PWS - IO Support Services DRAFT.pdf

Infrastructure Operations (IO) Support Services

INFRASTRUCTURE OPERATIONS (IO) SUPPORT SERVICES

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS)

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Office of Information & Technology Infrastructure Operations (IO)

Date: September 25, 2025

Task Order PWS Version Number: 1.1

Contents

1.0 BACKGROUND

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information & Technology (OIT), strives to provide high quality, effective, and efficient Information Technology (IT) services to those responsible for providing care to the Veterans at the point-of-care as well as throughout all the points of the Veterans’ health care in an effective, timely and compassionate manner. VA depends on Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) systems to meet mission goals.

2.0 APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS

The Contractor shall comply with the following documents, in addition to the documents in Paragraph 2.0 in Performance Work Statement (PWS), in the performance of this effort:

2.1 ORDER TYPE

The effort shall be proposed on a Cost Reimbursement (CR) basis, Time and Materials (T&M) basis and/or Firm Fixed Price (FFP) basis.

3.0 PERFORMANCE DETAILS

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

Efforts under this TO shall be performed at Contractor facilities. The Contractor shall identify the Contractor’s place of performance in their Task Execution Plan submission.

3.1 TRAVEL OR SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

The Government anticipates travel to perform the tasks associated with the effort, as well as to attend program-related meetings or conferences throughout the PoP. Include all estimated travel costs in your firm-fixed price line items. These costs will not be directly reimbursed by the Government.

3.1.1 POSITION/TASK RISK DESIGNATION LEVEL(S)

In accordance with VA Handbook 0710, Personnel Security and Suitability Program, the position sensitivity and the level of background investigation commensurate with the required level of access for the following tasks within the PWS are:

Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation Requirements by Task

Task Number Tier1 / Low Risk Tier 2 / Moderate Risk

Tier 4 / High Risk

5.1 ☐ ☐ ☐ <5.2> ☐ ☐ ☐

The Tasks identified above and the resulting Position Sensitivity and Background Investigation requirements identify, in effect, the Background Investigation requirements for Contractor individuals, based upon the tasks the particular Contractor individual will be working. The submitted Contractor Staff Roster must indicate the required Background Investigation Level for each Contractor individual based upon the tasks the Contractor individual will be working, in accordance with their submitted proposal.

4.0 SPECIFIC TASKS AND DELIVERABLES

The Contractor shall perform the following:

4.1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The Contractor shall provide a Project Manager (PM) who shall serve as the manager of the Order and shall be the Contractor’s single point of contact for VA CORs and IO management. The PM shall manage the tasks, schedules, and analyzing work discrepancies, communicating policies, purposes, and goals of the organization to the Contractor personnel for all projects. The PM shall analyze and resolve programmatic issues, facilitate information exchange, and enhance management coordination as coordinated with the COR and VA Resource Lead(s). This support shall include managing on-site and off-site Contractor support, any tracking of resources across projects, all training compliances, transitioning, onboarding and off-boarding of Contractor support, and scheduling to ensure support services for resolution of issues to VA operations.

4.1.1 CONTRACTOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN

The Contractor shall deliver a Contractor Project Management Plan (CPMP) that lays out the Contractor’s approach, timeline and tools to be used in execution of this TO effort. The CPMP should take the form of both a narrative and graphic format that displays the schedule, milestones, risks and resource support. The CPMP shall detail the Contractor’s staffing, communication plan, organization chart, risk management, and work breakdown structure. The CPMP shall also include how the Contractor shall coordinate and execute planned, routine, and ad hoc data collection reporting requests as identified within the PWS. The initial baseline CPMP shall be concurred upon and updated in accordance with Section B of the TO. The Contractor shall update and maintain the VA Program Manager (PM) approved CPMP semiannually throughout the PoP.

Deliverable:

A. Contractor Project Management Plan

4.1.2 TECHNICAL KICKOFF MEETING

A technical kickoff meeting shall be held within 10 days after TO award. The Contractor shall coordinate the date, time, and location (can be virtual) with the Contracting Officer (CO), the VA PM, the Contract Specialist (CS), and the COR. The Contractor shall provide a draft agenda to the CO and VA PM at least five (5) calendar days prior to the meeting. Upon Government approval of a final agenda, the Contractor shall distribute to all meeting attendees. During the kickoff-meeting, the Contractor shall present, for review and approval by the Government, the details of the intended approach, work plan, and project schedule for each effort via a Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Contractor shall update the presentation with a final slide entitled “Summary Report” which shall include notes on any major issues, agreements, or disagreements discussed during the kickoff meeting.

The Contractor shall also prepare the meeting minutes of the kickoff meeting. The Contractor shall distribute the updated presentation and meeting minutes to the CO, COR and all attendees within three (3) calendar days after the meeting.

4.1 IO MODERNIZATION AND INNOVATION

4.1.1 ENHANCING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The Contractor shall enhance system reliability and decision-making by integrating at least 3 Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven automation initiatives that improve performance, cost efficiency, or user experience.

