503102-18-R-0002_-_Amendment_0005.pdf

(x)

50310218R0002 x x

1 copies of the amendment; (b) By acknowledging receipt of this amendment on each copy of the offer submitted ; or (c) By separate letter or telegram which includes a reference to the solicitation and amendment numbers. FAILURE OF YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BE RECEIVED AT

THE PLACE DESIGNATED FOR THE RECEIPT OF OFFERS PRIOR TO THE HOUR AND DATE SPECIFIED MAY RESULT IN REJECTION OF YOUR OFFER. If by virtue of this amendment you desire to change an offer already submitted , such change may be made by telegram or letter, provided each telegram or letter makes reference to the solicitation and this amendment, and is received prior to the opening hour and date specified.

x

WASHINGTON DC 20549

MAIL STOP 4226

SEC-OA - 03

100 F STREET NE

MISSION SUPPORT BRANCH

OFFICE OF ACQUISITIONS

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

02/15/20180005

13. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO MODIFICATION OF CONTRACTS/ORDERS. IT MODIFIES THE CONTRACT/ORDER NO. AS DESCRIBED IN ITEM 14.

12. ACCOUNTING AND APPROPRIATION DATA (If required) is not extended.is extended, Items 8 and 15, and returning

Offers must acknowledge receipt of this amendment prior to the hour and date specified in the solicitation or as amended , by one of the following methods: (a) By completing

The above numbered solicitation is amended as set forth in Item 14. The hour and date specified for receipt of Offers

11. THIS ITEM ONLY APPLIES TO AMENDMENTS OF SOLICITATIONS

FACILITY CODE CODE

10B. DATED (SEE ITEM 13)

10A. MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT/ORDER NO.

9B. DATED (SEE ITEM 11)

9A. AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION NO.

CODE

8. NAME AND ADDRESS OF CONTRACTOR (No., street, county, State and ZIP Code)

7. ADMINISTERED BY (If other than Item 6)CODE 6. ISSUED BY

PAGE OF PAGES

4. REQUISITION/PURCHASE REQ. NO.3. EFFECTIVE DATE2. AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION NO. 5. PROJECT NO. (If applicable)

1. CONTRACT ID CODE

AMENDMENT OF SOLICITATION/MODIFICATION OF CONTRACT

12/26/2017

CHECK ONE A. THIS CHANGE ORDER IS ISSUED PURSUANT TO: (Specify authority) THE CHANGES SET FORTH IN ITEM 14 ARE MADE IN THE CONTRACT

B. THE ABOVE NUMBERED CONTRACT/ORDER IS MODIFIED TO REFLECT THE ADMINISTRATIVE CHANGES (such as changes in paying office, C. THIS SUPPLEMENTAL AGREEMENT IS ENTERED INTO PURSUANT TO AUTHORITY OF:

D. OTHER (Specify type of modification and authority) appropriation date, etc.) SET FORTH IN ITEM 14, PURSUANT TO THE AUTHORITY OF FAR 43.103(b).

E. IMPORTANT: Contractor is not, is required to sign this document and return __________________ copies to the issuing office.

ORDER NO. IN ITEM 10A.

14. DESCRIPTION OF AMENDMENT/MODIFICATION (Organized by UCF section headings, including solicitation/contract subject matter where feasible.)

1. The purpose of this amendment is follows:

a). Provide the questions and answers document containing industry questions received on

Channel 3 in response to Amendment 0002 and the Government's answers.

b). Provide the Sample Task Order Statement of Work for Channel 3 - Data Maintenance which replaces the Sample Task Order Statement of Work for Channel 3 - Data Development Support;

c). Update the proposal response due date for proposals submitted in response to Channel 3;

and d). Explain why this is amendment 0005 as opposed to the next number in the sequence, which would have been amendment 0004.

Continued ...

16A. NAME AND TITLE OF CONTRACTING OFFICER (Type or print)15A. NAME AND TITLE OF SIGNER (Type or print)

15C. DATE SIGNED 16B. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 15B. CONTRACTOR/OFFEROR 16C. DATE SIGNED

(Signature of person authorized to sign) (Signature of Contracting Officer)

JULIA MARIA GALLMON

STANDARD FORM 30 (REV. 10-83)

Prescribed by GSA

FAR (48 CFR) 53.243

NSN 7540-01-152-8070

Previous edition unusable

Except as provided herein, all terms and conditions of the document referenced in Item 9 A or 10A, as heretofore changed, remains unchanged and in full force and effect .

