Continuing Education RFI_ FINAL.pdf

Department of the Treasury

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Return Preparer Office (RPO)

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION/SOURCES SOUGHT

“Continuing Education (CE) Provider Registration and Tracking System”

RFI Release Date: May 6, 2024

Q&A Period: May 6-13, 2024 (Response posted by May 15)

RFI Closing Date: May 20, 2024, 9AM EST

Primary Point of Contact: Shontae.T.Harley@irs.gov

Secondary Point of Contact: Carrie.D.Smith@irs.gov

NAICS Code: 541511

PSC Code: DA-01

I. GENERAL PROVISIONS

This is a Request for Information (RFI), not a purchase order or a commitment to purchase. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) and does not commit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to award a contract now or in the future. This document shall not be construed as a request or authorization to perform work at government's expense. Any expense incurred in and associated with responding to this RFI shall be the responsibility exclusively of the respondent. No costs shall be charged to the government for any reason.

The government may issue an RFP later for substantially similar services as those described in this document. There is, however, no guarantee that the government will issue an RFP. The information provided in this RFI is accurate to the best of the government’s knowledge, but is not guaranteed to be correct, complete or remain the same.

Any information of a confidential or proprietary nature contained in the respondent’s answers should be clearly marked ‘PROPRIETARY’ or ‘CONFIDENTIAL.’ Reasonable precautions will be taken to safeguard any information identified by the respondent as being proprietary or confidential. Submission of a response constitutes acknowledgement that the respondent has read, understood and agrees to be bound by the provisions herein.

II. BACKGROUND

The IRS is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury and one of the world's most efficient tax administrators. The Return Preparer Office’s (RPO) mission is to improve taxpayer compliance by providing oversight and support of tax professionals. The RPO oversees Continuing Education (CE) programs for Enrolled Agents (EA) and Enrolled Retirement Plan Agents (ERPA). It is mandatory that EAs and ERPAs take continuing education from IRS approved CE Providers.

Both EAs and ERPAs must complete 72 hours of continuing education triennially.

RPO oversees registration, testing, suitability and continuing education (CE) programs for certain groups of tax professionals. It is mandatory that these tax professionals take CE courses from IRS-approved CE providers. Learn more at: http://www.irs.gov/Tax-Professionals.

http://www.irs.gov/Tax-Professionals

III. INTRODUCTION AND PURPOSE

The Government is seeking to continue developing and administering a similar solution once the current contract expires on August 31, 2026. In preparation for possibly awarding a follow-on contract, the IRS is interested in learning about innovative technologies and methods in application development related to the 20 requirements cited below under General Scope.

IV. REQUESTED INFORMATION

Responses to this RFI are requested in three (3) parts as detailed below. All responses to this Notice shall be emailed to the attention of both the primary and secondary points of contact by the stated due date and time listed in this Notice on page 1. Responses shall be in either MS Word or PDF format, which does not exceed the page limitations set for each part, excluding any cover page. Responses should be concise and fully responsive.

Open questions and comments relevant to this RFI may be provided for consideration. RFI questions must be submitted by May 13, 2024, by 10am EST. The IRS will consolidate all questions received and provide a response on or before May 15, 2024, 10am EST. All RFI questions shall be emailed to both individual(s) listed on page 1.

The Government reserves the right to contact some, all or none of the RFI respondents for further discussions regarding their RFI response. The IRS will reach out to the point of contact listed on the response should we choose to contact any vendor(s). This discussion is for clarification or for further information gathering. This exchange should not be misconstrued as the Governments interest to pursue or enter into any contractual agreement or obligation.

PART I: Company Profile (1 page limit)

Please provide the following information about your company:

Company Overview

Name of Company

Address

City, State, Zip

Point of Contact Name

Telephone Number

E-mail Address

Number of years your company has been in the application development industry

Provide an overview of your company

Company size and socioeconomic status (if applicable)

Experience/Similar Project Info as related to this project (e.g., contract #, POP, brief description, agency/company supported)

Have all your communication and information technology, including your test administration platform(s), been independently tested for, and comply with, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended, and the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board’s Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards?

No __ Yes __ If yes, please attach your Section 508 test and compliance report(s).

Is your solution Fed-RAMP certified? If not, describe where you are in the process.

Does your solution implement phishing resistant multifactor authentication (MFA)? If so, please describe the current MFA solution?

Does your solution implement Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card authentication?

Is your solution IPv6 compliant?

Has your solution successfully completed a federal agency Security Assessment and Authorization (SA&A) process and received a federal agency Authorization to Operate (ATO)? If so, please discuss the ATO’s your solution has received.