The Contractor shall:

1. AI-Driven Analytics and Emerging Technology Insights

a. Implement AI-driven analytics tools and methodologies to identify and analyze performance bottlenecks and inefficiencies across IO-managed platforms or systema.

b. Provide actionable insights on emerging technologies that have the potential to improve system performance, enhance automation, and ensure cost efficiency.

c. Ensure these tools are capable of real-time monitoring and predictive analysis to proactively address issues before they impact system reliability.

2. AI-Driven Automation Initiatives

a. Integrate at least 3 AI-driven automation initiatives into the system. These initiatives shall:

i. Improve overall system performance.

ii. Enhance cost efficiency by optimizing resource utilization.

iii. Enhance user experience by providing faster, more reliable services.

b. The initiatives could include but are not limited to, predictive maintenance, automated incident response, and intelligent workload management.

3. Performance Measure: Reduction in System Performance Issues

a. Utilize AI-powered predictive analytics to achieve a reduction in system performance issues by at least 30%. This should include a measurable decrease in system downtimes, error rates, and performance degradations.

4. Emerging Technology Analysis

a. Analyze and report on at least 5 emerging technologies per biannual review cycle.

b. Assess their potential impact on the system's performance, automation capabilities, and operational efficiency.

c. Provide recommendations for integrating relevant emerging technologies into the system.

5. Bi-Annual Reviews

a. Conduct bi-annual reviews with organizational leadership to evaluate the effectiveness and alignment of AI solutions with organizational goals.

b. Provide Bi-Annual Review Report. Reviews should include assessments of:

i. The impact of AI-driven automation on system performance and cost efficiency.

ii. Compliance with organizational security standards and policies.

iii. Progress reports on the reduction of system performance issues.

iv. The relevance and feasibility of integrating analyzed emerging technologies.

v. Emerging Technology Analysis

1. Analyze and report on at least 5 emerging technologies per biannual review cycle.

2. Assess their potential impact on the system's performance, automation capabilities, and operational efficiency.

3. Provide recommendations for integrating relevant emerging technologies into the system.

6. Continuous Monitoring and Improvement

a. Implement continuous monitoring mechanisms to track the performance of

AI-driven automation initiatives.

b. Use data gathered from these monitoring processes to refine and enhance the AI solutions.

c. Ensure a feedback loop where insights from bi-annual reviews inform future AI and automation strategies, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

7. Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

a. Engage stakeholders, including business leaders, technical teams, and end-users, in the process of implementing AI-driven automation initiatives.

b. Communicate the impact and benefits of these initiatives, ensuring transparency and fostering support.

c. Gather feedback from stakeholders to continually improve the automation initiatives and ensure they align with user expectations and organizational goals.

A. Bi-Annual Review Report

4.2 BUSINESS AND OPERATIONS

4.2.1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The Contractor shall execute 40 to 50 IT infrastructure operations projects per year of the contract. The Contractor shall ensure transparency and open communication with stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle to include conducting stakeholder surveys to gather feedback on project performance and satisfaction, aiming for a minimum 90% satisfaction rate. The Contractor shall utilize project management applications and agile methodology to execute and deliver projects around hosting platforms including on-premises servers, virtual servers, databases, cloud operations, Active Directory, domain infrastructure, virtual desktops, cybersecurity operations, mail-order pharmacy operations, IT platforms, and data center operations.

For each project, the Contractor shall provide:

1. Project Charter – including obtaining approvals

2. Initiation Documents- Budget, stakeholder register, risk register, project timeline, communication plan, and approval documentation

3. Comprehensive Project Plan

4. Schedule – Including detailing key milestones, tasks, and timelines

5. Risk Management Plan

6. Mitigation Strategy Plan

7. Regular Status Reports - Including completed milestones, risks aversion, upcoming milestones, issues and any status that might need sponsor escalation.

8. Performance Metrics

9. Final project Reports

10. Post-project Evaluation – Including an assessment of project outcomes and identify lessons learned.

Each document shall be submitted to VA for approval. VA will have 5 business days to review and return with comments or accept. The Contractor PM shall be available to report on, demonstrate, and discuss the current status of all active projects as well as hold monthly project meetings with VA leadership and status updates to ensure alignment and address any concerns promptly.

Project Sizes are defined as:

Small project - equivalent to a local IO project delivered within IO, anticipate 10 –

15 per year.

Medium project equivalent to deliverables at the regional or multi-regional level, anticipate 15 – 20 per year.

Large project equivalent to an enterprise-wide project for all of OIT or VA, anticipate 10 – 15 per year.

The Contractor shall establish and utilize a change management process to handle changes in project scope, schedule, and costs and ensure that any changes are documented, approved, and communicated to relevant stakeholders. Also, the Contractor shall implement Quality Assurance (QA) processes to ensure that project deliverables meet the required standards and conduct regular reviews and audits to verify the quality and completeness of project deliverables.

4.2.1.1 PROJECT ANALYSIS SUPPORT

The Contractor shall complete 20 short-term (a week or less) 10 mid-term (up to two weeks) and five long-term (three weeks or more Administrative Projects per year, conduct 5 IT business studies per year, conduct 10-30 administrative and business analyses per year, prepare 15-30 high-level briefings per year, Create and manage 3 dashboards throughout the year. Complete action items assigned via action item portal or e-mail. Complete personnel actions as assigned to include change of duty stations, details, awards, Name changes and others, Completion of administrative actions such as position description creation, onboarding and offboarding personnel, building position change packets, creating memos, and facilitating meetings for service directors.

