RFI USPTO Case Management System Amendment 1.pdf

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

Case Management System (CMS)

U.S. PATENT & TRADEMARK OFFICE

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR OFFICE

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM OFFICE

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)/SOURCES SOUGHT

Amendment 1

May 13, 2024

This is a Request for Information (RFI) being released pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation

(FAR) Part 10: Market Research.

This RFI is issued solely for informational, market research, and planning purposes. It does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quote (RFQ) or a promise to issue an RFP, RFQ in the future. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is not seeking proposals at this time and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Respondents are advised that the

United States Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party’s expense.

Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to provide feedback with respect to any information submitted. Proprietary information, if any, should be kept at a minimum and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation.

Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the United States Government to form a binding contract. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or to otherwise pay for the information solicited. Although the term “offeror” is used in this RFI, your response will be treated as information only and shall not be used as a proposal.

1. BACKGROUND

The USPTO Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (OCAO) Information Technology Program Office (ITPO) manages IT Products and provides project management services to plan, implement, and manage systems in the Office of Human Resources (OHR) and the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity (OEEOD). The CAO ITPO also coordinates work with the USPTO Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), other USPTO business units, and product lines to develop and implement enterprise systems solutions. The CAO ITPO manages and supports a variety of administrative automated systems

2. SCOPE

The USPTO seeks information on available Case Management Software as a Service

(SaaS), Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS), or Government Off the Shelf (GOTS) IT systems and engineering, project management, and support services. The agency’s current Case Management Systems (CMS) components are utilized by about 100 USPTO employees and contractors, enabling them to support the organization’s 13,000+ employees.

a. The CMS suite will include the following secure, user-friendly, configurable components:

i. Employee Relations / Labor Relations Case Management System (ERLRCMS)

- Enable Employee Relations (ER), Labor Relations (LR), and the Office of General Law (OGL) personnel to manage Conduct and Performance cases, Labor Grievance cases and Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) cases electronically. The system will:

1. With workflow, automate case routing through the coordination, review, decision, and appeals processes.

2. Capture data for analytics and executive and internal management reporting

3. Store current and historical details of disciplinary actions related to conduct, performance and grievance cases, and associated case types.

4. Via the user interface, enable specialists to update cases and access them to provide case status and details to stakeholders as required.

5. Comply with Federal laws covering Employee and Labor Relations actions in accordance with the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title

5, chapters 29, 43, and 75; and US Code (USC) Title 5 Subpart F.

ii. Background Investigation Tracking System (BITS) – the system will:

1. Enable tracking and reporting on the status of:

a. General background investigations for all candidates (for employment, internships, contractors)

b. Clearance-level background investigations for certain sensitive positions

c. Candidate suitability (applicants for employment and internships, and contractors to be onboarded)

2. Support continuous evaluation of all onboarded personnel

3. Manage the end-to-end Suitability process and documentation

iii. Reasonable Accommodation Case Management System (RACMS) – the system will:

1. Support a customizable web form to enable individuals to request

Reasonable Accommodations needed to complete work and interactions with the USPTO

2. Enable the OEEOD Entry Point Team to manage the Reasonable Accommodations review and approval processes and track the cases in compliance with Federal law, Executive Order, and USPTO Policy

iv. Equal Employment Opportunity Case Management Reporting System

(EEOCRMS) - In compliance with Federal law, Executive Order, USPTO policy, and reporting requirements, the system will:

1. Enable the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity (OEEOD) “Entry Point Team” and “Formal Complaint Team” professionals to collect, track, and report on EEO discrimination, harassment, and retaliation inquiries and complaints from intake to resolution. Events to track include: counseling, investigation, appeals, mediation, and decisions, including responses to civil actions.

2. Support timely and accurate submission of required reporting (annual EEOC Form 462 and quarterly No FEAR Report)

b. The CMS systems should:

i. Allow designated USPTO employees to create, maintain, retrieve and manage all Case Management data.

ii. Be configurable to support USPTO processes and user roles.

iii. Integrate with other USPTO products as identified and needed.

iv. Comply with the following Federal statutes:

1. Federal Laws including Employee and Labor Relations actions in accordance with the Code of Federal Regulations 5, chapters 43 and 75;

USC Title 5 Subpart F; and 5 CFR Chapter 29.

2. Title 5 CFR 731.106, regarding the designation of public trust positions and investigative requirements.

3. The system complies with Federal Laws, specifically the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Sections 501 and 505, and Section 508.

