PWS and Appendices A through E.pdf

Performance Work Statement National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) Vessel Monitoring System (VMS)

Background

The Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) is a satellite and cellular surveillance system which is primarily used to monitor the location and activities of commercial fishing vessels in the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and international regional fisheries management organization (RFMO) areas. VMS supports law enforcement initiatives, for regulatory and statutory violation prevention, and for other fishery data-collection purposes. Data from VMS is used as evidence in the prosecution of many environmental laws and regulations including regional fishing quotas, the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSFCMA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), to name a few.

The system employs satellite and cellular-based communications from Enhanced Mobile Transceiver Units (EMTU), which are onboard transceiver devices that certain vessels must carry. The VMS program monitors over 4,000 vessels 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This number of vessels will increase during the contract period; potentially up to 7,000 vessels.

The NMFS OLE employs software to receive, store, and provide to users (via embedded graphical map display, graphical text display, or via export to common external data and GIS software formats) the location and electronic reports of those commercial fishing vessels that are required by laws and/or regulations to install and operate an EMTU on board their vessel. The software is used by OLE staff, the United States Coast Guard, State enforcement agencies, and other fisheries-related personnel, totaling over 2,000 users.

The Government anticipates award of a hybrid of Firm-Fixed-Price and Time-and-Materials contract.

Objectives

The government is seeking a contractor to provide system integration services to coordinate all products and services to support the OLE VMS program, including application services for timely and accurately displayed vessel positions and messages; VMS satellite communications services; VMS software support services; MTU hardware and software needs of the VMS Program, integration with other external, NOAA-maintained databases, and Type Approval Testing services. The VMS program will support the day-to-day vessel monitoring activities of law enforcement personnel, NOAA NMFS OCIO, US Coast Guard; Joint Enforcement Agreement State partners (JEA), NMFS General Counsel, NMFS Science Centers, and NMFS Regional Offices, to support both enforcement/compliance needs as well as data collection/management/scientific needs.

Tasks

The Contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to perform the required services as defined in the following tasks.

1. Administrative Support

A. The Contractor shall function as the single point of contact for all technical and administrative interfaces relating to the definition and accomplishment of the work described in this PWS.

B. The Contractor shall attend meetings related to the topics addressed in this PWS as requested by the Government. A summary of the meetings shall be provided by the contractor within (1) business day of the meeting.

C. The Contractor shall prepare briefings and white papers. The NOAA VMS Program Management Analyst shall also be prepared to accept, follow-up, and address system and data actions upon the COR’s request.

D. The Contractor shall provide planning, coordination, and operations support for this task to NOAA NMFS OLE headquarters and regional offices. The Contractor shall perform all work in coordination with the NOAA VMS Program’s Headquarters Program Manager (the Project Lead).

E. The Contractor shall establish and maintain effective communication and coordination with the COR on project status.

2. VMS Communication Services

A. Satellite and cellular communications accuracy and delivery of messages to include position reports, polling requests, electronic forms and e-mails shall be provided in strict compliance with 50 CFR Subpart Q, and in such a manner as to ensure that all VMS vendors are able to comply with those sections, the Government’s interpretation of such, any applicable section(s) of federal Fishery Management Plan(s), and any regulations subsequent to or that otherwise supersede current regulations.

B. Note: VMS vendors are the companies who have received and hold a type-approval from OLE to operate within the U.S. vessel monitoring system. Vendors will subcontract with the Contractor, and so will also be addressed as subcontractors in applicable circumstances.

C. OLE-Owned EMTUs and EMTU Test Unit Communication Support Services

● OLE requires secure communication services for all OLE-owned EMTUs and test units throughout the period of performance to which this PWS applies. This support includes:

1. Communication support and troubleshooting services;

2. All polling requests and monthly position reporting services for OLE-owned units.

● VMS communications and communications support services shall be charged by the Contractor to OLE on a monthly basis. Currently, there are approximately 270 OLE-owned units, and they primarily report position information once per hour.

D. Vessel Owner-Operated EMTUs Communication Support Services E. Throughout the performance, OLE will require communication services to and from vessel owner-operated EMTUs. This support includes:

F. Email and polling messages from OLE to onboard owner-operated EMTU.

G. Electronic forms, position report and e-mail messages from the onboard owner-operated

EMTU to OLE.

H. Additional VMS position reports that are Government-initiated and above the regular reporting frequency (regular frequency is the regulatory requirement for the fishery/permit, and is the responsibility of the vessel owner), include:

● Any OLE-initiated polling and position-rate increases in excess of the regular reporting frequency.

I. Communication support services shall be charged on a monthly basis as follows:

● Charged to OLE: Government-initiated position reports and e-mail messages.

● Charged to owner: Owner-initiated electronic forms, regular position reports https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-50/chapter-VI/part-600/subpart-Q?toc=1 and e-mail messages.

● All fleet-wide messages (i.e., messages requested by OLE to be sent to multiple vessels), and Government-initiated position report requests will be requested by OLE through the electronic ticket (work order) system, and are payable only when billed by the associated, unique Work ID number.

● As otherwise directed on a case-by-case basis for new or special billing requirements.