The contractor shall have the ability to understand detailed requests by email. The contractor shall be able to research various tools to find relevant data. The contractor shall create and format data in clear and precise methods using applications like PowerPoint, word, excel, and email. The contractor shall complete actions and projects by the assigned suspense dates. The contractor shall be capable of the following tasks:

1. accurately track milestones using Excel, Access, Power BI, Apptio, and other applications.

2. effectively communicate with sponsors and stakeholders.

3. understand IT, Budget, and Administrative materials, policies, guides.

The on-time execution of 50 small, 20 medium, 10 large information technology infrastructure operations projects every year with positive stakeholder satisfaction. A small project would be equal to a local IO project that is delivered within IO. A medium-sized project would be a project that would have deliverables at the regional or multi-regional level. A large project would be an enterprise-wide project for all OIT or VA.

The contractor shall provide On-time delivery of project milestones. Adherence to project budgets. Stakeholder satisfaction rate of at least 90%. Achievement of project objectives and goals. Tracking project performance using appropriate tools such as dashboards and techniques. Managing changes to the project scope, schedule, and costs.

Quality assurance and ensuring project deliverables meet the required standards. Also, check-ins with stakeholders.

Deliverables:

A. Project charters and initiation documents.

B. Comprehensive project plans and schedules.

C. Risk management plans and mitigation strategies.

D. Regular status reports and performance metrics.

E. Final project reports and post-project evaluations.

F. Completed Action Items.

G. Completed personnel actions.

H. Position change request packages

1. Position Description packages

4.2.1.2 CRITICAL SYSTEM ROADMAPS

The Contractor shall ensure 100% of IO critical systems maintain an updated, actionable technical roadmap that accounts for emerging technology trends and dependency risks. There are currently 13 critical systems of the VA IO that are essential components that support various operations and services within VA. These systems play a crucial role in managing Veterans' healthcare, benefits, and services.

Critical systems may vary by up to 3 additional, similar sized systems. These systems may include:

1. Identity and Access Management (IAM) - Single Sign-On Internal: An identity and access management system that allows internal VA employees and systems to authenticate once and gain access to multiple VA applications and services without the need for re-entering credentials.

2. IAM - Single Sign-On External: An identity and access management system that enables external users, such as veterans and external partners, to authenticate once and access various VA systems and applications securely with a single set of credentials.

3. VA Master Person Index (VA MPI): A centralized database that maintains and resolves unique identifiers for veterans and other beneficiaries, ensuring that their records are correctly matched and consolidated across various VA systems and services.

4. Active Directory: A directory service by Microsoft used for managing computers, users, and other resources within a network. It provides authentication, authorization, and directory look-up capabilities for VA's IT infrastructure.

5. VA Enterprise Cloud (VAEC) Amazon Web Gov Service: Amazon Web Services (AWS) tailored for government use, providing cloud computing services to the VA within a secure and compliant environment to host applications, store data, and run various IT functions.

6. VAEC Microsoft Azure Gov Service: Microsoft Azure's cloud platform designed for U.S. government agencies, providing secure, compliant cloud services for hosting VA applications, data storage, and deployment of IT resources.

7. Public Key Infrastructure: A framework for managing digital certificates and encryption keys that provide secure communication, authentication, and data integrity across VA networks and systems.

8. ServiceNow: A cloud-based platform providing IT service management (ITSM) solutions for VA, streamlining service requests, incident management, and change management processes to enhance operational efficiency.

9. CMOP Pharmaceutical System: The Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP) system, which processes and dispatches prescription medications to veterans, supporting automated and efficient fulfillment of pharmaceutical orders.

10. Enterprise Storage Management: Solutions and practices for managing VA's centralized storage infrastructure, ensuring reliable, scalable, and secure storage and retrieval of data across the enterprise.

11. Citrix Application Farm: A server-based solution that virtualizes and delivers VA applications to users, providing a consistent and centralized management environment with optimized performance and security.

12. Enterprise Web Infrastructure: The framework and tools that support the development, hosting, and management of VA's web applications and websites, ensuring they are accessible, secure, and scalable.

13. SharePoint Online Platform: A cloud-based collaboration and content management platform (part of Microsoft Office 365) used by the VA for document sharing, team collaboration, and building internal websites.

The Contractor shall provide Bi-Annual Roadmap Updates to system roadmaps of each of the approximately 13 critical systems twice a year. The Contractor shall make updates leveraging market analysis, emerging technology studies, and competitive intelligence. Updates shall ensure compliance with relevant regulations and standards, alignment with security protocols, support for business priorities, coherence with vendor support timelines and lifecycles and at least 90% of the system roadmap updates reflect the latest industry trends and are tailored to meet the evolving needs of the organization and its operational environment.

