140G0119R0018_amendment_P0001_-_Revised_Sections_B_through_M.doc

Request for Proposal Document No.

140G0119R0018 amendment P0001 Document Title

Multiple-award IDIQ Contracts for the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) Support for Geospatial Platform Shared Services

SECTION B – SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

B.1 IDIQ Contracts Ceiling and Limitations The Government has set a combined ceiling of $30,000,000 for the resulting multiple-award Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contracts. The sum of all orders placed under the resulting multiple-award IDIQ contracts shall not exceed $30,000,000.

The overall minimum guarantee for the life (5 years) of each awarded IDIQ contract is: $25,000 total (This minimum is guaranteed)

The overall combined maximum for all orders issued under the resulting IDIQ contracts is: $30,000,000

The minimum amount for an order against an IDIQ contract is: $2,500 The maximum amount for an order against an IDIQ contract is: $10,000,000

B.2 Prices Labor Categories, Labor Rates, and Firm-fixed Pricing for Task Order 1 and 2

Burdened Labor Rates and Categories for all Key Personnel and staff which could potentially perform work under the Master Statement of Work:

Months 1 through 12 Fixed

Burdened Hourly Rate:

Months 13 through 24 Fixed Burdened Hourly Rate:

Months 25 through 36

Burdened

Hourly Rate:

Months 49 through 60

Instructions: Offerors shall propose labor categories, and firm-fixed loaded/burdened labor rates and a cost breakdown of the proposed loaded/burdened rates, for all Key Personnel and staff that could potentially perform work under a resulting IDIQ contract and/or Task Orders for the base 12 months and all subsequent months in 12-month increment periods per the chart above. Failure to provide a cost breakdown of the proposed fixed burdened rates could result in the offeror being determined as non-conforming to solicitation instructions and could result in the offeror being automatically eliminated from the competition, further evaluation or consideration for award.

Note: The approved loaded fixed rates incorporated into any resulting IDIQ contract will be used for Task Orders issued. The loaded fixed rates used for Task Orders will be the ones proposed for that 12-month window at the time the Task Order is issued. For examples, if an offeror proposes a loaded fixed rate of $45 for their Project Manager for months 13 through 24, this is the rate that will be used for this labor category for any Task Orders issued during months 13 through 24. The rates applicable at the time the Task Order is issued will be the rates used throughout the life of that Task Order, unless options periods are included within the Task Order in which those Task Order option period should reflect the appropriate labor category rates for that 12-month period.

The Government has determined services under this solicitation and/or resulting award are considered professional services where the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and/or a DOL wage determination/decision is not applicable. If any offeror has any FLSA applicable labor categories they intend to propose for work to be performed under a resulting IDIQ contract, they are to notify the USGS Contracting Officer during the questions and answers process and the Request for Proposal (RFP) will be amended accordingly.

Firm-fixed prices for the sample Task Orders:

Task Order 1 – Technical Support Services:

Base Year - Technical Support Services Period of Performance: September 19, 2019 through September 18, 2020 Phase-in/transition-in services will be performed and fully carried out from, September 19, 2019 through October 18, 2019. The offeror’s firm-fixed price cost breakdown shall properly reflect the actual cost/price for transition services during the first month from September 19, 2019 through October 18, 2019.

Option Year 1 - Technical Support Services

Period of Performance: September 19, 2020 through September 18, 2021

Option Year 2 - Technical Support Services

Period of Performance: September 19, 2021 through September 18, 2022

Option Year 3 - Technical Support Services

Period of Performance: September 19, 2022 through September 18, 2023

Option Year 4 - Technical Support Services

Period of Performance: September 19, 2023 through September 18, 2024

NOTE: Offerors shall provide a cost breakdown of the Task Order’s firm-fixed price in their pricing proposal (Volume II). Phase-in/transition-in services will be performed and fully carried out from, September 19, 2019 through October 18, 2019. The offeror’s firm-fixed price cost breakdown shall properly reflect the actual cost/price for transition services during the first month from September 19, 2019 through October 18, 2019. Failure to provide a cost breakdown of the proposed firm-fixed prices could resulting in the offeror being determined as non-conforming to solicitation instructions and could result in the offeror being automatically eliminated from the competition, further evaluation or consideration for award.

Task Order 2 – Portfolio Management Support Services:

Base Year - Portfolio Management Support Services Period of Performance: September 19, 2019 through September 18, 2020 Phase-in/transition-in services will be performed and fully carried out from, September 19, 2019 through October 18, 2019. The offeror’s firm-fixed price cost breakdown shall properly reflect the actual cost/price for transition services during the first month from September 19, 2019 through October 18, 2019.

