041126PR2500008 Notice of intent.pdf

NOTICE OF INTENT: The U.S. Census Bureau intends to award a noncompetitive contract to Amgraf, Inc to provide software and support for One Form Designer Plus (OFDP). The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.501(a) in accordance with 41 U.S.C.1901:

BACKGROUND:

The U.S. Census Bureau (USCB) designed the initial Information Base for Exchange Administration and Management (IBEAM) system to support paper questionnaire development via an interface with a custom enhanced version of the Amgraf, Inc. standard software One Form Designer Plus (OFDP). The USCB used a legacy IBEAM/OFDP interface to support the development of many questionnaires for the 2010 Decennial Census program. The IBEAM/OFDP interface enabled resources from multiple organizations across the Decennial Directorate in the content development, questionnaire design and questionnaire data capture of the Decennial Census questionnaires.

The USCB reengineered the IBEAM/OFDP interface for forms designed for use with the implementation of the developed Content Management (COMET) enterprise system. The tight coupling and highly sophisticated intricacies of IBEAM and OFDP requires ongoing technical support to ensure stability for an enterprise automated forms engine which supported various censuses and surveys, including the 2017 Economic Census & the 2020 Decennial Census program.

COMET was reengineered to a new application - Questionnaire Design & Metadata (QDM) for inclusion into the Bureau’s Enterprise System in support of the Decennial, Demographic & Economic Directorates. The intent is to continue the tight coupling of QDM, and OFDP as Census develops the next generation of enterprise systems initiative - Data Ingest and Collection for the Enterprise (DICE) for the 2022 and 2027 Economic Census & 2030 Decennial Census.

The USCB’s Associate Directorate Economic Programs (ADEP) requires continuous services of a Contractor to provide technical and software license support and maintenance to enhance the IBEAM/OFDP interface by maintaining and expanding the interactively designed automation for producing paper/electronic forms.

REQUIREMENTS:

The contract includes the enterprise software licenses needed to operate the USCB QDM system within the DICE IT environment. In addition, in support of the DICE program, the selected vendor will provide technical solutions to USCB ADEP subject matter experts to encompass new methodology for on-going quality data products associated with IT software licenses and maintenance support by utilizing a vendor that can demonstrate the following program requirements: customize paper forms with nonstandard sizing, display nonstandard electronic forms, translate into 90 or more customized languages, and adaptive coding.

In addition, the product must be able to integrate with customized ADEP systems IBEAM, QDM, and MOJO in order to process responses and incorporate them into the Enterprise Data Lake (EDL). The EDL is a major Census initiative to centralize data management and processing, to enable more efficient access and use of data. As a result, these system integrations are key to make use of survey responses in USCB products.

The solution must also be backwards-compatible with Amgraf’s OFPD platform. Past and current surveys were developed and sent using this system. Backwards compatibility is necessary for these responses to remain readable and accessible to ADEP, and to ensure response field consistency throughout the questionnaire process starting from questionnaire content creation through processing and tabulation.

The QEMS contract shall provide a form rendering system, and paper/electronic forms solution interface for use with the QDM repository system. The developed solutions will ensure response field consistency throughout the questionnaire process starting from questionnaire content creation through processing and tabulation.

This procurement will provide the Enterprise software license and maintenance support needed to assist mission needs related to survey operations across the USCB. The vendor will also provide technical solutions to USCB Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to encompass new methodology and IT Governance processes for ongoing quality data products.

The USCB requires the following features:

• a fully automated XML-based rendering engine.

• a Windows PC-compatible interactive Graphical User Interface (GUI) application

“forms designer” composition software.

• the GUI application “forms designer” composition software with a master XML schema.

• a master XML schema that will allow Census personnel to typographically layout and model Question-Response XML Content into formatted blocks of printable Content to be imaged or printed in Surveys and Questionnaires.

• a Batch composition and pagination Engine

• print output options

• pixel-by-pixel comparison for proofing assurance

There is also a requirement to incorporate the User Experience (UX) in all applications and web development to ensure usability and accessibility to keep users engaged. There are several reasons to require incorporation of UX: 1) it serves as an industry best practice, 2) the applications being developed directly impact users/respondents of our surveys, and 3) it is mandated by OMB and White House Executive Order, M-23-22: Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience (whitehouse.gov).

This procurement will acquire contractor technical support services to enable the USCB Federal staff to build on to the existing QDM application platform and be adaptable to the Enterprise-wide IT solutions to meet the following objectives:

• Improve respondent experience - Ensuring a better experience for respondents. This includes ease of access to the surveys, usability of tools, clarity of forms and communication, as well as other avenues that ensure a respondent is minimally inconvenienced and can provide a high-quality response.

• Improve products - Improving the data products produced by the Decennial, Demographic, and Economic Censuses. Improved quality includes improved accuracy of the data products, a more relevant data product mix, and the right content in each data product.

• Accelerate the release of data products – Increasing the speed of availability of data products to data users.

• Increase organizational flexibility - Improving the enterprise's ability to respond to a changing environment. This includes changing data requirements, user’s data needs, and response channels, and reducing the number of mission critical applications needed to process the Decennial, Demographic, and Economic Censuses.

• Reduce cost - Decreasing the overall costs of operating the censuses and surveys at USCB. This includes costs associated with planning, preparing, and executing the Decennial, Demographic, and Economic Censuses. These costs can be direct, indirect, Full Time Employees (FTEs) or equivalents, expense dollars, capital dollars.

Period of Performance:

09/16/2025 through 09/15/2026 + four (4) one-year option periods through 09/15/2030

Place of Performance:

U.S. Census Bureau

4600 Silver Hill Road

Suitland MD, 20746

Interested Contractors:

Capability Statements must include:

All interested contractors must demonstrate within their capability statement their experiences and their capability to successfully perform the tasks defined in the “Requirements” section of this notice. In addition, all interested contractors must clearly define how they plan to perform with objectivity and independence, free from organizational conflicts of interest.

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. Interested individuals capable of doing this type of work must submit their written capabilities statements that demonstrate the identified capabilities and UEI number via electronic submission Jason Winings at Jason.k.winings@census.gov and Tanja Carter at tanja.carter@census.gov no later than 1:00 PM EST on August 14, 2025. No information will be taken by telephone or mail. Any questions regarding this notice should be directed to Jason Winings at jason.k.winings@census.gov and Tanja Carter at tanja.carter@census.gov as soon as possible, but not later than 1:00PM (EST), August 05, 2025.

Any such statement of capabilities and qualifications received by the deadline will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to compete this requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.