Additionally, the Contractor shall:

1. Cross-Platform Conflict Assessment

a. Assess 95% of major system updates to identify and mitigate any potential cross-platform conflicts. This includes conducting compatibility checks, interoperability testing, and reviewing dependency mappings to prevent disruptions.

2. Quarterly Roadmap Reviews

a. Conduct stakeholder-inclusive quarterly reviews of the updated roadmaps.

These reviews shall involve key stakeholders such as technical architects, business leaders, compliance officers, and security experts. During these reviews, assess the Contractor-provided dependency analysis, ensuring that all potential risks and dependencies are documented and have corresponding mitigation strategies.

3. Stakeholder Engagement and Feedback

a. Implement a structured process for soliciting and incorporating stakeholder feedback into the roadmap updates. The Contractor shall collect insights on current and future business needs, potential regulatory changes, and operational challenges from stakeholders.

4. Dependency Analysis

a. Provide actionable recommendations for mitigating identified risks associated with these dependencies.

b. Include detailed dependency analysis in each roadmap update, highlighting critical dependencies and potential risks.

5. Continuous Improvement

a. Establish a feedback mechanism to evaluate the effectiveness of the roadmap updates and the monitoring and evaluation process.

b. Use this feedback to continuously improve the roadmap update procedures, ensuring they remain relevant and effective in addressing emerging trends and dependency risks.

A. Bi-Annual Roadmap Updates

4.2.1.3 ENTERPRISE LOGGING WAREHOUSE SUPPORT

The contractor shall provide project management support for the OMB 21-31 event logging and Enterprise Logging Warehouse (ELW) platform.

The contractor shall provide the following:

1. Contractor shall provide the plan and facilitate OMB 21-31 and ELW work groups and meetings

2. Contractor shall track and maintain action items

3. Contractor shall coordinate intake meetings to ensure that the capture requirements for event, security, application, performance, and custom logs to ensure logs are acceptable for use.

4. Contractor will complete ServiceNow catalog intake requests by collection business requirements, technical requirements, and intake approval.

5. Contractor shall draft, review, and promote ELW program documentation.

6. Contractor shall maintain and adhere to the standard operating procedure for the

ELW Change Requests

7. Contractor shall ensure ELW partners (ie. CSOC, ECO, IAM) are notified of any upcoming changes that may involve their participation or may be impactful

8. Ensure all ELW certificates are tracked for expiration and updates are submitted through ELW internal change management process, in accordance with ELW Certificate Management SOP, and VA Change Management process 30 days prior to expiration.

9. Contractor shall ensure ELW submitted change requests are appropriately tracked and coordinated for production release approval

10. Contractor shall create, manage, close, and update Jira (or similar project management software) stories.

11. Contractor will facilitate ELW Scrums, sprint planning, and sprint kickoff/close out meetings

12. Contractor shall support and maintain ELW Community of Practice portal and coordinate related events, workshops, and lunch/learns with the Splunk Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

The contractor shall meet the following performance metrics:

1. Successfully plan and completed 3-week sprint cadence

2. Ensure 5% of intake backlog is planned in each sprint

3. Complete 95% of weekly intake request initial contact with customer, 95% collection of business and technical requirements after facilitating customer meeting, and 95% of intake approvals.

4. Ensure 100% ELW change requests are executed according to VA standards

5. Ensure 100% of certificates are managed with 0 expirations

The contractor shall be monitored through the following method:

1. Monitoring will be via leadership review of documents, dashboards, and communications.

2. Monitor Team Kanban, roadmap/project plan, and Sprint Boards by internal team member oversight, and externally through established timelines and suspense’s by requesting agencies.

4.2.2 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

4.2.2.1 SERVICENOW/POWERBI DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT

The Contractor shall support the development, enhancement, and maintenance of organizational reports and dashboards, Service Catalog items/workflows, and other distributed development like Scoped Applications on an IT Service Management (ITSM) platform. The Contractor shall provide complex customer-focused, human-centered design solutions that enhance operational efficiency and service delivery through Agile, Waterfall, and other industry-standard methodologies.

The Contractor shall provide scalable, secure, and high-quality solutions using tools such as ServiceNow, PowerBI, Power Automate, GitHub, and SharePoint. These solutions focus on the development, enhancement, and maintenance of organizational reports and dashboards, Service Catalog items/workflows and Scoped Applications.

The Contractor shall ensure at least 99% of BI and ITSM solution deployments are successful with no significant issues or rollbacks. The Contractor shall monitor and report the time taken to advance demands through different phases (Planning, Design, Development, Testing, Acceptance/Approval, Deployment) according to demand sizes (small, medium, large). Monthly completion rates shall be documented and reviewed to set realistic expectations and timelines.

The Contractor shall provide:

1. Methodological Efficiency in Service Delivery

a. Utilize appropriate methodologies, including Agile, Waterfall, and hybrid approaches, to improve service delivery and quality. This involves fulfilling customer demands related to reports, dashboards, and integration with various monitoring systems. The Contractor shall ensure a minimum 85% satisfaction rating from stakeholders on delivered work.

b. Document and analyze monthly completion rates of development stories to set realistic expectations and timelines.

