Questions_for_VTrcKS_Requirement_2015-N-16885.docx

DOCX document 2 MB Posted Apr 3, 2015

Attached to: VTrckS Operations and Maintenance Support Federal contract opportunity
Solicitation number: 2015-N-16885
Issued by: Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office of Acquisition Services

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Other files attached to VTrckS Operations and Maintenance Support, newest first.
File	Type	Posted
Questions_for_VTrcKS_Requirement_2015-N-16885-additional_questions_added.docx	DOCX document	Apr 7, 2015
Amendment0001VTrckS.pdf	PDF	Apr 7, 2015
N 1_Release_Management__Overview.pptx	PPTX presentation	Apr 3, 2015
2015-N-16885.doc	DOC document	Mar 17, 2015

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No.

Question

Response

Provide the SAP landscape and interface architecture diagram in order to better determine the full scope of the components and how they interrelate to one another. How is Solutions Manager currently utilized

See attached “N+1” overview presentation

How is Solutions Manager currently utilized

Primarily by the infrastructure team as a technical monitoring tool (no business process monitoring). We also use CUA installed in a different client within Solution Manager

Can we assume the SAP user counts, by country and functional area to be approx. 500?

The total count is approximately 44, 000

Provide a list of add-on products, middleware and third-party/legacy interfaces with SAP currently in use.

Middleware is BIZTALK

Legacy interfaces with UFMS

Is there a 3rd party tool for Bath re batch jobs? If yes, who is the manufacturer of the tool?

Further clarification required from vendor.

Is there any data archiving strategy in place?

Yes

What ETL tools are currently licensed for usage?

BW accelerators, BODs

What is the current percentage of test automation?

None

Is SAP performance testing part of the RFP response?

Yes

10.

Are there any CDC IT staff involved in SAP support - number of resources by module and by location? Please include any dedicated business process owners by module/area.

11.

How many visualizations (reports, dashboards, etc.) do you estimate to be a part of this initiative?

Currently we have about 50 Web Intelligence Reports and 3 Dashboard Reports in Production

12.

Approximately how many end users will be utilizing the visualizations?

Currently we have about 1000 users set up in the system. Stephen George would be able to answer this question better.

13.

Is the expectation that the visualizations will be able to be viewed on mobile devices (smart phones, tablets)?

Currently we do not have the capability to view the Web Intelligence/Dashboards from mobile devices.

14.

Is there an integration of the Business Objects portal with a third party portal?

Users access SBO via the SAP Portal. At the moment, there is no other integration with any other portals

15.

Currently are you using single sign-on for access to the visualization

SSO is configured between the SAP Portal and SBO

16.

Is there a hot/cold data storage strategy (i.e., data over 3 years old stored off HANA platform such as Sybase IQ and data less than 3 years stored on HANA)?

It’s currently under development and will be available upon award.

17.

Please provide an estimate of the amount of data to be stored in HANA

Data storage for current state minimal. We’re positioned to scale up if additional space required.

18.

How many data sources do you forecast will be sourced in HANA?

There are currently 3 use cases being implemented in our Platform. We’re positioned to scale up when additional use cases are identified

19.

Is knowledge repository available for current and past problems and their resolutions?

Yes

20.

What are the core business hours and time zones during which support needs to be provided? What are considered non-business hours? Please elaborate if there is requirement for 24x7 manned support or 24x7 technical monitoring?

Our system is a 24/7 system and this level of support is required.

21.

What type of ticketing system is currently in use for problem reporting / management (Remedy, Clarity, Serena, Service Now, etc?)

HPQC

22.

Is knowledge repository available for current and past problems and their resolutions?

Yes

23.

What is the escalation criteria from Level 1 to Level 2 or 3?

Timeframes/SLA Level 1 is staffed by a third party contractor (VTrckS Contact Center). If Level 1 cannot resolve the issue based on historic knowledge or if the issue appears to be a system defect, they escalate to Level 2. Level 2 opens a ticket in HPQC, Business Analysts triage the ticket and assign it to the appropriate resources depending on type of issue or defect. See attached for Level 2 SLAs.