4. Title VII and IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, and the Equal Pay Act of 1963.

c. The CMS systems should include:

i. Logical access controls and management

ii. Manual data entry

iii. Document upload

iv. Case tracking

v. Advanced search

vi. Flexible workflow with day counts for intervals between user actions

vii. Automated email notifications

viii. Document and form creation with built-in templates

ix. Print, export and download capability

x. Custom, ad-hoc and pre-built reports

xi. Dashboards for tracking case metrics

xii. Data migration for implementation

xiii. Interoperability with existing applications

xiv. Adherence to USPTO uptime requirements, Recovery Time Objectives, and Recovery Point Objectives

d. The CMS services should include:

i. Data migration from the existing tools to the new systems

ii. Implementation support

iii. System integration, including interconnection with USPTO infrastructure for storage, file transfer, identity management, and continuous monitoring

iv. System documentation, including system design, database design, table maintenance, user guides, maintenance schedules, release notes, process workflows

v. Configuration and implementation of user rights, permissions, access and storage of system records

vi. Ongoing collaboration with USPTO product team

vii. System development, configuration, testing (including automated and regression testing), and implementation of system features and functions utilizing Agile software development methodologies in alignment with

USPTO’s New Ways of Working (NWOW)

viii. Use of USTPO’s agile tool Rally to manage requirements, defects, issues, and work, and as the authoritative record of all activities related to enhancing and maintaining the systems

ix. Implementation of all requirements via building and deployment of software code into each release in compliance with USPTO’s DevSecOps procedures

x. Adherence to USPTO’s release frequency requirements

xi. Development team staff (developers, business analyst(s), testers) will:

1. Participate in all Agile ceremonies

2. Be Available on the USPTO network during business hours

3. Utilize Rally (Agile tool) to track and manage work and capacity

xii. On-demand training

xiii. Tier 1, 2, and 3 support

xiv. Capacity to support prompt defect resolution and enhancement development and frequent release delivery.

The USPTO is issuing this RFI in an effort to understand market availability, technical characteristics, cost, and functionality of Information Technology (IT) tools, applications or products capable of satisfying the life-cycle technical, functional, operational, and/or capabilities described in this RFI.

3. OBJECTIVE

The objective of this RFI is to assess vendor(s) capabilities and interest. Review of the responses to the RFI will focus on the offeror’s technical capability to provide a quality solution, corporate experience for same or similar activity with commercial or government agencies, and responsiveness to this RFI. USPTO is seeking solutions that will meet the needs to address the requirements in Section 2; these mandatory requirements include all aspects and capabilities needed for any tool used in managing USPTO facilities.

Requested Information As part of the RFI response, vendors are asked to discuss their ability and provide their solutions and business offerings for this requirement as outlined in Section 2.

Interested and capable businesses should submit a copy of their company capability statement in response to the RFI. The submission shall include the following:

1) Company Overview:

a) A brief description of your company

b) Business size and size standard/applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes.

c) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI)

d) Website address

e) Annual company revenue from CMS, as a value and as a percentage of total revenue.

f) Applicable certifications and authorizations, such as Federal Information Security Management ACT (FISMA) compliance and Federal Risk and Authorization

Management Program (FedRAMP) authorization for cloud service providers.

g) Commercial and government markets for which your company provides CMS.

h) Names of current or recent CMS customers and a brief description of those engagements and your ability to meet or exceed Agency’s requirement. Responses should include past performance references of similar size, complexity, and scope. Information should be pertinent and specific.

i) Federal government contract vehicles, if any, under which CMS software can be acquired.

2) Company Capabilities

a) Describe the services and/or product solution(s) for the areas as described in Section 2 of this RFI. The responses shall include an overall description of the proposed services and/or solution(s) and provide technical data and a demonstrated ability for those areas identified.

b) What is your ability to use existing assets or procure, customize/configure, maintain and/or provide technical support for the resources needed for the proposed services and/or product(s)?

c) Describe technical benefits of your proposed services and/or product solution(s) in terms of:

i) Existing technologies or resources

ii) Improvements/enhancements

iii) Cost efficiencies of your specific approach

iv) Any other support capabilities that provide service and/or product excellence or uniqueness.

d) Provide a brief description of your experience for same or similar services and/or product solution(s) to both commercial and government organizations.

i) Submit names of three past references

ii) Date of service (within the past 3 years)

iii) Dollar value

Indicate whether your company served as the prime or subcontractor

e) What is your approach and timeline for transitioning your services to a new customer?

f) Describe options in which your company can demonstrate your product to USPTO staff

3) Pricing model and information

Vendors are encouraged to provide any additional advice and information that USPTO should consider for its CMS requirement.

4. RFI RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS

4.1. Questions

Questions about this notification should be submitted via email to Contracting Officer, jennifer.hudson@uspto.gov, no later than (NLT) 10:00AM, Eastern Time (ET) on May 7, 2024. The Government does not guarantee that questions received after the time specified above will be answered.

4.2. Responses

Responses shall be submitted via email to jennifer.hudson@uspto.gov no later than 10:00AM, (ET) on May 21, 2024. The email subject line must specify USPTO RFI “CASE

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM.” Responses should be single-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font, with one inch margins all around, compatible with MS Office Word, with a total page count not to exceed 10 pages. Please note that some email systems may block file types such as .zip or other macro-enable extensions; respondents should verify receipt.

Respondents to this RFI shall designate a primary and one alternative point of contact for the company (Name, Address, Email and Telephone Number).

4.3. Discussions

The USPTO may or may not choose to meet with potential offerors. Such discussions would only be intended to get further clarification of potential capability to meet the requirements, especially any development and certif ication risks. Additionally, the USPTO reserves the right to seek additional information from those vendors identified with unique solutions that are determined to be beneficial to the USPTO.