2. Customer/Stakeholder Engagement and Requirement Documentation

a. Maintain continuous engagement with customers and stakeholders to refine and document detailed, complex requirements. The Contractor shall ensure 100% adherence to security, governance, and compliance policies during requirement documentation and subsequent solution development.

b. Track and account for the time required to move demands between different phases of the process. Adjust engagement strategies to optimize workflow efficiency.

3. Service Efficiency and Technical Debt Reduction

a. Enhance service efficiency and reduce technical debt through automation and innovative practices wherever possible. This involves delivering high-value capabilities aligned with customer and leadership requirements. The Contractor shall ensure a minimum 85% satisfaction rating from stakeholders on delivered BI work.

b. Focus on reducing time lags between processing phases by leveraging automation and innovation, and utilize these metrics to set clear, achievable development story targets.

4. Compliance with Industry Standards and Security Practices

a. Ensure that all solutions and practices comply with industry standards, organizational policies, and security best practices. This compliance is crucial to maintaining the integrity and safety of deployments. The Contractor shall ensure 100% adherence to security, governance, and compliance policies.

b. Integrate compliance checks within the timeline metrics to ensure they do not cause undue delays, while keeping the effort minimal and efficient.

Timeframes for Approved Demands Note: All timeframes may have an allowable variance of up to 20% based on the situation.

The Information Operations and Service Management (IOSM) Director or their designee will approve demands and determine the size of the work effort after the initial assessment by the Business Analyst.

1. Planning and Requirements Gathering: Define the scope and gather detailed requirements to include conduct stakeholder meetings to understand and document business needs, define project scope and objectives and prioritize requirements and create user stories.

a. Expected Timeframe:

i. Small Demands: 16 business hours

ii. Medium Demands: 32 business hours

iii. Large Demands: 56 business hours

2. Design: Develop a detailed design for the sprint backlog items (user stories) to include create and review high-level design documents, design data models, workflows, and User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) elements, develop detailed technical specifications and review design with stakeholders and product owner for feedback and approval.

a. Expected Timeframe:

i. Small Demands: 8 business hours

ii. Medium Demands: 16 business hours

iii. Large Demands: 40 business hours

3. Testing Preparation: Prepare for testing by developing test plans and test cases to include develop test plans and specific test cases and prepare testing environments and necessary data.

a. Expected Timeframe:

i. Small Demands: 8 business hours

ii. Medium Demands: 12 business hours

iii. Large Demands: 20 business hours

4. Testing: Execute tests to ensure the application meets the requirements and is free of defects to include conduct functional, integration, and system testing, log and track defects and issues, perform regression testing if needed and conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT) with stakeholders.

a. Expected Timeframe:

i. Small Demands: 16 business hours

ii. Medium Demands: 24 business hours

iii. Large Demands: 40 business hours

5. Acceptance/Approval: Obtain formal approval from stakeholders to proceed to deployment to include review and ensure all testing is complete and meets user expectations, document approval criteria and gather formal sign-off from stakeholders and perform final readiness check.

a. Expected Timeframe:

i. Small Demands: 8 business hours

ii. Medium Demands: 12 business hours

iii. Large Demands: 16 business hours

6. Deployment Preparation: Plan and prepare for deployment to include develop deployment plans and roll-back procedures, conduct final testing in a staging environment and prepare deployment scripts and configuration settings.

a. Expected Timeframe:

i. Small Demands: 8 business hours

ii. Medium Demands: 12 business hours

iii. Large Demands: 16 business hours

7. Post-Deployment Verification: Verify the application in the production environment to ensure everything is working as expected to include conduct post-deployment verification, monitor initial performance in production and gather feedback from stakeholders and end-users.

a. Expected Timeframe:

b. Small Demands: 8 business hours

c. Medium Demands: 12 business hours

d. Large Demands: 16 business hours

Based on the analysis of previous years, a peak productivity of 56 PowerBI and 35 ITSM development stories are completed in one month, and approximately 5 - 10 PowerBI and ITSM development stories each are completed per month on average. For PowerBI, during anticipated peak periods, such as March and April, productivity can significantly increase, with our recent data showing outputs of up to 38 stories in March 2025 and 56 stories in April 2025. Previously, other significant peaks were observed, such as 30 stories in August 2024 and 29 stories in March 2024. For ITSM during anticipated peak periods, such as mid-year and end-of-year, approximately 15 to 20 stories can be anticipated per month.

The Contractor shall support IO in setting clear quarterly targets and ensuring adequate resource allocation during high-demand periods which will be crucial for maintaining and potentially enhancing IO’s development throughput. This approach will help in managing customer expectations and ensuring timely delivery of high-quality PowerBI solutions.

Maintaining a focus on quality, even during periods of high throughput, is essential.

4.2.2.2 REPORT AND DASHBOARD CREATION, INTEGRATION AND SUPPORT

The work for this requirement is to be performed during normal business hours and can be done remotely or on-site.

Day Shift 8:00am-4:30pm based on the time zone where the contractor works from.

Normal Business Hours Monday-Friday Day shift, excluding Federal Holidays.