ITEM NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES QUANTITY UNIT UNIT PRICE AMOUNT

NAME OF OFFEROR OR CONTRACTOR

2 91

CONTINUATION SHEET

REFERENCE NO. OF DOCUMENT BEING CONTINUED PAGE OF

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F)

50310218R0002/0005

2. The Government provided the original SOW for Sample Task Order Channel 3 - Database

Development and Maintenance, as part of the initial QRADS RFP. The Government provided the

Channel 3 Sample Task Order Data Development

Support SOW to industry via Amendment 0002 to the

QRADS solicitation posted on February 1, 2018.

The Government is aware that when the Sample Task

Order Channel 3 - Data Development Support SOW was provided to industry via Amendment 0002 that the Government informed industry to disregard and not propose to the Sample Task Order Channel 3 -

Database Development and Maintenance SOW as it was no longer required.

However, the Government is now informing industry that the SOW for Sample Task Order Channel 3

-Data Development Support is no longer being solicited for at this time and vendors shall not propose against that Sample Task Order Channel 3

- Data Development Support. Instead, the

Government is requesting that Channel 3 offerors propose to the Channel 3 Sample Task Order SOW -

Data Maintenance. It is noted that the Channel 3

Sample Task Order SOW - Data Maintenance contains most of the same effort and is only slightly changed from the original SOW for Sample Task

Order Channel 3 - Database Development and

Maintenance provided with the initial QRADS RFP.

3. In the event an offeror has already submitted its proposal response to Channel 3 and the Sample

Task Order SOW for Data Development Support, please inform the Government points of contact via email if you would like to withdraw your proposal and replace it with a new one to be submitted by the due date and time.

4. Sample Task Order SOW - Data Maintenance for Channel 3 is attached to this Amendment.

5. The QRADS solicitation cover letter is updated to reflect the new proposal due date for Channel

3 as a result of this amendment.

6. The solicitation body has been updated to update the List of Attachments in Section J to reflect the SOW for Sample Task Order Channel 3 -

Data Maintenance.

Continued ...

NSN 7540-01-152-8067 OPTIONAL FORM 336 (4-86)

Sponsored by GSA

FAR (48 CFR) 53.110

ITEM NO. SUPPLIES/SERVICES QUANTITY UNIT UNIT PRICE AMOUNT

NAME OF OFFEROR OR CONTRACTOR

3 91

CONTINUATION SHEET

REFERENCE NO. OF DOCUMENT BEING CONTINUED PAGE OF

(A) (B) (C) (D) (E) (F)

50310218R0002/0005

7. The proposal due date for Channel 3 is extended and the new due date and time is reflected in Paragraph L.4.

8. The questions and answers document containing industry questions received on Channel 3 in response to Amendment 0002 is attached to this amendment.

9. The proposals were due at 12:00pm (NOON) EST on February 9, 2018 for Channels 1, 2, 4, and 5;

therefore, no proposals for those channels are being accepted.

10. The proposals for Channel 3 are now due March 2, 2018 at 12:00pm (NOON) EST. Questions in response to this amendment are due no later than

3:00pm EST, February 20, 2018.

11. This is amendment 0005 as opposed to amendment 0004 due to a SEC system issue that has no impact on the solicitation.

12. All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.

ATTACHMENTS - Updated Cover Letter Dated 2-15-18

Amendment 0005 QA 2-15-18

NSN 7540-01-152-8067 OPTIONAL FORM 336 (4-86)

Sponsored by GSA

FAR (48 CFR) 53.110

SECTION B – SUPPLIES OR SERVICES AND PRICES/COSTS

B.1 – General

The Quantitative Research and Analytical Data Support (QRADS) is a Multiple Award, Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract. It provides the Securities and Exchange Commission with External Research Support and Technical Expertise, Analytical Tool Development, Database Development and Maintenance, Analytical Reports and Data Analysis and Analytical Methods and Support as described in Section C, Statement of Work. The Contractor(s) shall provide in accordance with issued Task Orders (TOs), all management, supervision, labor, facilities, and materials necessary to perform the services on an IDIQ basis.

