01_Application Development RFI 15MAY2025 FINAL.docx

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

BUREAU OF DIPLOMATIC TECHNOLOGY (DT)

OFFICE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITIONS (ITA)

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

for

LOW-CODE/NO-CODE APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM SOLUTION

PART 1: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

1.1 PURPOSE

This Request for Information (RFI) is issued as market research to determine industry’s capabilities to provide an application development platform solution to assist Department of State (State) personnel in developing low-code/no-code applications to support a broad range of State operational and administrative processes. The solution shall be capable of meeting federal and State-specific requirements, with capabilities for scalability, flexibility, and integration across diverse environments.

The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or reimburse any costs associated with the preparation of responses. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI marked “Proprietary” will be handled accordingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responses to this RFI will assist the State in determining the potential level of interest, competition adequacy, and technical capabilities of commercial vendors to provide the required products and services. The Government does not guarantee any action beyond this RFI.

The result of this market research will contribute to determining the acquisition plan and the method of procurement. The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 541519 with associated small business size standards* and Product Service Code (PSC) 7A21.

1.2 BACKGROUND

State's mission is to advance the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity, by leading America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance. The mission of the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology (DT) is to rapidly and securely deliver anytime, anywhere, the knowledge resources and Information Technology (IT) services needed to support the over 300 sites, and 275 missions it services worldwide.

DT is seeking input from industry regarding their capability to provide market-leading low-code/no-code application development solutions capable of meeting the full breadth of functional requirements outlined below. State requires access to a platform that is compliant with current federal security requirements, easy to use, flexible, and scalable, customizable, and configurable to meet the diverse needs of the regional and domestic State bureaus and posts around the world.

1.3 RFI OVERVIEW

As further detailed in Part 2, State is seeking to identify commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions capable of meeting State’s low-code/no-code application development requirements outlined in this RFI.

Information requested includes the following categories:

· Company Information (Section 1) – Identification of interested vendors, socio-economic status, and potential acquisition vehicles to inform State’s potential acquisition strategy options.

· Capability Assessment Against Functional Requirements (Section 2) – Description of vendor’s proposed technical solution and ability to fully meet all stated functional requirements.

· Past Experience (Section 3) – Past project example(s) demonstrating vendor’s experience implementing their proposed solution to address the needs of an organization of similar size, global scope, and mission complexity to State.

1.4 SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:

All written responses should be submitted in Microsoft compatible formats (e.g., Word) or PDF.

Responses must use 12-point font and 1-inch margins, including all text, tables, and graphics. Additional attachments, brochures, or other marketing materials are not requested and will not be considered as part of the response. Response page limit(s) by section are noted below:

· Section 1 – Company Information – 1 page

· Section 2 – Capability Assessment Against Functional Requirements - 15 pages

· Section 3 – Past Experience – 5 pages Please submit all materials to John Warner at WarnerJ1@state.gov by Friday, May 30, 2025 at 12:00pm/EST.

The Government appreciates your completed submission for the RFI post but will not be accepting questions at this time. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL ANY RESPONDENT CONTACT ANY STATE PERSONNEL REGARDING THIS RFI.

PART 2: REQUESTED INFORMATION

Respondents are asked to provide the information requested below per the instructions outlined in Part 1, Section 1.4 above.

2.1 SECTION 1 – COMPANY INFORMATION

· Company name

· Company’s point of contact (POC) name

· Company’s point of contact (POC) phone number

· Company’s point of contact (POC) email address

· Company’s URL/web address

· Company’s Cage Code

· Company’s Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number

· Company business size in terms of revenue and number of employees

· Company Federal socioeconomic classification(s), if any, based on NAICS Code 541519.

· List the GSA schedule, Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), or other federal Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) or contracts the Respondent holds that are relevant to this requirement and accessible by State, including corresponding schedule number or contract number.

2.2 SECTION 2 – FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS ASSESSMENT

State’s functional requirements are outlined below. Respondents are asked to provide a structured response that meets the following format requirements:

· Response shall be structured and annotated to clearly map the detailed description of the proposed solution’s capabilities to the numbered requirements captured in the sections below. Responses should clearly map to the information detailed in the requirements below.

· Response narrative content should provide sufficient details regarding the proposed solution’s specific technical capabilities to demonstrate that the solution is capable of fully satisfying State's requirements.

2.2.1 Mandatory Requirements

The following qualifications and capabilities are mandatory requirements for any potential solution addressing the needs outlined in this notice. Vendors should assess these requirements carefully and fully describe their ability to meet them.

General Requirements

a. The solution shall be a unified, COTS platform from a single Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) (no custom solutions or multi-OEM solutions).

b. The solution shall be a software tool that enables low-code/no-code application development.

c. The solution shall allow for data management down to the field level.

d. The solution shall be a software tool that allows for third-party integration with application programming interfaces (APIs).

Security Requirements

e. The solution shall be cloud-based with the base solution certified at FedRAMP Moderate and Department of Defense (DOD) Impact Level 5 or higher. Please note if the proposed solution is also certified at FedRAMP-High and/or DOD Impact Level 6.

f. The solution shall provide data encryption capabilities including encryption of Data at Rest (DAR) and a Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 validated encryption mechanism at the network transport layer (e.g., Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or later) for data in transit protection.

g. The solution shall provide encryption capability to the individual field level.

h. The solution shall support Mutual Authentication and TLS 1.2 or above requirements.