The contractor shall perform the following tasks:

1. This role shall deliver Power BI development and reports consisting of integrated data from various sources such as ServiceNow (SNOW), Apptio, Dell Site Recovery Manager (SRM), Vcenter, Netapp, SQL server, Oracle OEM and other technologies aimed at delivering accurate, high-performing data models and dashboards and user-friendly, interactive reports tailored to business needs for a team of over 200 IT staff within four Service Lines

Deliver accurate, consistent, and high-performing data models integrated from various data sources (e.g., SQL Server, Excel, SharePoint, Azure) to enable reliable business insights.

• Provide interactive, user-friendly reports and dashboards in Power BI that meet business requirements and enhance decision-making.

Enable seamless collaboration and accessibility by deploying reports to Power BI Service, integrating with tools like Azure, Power Apps, and Teams, and providing comprehensive documentation and end-user training.

• Dashboard and reports result from successful collaboration of IT specialists, IT managers and IT Leadership in the pillar.

• Dashboards and reports are of high quality due to the contractor helping recommend and design reports and dashboards by consulting with IT staff.

The contractor shall have the following capabilities in performing the tasks:

1. Expertise in connecting to and integrating diverse data sources, cleaning and transforming data using Power Query (M language), and modeling data with DAX for accuracy and efficiency.

2. Proficiency in designing and developing interactive Power BI reports and dashboards with advanced visuals, drill-through features, filters, and slicers.

3. Ability to write and optimize DAX formulas for calculated columns, measures, and aggregations to support complex business analytics.

4. Competence in implementing and managing data security protocols, including RLS, OLS, use roles, and permissions.

5. Skills in performance optimization, including DAX query tuning, incremental data refresh, and proper indexing to minimize load times.

6. Capability to analyze business requirements, translate them into technical solutions, and provide actionable insights.

7. Experience with Power BI Service for publishing reports, configuring gateways, and managing Apps/Workspaces, as well as integrating Power BI with Microsoft tools (e.g., Azure, Power Automate).

8. Ability to document processes and train end-users effectively while staying current with Power BI updates and AI-driven analytics features.

The Government shall assess the performance of the contractor as described below:

1. Regular audits of data models and integration processes to verify accuracy, consistency, and performance against benchmarks.

2. Use of Power BI’s built-in performance analyzer to track and report on query execution times and data refresh efficiency.

3. Periodic security reviews to confirm compliance with RLS/OLS configurations and user permission settings.

4. Stakeholder feedback collected quarterly via surveys or interviews to assess report relevance and user experience.

5. Review of deployment logs and refresh schedules in Power BI Service to ensure uptime and accessibility.

6. Evaluation of documentation completeness and training session attendance/feedback to measure knowledge transfer.

4.2.2.3 FUTURE OPERATIONS TECHNOLOGY ANALYSIS

The Contractor shall enable data-driven, forward-thinking technology decisions that anticipate customer needs 3-5 years in advance. The Contractor shall provide strategic analysis and foresight into emerging customer needs and evolving technology trends, ensuring that technology decisions proactively align with future user expectations.

The Contractor shall:

1. Future-Centric Technology Decision-Making Capability

a. Develop a system for continuous monitoring and analysis of emerging customer needs and evolving technology trends.

b. Utilize predictive analytics, market research, and trend analysis to provide foresight into future technology developments.

c. Ensure that technology decisions are proactively informed by this forward-looking analysis.

2. Annual Future Technology Landscape Report

a. Provide an annual Future Technology Landscape Report that shall:

i. Forecast customer technology needs and preferences over a 2–3 year horizon.

ii. Identify key technology trends and innovations likely to impact the organization and its customers.

iii. Provide strategic recommendations for technology investments and initiatives to address anticipated needs.

iv. Be grounded in data-driven insights and comprehensive market analysis.

3. Incorporation into Strategic Roadmaps

a. Ensure that 80% of the recommendations from the annual Future

Technology Landscape Report are incorporated into the organization's multi-year strategic roadmaps.

b. Track the integration of these recommendations and their impact on strategic planning and technology adoption.

4. Semi-Annual Leadership Reviews

a. Conduct semi-annual reviews of the strategic forecasts with leadership.

b. Ensure that leadership understands the implications of the strategic forecasts and how they align with long-term business and customer expectations.

c. The Reviews shall include:

i. Discuss the findings from the Future Technology Landscape

Report.

ii. Evaluate the progress of incorporating recommendations into strategic roadmaps.

iii. Identify any adjustments needed to align technology decisions with future customer expectations.

5. Stakeholder Engagement and Feedback

a. Facilitate stakeholder engagement by involving key business leaders, technology experts, and customer representatives in the review and planning processes.

b. Gather feedback from stakeholders to refine and enhance the strategic analysis and foresight activities.

c. Ensure that stakeholder input is considered in future strategic planning and decision-making processes.

6. Continuous Improvement

a. Implement a feedback loop to continuously improve the accuracy and relevance of future technology forecasts.

b. Use feedback from leadership reviews and stakeholder engagement to update methodologies and approaches.

c. Foster a culture of innovation and agility to adapt to emerging trends and changing customer needs.

Historically this requirement has been met with one Full Time Equivalent.