B.2 – Contract Minimum and Maximum Summary

a. The Channel guaranteed minimum is $2,000 and will be applied during the base period only. There is no guaranteed minimum for the option periods for this IDIQ. The minimum amount on each contract will be the sum of the Contracting Line Item Numbers (CLINs) for which the Contractor receives an award. For example, if the Contractor receives awards under two Channels upon IDIQ award, the minimum contract value will be $4,000. This means that if a Contractor is awarded a contract under two Channels and all options are exercised the final contract minimum value will be $4,000. During the current ordering period of the contract, the minimum guarantee insures that a Contractor receives the minimum amount if no task orders are issued. Once task orders have been issued and the minimum is met during the current ordering period, the minimum funding will be de-obligated from the IDIQ contract.

Note: Fiscal Law requires an obligation to be recorded upon execution of the contract.

Therefore, the guaranteed minimum will be obligated for the base ordering period to all successful Offerors at the time of IDIQ award (with the exception of the successful Offerors of the sample task award). Once the guaranteed minimum is met through the successful award of a task order, the minimum amount will be de-obligated.

b. The maximum (total) dollar amount of all orders issued under each Channel identified below is the Government’s best estimate of the total value of all work to be performed in the respective Channel for the base period and if all options are exercised. Since multiple awards will be made per Channel, any single contract recipient is unlikely to receive orders in a Channel equaling the estimated maximum amount (if all options are exercised) indicated for that Channel. The actual amount of any orders placed under any single contract will be determined using the procedures prescribed herein for competition of individual task orders.

Channel Estimated Maximums

Channel 1 (SET-ASIDE FOR

SMALL BUSINESS)

$3,713,899

Channel 2 $7,376,846 Channel 3 $26,440,107

Channel 4 $5,604,940

Channel 5 $5,693,735

B.3 – Ordering Period Program Ceiling

The collective program ceiling across all contracts awarded is $48,829,526 inclusive of each of the five (5) Channel CLINs for all ordering periods (if all options are exercised).

The maximum ceiling amounts at the Channel CLIN levels for each of the five (5) channels for each ordering period is for estimating purposes only. Actual ceiling restrictions shall be applied at the total program level without limitation among these individual Channel CLIN estimates. The maximum value of $48,829,526 as stated above, is a collective ceiling that will be shared among all IDIQ awardees across all contracts and task orders awarded if all options are exercised.

B.4 – Contract Pricing

(a) All TOs may be issued on either a Time & Materials (T&M), Labor Hours (LH), or Firm Fixed Price (FFP) basis and will be subject to the pricing set-forth in Section J – List of Attachments, Attachment B-1, Labor Rate Tables. The labor rates in this attachment reflect fully-burdened hourly rates for each labor category and will apply to all direct labor hours. The fully-burdened labor rates include all direct labor and indirect costs applicable to that direct labor (such as fringe benefits, overhead, G&A), and profit.

These fixed hourly rates are ceiling rates and will apply to the Prime Contractor. The Contractors may elect to propose lower hourly rates on a task-by-task basis. For non-competitive task order awards in excess of $750,000, the Task Order Contracting Officer (TO CO) will require certified cost or pricing data in accordance with FAR 52.215-20, Requirements for Certified Cost or Pricing Data or Data Other Than Cost or Pricing Data. In any case, proposed rates for TOs shall not exceed the ceiling rates established in the contract. The TO CO may request certified cost or pricing data on orders less than $750,000 on an as needed basis.

The labor rate table shall include the Prime Contractor and each Subcontractor’s established accounting practices for recording work in excess of 40 hours per week.

The accounting practices for each member shall be clearly identified (e.g., Prime

Contractor records all hours; “Subcontractor A” records 40 hours per week;

“Subcontractor B records all hours, etc.). The descriptions of the methods will be incorporated into the contract and will be effective for T&M and L&H task orders.

The indirect rates applicable to direct materials, subcontracts for supplies, and other direct costs established in Attachment B-1, Labor Rate Tables, are ceiling rates and shall apply to the Prime Contractor only. There are no indirect ceiling rates for Subcontractors.

However, the Contractor may elect to propose lower indirect rates on a task-by-task basis.

In accordance with FAR 52.216-29, Time-and-Materials/Labor-Hour Proposal Requirements-Non-Commercial Item Acquisition with Adequate Price Competition, the Prime Contractor shall establish fixed hourly rates using separate rates for each category of labor to be performed by each Subcontractor and for each category of labor to be performed by the Offeror, and for each category of labor to be transferred between divisions, subsidiaries, or affiliates of the Offeror under a common control.