Timeframes for ticket resolution depend on the severity of the defect (critical, high, medium, low) and the level of effort required to address the defect.

24.

Does CDC follow an N+1 strategy for Release Management? Please provide details.

Yes we do. See attached “N+1” overview presentation

25.

What is the frequency of maintenance and functional releases, both major and minor

The releases are based on the criticality of the functionality to be address. For minor routine items, no less than quarterly for minor

26.

Can you share the average number and size of requirements per maintenance release?

It varies

27.

Does CDC have a pipeline of new development requirements and projects for the next year?

The user community submits requests on a periodic basis, and CDC does their assessments to determine path forward.

28.

Is the transition period from incumbent support team included as part of Base Year 1?

Transition time is planned in the timeline

29.

What is an acceptable period of time to complete the transition from the existing incumbent?

It varies depending on the experience of the vendor.

30.

What particular metric measurements does CDC monitor for ensuring performance of support (i.e. number of defects, variances in plan-to-actual, availability, response, restoration, etc.)?

All of the examples are applicable.

31.

What are some of the major challenges and constraints in complying with the current SLA targets?

Question is not clear.

32.

Does CDC have a defined Enterprise Architecture or strategic vision that can be shared?

To the best of our knowledge. However an overarching CDC strategic IT Plan exists, which is available on the internet (confirm)

33.

There are multiple references to providing support to “alternate sites”, what are the location(s) of these alternate sites?

This relates to alternate location to accommodate telework.

34.

Our system is a 24/7 system and this level of support is required support is required.

35.

What type of ticketing system is currently in use for problem reporting / management (Remedy, Clarity, Serena, Service Now, etc?)

HPQC

36.

Is knowledge repository available for current and past problems and their resolutions?

Yes

38.

Does CDC follow an N+1 strategy for Release Management? Please provide details.

Yes we do. See attached “N+1” overview presentation

39.

What is the frequency of maintenance and functional releases, both major and minor

The releases are based on the criticality of the functionality to be address. For minor routine items, no less than quarterly for minor

40.

Can you share the average number and size of requirements per maintenance release?

It varies

41.

Does CDC have a pipeline of new development requirements and projects for the next year?

The user community submits requests on a periodic basis, and CDC does their assessments to determine path forward.

42.

Is the transition period from incumbent support team included as part of Base Year 1?

Transition time is planned in the timeline.

43.

What is an acceptable period of time to complete the transition from the existing incumbent?

It varies depending on the experience of the vendor.

44.

Can we assume “surge support” resources required to provide on-site (aka Atlanta) support or can this support be provided via remote capacity?

Resource supporting O&M can be both on site and remote as required and approved the COR.

45.

Context: Section L.8(e).3 (Page 72) states “The Contractor shall provide a description of three (3) projects completed within the past three years that clearly demonstrates the Contractor’s experience in performing projects of similar scope, size and complexity to the described requirements.” M.4.3 Page 75) states “The Contractor shall provide a description of three (3) projects completed within the past three years that clearly demonstrates the Contractor’s experience in performing projects of similar scope, size, and complexity to the described environments. While similar language is used to describe both similar experience and past performance requirements, Section L.10(a) (Page 73) states “Each offeror will be evaluated, in accordance with Section M of the RFP, on their past performance under existing and prior contracts and/or task orders.”

Would the government consider including existing and completed projects of similar scope, size and complexity as qualifying to demonstrate similar experience?

Yes

46.

Context: Section M.3 states “The Government will evaluate past performance only on the most highly rated Offerors who are selected for award. Past performance will be based on the information provided in the past performance questionnaire.”

Would the government provide the past performance questionnaire and instructions for how the offeror is to complete and submit the questionnaire?

Yes

47.