General Project Scope: (subject to change)

The IRS is looking to procure Contractor support to continue the registration, annual renewal, and review of CE providers. The support includes developing, hosting and maintaining a system to administer CE Provider registration/renewals, course completion records and related tasks by electronic and paper means.

*Note: Historically, this contract has been performed on a “no-cost” basis for the Government, in which the contractor will recoup all costs incurred, plus a reasonable profit, entirely through registration/renewal fees collected directly from CE providers.

The anticipated requirements are substantially as follows:

1. Application must be entirely web-based and must not require any software download and installation on government or CE provider computers.

2. Application must be compliant with the provisions of IRS Internal Revenue Manual

(IRM)10.8.1Information Technology (IT) Security, Policy, and Guidance. If a cloud solution is proposed it must be compliant with IRM 10.8.24 Information Technology (IT) Security, Cloud Computing Security Policy.

3. Application must be compliant with the provisions of the most recent edition of the IRS Publication 4812. IRS Publication 4812 is IRS’ adoption of NIST 800-53 for our contractors.

4. System must be IPv6 compliant.

5. System must implement phishing resistant MFA including Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card authentication for IRS employees accessing the system.

6. System must implement auditing as required by IRM 10.8.24. All required system audit logs must be sent to the IRS Enterprise Security Audit Trails (ESAT) repository.

7. Allow CE providers to register and annually renew their registration.

8. Must be Payment Card Industry (PCI)compliant for secure payment of registration/renewal fees.

9. Include intuitive account management functions for Providers to input information and upload documents.

10. Allow IRS to review and approve Provider registration/renewal applications Online.

11. Allow other “back-office” functions for IRS to track, monitor, audit, analyze and report on

Providers’ status, course offerings and other information available in the system.

12. Allow automated and ad-hoc communication with Providers via secure mailbox.

13. Generate appropriate review outcome letters (approval, rejection, etc.) and electronically transmit to Providers via secure mailbox.

14. Automatically generate Provider registration numbers for approved Providers.

15. Allow for a one-time receipt of historical Program data (Provider, student course completion records, etc.) from the existing system and store same in a database.

16. Receive daily Preparer Tax Identification Number (PTIN) updates from another/existing system and store same in a database.

17. Receive from Providers uploads of course completion records by PTIN and store same in a database.

18. Send course completion records to the system referenced in #12 above.

19. Display certain information about Providers and make accessible Online to the general public.

20. Operate a call center to support Providers.

PART II: Responses to Questions (6-page limit)

Question 1:

Describe your previous experience in developing and deploying Web-based solutions for requirements listed above. We ask that you address all 20 requirements in your response. It will be very helpful to us if you provide references to requirement numbers in your answer where appropriate.

Question 2:

Provide number of clients, and preferably name of clients, for whom you have successfully developed, deployed and maintained applications substantially similar in scope to our requirements.

Question 3:

Provide an estimate of time you will need to develop, test and deploy your proposed application.

Question 4:

Identify whether your proposed solution will be a proprietary or a commercial off the shelf (COTS) product. If a COTS product, describe the tailoring effort.

Question 5:

Do you anticipate using a Cloud service provider (CSP)? If yes, name your proposed CSP and describe the scope of services they will be providing.

Question 6:

List web browsers that the CE providers and the IRS will be able to use to fully access all features and functions of your proposed application.

Question 7:

How would you implement phishing resistant multi-factor factor authentication in compliance with the requirements of Presidential Executive Order 14028?

Question 8:

The prospective contractor will recover all costs incurred in performing the work described herein, plus a reasonable profit, entirely through registration/renewal fees collected directly from CE providers. Provide a dollar estimate of the annual fee you propose to charge CE providers, assuming:

a. Approximately 550 CE providers registering/renewing each year

b. Five-year contract term

It is understood that the estimate you provide is for information purposes only and non-binding.

The estimate you provide should take into account the following: 1) the initial development, 2) testing and development of the application, as well as, 3) 5 years of operation and maintenance.

Question 9:

Discuss your experience in performing a no-cost contract for the Government (if applicable).

Provide details into the arrangement/contract agreement and any lessons learned.

Do you believe the no-cost operating model/performance is feasible? Is there something else the Government should consider?

Question 10:

Discuss your experience in achieving a federal agency Authority to Operate (ATO) for your web-based solutions.

PART III: Exhibits and Attachments (3-page limit)

1. Your response may include attachments. These items must be clearly marked as attachments. (Total RFI response, excluding cover page, shall not exceed 10 pages)

2. Please provide any additional information you believe is pertinent for our consideration.

3. No telephone requests or inquiries will be accepted.

4. All information provided will become property of IRS and will not be returned.