47HAA024N0001 RFI Clause Logic 10062023.pdf

RFI - 47HAA024N0001

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

General Services Administration

Clause Logic or Automation Tool/Solution

Office of Public Buildings Information Technology Services (PB-ITS)

October 6, 2023

IT Products Category IT Modernization Planning and Support Support Request for Information

Table of Contents

1. GENERAL INFORMATION 3

2. OVERVIEW 3

3. BACKGROUND 4

3. REQUIREMENTS OF RFI 5

4. SUBMISSION DETAILS 8

1. GENERAL INFORMATION

Document Type: Request for Information

Points of Contact:

Roger McKinnis

Contracting Officer

Office of Internal Acquisition roger.mckinnis@gsa.gov

202-969-7565

Zachary Stone

Contract Specialist

Office of Internal Acquisition zachary.stone@gsa.gov

2. OVERVIEW

This Request for Information (RFI) is for planning purposes only and is not a Request for Quotes (RFQ), Request for Proposals (RFP), Invitation for Bids (IFB) or an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any services. Responses to this RFI are not offers and can/will not be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Government reserves the right to determine how it should proceed as a result of this notice.

Furthermore, those who respond to this RFI should not anticipate feedback with regard to their submission. The Government will not pay any cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party’s expense.

The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. You are requested to respond to this RFI within the solicitation RFQ tool (SEWP QRT, eBuy, etc.) no later than October 20, 2020 at 10:00 AM EST. For sam.gov respondents, please send your response to roger.mckinnis@gsa.gov and mailto:roger.mckinnis@gsa.gov zachary.stone@gsa.gov. Questions regarding the RFI are due no later than October 12, 2020 at 10:00 AM EST.

By issuing this Request for Information (RFI), the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), Public Buildings Service (PBS), Office of Public Buildings Information Technology Services (PB-ITS) is conducting market research to identify potential software solutions that help acquisition personnel select accurate Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), General Services Acquisition Manual/Regulations (GSAM/R), and local agency specific contract clauses/templates based on the type of solicitation or award being written.

In accordance with FAR 19.202-4, this request is for planning purposes only and does not constitute an Invitation for Bid, Request for Proposal, Solicitation, Request for Quote or an indication the Government will contract for the services contained in this announcement.

Responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding agreement. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of submission of responses to this RFI and the Government's use of such information.

3. BACKGROUND

PB-ITS develops, deploys, and maintains IT solutions to support multiple PBS business lines in their mission to design, deliver, and maintain safe, smart, and sustainable workspaces that enable employees and agencies to best serve the American people.

Within PB-ITS, the Applications Development team’s mission is to deliver innovative business solutions, application design and development, systems integrations, software quality control, and implementation.

One of those applications, Electronic Acquisition System integrated (EASi), streamlines and automates the acquisition lifecycle process including acquisition planning, creation and funding of a procurement request, standardization of the solicitation and award packages, funding the certification, obligation, and administration of an award.

PB-ITS is exploring the feasibility of implementing a FAR, GSAM/R, and local clause logic or automation tool/solution that can be seamlessly integrated with EASi, to aid in the creation of solicitations and awards through the means of automated workflows, logic, validation, and adaptability to agency needs. This will result in better compliance and time savings from the current manual process.

mailto:zachary.stone@gsa.gov

Currently, EASi has no clause or provision selection tool that allows the 1102 acquisition community to populate their solicitations or awards with the appropriate FAR, GSAM/R, or local provisions and clauses. Acquisition professionals must do their own research, or use regional tools/templates to create their provision and clause packages for solicitations and contracts in the system.

3. REQUIREMENTS OF RFI

PB-ITS develops, deploys, and maintains IT solutions to support multiple PBS business lines in their mission to design, deliver, and maintain safe, smart, and sustainable workspaces that enable employees and agencies to best serve the American people.

Within PB-ITS, the Applications Development team’s mission is to deliver innovative business solutions, application design and development, systems integrations, software quality control, and implementation.

One of those applications, Electronic Acquisition System integrated (EASi), an Appian application, streamlines and automates the acquisition lifecycle process including acquisition planning, creation and funding of a procurement request, standardization of the solicitation and award packages, funding the certification, obligation, and administration of an award.

