Request for Information - Automation and Orchestration Prototype (AOP).pdf

United States Request for Information (RFI) Patent and Trademark Office Automation and Orchestration Prototype (AOP)

1. Introduction The USPTO is at the cutting edge of the nation's technological progress and achievement and information technology underpins every action and workflow process within the USPTO. The USPTO is the issuing authority for United States (US) intellectual property (IP) rights for patents and trademarks – as such, an important component of the USPTO agenda is digital transformation to improve and enhance granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks. The USPTO’s mission is to drive U.S.

innovation, inclusive capitalism, and global competitiveness.

2. The Context and Objectives The USPTO Office of Chief Information Officer (OCIO) is committed to automation as means to reduce manual effort, save resources, reduce error, enable scaling, and increase consistency. We are seeking an automation platform that will allow the ability to rapidly prototype, build, test, expand, and maintain complex automated workflows and orchestrations. Although we have a large number of Commercial‐

Off‐The‐Shelf (COTS) products to integrate with, we also have a plethora of custom applications hosted both on‐premise and in the cloud that we need to integrate with, which necessitates the need for a platform that can integrate easily with any Application Programming Interface (API), and not just those in which an integration has been pre‐built. The platform must allow and facilitate broad use across multiple teams, organizations, and use‐cases, including automating fraud operations, cyber security operations, notification/acknowledgement workflows, governance/monitoring, and more. The USPTO seeks to move quickly via hands‐on building and prototyping to find a fitting solution.

3. Market Research Guidance This Request for Information (RFI) market research survey and subsequent market research outlined below are intended as preliminary market research information gathering, which the USPTO will use to determine which vendor(s) is/are the most likely to successfully meet the agency’s needs. The RFI is not a solicitation for a contract. The Contracting Officer (CO) is using procedures developed under the Patent and Trademark Office Efficiency Act, 35 U.S.C. 2(b)(4)(A), which provides for the Alternative Competition Method defined in section 6.1.1 of the Patent and Trademark Office Acquisition Guidelines (PTAG). Under PTAG 6.1.1 Alternative Competition then, the CO may decide to progress to issuing a solicitation to the vendor(s), who the Contracting Officer Representative (COR) and CO, based on their knowledge of the marketplace, determine from the PTAG 6.1.1. process to be most likely to successfully meet the agency’s needs. Throughout any stage of this market research process, capable vendors may be determined eligible to participate in an alternative competition. This multi‐staged market research effort is not a request for proposals. Any vendor costs associated with this RFI are the sole responsibility of the RFI respondent.

The USPTO currently intends to utilize a multi‐staged market research approach, which seeks to efficiently engage industry early in the process and allow the USPTO and Industry participants to move from market research to possible solicitation, and then to potential award. This Automation and Orchestration Prototype (AOP) market research envisions a process using a two‐stage, “show me, don’t tell me approach” – asking industry for evidence‐based solutions, then allowing the USPTO to engage with those solutions hands‐on through a market research demonstration, to determine which is/are most likely to successfully to meet the agency’s needs.

Failure to submit a response to this Stage One RFI eliminates vendors from participating in future Stages, and from any additional consideration for participation in an Alternative Competition PTAG 6.1.1.

The market research process is envisioned as follows:

1. Stage One: Industry Survey RFI (Current).

2. Stage Two: Invitation to vendor(s) to participate in live environment product demonstrations. In

Stage Two, vendors must provide the USPTO with an eight‐week market research demonstration of its product/solution. The market research demonstration period will include access for eight (8) USPTO users to use the product in USPTO’s live environment. The vendor must be available during the eight‐week market research period to answer any follow‐up questions regarding the product’s functionalities and capabilities.

3. Stage Three: Identification of the final vendor(s) to participate in the Alternative Competition, Patent and Trademark Office Efficiency Act, 35 U.S.C. 2(b)(4)(A).

Note: The USPTO reserves the right to issue multiple solicitations depending on the results of this market research demonstration and the agency’s requirements.