Access Management

i. The solution shall support the ability to establish, manage, and control permissions, access levels, and security levels for different user groups, both internal and external to State, as part of workflow and data management.

j. The solution shall provide policy-based access control for both user role and permission assignments and allow each user entity to be assigned one or multiple attributes that represent different access privileges (e.g., read, write, modify, execute, delete, append, etc.). Once a need has been established, the principle of the least privilege must be employed allowing only the level of access necessary for a user’s job duties, including creation of core groups and adding users based on their need to access the system.

k. The solution shall be capable of securing interface connections using the latest industry standards between systems in the State target environment, including legacy systems, and other FedRAMP approved systems through implementation of Trusted Internet Connections and similar mandates.

2.2.2 Application Development

Please describe your solution’s ability to meet the following, core low-code/no-code application development requirements:

Low-Code/No-Code Development

a. The solution shall enable custom application development that allows approved stakeholders to use no-code, low-code, and pro-code tools to rapidly modify native applications, create new applications, and add services to the enterprise service catalog with little to no programming.

b. The solution shall be a software application tool for cross cloud/on-premises application building.

c. The solution shall be able to integrate with other enterprise cloud and on-premises solutions.

d. The solution shall enable rapid prototyping and deployment with minimal IT involvement.

e. The solution shall provide pre-built components and templates to assist users in quickly incorporating common functionalities into the application development process.

f. The solution offers pre-built workflows, portals, and experiences for human resources (HR), information technology (IT) service delivery, and other common operational and administrative use cases.

g. The solution shall be able to provide database encryption.

User Interface and Collaboration

h. The solution shall have collaborative tools for teamwork support and communication including but not limited to version controls, commenting features, and real-time editing functionalities.

i. The solution shall have a visual “drag-and-drop" interface for intuitive application design and workflow automation which enables users with little to no coding experience to easily develop applications.

j. The solution shall offer a persona-based experience to a given user that shows only relevant information and necessary (need-to-know) services.

k. The solution shall allow users to request applications from a centralized catalog and automate the deployment process when implementing.

Testing and Validation

l. The solution shall include development, testing, and production environments with automated code promotion capabilities.

m. The solution shall have native capabilities for code testing, validation, and release processes.

n. The solution shall have automated testing and debugging tools for application development.

Interoperability

o. The solution shall offer connectors and APIs to enable applications to integrate with existing systems and third-party services to enhance interoperability.

p. The solution shall be able to host custom applications using a broad range of languages such as Java Script, AJAX, PL/SQL logic, Angular JS, etc. Please provide details regarding the range of languages compatible with the solution.

q. The solution shall allow the implementation of custom code extensions using a variety of programming languages, including but not limited to Python, JavaScript, .NET, etc.

2.2.3 Performance and Support

Please describe your solution’s ability to meet the following performance and support requirements:

a. The solution shall be available for normal use 99.9 percent of the time minus any scheduled downtime.

b. The solution shall provide timely patching for security vulnerabilities and should release regularly scheduled low-code application product upgrades to correct problems, improve performance, and add low-code application functionality.

c. The solution shall support a scalable infrastructure/environment to handle tens of thousands of simultaneous user connections and transactions. Please clearly describe any governors or limitations on the solution’s transaction capacity.

d. The solution shall include a modular application suite(s) that enable rapid deployment.

2.2.4 Other Key Features and Functionality

Please describe any unique features or functionality of your proposed solution not covered elsewhere that set it apart from other competing solutions. Describe how these differentiating features or functionality are relevant to State’s overall requirements and key benefits State could derive from these capabilities.

2.3 PART 3 – PAST EXPERIENCE

State is seeking a solution that has a proven track record in the U.S. federal space with demonstrated experience supporting agencies of similar size, global scope, and mission complexity as State. Such experience is critical to ensure that the solution has been proven to be secure and reliable under the required IT security, data management, privacy, and other federal regulations that govern information technology implementations within the federal environment.

Please provide the following information regarding your experience deploying your proposed solution for federal customers. Please list all federal agencies where you have successfully deployed the proposed OEM solution in the last five (5) years. For each experience noted, in no more than one paragraph, please provide:

· Agency and Organization Name

· Period of Performance

· Solution(s) provided to the Agency For at least one, and not more than three, of the federal implementations provided above, please provide the additional detailed information requested below to further demonstrate your relevant past experience.

· Contract and task order number

· Contract type

· Dollar value of contract (across full period of performance)

· Period of performance dates

· State whether your company was a prime or subcontractor

· Customer point of contact (Name, Title, Email, Phone) that State may reach out to for more information

· Description of the scope of the work your company performed and its relevance and applicability to demonstrating your solution’s ability to deliver the full set of capabilities outlined in Part 2 Disclaimer: This Request for Information is for information gathering purposes only as a means to identify interested and capable sources that can provide a solution that fully meets all requirements outlined in Part 2 of this notice. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. State has not made a commitment to procure any of the items/services discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur costs for which reimbursement would be required or sought.

State will not publicly disclose proprietary information obtained as a result of this RFI. To the full extent that it is protected by law and regulations, information identified by a respondent as Proprietary or Confidential will be kept confidential. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED