate / National Business Center / Department of the Interior RE: Request for Information-Department of Health and Human Services The Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) seeking industry sources to provide relevant information as AQD contemplates a solicitation to issue a contract. Vendors that are capable of providing information for the following proposed requirement are sought for input. Examples of previous experience or existing contracts relating to this request will be accepted as part of a response. After review of the requirements if you desire to respond to such a solicitation please respond back to
[email protected] with a letter of intent. If you have a General Services Administration (GSA) contract which will satisfy this requirement please submit your GSA Contract number with your response. THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE (SSN) ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL, QUOTATION OR INVITATION TO BID NOTICE AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. REGULATIONThe Government is currently conducting market research in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation, (FAR) 52.215-3, Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997):(a) All information submitted in response to this SSN is voluntary. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this solicitation or to otherwise pay for the information solicited except as an allowable cost under other contracts as provided in subsection 31.205-18, Bid and proposal costs, of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. (b) Although "proposal" and "offeror" are used in this Request for Information, your response will be treated as information only. It shall not be used as a proposal. Proprietary information submitted should be marked appropriately and will be controlled and secured. All submitted information shall remain with the U.S. Government and will not be returned.(c) This solicitation is issued for the purpose of identifying contract approaches that will ensure fair competition, minimize transition risks, and maximize the value of Grants.gov system. BACKGROUNDGrants.gov, available through www.grants.gov, provides a one-stop electronic portal where potential grant recipients can find and apply for Federal grant opportunities. The program is supported by all 26 of the major Federal grant-making agencies, with The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as the managing partner. The system provides the capability for granting organizations to post descriptions of grant opportunities along with electronic grant application packages, and to download completed grant applications. It provides the capability for applicants to search grant opportunities, register to receive notices of new opportunities, download application packages, complete applications off-line, and securely upload completed applications. Upon receipt of the application, Grants.gov sends an electronic acknowledgement to the applicant and delivers the application to the agency. The system provides these functions through both a Web-based graphical user interface and a Web-services-based system-to-system interface.Since October 2003, all 26 grant-making agencies have posted their discretionary funding opportunities on Grants.gov. For the period of October - August 2008 over 420 discretionary grant opportunities have been posted. Additionally, over 440 application packages have been posted and approximately 190,000 electronic applications have been received from applicants. Grants.gov sends over 1 million email notifications per week at the public's request, and receives over 1.2 million page views. OBJECTIVES The core business of Grants.gov is: forms (development with business rules, testing, and deployment); the data residing on or within the form; and the transmission of said data between customers (applicants and grantor agencies) via Grants.gov. At the present time Grants.gov owns and manages the information technology system that ensures the fulfillment of its core business. Grants.gov is re-aligning its business efforts to allow it to focus principally on its core business. This means that Grants.gov will no longer be in the ownership and management of IT. As a consequence, Grants.gov anticipates pursuing the acquisition of a "cloud computing" environment to include but not limited to service-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) capability to fulfill its mission needs. From a mission perspective, a cloud computing environment possessing the follow capabilities would be considered as a viable candidate to establish a relationship with Grants.gov: 1. An established capability (technology and staff) to develop (with business rules), test, deploy, host, manage, and maintain forms on a single integrated technological environment (minimizing development & deployment costs, & allowing for rapid forms deployment);2. Delivers a compelling user experience;3. Built-in Scalability (up and down on demand), Reliability, and Security;4. Built-in integration with web services and databases (maximum leveraging of existing software & third-party web services);5. Supports applicant collaboration (particularly in fellowship & complex/multi-project settings to meet applicant and grantor expectations); 6. Deep application instrumentation (to allow for highly granular analysis of user activities to enable future cost recovery models for grantors based on system usage vice flat or subscription fees);7. Supports existing grantor and applicant system-to-system connectivity within the federal grants community; and an8. Ability to advise Grants.gov on forms development & management oversight to minimize duplication.The platform must, at a minimum, support the existing Grants.gov functions including the following: " A "Find" capability that provides the ability to publish, search, and manage the expiration of opportunities, and export or syndicate opportunity data. " An "Apply" capability that supports the definition and management of application packages; submission, receipt, processing (including data validation, XML data extraction, and PDF generation), delivery, and status monitoring of applications." A user management capability that supports multi-level organizational affiliations and role-based access to Grants.gov functions, and E-Authentication integration." Reporting capabilities to include canned and flexible ad-hoc reports that can be created or requested by PMO staff and system users. Reports would include forms and system usage statistics, opportunity information, and submission statistics (such as the number of opportunities and application packages posted and submissions received by agency for period of time and for the system as a whole. " Test Site capability for both grantor agencies and applicants. " Help desk / technical support capabilities to grantors agencies and applicants. " System documentation and training tools. CONSTRAINTS " The government has made a considerable investment in the software and hardware that is now used by the Grants.gov integration contractor but owned by the government. While the government is interested moving to a cloud computing environment, the government also has an interest in leveraging investments that have already been made to the maximum extent possible. This software / hardware can be used partially or wholly in any solution for follow-on services that is contracted. " The current system is Section 508 compliant and any solution must maintain this compliance. " Irrespective of the desire to consider new environment for Grants.gov, the transition to a new services contractor must occur within a very tight constraint that would result in a seamless continuation of current service levels. It is currently contemplated that the entire operational capability would need to transition in no more than 45 days." The standards desired for any software or network components made part of the solution should be compatible with the Federal Enterprise Architecture standards. " Personnel that work on any aspect of this program may be required to have access to Privacy Information. These personnel shall adhere to the Privacy Act, Title 5 of the U.S. code, Section 552a and applicable agency rules and regulations." Any solution proposed must comply with and meet the Computer Security Act of 1987; Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Appendix III, "Security of Federal Automated Information Systems"; and the DHHS Automated Information Systems Security Program (AISSP) Handbook (Release 2.0 dated May 1994).This is a data gathering, fact finding effort. The goal is to identify potential offerors with the best solution. All responses must be submitted via e-mail to
[email protected] by 11:00am EDT on September 30, 2008. NOTE: Due to e-mail server and pipeline limitations, please limit the size of each e-mail with attachments to 3 MB. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Donald Abamonte at the e-mail address listed above. Telephonic or Facsimile inquiries will not be accepted as an official record of all correspondence is necessary. /s/ Donald AbamonteContracting Officer