Option Year 1 - Portfolio Management Support Services

Period of Performance: September 19, 2020 through September 18, 2021

Option Year 2 - Portfolio Management Support Services

Period of Performance: September 19, 2021 through September 18, 2022

Option Year 3 - Portfolio Management Support Services

Period of Performance: September 19, 2022 through September 18, 2023

Option Year 4 - Portfolio Management Support Services

Period of Performance: September 19, 2023 through September 18, 2024

NOTE: Offerors shall provide a cost breakdown of the Task Order’s firm-fixed price in their pricing proposal (Volume II). Phase-in/transition-in services will be performed and fully carried out from, September 19, 2019 through October 18, 2019. The offeror’s firm-fixed price cost breakdown shall properly reflect the actual cost/price for transition services during the first month from September 19, 2019 through October 18, 2019. Failure to provide a cost breakdown of the proposed firm-fixed prices could result in the offeror being determined as non-conforming to solicitation instructions and could result in the offeror being automatically eliminated from the competition, further evaluation or consideration for award.

(END OF SECTION B)

SECTION C -- Descriptions and Specifications – STATEMENT OF WORK Multiple-award Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contractor for the

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC)

Support for Geospatial Platform Shared Services

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) provides government-wide policy and guidance aimed at implementing technology-enabled capabilities for the development, management, search, integration, display and analysis as well as the archiving of geospatially referenced data assets and products (maps). The Geospatial Data Act of 2018 and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-16 establishes the FGDC as the coordinating body for Federal geospatial activities and it is in this capacity that this interagency body will lead efforts to synchronize related activities across agencies and throughout the geospatial community. The Department of Interior (DOI) serves as the managing partner for the Geospatial Platform Shared Services investments. The FGDC is co-chaired by the Department of the Interior (DOI) and is supported in contract execution for these activities by the FGDC Office of the Secretariat (FGDC OS), hosted within the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Core Science Systems mission area.

For the purposes of this Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract, the technical support required is outlined in the general service areas described below. This requirement is for multiple-award IDIQ contracts where the contractor will be required to not only work with agency partners, but also with other IDIQ contract holders in the delivery of the tasks/deliverables specified at the Task Order level. Firm-Fixed Price Performance-Based task orders covering geospatial information technology and related services issued under this contract will specify the nature of the work, the end products, the desired results of work performed, deliverables, milestone schedule, phases, and metrics to be used to evaluate successful performance.

It is the intention of the FGDC that this contracting vehicle will be utilized to develop tasks through coordination of the FGDC member agencies for work related to furthering Federal objectives for creation, management, and delivery of geospatial data, technology, and services available through the Geospatial Platform and Geospatial Data Act implementation activities.

2.0 OBJECTIVES

Key objectives associated with this activity are to:

· Provide the technology and organizational framework necessary to support missions and Administration priorities with timely and accurate geospatial data, geospatial services, geospatial search and spatial analytical capabilities;

· Implement the Geospatial Data Act of 2018 (GDA);

· Maintain, operate, and provide access to the Federal GeoPlatform at the FISMA Moderate level using a combination of Commercial-Off-The Shelf (COTS) and open source GIS technology solutions. (Note the GeoPlatform is hosted on AWS through a task order on the DOI FCHS contract);

· Provide development, operations, and maintenance support for the federal GeoPlatform that provides access to centrally accessed, remotely managed, common geospatial data, services, applications, and infrastructure and online geospatial and data collaboration tools;

· Assist in ensuring existing geospatial infrastructure is utilized most effectively and efficiently;

· Promote sustainable governance and collaboration by promoting the sharing of geospatial assets, products and services and engaging and supporting communities across stakeholders;

· Enhance interoperability for data, services and/or systems;

· Ensure accountability and transparency of geospatial and related investments through portfolio management;

· Attain cost savings and economies of scale through collaborative acquisition, development, and management of geospatial assets;

· Support and implement standards and processes that establish data quality and information assurance as criteria for data assets; and

· Enhance usability and adoption of the Geospatial Platform through partner engagement, outreach, provision of user guides, training, education and tutorials.

Accomplishment of these objectives is expected to require in-depth knowledge and expertise in all areas of requirements elicitation, platform, application and services design and development, documentation, implementation, maintenance, management to ensure that requirements are met and deliverable products comply with task order specifications, data management, metrics development and reporting, high-level communication skills, and community support.