3. U.S. VMS-Related Materials and Services

Regulations governing VMS will be added, amended and modified, and/or augmented by Congress on a periodic basis. The VMS Program must comply with all regulations, which shall necessitate various forms of modifications and upgrades to EMTUs’ hardware, firmware and/or software; each of which impact regulated communication, reporting, polling services, and procedures. NOAA requires by this PWS, support in the coordination, facilitation and logistical implementation and compliance of EMTUs within the VMS Program at all times.

Support shall involve coordination of the EMTU type-approved vendor or manufacturer, type-approved communication service provider and / or the VMS surveillance software provider. All support services are initiated, and carried through to execution via the Work Order Process detailed in this section.

A. VMS Technical Support and Materials.

● Technical support shall include:

1. Resolution to work requests and help desk services that are within the scope of this PWS.

2. EMTU Test Units.

a. Coordinate, facilitate, and provide logistical means (installation, communications service support, etc.) to enable testing.

3. Existing Type-Approved EMTU software maintenance, modifications and upgrades.

a. Coordinate, facilitate, etc., with EMTU vendors to ensure execution of software, hardware and firmware modifications necessary to ensure that the VMS Program and all of its components are in compliance and compatible with all applicable Regulations, within the timeframe, and price of the Work Order, as quoted and negotiated by the parties.

b. No billable work will commence until the Contractor receives written confirmation from OLE that the quote has been accepted, and that work should commence.

c. If the effort required to bring a work request to full completion will require more than $2,000 worth of Contractor’s work, then the contractor will not commence billable work without notice to OLE of the estimated costs, or without written approval from OLE to begin the work. Work orders will be reimbursed as time-and-materials through CLINs for Operations and Enhancements.

d. In the event of an OLE required software upgrade for a fleet, the Contractor will coordinate the work of all VMS-participating vendors, and ensure that upgrades are fully implemented by the OLE-established due date.

4. Twenty-four hours per day, 7 days per week troubleshooting and other support related to the following:

a. EMTU manufacturer software, hardware, firmware.

b. Communication failures and concerns.

c. Data issues and concerns including quality, delivery and accuracy.

d. Vessel registration, tracking, visibility of VMS unit location.

e. Requests for vessel/owner/operator identification and information.

f. Unit, communications and system status and health.

g. Other VMS support, troubleshooting and information as requested by OLE.

h. Restoration of service following scheduled maintenance.

5. Hardware and materials

a. EMTUs

b. Cabling

c. Other materials and services necessary for the proper installation and operation of EMTUs

d. Associated shipping costs

● Adequate documentation, responses and response times.

1. OLE’s service and work requests (“work orders”) will be delivered to the

Contractor by an electronic ticketing system (currently, ServiceNOW), and each request will be assigned a unique ID number.

a. Contractor and subcontractors will, within five days of the execution of this Contract, supply OLE with their customer service contact information, including names, telephone numbers, email addresses.

b. Contractor and subcontractors shall work diligently with the OLE VMS Program Support staff to resolve work orders.

2. The Contractor is ultimately responsible for all work orders assigned to the VMS vendors who serve as their subcontractors.

a. The Contractor will ensure that OLE is promptly notified at least 7 calendar days in advance of all planned maintenance events, including VMS vendor and associated mobile communications services, that could cause a service disruption, and within 15 minutes of any unscheduled event that has caused a service disruption. The Contractor is expected to monitor all such scheduled and unscheduled events, ensure that Contractor- required services are restored, and communicate updates to OLE. Responses, communications and all substantive information relating to a particular work order shall be communicated and/or documented in the electronic ticketing system.

3. No billable work will commence until the work requested has been issued through the electronic ticket system, by OLE VMS Program Support Staff, and assigned a unique ID number.

4. Required response times vary by level of exigency.

a. The required response time for a work order is the maximum time allowed for the Contractor to respond to OLE via the electronic ticket system or, if it can be shown to be necessary, by telephone.

The time will begin tolling from the time indicated on the time-stamp of the initial notification email sent from the electronic ticketing system or from the time of telephone notification, which includes the time that a telephone message was left for the Contractor.

b. The level of exigency will be indicated in the work order and the associated response times will be as follows:

Level of exigency

Response Time

Received between 7:00 am to 11:00 pm Eastern Time Monday to Friday, excluding U.S. Federal holidays.

Received at any other time (i.e. weeknights, weekends, U.S. Federal holidays)

Emergency 2 hours 4 hours High 10 hours 24 hours Medium 24 hours 72 hours on weekends and holidays 24 hours on weekdays

Low 72 hours 72 hours

5. The Contractor will respond with the following:

a. Recommended resolution;

b. Plan to reach a resolution; Notice that a real and concentrated effort to resolve the work request is underway; Resolution ETA;

6. The Contractor will respond with the following:

a. The Contractor will provide immediate and continual support and work effort for all Emergency work orders, and all system outages and crashes, until such time as the system and its components are properly functioning and the work order is brought to full and complete resolution.

7. OLE shall provide all training required to operate in the electronic ticketing system. Knowledge of the ServiceNow ticketing system is preferable.

● Expert Witness testimony and litigation support (only when needed).

1. On rare occasions, the Contractor shall be requested to provide expert witness testimony and litigation support relating to the VMS Program as required by OLE, its investigators, General Counsel, an Administrative Law Judge or any Court of Law. NOAA will pay the approved cost of travel for any necessary Contractor employee to assist in any Federal administrative or judicial proceeding.

● Type-approval testing and documentation.

1. Type approval testing includes communications coverage testing, hardware durability and other physical testing, software and firmware testing, and integrity testing to ensure that the product cannot be spoofed or manipulated to produce inaccurate or false data or location information.

a. Type approval testing will be requested through the electronic ticket system and work order process.

b. A written analysis and recommendation will accompany each type-approval testing effort.

c. Each written analysis will include a matrix listing each type approval specification and its testing results.

● Simple analyses.

1. On occasion, the VMS Program will require the Contractor to perform analyses of global communications coverage, compilation of their sub-vendors’ capabilities, or other information gathering tasks.

B. Satellite and Cellular Surveillance Software and Systems Integration

● The Contractor shall provide satellite and cellular surveillance software to monitor all U.S. fishing vessels required to participate in the VMS Program, for use by over 2,500 users, and that adequately facilitates industry compliance with federal VMS requirements. Vessel position and other message data from the current system (vTrack) must be migrated to the quoted system

C. Specific Software Requirements:

● Basic

1. Product must be browser-based without the use of supporting software or platforms.

a. Product must not have a client computer software requirement.

b. Licensing mechanism must support a growing number of users

(currently at approximately 2,500 and projected to grow at 5% annually), and concurrent use must not be a licensing factor.

c. The system must maintain adequate performance1 with an average of 50 users during OLE’s business hours.

d. Product must be able to support communications protocols from multiple satellite and cellular communication providers. Must be compatible with replication process within the applicable relational database system

e. An indicator to the user when the system is processing information.

f. Receive and transmit information

g. Mobile Solution

i. The product shall be securely accessible from iOS and Android mobile devices as well as web browsers such as Chrome and Firefox.

ii. The product must be capable of integration with authorized databases and servers, including NMFS science centers and other third-party databases using RESTful APIs for new connections as well as database links (JDBC connections) for legacy connections.

● Features

1. Mapping

a. Detailed and comprehensive embedded global map coverage.

b. Boundaries including Exclusive Economic Zones, NAFO, and U.S.

territorial and state waters.

c. Capability of creating NMFS statistical areas, and U.S. Coast

Guard areas-of-responsibility.

d. Position and associated data (vessel name, date, time latitude, longitude, other attributes) should be able to be easily exported and viewed in:

i. Other mapping software, for example, Google Earth (.kml) and ArcGIS (.shp or “shape file”), .gpx.

ii. Excel and text format, including the export of ‘raw’ data

e. NOAA electronic chart (Electronic Navigation Charts and Raster

Navigation Charts) overlays with legends as an available mapping interface.

f. Scale information displayed at each zoom level.

g. Able to determine distance from point to point in nautical miles, meters, yards and/or feet.

h. City and port designations.

i. Turn on and off a latitude/longitude grid overlay.

j. Zoom in; Zoom out, Pan

k. Zoom and pan without re-downloading data

l. Grid display on/off for latitude and longitude

m. Capability to display position and cursor in decimal degree or degree-minutes format

2. Area shape files and geofences

a. Must have the capability to automatically increase reporting rate within a geofenced area (when compatible with the service provider).

b. Enter or upload new areas in shape file, coordinate format, and other geospatial file formats.

c. Allow for no fewer than six (6) customized colors for areas or groups of areas.

d. Area title on/off display and capability to move the title with cursor

e. Capability to enter multi-polygons

f. Capability to enter (create) lines and to select one or more lines for display

g. Capability to group areas by fishery for easier selection by user

h. Capability to add regulatory citation and effective dates for each area in a description field

i. Capability to include the user name and date when entering, editing or removing areas.

j. Capability to associate historic positions to newly created areas.

k. Capability to create text and email alerts for vessel activity in the defined area.

3. Electronic forms

a. The system must be capable of receiving and parsing different types and formats of electronic forms (eforms) sent by vessel operators, via EMTU software, to OLE. The parsed data reports are needed by GUI users and the data must be available to be queried and to be used in custom reports. It is the responsibility of the VMS’ subcontractors to provide forms in accordance with 50 CFR §600.1506 “Electronic Forms”. The VMS contractor is responsible for accepting, delivering, and properly parsing the forms data into the system; then, reports requirements for that data must be met.

b. Capability to alert users of forms that fail to be parsed.

c. Capability to allow users to query forms by type, vessel, permit, documentation number and date.

4. Must be capable of displaying the following mapping layers:

a. Location

b. Track

c. Positions

d. Manually-input positions

e. Ellipses2

5. Graphical User Interface (GUI)

a. Display position points and track lines of vessels.

b. Output position data in Microsoft Excel-compatible, and shape format.

c. Map and display position data to at least the same level of precision as required for type-approved EMTUs.

d. Capability to save customized menu options.

e. The last known position of a vessel is visually evident.

f. Overlay maps

g. Identify whether display is in UTC or user’s local time.

h. Provide for user viewing of up to five (5) divisional scenarios.

i. Display additional information in a “bubble” by clicking, opening or hovering over a data point. Capability to display and move labels while maintaining clear associations with VMS position reports at any zoom level. Additional information to include:

i. Vessel name

ii. Position in latitude/longitude

iii. Time of position report, with user-selectable time zone in local or UTC time

iv. Calculated average course and speed at displayed position point

v. Course and speed if provided by the EMTU

vi. Coast Guard Documentation or State Registration

vii. NMFS Federal Permit data, if available

viii. Declaration (with and without a date stamp for when it was received), if available

ix. Sector Membership, if available

x. Position status (as provided by the E-MTU)

xi. Capability for user to select yes/no and date(s) to NMFS observer deployed

j. User selected labels

i. User should be able to label any given position point with the information “bubble”

ii. User should be able to add free text to the label

iii. User should be able to save the labeled image and to print the labeled image.

k. User must be able to search by:

i. Vessel Name

ii. USCG Documentation or State Registration Number

iii. Static and dynamic Vessel Groups

iv. Area(s)

v. Speed (0, <3, 3-6, >6 knots)

vi. Transceiver Status

vii. Age (e.g. “not older than” etc.)

viii. Permit number/ID and Type

ix. VMS Vendor

x. Declared Activity

xi. Column Headers

xii. Keyword search using wildcard (%)

l. The following actions must be available to high-level users:

i. Immediate Position Update

ii. Change Reporting Rate

iii. Change Logging Rate

iv. Request Log Download

v. Send Message (VMS Technician level and above)

vi. Trip Generation start/stop and threshold parameters

m. User-defined color choices

n. Help Menu to include user and administrator manuals, and other

OLE documents which shall be added by authorized OLE personnel

o. Capability for users to customize their menu options by group.

6. Messages

a. Receive, process, display, query and store vessel position reports.

b. Receive, process, display, query and store electronic forms messages including activity declarations, catch, hail, pre-landing and other reports.

c. Send e-mail messages to vessels, including automated trip-start/trip-end notification emails with declaration and duration at sea) , automated messages when a vessel enters a geofenced area, user-initiated emails, and provide system notification when received at the vessel.

d. Receive and send pre-formatted North Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) messages to the NAFO Secretariat, and receive/store acknowledgments.

e. Maintain a log of all messages received and sent, and allow for message queries by authorized users.

f. Receive, respond to and store Canadian Transshipment vessel messages.

g. Canadian Transshipment free-text email messages are sent six hours prior to the expected time of entry in the U. S. EEZ from the vessel’s VMS unit.,. Example: The Canadian Herring Transshipment vessel email message must include the following information:

i. Name and call sign of the Canadian vessel

ii. Name of the vessel master

iii. Whether satellite phone or cell phone is on board and if so, provide the phone numbers

iv. Expected day and time of entry (GMT) into the U. S. EEZ

v. Destination(s) and timing (GMT) of all planned transshipments.

7. Reports and Data Queries

a. Provide for built-in and customized divisional reports (See Appendix A for examples), and data queries, to be added as needed.

b. Capability to save customized queries, and automated (e.g., “daily”) queries, and make query output web-accessible to authorized users.

c. Export reports to .pdf, .doc, Excel-compatible format.

d. Provide a log or documenting mechanism, by vessel, for documenting incoming and outgoing NMFS correspondence/contact. Authorized users should be able to query and view message correspondence in date order by individual vessel.

e. Non-Reporting (silent vessel) list which allows for region-specific data entry.

f. Vendor unit activations and deactivations by vessel.

g. Position ‘flyer’ report (flyers are erroneous GPS position reports that result in a data point outside the reasonable scope of possibility).

h. Allow for the identification of vessels based on SE Permit related dynamic group, e.g. vessels are or are not positioning, and/or do or do not have a Power down exemption.

i. Reports currently required (this list shall be expanded as regulations change):

i. Vessel information customized by Division

ii. SED Report examples include: Commercial Declarations, Gulf, HMS, S Atlantic, Caribbean; IFQ pre-landings, non- IFQ pre-landings, HMS Set Report, For Hire declaration, For Hire logbook)

iii. Silent Vessels

iv. FMC Out

v. NED and NWD View Declarations

vi. Hourly position data flow analysis (by date/vendor/fishery)

vii. Master Data Report

viii. Active flag status

ix. Missing data episodes

x. NED eforms by individual eform

xi. Division Population reports

xii. Vessels on NMFS-authorized VMS Power Down, including capability for users to enter Letter of Exemption information and run queries

xiii. Global AIS Positions from Unknown Vessels

xiv. Global AIS reports to support the North Atlantic Right

Whale speed restrictions in seasonal management areas

(SMA)

xv. Vessel Federal Permits, Vessel Trip Reports/Logbooks and Dealer Reports through user queries of external NOAA databases

8. System interoperability

a. Ingest data from other NMFS systems or databases, if needed

b. Ingest data from third party systems or databases, if needed and requested by the government

c. Integrate regional industry group membership (e.g., NED groundfish sector/common pool, etc.) databases, as required

d. Run and manage a trip generation program (refer to Appendix B).

e. Must have the ability to add other communications mechanisms

f. Must have the capability to show other spatial data from other systems, including Global AIS data, on the map, if needed.

g. Capable of sharing reports and/or data with approved external databases and servers.

h. Capable of receiving SE Permit Data and creating dynamic permit vessel groups from that data (one vessel may have more than one SE permit and be part of more than one dynamic permit vessel group). This permit data changes daily. The dynamic permit vessel groups must change too.

i. Capable of receiving data from Fishery Information Networks, and creating VMS logs and/or alerts based on that data.

9. Security

a. Must support secure transfer of data from the Land Earth Stations

/ Gateways

b. Must support secure, authorized discrete forwarding of data to third party systems (e.g. to NAFO VMS.).

10. Administration

a. Must have multiple user roles with customized rights/access to parts of the system

b. The federal government must be able to create new user roles, as needed (with or without contractor/subcontractor assistance)

c. The following administrative tasks must be accessible and managed or modified by local users or local administrator personnel, without contractor/subcontractor assistance:

i. Change password

ii. Polling vessels (single or group), including increased reporting/polling rates on a case by case basis

iii. Creating and administering email and text alerts

iv. Managing VMS logs

v. Manual position entry and labeling for registered VMS vessel as well as other vessels or objects (e.g., non-VMS vessels or foreign-flagged vessels, fixed fishing gear, etc.)

vi. Managing vessel data and documentation

vii. Manage individuals’ data

viii. Registering vessels in the system

ix. Maintaining an inbox (data received from e.g. LES)

x. Receiving and displaying positions (complete list of all position reports received)

xi. Maintaining an outbox (data sent to other systems)

xii. User management and documentation

xiii. Subscriber alert management

xiv. Creating and administering alert subscriptions

xv. Determining VMS Status (e.g. log files)

xvi. Data configuration within the application (general setup parameters; restricted areas; vessel groups; vessel permit3 data; vessel types; gear types; motor types;

activity types and species)

xvii. Must be able to modify transceiver reporting intervals (when compatible with the service provider)

xviii. Creating areas

xix. Entering VMS email addresses and vessel owner secondary (internet) addresses.

d. System must keep an error log accessible to administrator-users.

i. Erroneous data, flyers, incomplete reports, or otherwise erred data must be stored and accessible.

ii. Document known vendor data issues when data stalls or outages occur. If data backfills or not should also be documented. Users should be able to query this log by date and vendor. The permit filter must be configured by the VMS software provider to provide accurate and complete permit data to users in every region, specifically including vessels which have multiple alpha-numeric permits.

11. Alerts

a. The system must be configured to spread email communications across multiple email accounts in order to offset NOAA’s and email providers’ message thresholds (e.g. a 2,000 emails-per-day limit).

b. The system must be able to provide user-defined text or email alerts, by vessel or by other grouping, for the following:

i. Unit Status (when received by the system)

1. Power On

2. Power Off

3. Power Fail

4. Antenna Block

5. Antenna Disconnect

6. Failed to send position report

7. Other Unit Status indicators sent from the EMTUs

ii. Speed

1. Stationary

2. Low

3. High

4. Above Maximum Speed

iii. Area

1. Zone Entry

2. Zone Exit

3. Within Zone

iv. Activity Declaration

v. Trip Generator stop and start

vi. New eForm received

c. Alert filters for the following conditions must be available:

i. Date

ii. Vessel

iii. Group

iv. Area

v. Permit3

12. Support Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) requirements

a. Module for entering catch report data (daily, entry, exit) and other report data (e.g. observer reports, etc.) and automatically transmitting that data in required format to the Secretariat, NAFO.

b. See specification in Appendix C

D. Application Hosting

● The current VMS application is operated out of government-owned datacenter facilities with geographical redundancies in the East coast (Washington Metropolitan area) and West Coast (Seattle). NOAA OLE’s existing three-tier architecture includes technologies such as Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Database Enterprise Edition and IBM Cognos Business Intelligence.

● Recently, NMFS OCIO has established an operational and hosting presence in both the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). Both environments are FedRAMP approved, have received authority-to-operate from NOAA, and fall within the OLE security boundary. A wide range of services, including compute, storage, and database-as-a-service, are available in both platforms.

● Contractor shall quote a solution for hosting the system:

1. Contractor installs and maintains the application in either the GCP or OCI environments that have been established by NMFS OCIO.

a. Solution must have a development, test and production tier with access limited to appropriately credentialed users.

b. Solution must be highly available with load balancing capability across at least two locations.

c. Solution must allow transactional failover to alternate site within one hour of triggering event.

d. Capability to perform maintenance and/or upgrade on one site without disruption of production service.

2. Proactive monitoring of system availability and performance including notification to NOAA of any performance degradation. Performance degradation includes failure or delay in data load from Satellite providers as well as end-user application performance degradation.

3. Ability to perform reporting and data mining/analysis without impacting production data upload and application end-user system performance.

4. Minimal latency due to system performance (unrelated to NOAA network capacity).

5. Any changes to system shall follow NMFS OCIO change control process (see attached Appendix C)

6. All software must be compliant with applicable NIST IT security standards as well as NOAA and NMFS IT security guidelines which can be found on the NMFS and NOAA IT Security web sites (https://sites.google.com/a/noaa.gov/noaa-itsc/). Quotes shall detail how the contractor shall comply with Homeland Security Presidential Directive

– 12 (HSPD-12) requirements.

7. The Contractor must meet the Department of Commerce Enterprise Cybersecurity Policy (ECP)(found at https://connection.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/media/files/2022/do c_enterprise_cybersecurity_policy_1.1.pdf ). The contractor must also adhere to NOAA security policies (found at https://sites.google.com/noaa.gov/noaa-csd-rmf/home https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V4kjERem-RyQVP6xGG6v9t- KRbSx5zj7/view

8. Securely support data exchange efforts between VMS and other NOAA and non-NOAA entities that are allowed to access the data.

9. All software must be free of known software vulnerabilities and scanned for vulnerabilities and malware by the vendor on a regular basis.

10. Furnish appropriate IT security artifacts required by NMFS IT security for including the VMS as part of the NOAA4010 FISMA system.

11. 24x7x365 support for the software and troubleshooting.

12. Training of NOAA personnel on the technical administration of the system/software.

13. System operational availability shall meet or exceed 99.9% per month.

14. System shall be maintained to be compliant with relevant National

Archives and Records Administration records retention schedules.

D. Software Support and Maintenance

● For each year of this contract, OLE shall receive maintenance and support https://sites.google.com/a/noaa.gov/noaa-itsc/ https://connection.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/media/files/2022/doc_enterprise_cybersecurity_policy_1.1.pdf https://connection.commerce.gov/sites/default/files/media/files/2022/doc_enterprise_cybersecurity_policy_1.1.pdf https://sites.google.com/noaa.gov/noaa-csd-rmf/home https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V4kjERem-RyQVP6xGG6v9t-KRbSx5zj7/view agreement for the satellite surveillance software.

● Conduct annual on-site training with NOAA VMS Program Managers in a location in the CONUS determined by NOAA.

● In addition to the yearly support and maintenance agreement, Contractor shall also provide for the software:

1. Troubleshooting including monitoring and alerts to OLE regarding system outage, performance degradation, and any breach of data delivery thresholds;

2. Error corrections (and associated documentation);

3. Software updates and enhancements (and associated documentation);

4. Systems integration;

5. General technical support;

6. 24/7/365 availability;

7. Technical and training documentation;

8. Initial and recurring, remote training on the software, as required by OLE;

and

9. All related work requests shall be processed pursuant to the process and requirements outlined in section: B. Adequate documentation, responses and response times.

10. Annual meeting with NMFS OLE VMS user group in Silver Spring, MD or another mutually agreed upon CONUS location.

Up to quarterly (four times per year) virtual meetings with the NMFS OLE VMS user group, and up to quarterly separate virtual meetings with each of the five NMFS OLE Divisions.

Transition: Design, Development, Deployment, and Testing

● In addition to configuration of the application, transition efforts include a rollout/ product launch plan including training, outreach and support to ensure successful adoption of the new solution by all NOAA NMFS OLE stakeholders including 2500 VMS users, which are composed of sworn NMFS OLE agents, officers, US Coast Guard, State partners (JEA), NMFS General counsel, NMFS Science Centers and NMFS Sustainable Fisheries.

● The VMS system shall be implemented in four (4) or more phases using an iterative implementation approach that delivers functionality rapidly.

● Component/Phase 1 consists of the following: the configuration and implementation of an out of the box (OOTB) commercial off the shelf (COTs) vessel monitoring system product. The first objective is to provide the ability for OLE staff to perform monitoring vessels based on their user-roles.

● Component/Phase 2 consists of the following: the configuration and implementation of an end-user-optimized database environment into which OLE’s historical data shall be migrated and most efficiently and effectively accessed by various users. This shall include separation of active and / or recent data from older data and / or separation by user groups (enforcement, science, etc.), or other methods that will result in adequate operational performance at mission-critical end-user nodes.

● Component/Phase 3 consists of the following: configure a Days at Sea trip generator component, enable NAFO communication, configuring components for the collection and parsing of pre-landings, hail-outs, declarations, production of pre-defined and ad hoc report and the integration between NOAA NMFS OLE Vessel Monitoring System and other systems from a single user interface.

● Component/Phase 4 consisting of the following: operation, testing and troubleshooting of a fully integrated and configured Vessel Monitoring System for a three-month testing period.

F. Other Tasks and Deliverables, and Vendor Management

1. In order to efficiently clarify OLE’s requests for service, software-upgrades and other technical requests that are ultimately performed by the type-approved subcontractor/vendors, OLE needs to have direct communications with the subcontractor/vendors while including and/or copying the Contractor on the communications.

● OLE will only contact the subcontractor-vendor(s) regarding an existing work request with an assigned ID number, and only to clarify technical specifications of the work request.

● OLE will include Contractor on all written communication.

2. The type-approved VMS vendors currently include the following:

● FW Telematics

● MetOcean

● SkyMate

● Woods Hole Group

● Network Innovations

● AddValue

● Nautic Alert

● Faria

3. The Contractor shall secure contracts with all vendors who are currently type approved and those that become type-approved through the duration of this contract.

● (Type-approved vendors may be added or removed from the VMS Program in which case, accommodations shall be necessary and Contractor shall take all actions necessary to fully integrate new vendors and to facilitate the exit of retiring ones).

4. A consolidated monthly invoice that includes all services provided during the 30 days immediately preceding the end of the billing cycle.

5. All costs should be delineated out by vendor.

6. The following costs should be further delineated and identified in each vendor section of each monthly bill:

● Costs for OLE work requests.

1. All costs for work requests should identify the work request’s assigned ID number. No work request costs will be paid unless the unique ID number is identified.

2. Fleet wide messages should be identified and billed by assigned ID number as detailed here, and not under the regular communications costs.

7. Communications costs. Communications costs should be grouped by:

● Type of communication (regular position reporting, manual polling, email, etc.)

● Fleet wide messages should be identified and billed by assigned ID number, and not under the monthly communications bills (see section B.4).

8. Progress/Compliance

● For each deliverable that shall be put into document form, the contractor shall provide a .pdf electronic version.

● OLE requires the following from the contractor in order to monitor progress and ensure compliance:

1. Monthly Progress Report

2. Progress meetings to be called by OLE

3. Progress meetings to include management personnel for particular vendors and other NMFS personnel, as needed.

9. Transmittal/Delivery/Accessibility

10. Project Management

● The contractor is responsible for the ongoing planning, monitoring, controlling, and reporting of project performance across tasks within the scope of this PWS.

The contractor shall provide effective project management for all of the contracted services and product delivery. The contractor shall provide sufficient project management services to:

1. Ensure that all deliverables are produced according to the contract schedule.

2. Respond to reasonable inquiries about project status and risks in a timely manner.

3. Identify issues, risks, and alternative solutions and notify the NOAA NMFS Project Manager with sufficient time for the NOAA team to effectively address these matters.

● The contractor shall hold a Project Kick-Off Meeting with the NOAA Project Manager (PM) and appropriate project stakeholders, contract personnel, and subject matter experts. The contractor shall schedule the Kick-Off Meeting to be held within five (5) business days after contract award or as agreed upon between the NOAA team and contractor.

● Prepare Project Management Plan:

The contractor is required to develop a detailed project management plan for the requirements and deliverables in this PWS. The project management plan should reflect best practices in project management applied to the unique needs of the NOAA NMFS VMS project. The project management plan must include but the following elements:

1. Project organization, including structure, roles, responsibilities, and human resource management.

2. Project work breakdown structure and schedule, fully loaded with dependencies and resource requirements.

3. Approach to managing scope, budget, and schedule.

4. Approach to ensuring effective project communication.

5. Approach for identifying, evaluating, tracking, and resolving issues and risks; including roles, responsibilities, escalation process, and tools for reporting issues and risks to the NOAA project manager.

6. Approach to configuration management for reviewing, accepting, and maintaining version control on all project deliverables.

11. Produce a Written Monthly Status Report

1. Monthly Status Reports shall be submitted to the NOAA PM on the 16th of each month. They shall communicate status updates, including project cost to date, variance to plan, schedule, and risk monitoring.

2. Note: The vendor is required to use the NOAA Work Orders (WO) system, and no support or troubleshooting services or purchases are billable to NOAA (excludes eligible satellite communications costs) unless there is a valid WO number associated with the cost. The relevant WO numbers must be included in each invoice to NOAA.

3. The status report should comprise the following:

a. Updated project work plan, schedule, staff plan, and budget.

b. Report of project status and performance against all plans.

c. Progress against the project work plan completed in the reporting period.

d. Variance in schedule between actual and planned activities.

e. Planned activities for the subsequent reporting period.

f. Report of issues and issue resolution efforts and progress.

g. Report of risks and risk mitigation efforts and progress.

h. The contractor shall maintain a project collaboration site (project portal) on NOAA’s Google sites domain. The contractor shall post all relevant project materials such as; project plans, test results, requirement traceability report, gap analysis, code reviews, etc. to the project portal.

12. Conduct Bi-Monthly Status Meeting

1. In conjunction with monthly status reports, the contractor shall be required to attend regularly scheduled meetings with the NOAA OLE project team.

NOAA has established a Vessel Monitoring System Steering Committee to serve as the advisory group to work with the contractor on this project.

The contractor shall be required to provide an in-person updates to the NOAA PM regarding the status of the project.

2. Deliverable(s):

Deliverable Section

Name Due

4.J.1 Kick-Off Meeting 5 business days from date of award 4.J.2 Kick-Off Meeting 2 business days from date of Kick-Off

Minutes Meeting 4.J.3 Project Management

Plan 20 business days from date of award

4.J.4 Prepare Monthly Status Reports

16th of each month during the Period of Performance

3. Licensing

● The contractor shall quote a commercial off-the-shelf (COTs) VMS product configured to meet the requirements listed in this PWS.

● Deliverables(s):

Deliverable Name Due 4.K.1 Software licensing (Production) (FFP); for development, testing and production To Be Determined at award

4.K.2 Install Software in the Development environment

To Be Determined at award

4.K.3 Install Software in the Test environment To Be Determined at award

4.K.4 Install Software in the Production environment

To Be Determined at award

1. System Design, Configuration, and Construction

● Requirements in this category include all activities necessary to develop, assemble, and otherwise prepare the quoted VMS system for implementation.

The nature of the quoted system shall determine to some degree the activities necessary to complete this phase of work. However, it is anticipated that these activities will include, at a minimum:

● Prepare NOAA NMFS VMS Design, Configuration, and Construction Plan

1. The contractor shall be required to submit its plan for assembling the quoted components into a single system for deployment to NOAA NMFS OLE. The schedule and resources required for system design, configuration, and construction should be reflected in the project management plan. This plan must include, at a minimum:

a. Approach to design, configuration, and configuration/construction.

b. Design, configuration, and configuration/construction schedule.

c. Resources required from all participants (NOAA staff and contractor staff) for each step-in configuration/construction.

2. Conduct Requirements Gap Analysis

a. The contractor must (working with a representative group of subject matter experts [“SMEs”] selected by the NOAA team) conduct and complete business and technical analysis to determine the gaps between the needs of NOAA and what the quoted COTS system(s) provide. Major gaps that are identified must be accompanied by a plan for resolving each gap through system configuration, additional development, or additional component incorporation. This analysis must result in a detailed inventory of system customizations or other modifications required, to meet the needs of the NOAA NMFS OLE.

● Track Requirements to Implementation

1. Contractor shall collect, validate, and document detailed system and business requirements needed to configure the vessel monitoring system.

2. The contractor must provide a mechanism for tracking adherence to the requirements identified in this document as well as additional requirements identified in gap analysis and system design activities. This mechanism must support NOAA change management process, system testing and user acceptance testing. The contractor must populate, maintain, and provide the NOAA team with access on demand to this tool and the information it maintains.

3. Contractor shall collect requirements from the following roles of users listed below:

a. NMFS OLE Project Manager

b. NMFS OCIO Infrastructure Manager

c. NMFS OCIO Database Administrator

d. NMFS OLE Executive Leadership (1)

e. NMFS OLE VMS Program Manager (5)

f. NMFS OLE VMS Technician (5)

g. NMFS OLE Assistant Director (aka “SAC”) NMFS OLE VMS

OCIO Helpdesk staff (1)

h. Information Technology Security

● Design a NOAA VMS for NOAA fisheries vessel monitoring activities

1. The contractor must provide functional and technical design documentation for the NOAA VMS along with the libraries, tools, and facilities to maintain this documentation. All documentation must follow the NOAA NMFS Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) configuration management process and Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). The documentation artifacts should include:

a. Detailed Business Requirements

b. Requirements Traceability Matrix

c. Configuration Management Plan

d. Functional & Technical Design

e. System Test Plan & Procedures (inclusive of Test Cases &

Scripts)

f. User Acceptance Kick-Off Presentation and Test Results

g. User & Operations Guide

h. Training Plan & Procedures

i. Application Deployment Plan

j. System Maintenance Plan

k. Data dictionary

l. Information Exchange Packet documentation

m. Network design, inventory, protocols, and configuration

n. Security design including artifacts to be included in system security plan. The VMS system will be part of an existing NOAA FISMA system.

● Perform System Testing

1. Contractor shall configure and release the product in an iterative manner that will result in functionality being available to the field at a rapid pace.

The contractor must plan for deployment of the solution in all three environments (Development, Testing, and Production).

2. Testing of individual components shall be performed prior to full system assembly. However, the contractor must provide a testable full version of the system prior to moving to implementation. The system testing deliverable must include:

a. Test plans-System test plan, User Acceptance test plan, and Integration test plan.

b. Testing of all software prior to release into NOAA environment.

c. Automated test scripts, test data, and other testing tools/materials.

d. Load testing to test for response time requirements.

e. Documented test results, to be provided to the NOAA VMS project manager.

f. This deliverable must provide NOAA with licenses and training to efficiently test new iterative releases and deployments of the NOAA NMFS VMS and its interaction with other similar applications.

● Deliverable(s):

4.L.1 Prepare NOAA NMFS VMS Design, Configuration, and Construction Plan TBD business days from date of award

4.L.2 Prepare Requirements Gap Analysis report

To Be Determined at award

4.L.3 Prepare functional and technical design documentation

To Be Determined at award

4.L.4 Create a Test plan for Phases I and II To Be Determined at award 4.L.5 Prepare System Testing report To Be Determined at award 4.L.6 Documented user Acceptance Test report To Be Determined at award

● System Delivery

1. The contractor shall deliver product releases that have passed all testing cycles in the development and test environments including user acceptance testing, to the OCIO operations team for deployment into the production environment.

2. Iterative release of VMS software

a. The NOAA NMFS VMS will be based upon stated requirements and analysis as stated in section 8.

b. As a result of the planning process, the contractor shall compose different release increments out of the given set of NOAA NMFS OLE requirements. The contractor shall work with NOAA OLE to prioritize requirements to develop a release schedule.

c. These increments will be planned up-front by the project team…