A. Future Technology Landscape Report

4.2.2.4 VENDOR INTELLIGENCE SUPPORT

The Contractor shall ensure at least 90% of critical technology vendors remain aligned with IO’s long-term goals. The Contractor shall provide continuous monitoring of industry trends, corporate acquisitions, financial stability, and product lifecycle changes that could impact the organization's technology stack.

The Contractor shall implement a continuous monitoring system that monitors industry trends, corporate acquisitions, financial stability, and product lifecycle changes related to critical technology vendors. The system shall be capable of delivering real-time alerts and comprehensive quarterly reports.

The Contractor shall develop and deliver Quarterly Vendor Intelligence Reports that include the following:

1. Cover at least 95% of all mission-critical vendors.

2. Each report shall contain detailed analyses and identify at least three (3) risk indicators per vendor.

a. Risk indicators for each vendor could include, but are not limited to, financial instability, significant changes in management, mergers and acquisitions, and product end-of-life announcements.

3. Develop a standardized format for risk reporting to ensure consistency and clarity.

4. For every risk identified in the reports, a documented mitigation plan must be created, ensuring that at least 80% of identified risks have appropriate and actionable mitigation strategies.

The Contractor shall implement a feedback loop where leadership can provide input on the Quarterly Vendor Intelligence Reports to continually improve the quality and relevance of the monitoring and reporting processes. Additionally, the Contractor shall track the effectiveness of mitigation plans to ensure ongoing improvement and alignment with organizational goals.

A. Quarterly Vendor Intelligence Reports

4.2.3 FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND BUDGETING

4.2.3.1 IT OPERATIONAL COST SUPPORT

The Contractor shall support IO’s goal to reduce IT operational costs by at least 10% annually through eliminating inefficiencies, optimizing resource allocation, and improving forecasting accuracy. The Contractor shall provide data-driven cost analysis and forecasting for IT expenditures, ensuring that technology investments are strategic, financially sustainable, and optimized for efficiency.

The Contractor shall:

1. IT Cost Optimization & Forecasting Capability

a. Implement a robust IT cost optimization tool that analyzes current IT expenditures, identifies inefficiencies, and proposes optimization strategies.

b. Utilize advanced analytics and machine learning to provide accurate forecasting for IT budgets, considering historical data and projected needs.

2. Quarterly IT Cost Reports

a. Deliver comprehensive Quarterly IT Cost Reports. The Quarterly IT Cost

Reports shall be data-driven and include detailed cost-benefit analysis of current technology investments, specific recommendations for optimizing resource allocation and eliminating inefficiencies and the projected financial impact of recommended actions.

b. Each report shall:

i. Assess and detail current and past technology expenditures.

ii. Identify inefficiencies and areas where cost reductions can be achieved.

iii. Provide strategic recommendations for cost savings.

iv. Include budget forecasts with an accuracy variance within +/- 5%.

3. Budget Forecasting Accuracy

a. Ensure that budget forecasts within the quarterly reports maintain a high level of accuracy, falling within a +/- 5% variance of actual expenditures.

b. The forecast shall account for factors such as market changes, technology lifecycle, and operational requirements.

4. Quarterly Leadership Reviews

a. Establish a structured process for leadership to review IT cost reports each quarter.

b. During these reviews, ensure that the reports:

i. Highlight significant findings and cost-saving opportunities.

ii. Provide actionable insights and recommendations.

iii. Include a tracking mechanism to monitor the implementation and impact of cost-saving measures.

5. Tracking and Acting on Savings Opportunities

a. Develop a tracking system to monitor the status and effectiveness of cost-saving initiatives proposed in the reports.

b. Ensure that leadership can easily track the progress and outcomes of these initiatives.

c. Regularly update the tracking system to reflect the current status of all cost optimization efforts.

6. Continuous Improvement

a. Incorporate feedback from leadership and other stakeholders to continually improve the quality and usefulness of the cost reports.

b. Use outcomes from implemented cost-saving measures to refine and enhance forecasting models and optimization strategies.

c. Foster a culture of continuous improvement to ensure the organization remains agile and responsive to new cost-saving opportunities.

A. Quarterly IT Cost Reports

4.2.3.2 BUDGET AND FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENTS

The Contractor shall support IO’s goal to improve at least four (4) budget and financial management processes per fiscal year related to automating manual daily and monthly tasks and have monthly financial data available timely and accurately.

The Contractor shall ensure all process changes are documented in appropriate SOPs.

The Contractor shall lead quarterly virtual training sessions with 10-50 people across Infrastructure Operations on annual budget planning process, rate setting, profit/loss reports and budget formulation and execution and financial reporting.

The contractor shall provide enhance reporting by asking and receiving for feedback from users and making changes to reports in Apptio or PowerBI.

The Contractor shall assist developing and implementing at least three (3) Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) per fiscal year for franchise fund budget execution over plan, infrastructure costs, profitability of franchise fund product offerings and undelivered orders. The Contractor shall create a Dashboard to view financial key performance indicators (KPIs) in Apptio or PowerBI.