PB-ITS is exploring the feasibility of implementing a FAR, GSAM/R, and local clause logic or automation tool/solution that can be seamlessly integrated with EASi, to aid in the creation of solicitations and awards through the means of automated workflows, logic, validation, and adaptability to agency needs. This will result in better compliance and time savings from the current manual process.

Currently, EASi has no clause or provision selection tool that allows the 1102 acquisition community to populate their solicitations or awards with the appropriate FAR, GSAM/R, or local provisions and clauses. Acquisition professionals must do their own research, or use regional tools/templates to create their provision and clause packages for solicitations and contracts in the system.

Questionnaire

Integration

1. Does your solution get updates from Acquisition.gov for FAR and GSAM/R clauses? If yes, how often (instantly, daily, weekly, etc)?

2. Does your solution pull in the FAR logic from Acquisition.gov's Smart Matrix?

3. Does your solution pull in the GSAM/R logic from Acquisition.gov’s Smart Matrix?

Features

Inputs / Logic

4. Does your solution allow our acquisition system to provide input variables or filters to identify which clauses to associate automatically (i.e. Award/Solicitation Type, Contract Type, Set Asides, SAT, Base and All Options Value, Competition, etc.)?

5. Does your solution allow templates to be loaded, saved, and shared across all users?

6. Does your solution allow users to start with a clause template, then use additional logic from questionnaires, rules or AI to add FAR, GSAM/R or other agency specific clauses and provisions to the base template?

7. Does your solution provide the ability for users to select additional clauses to add to their solicitation or award, even if they aren’t required based on the input variables?

8. Does your solution identify which sections of the UCF package format that clauses are associated with (e.g. Section C, Section D, etc.) - and does it organize the provision and clause “package” by such sections?

9. Does your solution account for changes in FAR clause requirements due to Executive Order - and if so, how?

10. Does your solution allow users to look at previous versions of clauses over time to view changes?

Edit / Saving

11. Does your solution allow for FAR, GSAM/R, agency specific (RWA required where applicable), and optional clauses to be added to a solicitation or award?

12. Does your solution provide the ability for users to enter and save full text fill-ins and notes for individual clauses or provisions in the “solution” system and save them for future reference for each solicitation before being passed back to EASi?

13. Does your solution provide the ability for users to edit FAR, GSAM/R or other agency specific provisions and clauses that are expressly editable in the prescription (e.g. “substantially the same as”)?

14. Does your solution provide the ability to add, edit and delete instructional text before or after a regulation, if required?

15. Does your solution provide the means for a clause to be selected for deviation, a class deviation (editable), and allow for prescription text for selected regulations?

16. Does your solution allow unique users to save their searches, most used clauses, etc?

Technical

17. Does your solution have an established API & web service document that would allow our current on-premise acquisition system (Appian) to connect to, exchange and pull in clause information / data in real time via API key based authentication?

18. Does your solution allow importing/syncing of finalized clauses with section tags via API?

19. Does your solution provide both cloud based (non GSA hosted) and on-premise (GSA hosted) solutions? If cloud based, are test/dev/prod environments FedRAMP approved and included in the service?

20. Has your solution been integrated with other Federal contract writing systems in the past? If, so which ones?

Acquisition

21. Does your solution require subscription costs, additional user licenses, or any other considerations for total cost of ownership that would be outside of a standard one time purchase?

22. Is your solution currently available as a CLIN/SLIN on GWACs?

23. Describe the unique qualifications, experiences, innovations, etc. that the solution possesses that would add value and contribute to unequivocal success of this project.

4. SUBMISSION DETAILS

Vendors shall submit responses no later than 10/20/2023.

● Responses shall be submitted to the CO/CS POCs listed in section 1 via email or applicable response tool.

● Responses shall not exceed 10 pages.

● All responses shall be typewritten and presented in MS Word or PDF format, including a minimum of 12 point, Times New Roman or Arial font.

● Responses shall include:

1) Business name and address;

2) Name of company representative, business title, email and telephone;

3) SBA Business Classification;

4) Provide North American Industry Classification System (NAICS);

5) Government-Wide Acquisition Vehicle your solution is available under (If

Applicable);

6) Responses to all the questions identified in Section 3, in order.