4. Stage Four: Issuance of Solicitation(s); Evaluation(s), and Contract Award(s).

4. RFI Questions The USPTO requires an AOP solution that is most likely to succeed in meeting or exceeding the below requirements. For each requirement listed below (1‐6), vendors must provide a narrative addressing the topics below explaining specifically whether and how the proposed solution is most likely to successfully meet or exceeds the agency’s needs. The vendor shall include any descriptive information in its response that is necessary for the USPTO to confirm that the proposed solution meets or exceeds each requirement identified below. The USPTO is not responsible for locating or obtaining any information not identified in the RFI response.

1. Strong/granular access control (users, groups, permissions, etc.)

1.1. Ability to create Groups/Teams/Roles to group users together

1.2. At least read‐only, write, and admin permissions for groups

1.3. Separate permissions for different actions like reading/editing playbooks/workflows

(automations), managing credentials/access, etc.

2. Change management/version control of automations

2.1. Review/approval flow for change management

2.2. Publish new versions, restore any/older versions of an automation

2.3. See who made changes, what changes were made, and when they made them

3. Ability to integrate with any product or service (with an API) easily, even if the vendor doesn’t have a pre‐built integration

3.1. Should be able to integrate any API without needing the vendor, or any resource at the

USPTO, having to develop the integration or write any code

4. Ability to debug and test any action individually (EG automation with 100 steps, be able to test and run just step #52 out of #100)

5. Ability to debug and test partial automations (EG automation with 100 steps, be able to test and run steps #40 through #50 without needing to run all 100)

6. Ability to create modular/reusable automations that can be called from other automations/workflows

5. Submission Instructions NOTE: PTAG Market Research responses are strongly discouraged from containing ANY proprietary or

Trade Secret information in response to this market research request. Assume all information provided will be used and discussed with other industry partners and public, and additionally, may be used in refining the Agency's requirements or future market research efforts. If a company includes ANY proprietary or Trade Secret information it must clearly mark such information on a line‐by‐line basis.

Inclusion of proprietary or Trade Secret information may lead the USPTO to conclude that the submission is not most likely to successfully meet the agency’s needs. This is a market research request and not a request for proposals.

Response Specifications

1. Page limit: 15 pages (Excluding Title Page, Table of Contents, Letter from Manufacturer (see 2(h), and End User License Agreement (see 2(i))

2. Title page must include:

a. Company Name of RFI Respondent

b. Primary Point of Contact

c. Phone Number and Email Address for RFI respondent and original product manufacturer, if applicable

d. UEI Number for RFI Respondent

e. NAICS Code(s) for RFI Respondent

f. Socioeconomic Category(ies) for RFI Respondent

g. Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) or other Government‐wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC)

Contract Number(s) (NASA SEWP/GSA OASIS, etc.)

h. Product/Solution Name and original manufacturer company name.

NOTE: RFI responses must be submitted by either the original product manufacturer itself, or an authorized re‐seller. If the RFI respondent is an authorized re‐seller, the vendor must submit with its RFI response, a signed letter from the manufacturer authorizing the re‐seller to respond to this RFI on behalf of the manufacturer (not subject to the above page limitation).

Manufacturers must only permit a maximum of one (1) re‐seller to respond to this RFI on their product/solution’s behalf. If the USPTO receives two vendor responses for the same identical manufacturer’s product/solution, the USPTO will contact the manufacturer’s point of contact (see 2(c) above) to identify its preferred re‐seller, and the government reserves the right to only consider that re‐seller’s RFI response.

i. End User License Agreement (EULA) applicable to the Federal Government for proposed product/solution, if pertinent.

3. All margins minimum: 1‐inch

4. Minimum size font: 11 (Times New Roman). 10 pt. Times New Roman or Arial Narrow font may be used in graphics and tables.

5. Document format: Microsoft Word or searchable Adobe PDF

6. Questions about this posting shall be submitted to Stephan.Batt@uspto.gov and Kyle.Acton@uspto.gov with Subject Line: “Automation and Orchestration Prototype QUESTION ‐ [Company Name], no later than April 18th, 2024 at 3:00 PM EDT. The USPTO will not be responding to technical questions during this Phase of the market research.

7. Survey Response Close Date: May 8th, 2024 at 12:00 PM EDT. Submit responses to Stephan.Batt@uspto.gov and Kyle.Acton@uspto.gov with Subject Line: “Automation and Orchestration Prototype RESPONSE [Company Name]”.