Context: Section L.10(a).1 states that “Offerors shall provide three (3) completed CPARS past performance evaluations.” In some cases, contractors may have similar experience for which CPARS have not been issued because the work is ongoing or the government agency did not otherwise issue CPARS.

Would the government accept Past Performance submissions that include recent and relevant past performance from government agencies that do not use CPARS?

Would the government accept Past Performance submissions that include recent and relevant past performance from ongoing contracts for which CPARS has not been issued, but a significant portion of the work has been completed?

Would the government accept Past Performance submissions that include recent and relevant past performance for which the offeror and its teammate(s) demonstrate joint past experience?

Would the government accept Past Performance submissions that include recent and relevant past performance for which the 8(a) offeror was a significant subcontractor to a prime on a large government health agency contract?

Yes

48.

· Can we get the current land scape architecture? Need to see the non-SAP systems that integrate with SAP

See attached “N+1” overview presentation

49.

· What is the current disaster Recovery plan

A full DR plan exists and will be shared upon award

50.

· Is there a 3rd party back ground jobs tools that is being used such as (CA Associates), Redwood as an example.

We use native SAP job scheduling. It is sufficient for our environment

51.

· Is there a categorization of Change process such as Low/ Medium/ High/ Very high, if so is there a time scheduled or predefined hours/ days that it needs to be deployed to production.

Yes and it exists and it will be available upon award.

52.

· Are production deployment current defined at prescheduled times, such as Friday night every week barring critical issues or any process as such.

Yes there are prescheduled times.

53.

· Sign off process for tests passed in HPQC – Is there a business head/ owner signing off the process so that deployment can occur. – In short what is the current deployment procedure or process

Yes there is a sign off and it will be provided upon award.

54.

SLA’s for Level 1 and Level III tickets?

Level 1: Contact Center Escalation; All service requests (SR) escalated from the Contact Center to the Level 2 mailbox (VTrckSLevel 2); Within 1 hour during working hours, a new item will be logged. Within 1 hour of next working day for tickets that arrive after working hours. Working hours are currently 8am to 5pm Eastern

Level 2: Back Office issue; All back office tickets received in the VTrckSVTrcksLevel 2 mailbox; Within 1 hour during working hours, a new item will be logged. Within 1 hour of next working day for tickets that arrive after working hours. Working hours are currently 8am to 5pm Eastern

Business Analysts (BA) Triage; All tickets sent to the BA team for triaging; Within 4 hours of receiving the email notice, the BA team will triage and assign to an owner or respond. If the email is sent after 5pm, the BA team will triage within 4 hours of the next business day

55.

· Is there any data conversion tools used such as BODS etc. to extract, cleansing, data profiling etc?

Yes. BODs and BW accelerators

56.

Are there any roll out planned in near future?

57.

There is point on Maintenance of portals and monitoring them. We need to find out if this is only technical or any functional involvement is needed from our end in case of any changes to be taken care off. I am assuming yes.

Question not clear.

58.

Is there an incumbent or is this a new effort? If so can we have the name of that company and the current contract number?

Incumbent is Berry Technology Soiltions, Inc. Contract Number 200-2012-53406 image1.emf

Microsoft_PowerPoint_Presentation1.pptx N+1 Landscape Management

VTrckS “Release N” Production-Support Landscape

Development

Quality

Development

Production

Staging

VTrckS “N+1” New-Development Landscape

Training

Create D6/Q6 systems via system copy from D5/P5

Upgrade D6/Q6

Transport new development to Q6

Test in Q6

N+1 Landscape Management

VTrckS “Release N” Production-Support Landscape

Training

Production

Staging

VTrckS “N+1” New-Development Landscape

Upon completion of UAT in Q6:

Freeze non-emergency transports to production

Upgrade Q7 and import transports

Perform AppScan in Q7

7. Upgrade T5 & migrate transports

Production

Staging

8. Upgrade P5 and migrate transports

Development

Production

Staging

9. ‘Flip’ landscape roles and repeat process image5.wmf image1.png

File details come from the government source that posted it. Updated Nov 14, 2017.