The Contractor shall provide the following functions:

1. Automation knowledge to assist the organization with automation of financial data and improve processes.

2. Provide training information to customers resulting in improved user understanding of the financial systems and new processes.

3. Provide customer service support and create or enhance reports for customer use.

4. Be able to analyze and provide measurable data for customers and leadership.

The Contractor shall meet the following metrics.

1. 100% of process improvements within fiscal year, 5%-time savings with process improvement,

2. 90% satisfaction on user survey feedback, Number of training sessions conducted with 90% satisfaction rate in training surveys.

3. 3 KPIs developed

4.2.3.3 PROJECT CONTROL ENGINEERING

The Contractor shall provide Project Controls Engineering (PCE) services for IO support requirements, re-organizations, resource turnover, new customized software development demands, and additional software development of Engineering Technical Manual Library (ETML). The Contractor shall support the increase of data-integrated application interfaces to the PCE Application Suite.

The Contractor shall monitor, review, and administer resources via the Resource Labor Allocation website. Projects and Labor Activities shall be reviewed and assigned appropriate labor activity codes and projected project hours input into the website for staff allocation. The Contractor shall ensure data is appropriately submitted, timely, and error free to support the essential identifying of the level of effort (LOE) assigned to projects and priorities for accurate cost allocation throughout the organization which is integral to forecasting (labor and cost) for annual business planning activities.

The Contractor shall monitor the Resource Labor Allocation website for new and current service packs, software upgrades, version updates, as well as any other identified updates required for the Resource Labor Allocation site. The Contractor shall review, schedule and implement those service packs, software upgrades, version upgrades and any other identified updates required for the timekeeping system to ITOPS IO’s environment within thirty (30) days of posting to the website. The Contractor shall follow ITOPS IO processes and procedures for implementing such changes as project management, release, and configuration management, opening a Change Request, coordinating notification of changes, impacts and other documentation. The Contractor shall ensure new versions, releases, service packs, or software upgrades to the system follow standard IO-wide processes for Release Management and Change Management.

The Contractor shall develop and manage enterprise application integration programs requiring the use of Transact SQL stored procedures, SQL server DTS, COM/DCOM and XML to implement the following:

1. Maintain Single Sign on capabilities through Active Directory and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) within the currently deployed time keeping Application Suite and its integrated Oracle components, so that once a customer has logged onto their workstation, they will automatically be given access to the Resource Labor Allocation Application Suite.

2. Support interfaces to the system, as required and authorized by IO management.

The Contractor shall:

1. All training should include a PowerPoint presentation and SharePoint site with documentation and training as well as short cut listings.

2. Create and ‘keep current’, a set of training materials geared towards new users.

These materials will be self-guided for the trainees.

3. Provide mentoring, training, and one-on-one sessions to customers on how to effectively use and maneuver in the Resource Labor Allocation Application Suite.

Training is accomplished with an introductory PowerPoint presentation maintained by the Contractor. This presentation is furnished to the new user (both FTEs and other Contractors); new users follow directions in the PP presentation and direct questions or requests for assistance to the Contractor.

New users average 3-4 per week, with around 1300 total IO users posting their timecards within the system. When it is necessary to migrate to a new version, release, service pack, or apply software upgrades to the Resource Labor Allocation system, the Contractor shall train all staff on the use of new or changing features.

4. Provide advice, training, and one-on-one demonstration or instruction to staff concerning the creation of activities in the Resource Labor Allocation system, assignment of estimated hours to each activity, and coordination of releases for each application.

5. Provide one-on-one demonstrations or instructions to the desktop staff on how to troubleshoot labor entry issues with the desktop and web clients.

4.2.3.3.1 CUSTOM REPORTS

The Contractor shall provide develop and produce the following reports on a daily, weekly or monthly basis as described below:

1. ITOPS IO Delinquent Labor Task Entry History (monthly) – a report that identifies all delinquent timesheets grouped by Supervisor. The Contractor shall notify ITOPS IO Section Supervisors individually, and on a weekly basis, when Contractor assigned staff are late in submission of timesheets.

2. ITOPS IO Labor Task Distribution (monthly) – a report that includes the allocation of IO Actual Labor Units across internal and external projects. The date range for this report should span the 1st calendar day of each month to the last calendar day of each month.

3. ITOPS IO Contractor Monthly Time Report– Consolidated – a report that extracts

4. Official Timesheet Data used by Contractor’s PMO to validate Individual Contractor Prepared Month Reports. Report is subsequently used by CORs to validate Contractor Invoices.

5. Labor Billing Extract (monthly) – a report produced in Excel providing detailed timesheet information of billable labor activities (including time period, data source, resource ID, resource name, bill code, project ID, MCC, application function code, application code, activity ID, activity name, rate, hours, and $ total). The report is due to the Business Office (Revenue Management) by 10:00am on the first working day of each month or as required on the date requested and determined by Revenue Management.

6. Create ad hoc reports based on data stored in timekeeping system.

All ongoing daily reporting shall be provided by close of business of the following business day to the COR/VA RESOURCE LEAD(s) via electronic submission. All ongoing weekly reporting shall be provided by close of business 2 business days after the reporting period and to the COR via electronic submission.