3.0. SCOPE OF WORK

The scope of this effort includes services necessary to provide a full range of application, platform and service design, development, and maintenance support, as well as related operational support. This effort will focus on enabling users to search, discover, fuse and use geospatial data products and services to meet complex mission requirements across multiple organizations. These missions include both business and scientific (mission) processes and requirements. All services provided and products delivered must comply with the Government security, Section 508 and FISMA requirement at the moderate level.

Specifically, the overarching scope of work includes:

· Cloud-based platform development, operations and maintenance

· Developing and maintaining Open Application Programing Interfaces (OpenAPI) in accordance with the OpenAPI specification. https://github.com/OAI/OpenAPI-Specification

· Potentially migrating the GeoPlatform from one commercial cloud vendor to another

· Web site development and documentation

· Applications development, integration, documentation, and maintenance

· Web services development, documentation, and maintenance

· Support for cloud-based hosting environments

· Support for architecture planning

· Support for operations and security

· Support for users/help desk

· Support for portfolio, data, and metadata management

· Support for geospatial analysis and analytics

· Support for development and management of dynamic event driven user communities

· Support for program and project management

· Support for governance and coordination

· Support for training and education

· Support for an engagement team to work with agencies and partners on GeoPlatform capabilities, requirements and utilization.

3.1 CONTRACT REQUIREMENTS

The goal of this effort is to obtain contract support for ongoing maintenance and development efforts of the GeoPlatform as well as new efforts described within this Statement of Work (SOW) and elaborated within the included task orders and task orders that will be issued in the future. This requirement is for multiple-award IDIQ contracts where the contractor will be required to not only work with agency partners, but also with other IDIQ contract holders in the delivery of the tasks/deliverables specified at the Task Order level.

The contractor shall have the capability to perform all of the technical activities required for the successful and timely completion of highly complex and unique tasks involving the management and information technology areas of focus described herein. The contractor shall be capable of performing successful contract management on a contract of this size and complexity. The contractor shall be capable of collaborating successfully with geographically dispersed project teams and synchronizing activities across multiple task orders and contractor teams. The contractor shall have demonstrated experience designing and implementing open source interoperable semantically enabled platforms conformant with Open Geospatial Consortium and W3C standards in secure cloud environments. The contractor shall have demonstrated experience implementing a software platform that seamlessly and securely integrates COTS products with open source technologies. The contractor shall manage, collaborate and adapt Agile, and similar iterative software development methodologies for best fit to project scope, scale and personnel. The contractor shall have experience and capability in information, application, platform, cloud and network security architectures and implementation. The contractor shall have experience in migrating a platform from one cloud hosting platform to another successfully with a minimum of impact to the users. The contractor shall have the capability to interact with end users to assist them in identifying and specifying requirements. The contractor shall be capable of supporting the data management and portfolio management processes including characterization of data maturity and quality and integrated reporting.

In accordance with this contract and this requirement, the contract is for multiple-award IDIQ contracts where the contractor will be required to not only work with agency partners and support teams, but also with other IDIQ contract holders in the delivery of the tasks/deliverables specified at the Task Order level. For task Orders issued under this contract, the Contractor shall, independently and not as an agent of the Government, furnish all the necessary qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities, not otherwise provided by the Government.

3.2 CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

No separate task order shall be issued for the contractor’s program management and administrative functions; these costs must be included in the negotiated price of each task order. The Contractor shall provide technical program and project management, staff supervision, and administrative support to fulfill the requirements of this contract. The contractor is responsible to manage, direct, supervise, organize and coordinate all Contractor technical support activities. Accurate performance and financial reports and invoices regarding performance on this contract are required. The contractor shall also provide any other reports, documentation, and deliverables as required by contract task orders.

3.3 EXAMPLES OF TYPES OF SKILLS REQUIRED

In order to support this requirement, the Government seeks sophisticated information technology systems and related support services. The following section of the SOW describes the general requirements and tasks that shall be required and accomplished to meet these requirements. Further specific details of these requirements will be established and defined at the Task Order level.

The types of information technology services needed may include development of applications, web services, Open Application Interfaces (APIs), platform, system/hosting environment administration, technical applications engineering, design, administration and programming, specialized platform development/design, specialized help desk functions, geospatial expertise, end user support services, and development and deployment of mobile applications.

The contractor shall have demonstrated experience and provide support staff meeting the following requirements:

· Knowledge of business processes including budgeting and personnel management;

· Proven experience developing and managing complex software systems and software platforms utilizing Rapid Application Development (RAD) and Agile methodologies and modified versions thereof;

· Demonstrated experience in designing, architecting, developing and delivering interoperable platform as a service (PaaS) as well as managing a cloud-based Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) with a security posture at FISMA Moderate or higher;

· Demonstrated experience developing and maintaining semantic grounded registries and semantically enabled geospatial search;

· Demonstrated experience developing and maintaining APIs;

· Demonstrated experience with geospatial data and application development including utilizing cloud computing and mobile technologies;

· Demonstrated experience in conducting requirements gathering sessions and workshops;

· Demonstrated experience in web and platform technologies including HTML, XML/XSL, Jason, JDBC, JNDI, LDAP, JavaScript, Java EJBs/applets/servlets, CKAN, Wordpress, Esri APIs, OpenLayers, Open Geospatial Consortium Web Services; HAL and Hateoas;

· Demonstrated experience in developing interoperable solutions based upon W3C, ISO, Open Geospatial Consortium, Federal, industry, and other standards;

· Demonstrated experience in usability assessment;

· Demonstrated experience with machine-readability approaches and solutions;

· Demonstrated ability to work and effectively coordinate with multiple agencies and contractors;

· Demonstrated experience defining and implementing business processes and supporting their execution through the integration of technical online solutions, including the use of geospatial tools;

· Demonstrated experience developing, working with and utilizing data and services metadata and data cataloging standards and technologies;

· Experience in understanding Section 508 regulations and compliance of these regulations in support of the design of and development of web-based applications;

· Knowledge of Enterprise Architecture (EA), Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Web Oriented Architecture (WOA) and Cloud and Container oriented architectures;

· Knowledge of spatial data management, data quality, and data portfolio management;

· Knowledge of OMB Circular A-16 and the A-16 Supplemental Guidance;

· Experience in community support including design and implementation of marketplace capabilities, outreach, collaboration, and requirements development support;

· Experience with developing user guides and tutorials; and

· Experience in working with agencies and business functions that utilize geospatial capabilities to identify business processes that align with service offerings.

All services provided and products delivered must comply with the Government security, Section 508 and architecture requirements.

3.4 EXAMPLES OF TYPES OF SERVICES REQUIRED

Task orders will be issued to provide and define specific requirements. However, the Government anticipates the following types of work may be required and requested:

3.4(a) Website Development and Documentation Task orders may require the design, development and maintenance of web sites including user interface design and customization, and collection, tracking and reporting of usage statistics. Skills and knowledge may include, but not be limited to, Wordpress/Open Source CMS, Apache, Tomcat, AJAX, Java, JSP/FSF, PERL, PHP, GIS, OpenLayers, javascript, Visual Basic.net, web services, XML, HTML, CSS, CKAN, and MySQL. Sites also may be developed on-the-fly using APIs associated with existing systems including Esri ArcGIS Online for Organizations, OGC Web Services, Rest based services and SAML 2.0 authentication systems.

3.4(b) Platform and Applications Development, Documentation, and Maintenance Task orders may require applications and platform development expertise and require contractor staff to support the entire life cycle development process from requirements identification to design to coding, testing and implementation to maintenance and technical support. For such task orders, the contractor will prepare application-level documentation; write code, system, and user level test plans, develop/acquire data to test code implementation, and assist in managing changes. The contractor will be required to demonstrate experience with cloud native software development practices that aim to shorten the systems development life cycle while delivering features, fixes, and updates frequently in close alignment with business objectives. The contractor may be required to recommend file organization, indexing methods and security procedures for specific user applications. Applications development tasks may require knowledge of integration standards, architecture, OGC Web Services, REST services javascript, Python, HTML, postgresSQL/postgis, MySQL, MongoDB and Elastic.

Task orders also may specifically require the contractor to develop and administer data management or portfolio management applications software and associated tools; plan, develop, implement, and administer applications and services for the acquisition, quality control and management of data, and ensure reliable data retrieval. The contractor may be required to track and measure platform usage as well as measuring the usage of services and applications within the platform.

The contractor may be asked to advise on software technology and database or application design as it relates to projects; design enhancements to databases, applications, and services and to provide support and coordination in loading, configuring, operating, maintaining, optimizing, and upgrading supporting software/infrastructure.

Some task orders will require a high level of expertise in interacting with geospatial information systems in both open source (OpenGeo Enterprise Suite) and Esri environments. The contractor may also be required to provide tools to assist users in visualizing data and analyzing data, as well as creating data mashups resulting in reliable, embeddable visualizations. Visualizations and modeling support are anticipated to include graphical interfaces for the presentation of multi-dimensional data (spatio-temporal), the integration or fusion of multiple data sources into new data sets, and exploration of tabular information as exploratory graphs.

3.4(c) Geospatial Semantic Search Some task orders will require a high level of expertise developing, executing and managing the infrastructure necessary to enable geospatial semantic search capabilities. The contractor may be asked to develop and maintain mission specific ontologies, taxonomies and vocabularies as well as capabilities to semantically mediate concepts that appear in more than one formal ontology. Some tasks may require experience using and tuning natural language processing algorithms to populate and maintain the registries.

3.4(d) Web Services Development, Documentation, and Maintenance Task orders may require the development of Representational State Transfer (REST) web services to access, search and retrieve information from external data systems and web-based applications. Developers may be required to establish workflows chaining web services together while maintaining end security via SAML 2.0 and Oauth. This may include developing various services, crawlers or employing other harvesting mechanisms. It may be necessary to manage, maintain designs and develop schemas and other documentation. The contractor may also be required to design and write Java applications that provide web service interfaces to be used in other applications or systems.

3.4(e) Support for Cloud-based Hosting Environment The Government anticipates that some task orders will involve coordination with systems, applications, services and content that are hosted in a cloud-based environment, and/or the instantiation of a cloud-based environment for newly developed items. Cloud hosting and related services shall be furnished by the Government through a separate acquisition vehicle.

As such, the contractor may be required to support a FISMA Moderate cloud-based hosting environment for an entire platform, for selected applications, or for storage and retrieval of data and other content. The contractor may be required to support the monitoring, maintenance, backup and recovery of data and services in a cloud-based environment. The contractor may also be required to support, either directly or through development of applications and services, mechanisms to assist users in storing data and other content in the cloud-based environment, as well as retrieving data, including through customized data extraction routines and search/discovery interfaces.

Task orders may require the contractor to support the migration of the GeoPlatform from one cloud environment to another cloud vendor.

Task orders may also require the contractor to evaluate, test, and create procedures for implementation and maintenance of selected backup software. Responsibilities may include the requirement to monitor and ensure that backups are occurring properly, the backup system is tested regularly, and a restore process is in place and tested at specified intervals.

Contractors will need to be familiar with Federal information security, ADA (Section 508), and privacy regulations and have sufficient experience to ensure secure implementation in commercial and government cloud services, assisting the Government in fulfillment of FISMA and FedRAMP compliance.

3.4(f) Support for Architecture Planning Task orders may require the contractor to provide system architecture planning services. These may include architectural and technical oversight engagement activities including long- and short-term participation with application development teams providing full system development life cycle (SDLC) support, developer tool support, mentoring, and architectural design and implementation support with consideration for application performance.

Potential architecture-related task orders could require the contractor to provide consulting and support services to assist in establishing, documenting, maintaining, and maturing an architecture planning process that complies with Federal and agency guidance. The contractor may be asked to provide enterprise or system level architecture thought leadership and technical implementation expertise in the design, development, and governance of Service-Oriented Architectures, Web-Oriented Architectures, and Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing Architectures for a large public institution. This may include:

· identifying, documenting, recommending, supporting, and implementing full value from EA automated tools;

· providing subject matter expertise to ensure products meet enterprise technology standards for conducting, sustaining, and adapting to the business mission;

· drafting, coordinating, maintaining and supporting initial versions of segment architectures for core business and enterprise services, such as records management, workflow and tracking, business intelligence, enterprise resource planning (ERP), Cloud Computing, and Web 2.0.

For some task orders, contractors may be asked to work with agency Chief Architects and other senior IT Program Managers to:

· identify, document, and prioritize candidate business and enterprise services segment architectures;

· identify and recommend industry best practices, and where feasible, collect existing information on the selected enterprise services segments through documentation reviews, interviews, as well as the knowledge gained by the Contractor during the portfolio analysis process.

3.4(g) Support for Operations and Security Task orders may require the contractor to establish, configure, implement, and manage both production and public facing servers, in a commercial cloud vendor’s environment. The contractor may be required to maintain an existing configuration or migrate from one hosting environment to another. Tasks in this area may include providing for regular or continuous backups or hot sites, or mirrors, and may include contingency planning for recovery following a catastrophic system failure.

The contractor may be required to manage software licenses, manage hardware and software components, install new software and software upgrades, install operating system patches, manage user accounts, and monitor storage subsystems, establish and maintain system documentation including hardware and software diagrams and configurations, data dictionaries, standard operating procedures (e.g., for installation, disaster recovery, etc.), user guides, scripts, and code repositories.

Task orders also may require the contractor to evaluate, test, and create procedures for implementation and maintenance of selected backup software. Responsibilities may include the requirement to monitor and ensure that backups are occurring properly, the backup system is tested regularly, and a restore process is in place and tested at specified intervals.

Task orders may require monitoring of critical computer systems for availability, intrusion detection, and operating system performance; researching and developing security specifications; designing, building, and implementing firewalls; participating in security audits; updating security documentation related to Assessment and Accreditation; and reviewing vulnerabilities and providing recommendations and support to close outstanding Plans of Action and Milestones (POA&Ms). The contractor also will conduct or participate in USGS-mandatory annual contingency planning including: participation in training on their contingency roles and responsibilities with respect to the information system, and participate in “tabletop” exercises of the contingency plan for the information system using functional exercises for moderate impact systems.

The contractor may be required to test upgrades and new products as they become available and ensure that systems are patched and kept to the current releases to prevent vulnerabilities.

3.4(h) Support for Users/Help Desk Task orders may require the contractor to provide customer assistance for help requests or information. Such assistance may include end-user technical support for specific applications or functions; requests from other organizations for help in creating interoperability between systems; developing user guides and tutorials for use and access to the Geospatial Platform; or requests for assistance in reconciling data problems. The contractor may be required to establish standard operating procedures including those for guiding support staff in triaging requests for help to appropriate resources.

Task orders may require troubleshooting and diagnosis of problems in, Windows, Linux, Mac-OS, and Cloud environments and require support for both hardware and software for geospatial application clients and servers.

The contractor may be required to introduce new tools and methodologies directly to users and determine training needs in order to enhance development and improve business as well as system processes. The contractor also may be called upon to conduct training through web-based, workshops, and other methods.

The contractor may be required to develop online user videos and tutorials to educate users on the platform capabilities and processes. In addition, the contractor may be required to host interactive web sessions to train and educate users of the platform or other geospatial services.

The contractor may be required to field an Engagement Team to work with various agencies and partners. This team would assist them in understanding methods for applying geospatial capabilities to their business processes, and how they can leverage and align their processes with existing service offerings.

3.4(i) Support for Geospatial and Imagery Analysis Task orders may require the contractor to conduct complex geospatial analysis integrating national, regional and local data to answer mission driven analysis. These analyses must be well documented and be able to be reproduced by third parties. The analyses may include the production of online maps, charts and other graphics, standards-compliant metadata, and involve a combination of both structured and unstructured data.

3.4(j) Support for Portfolio, Data and Metadata Management Task orders may require the contractor to:

· support the promulgation and implementation of data and metadata standards to improve data integration capabilities; coordinate the, development, and preparation of data and metadata;

· update existing metadata records and add new records; update/augment metadata records with new data elements to reflect the evolution of standards;

· provide training and documentation on metadata and data creation and management; coordinate data extraction, validation, and ingestion;

· coordinate the loading, configuration, operation, maintenance, optimization, and upgrading of supporting software; and

· coordinate systems, networks, facility, and security requirements.

· support in translating metadata between standards such as the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) metadata and ISO 19115.

Task orders may require the contractor to support the development and management of a geospatial portfolio (e.g., data, applications, services) and related information from multiple sources, providing tools for data and service assessment and management, and assisting in the development of processes to ensure a high level of interoperability. This may be a complex challenge since data may come from multiple sources and may include a variety of formats including visual (maps), tabular, or textual or other. As key drivers for Federal geospatial portfolio management, contractor familiarity with OMB Circular A-16 and the A-16 Supplemental Guidance (http://www.fgdc.gov/policyandplanning) and the Geospatial Data Act of 2018 is required.

Task orders may require the contractor to assist in the data assessment and management process, providing subject matter expertise for evaluating the maturity of data sets, web services, quality control, and recommendations for data re-use.

Task orders may require the contractor to develop, maintain and integrate ontologies, taxonomies and controlled vocabularies to support enhanced semantic and geospatial search approaches and the technologies that support them (RDF, Turtle, and OWL).

Task orders may require the contractor to virtually integrate complex search across multiple data and image catalogs through APIs and other innovative approaches for catalogs that have high rates of data change per day.

3.4(k) Support for User Communities Task orders may require the contractor to assess and recommend information technology and data management best practices for specific purposes, perform analyses, and assist in defining user-specified functional requirements as they relate to data management, applications, and services. The contractor may plan, design, and implement corrections and enhancements to data management processes and tools, applications and services and ensure functional continuity across releases. Task orders may require community management and operations support.

Task orders may require the contractor to support a collaborative end-user environment, providing tools to support communities in uploading, retrieving, assessing, and re-using data; maintaining summary-level statistics and metrics; and other community-requested functions. These tools typically will be off-the-shelf and/or Open Source based.

Task orders may require development and deployment of capabilities designed for use and management by authorized users after deployment, e.g. self-managed online communities.

The contractor may develop tools aimed at providing efficiencies across organizations by connecting users with common or similar requirements.

The contractor may be required to introduce and evaluate processes and tools directly with users and determine training needs in order to enhance user understanding. The contractor also may be called upon to conduct training as noted in previously related potential Task Orders.

3.4(l) Capital Planning and Reporting Task orders may require the contractor to provide programmatic support and management consultancy. This may require the contractor to develop documentation, processes, and supporting systems to ensure applications, databases, systems, services, and efforts are properly defined and fully scoped, and are executed on schedule and within budget. Project management support may include support for the Capital Planning and Investment Control process, including the ongoing calculation and reporting of earned value metrics and the development and maintenance of required artifacts such as analyses of alternatives, cost-benefit analyses, risk management plans and registers, and operational analyses.

The contractor may be required to have expertise in project management software such as MS Project, eCPIC, or others.

3.4(m) Support for Governance Coordination via Strategic Planning Task orders may require the contractor to provide general support for meetings, workshops, working groups, and other elements associated with managing and governing the coordination and operation of information systems, applications, and services. Such task orders may require the contractor to provide subject matter expertise to guide, participate in, or facilitate groups working to develop solutions to common challenges or achieve common goals. They also may require the contractor to provide support for meeting logistics including, but not necessarily limited to, booking locations, scheduling, inviting and tracking attendees, facilitation, preparing meeting materials, taking minutes, tracking action items, and processing/publishing proceedings.

Task orders of this nature may require the contractor to provide visual graphics and publications support to create materials, participate in drafting and editing documents, formatting text and graphics, designing attractive outreach and training materials for print or digital delivery, activity status reporting presentations, and related deliverables.

3.4(n) Program Management Task orders may require the contractor to provide coordinated organization and direction for the implementation of tasks associated with the project. Such task orders may require the contractor to provide subject matter expertise to guide or facilitate transformational activities to achieve the outcomes supporting the strategic plan and direction of the overall Geospatial Platform Program. Task order may require the contractor to provide support for and or lead meetings including, but not necessarily limited to, identifying locations, scheduling, inviting and tracking attendees, facilitation, preparing meeting materials, taking minutes, tracking action items, and processing/publishing proceedings.

Task orders of this nature may require the contractor to provide reports and visual graphics support to create materials, participate in drafting and editing documents, formatting text and graphics, designing attractive outreach and training materials for print or digital delivery, activity status reporting presentations, and related deliverables.

3.4(o) Geospatial Governance and Data Standards Task orders may require the contractor to provide general support creating the accountability, quality and effectiveness of the tools, technologies and strategies for the Geospatial Platform. Task orders may require the contractor to coordinate and document data stewardship activities in accordance with OMB Circular A-16: Supplemental Guidance including documenting benefits from the Geospatial Platform program through engagement and coordination across FGDC stakeholder community.

4.0 QUALITY ASSURANCE AND QUALITY CONTROL

Performance measures used to evaluate contractor performance and/or acceptability of deliverables may include, but may not be limited to, the following examples:

· Accuracy - Work products shall be accurate in presentation, technical content, and adherence to accepted elements of style.

· Clarity - Work products shall be clear and concise. Diagrams shall be easy to understand and be relevant to the supporting narrative.

· Compliance with requirements - All work products must satisfy the requirements of the Statement of Work/Performance-based Work Statement (PWS).

· File editing - All text and diagrammatic files shall be editable by the Government.

· Format - Work products shall be submitted in hard copy (where applicable) and in media mutually agreed upon prior to submission. Hard copy formats shall follow any specified directives or manuals.

· Timeliness - Work products shall be submitted on or before the due date specified in the Statement of Work/PWS or as described in assigned tasks or submitted in accordance with a later scheduled date determined by or approved by the Government.

· Response time – Response time for developed or modified systems, applications or services shall be within acceptable tolerances as determined by users and Government task order managers.

· Timely closure of trouble tickets – User assistance shall be provided within timeframes specified by the task order Statement of Work/PWS.

· Metrics reporting – contractor will manage the collection of metrics developed with the government and report these metrics on a regular basis through an online executive dashboard, and other digital and hardcopy means.

· Daily monitoring of the service status checker.

· Cooperation - contractors shall be able to work efficiently and effectively with other teams to integrate solutions and minimize impacts to projects and schedules; and, ensure any new actions are approved by the government prior to their initiation, due to the integrated nature of task order goals.

The contractor shall establish and maintain a complete Quality Control Program/Plan to ensure that the requirements of the contract and each task order are provided as specified. The contractor shall develop and implement procedures to identify, prevent, and ensure non-recurrence of defective or non-conforming services. The contractor’s Government approved Quality Control Plan (QCP) is the means to assure that work complies with the requirements of the contract and issued Task Orders and is based on the premise that the contractor, not the government, is responsible for managing and ensuring that quality controls meet the terms of the contract and/or Task Order(s).

The contractor’s QCP shall be delivered to the COR and CO within 15 days after award. An electronic comprehensive written QCP shall be submitted to the CO and COR within 5 working days when changes are made thereafter. After acceptance of the QCP the contractor shall receive the Contracting Officer’s acceptance in writing of any proposed change to the QCP. The contractor shall revision their QCP annually. The government will review the contractor’s QCP and any necessary changes annually to ensure all requirements are being met.

The Contractor and the COR shall monitor the working relationship between the Government and Contractor personnel to ensure that services do NOT develop into a personal service relationship as defined in FAR 37.104. Questions concerning this matter shall immediately be referred to the Contracting Officer.

In addition to the contractor’s QCP, the Government, through its COR or other designated technical representative, will also monitor and document the Contractor’s performance/activities. The Government may monitor the Contractor’s performance of routine functional requirements and outputs, as well as the milestones and deliverables of specific project requirements as deemed necessary to ensure acceptable progress and compliance with contract requirements. The Government may use a variety of methods to evaluate the Contractor’s performance.

Performance measures will be defined at the Task Order level. The Government will document surveillance activities. When performance falls below acceptable quality levels as defined in each task order, designated contractor representative or Program Manager (PM) will be notified and action taken. The Government is required to records performance annually in the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS).

5.0 STAFFING

The contractor shall maintain a management/staffing plan that provides information regarding the overall corporate structure and implementation of the proposed effort within the contractor’s organization. Responsibilities, authorities, and accountability shall be well defined so as to provide a clear understanding of the contractor’s ability to support the Statement of Work (SOW) and the contract task orders. A staffing matrix is required which specifies the key personnel, their roles, authorities, accountability, summary of areas of expertise, and location. The contractor’s staffing plan should indicate how the work will be managed, directed, and administered/implemented. The staffing plan must include a methodology for the recruitment of highly skilled technical resources, and a corporate strategy for retaining personnel. For positions and functions not designated as key, the contractor must describe skills and capabilities and minimum qualifications that will be required for the positions.

The contractor shall provide managerial and supervisory capabilities to ensure effective performance of the contract and issued Task Orders. A contractor representative such as a Task Leader will function as a designated point of contact and perform supervision and will be responsible for monitoring the work assignments of contractor personnel and requested deliverables. At no time shall the Government supervise contractor personnel.

The contractor shall provide fully trained personnel, be required to have an ongoing training program, and be responsible for contractor employees acquiring the knowledge and skills necessary to support new technology, the scope of the IDIQ SOW and the scope of issued Task Orders. When advantageous to the Government, training may be provided at no cost to the contractor or may be paid for by the contractor and reimbursed by the Government if the training is unique to the organization issuing the task order. The Government will provide training exclusively for tasks that require knowledge of systems unique to the organization issuing the task order.

Professional and highly skilled technical personnel are major factors in the successful performance of this contract. The Contractor shall provide fully qualified staff capable of producing the required outcomes and results for meeting the specific performance standards of each task order. Contractor employees shall have the knowledge, skills, and certifications necessary to perform the required services in the task.

Individual task orders may contain requirements for designating selected staff positions as key, and also may require that key positions be filled within a prescribed time-frame following the departure of an incumbent. Key Personnel substitutions shall be handled in accordance with USGS Clause GS1330 - Key Personnel.

6.0 TRANSITION SERVICES AND PLANS

Transition-in/Phase-in will be needed for any Task Orders which require continuation of services. The contractor shall complete all phase-in efforts in accordance with the contractor’s proposed transition approach/plan and final plan that is to be submitted and reviewed/approved by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) upon Task Order award (to include the Government's validation of the Transition Plan, containing critical events, schedules and approach). Contractor shall be prepared to begin transition performance immediately following approval of the transition plan, and to have transition completed prior to the expiration of the current Task Order’s end date. Specific dates for transition will be defined at the Task Order level. The contractor shall submit a weekly status report during the phase-in period to the COR beginning within the first week the transition.