(b) The labor rates set forth in the table reflect fully-burdened rates for performance at a Government site and for performance at a Contractor site.

(1) Government Site Rates. When performing at Government sites, the Contractor shall furnish fully-burdened labor rates. The Government will provide office space, furniture and office equipment, and as specified in the individual task orders. The Contractor shall be responsible for supplies in accordance with Section H.16, Supplies.

(2) Contractor Site Rates. When performing at a Contractor site, the fully-burdened labor rates shall include applicable indirect costs for office space and all normal supplies and services required to support the work. This includes, but is not limited to, telephones, faxes, copiers, personal computers, postage, including courier services such as Federal Express, ordinary business software, such as word processing, spreadsheets, graphics, etc., normal copying and reproduction costs.

(c) Only Government-required labor categories (Key Personnel) are included in Attachment B-1, Labor Rate Tables. Additional labor categories should be proposed and added to meet specific TO requirements, in accordance with Section B.4.3, Rate Refreshment, and Section G.8.3(G), Task Order Unique Labor Categories.

IDIQ Program Management Support Costs. IDIQ Contract-level program management support costs include contract-level management, reporting requirements (See Section F, Deliveries or Performance) and related travel and meeting attendance costs associated with the Contractor’s program management staff. This relates to overall management of the QRADS Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts. As a result, these program management support costs shall be included within each fully burdened labor category rate, and shall not be proposed as separate labor categories or cost.

The contract-level “program management” support costs are differentiated from individual task order “Task Order Manager” or “Project Manager” support costs, which are to specifically support project management for individual task orders. The “Task Order Manager” or “Project Manager” support labor hours are billed at hourly labor rates against individual task orders for direct support to the effort performed under those task orders. This will result in direct billings at the task order level.

B.4.1 Firm- Fixed-Price (FFP) Task Orders For FFP type task orders, travel and materials, if applicable, may be estimated for each TO, including applicable indirect costs, subject to the indirect ceiling rates established in the contract. Partial payment of FFP type TOs may be negotiated based on the completion of milestones/deliverables.

B.4.2 Time-and Materials (T&M) /Labor Hours (LH) Task Orders For T&M or LH type task orders, the quantity of hours ordered from each labor category will be specified as deliverable hours billable at the ceiling rates specified in Attachment B-1, Labor Rate Tables, or as negotiated, if lower rates are proposed for the TO.

Materials will be estimated for each TO and may include applicable indirect costs computed in accordance with the Contractor’s established accounting practices, subject to the indirect ceiling rates, established in the contract. For T&M type task orders, profit on materials is not allowable. The cumulative extended total of all labor categories ordered plus materials/applicable indirect costs will define the TO rates up to the ceiling to allow flexibility. Reimbursement under the contract shall be governed by the clause FAR 52.232-7, Payments under Time and Materials and Labor-Hour Contracts.

(a) Labor. Attachment B-1, Labor Rate Tables, shall include descriptions of the Prime Contractor and each Subcontractor’s established accounting practices for recording and billing for labor hours under task orders. The table lists the Prime Contractor and each Subcontractor separately to assure that the accounting practices for each are clearly identified (e.g., Prime Contractor records all hours; “Subcontractor A” records forty (40) hours per week; “Subcontractor B” records all hours, etc.). The descriptions are incorporated into the contract and orders and are effective for T&M and L&H task orders.

In the performance of T&M and L&H task orders, the hours billed shall show the labor hours performed by the Prime Contractor and each Subcontractor separately. If the established accounting practices described in the contract are to record and bill a standard number of hours per week (e.g., forty (40) hours), the labor hours will be billed only on the basis of a standard number of hours. If the established accounting practices described in the contract are to record and bill all hours worked by employees, the labor hours billed will be based on all hours worked. If the Contractor provides that its established accounting practices are to record and bill all hours worked but it is found after award that the established accounting practices at the time of award were not based on recording all hours worked by employees, the Government shall be entitled to a price adjustment on all payments for labor hours under the T&M and LH order. The amount of the price adjustment shall be the difference between the number of hours billed based on recording all hours worked and the hours that would have been recorded using a standard number of hours (e.g., forty (40) hours).

(b) Subcontractor Rates.

(1) Competitive Task Orders. The TO CO will use competition to determine reasonableness of the subcontract rates. The numbered items below provide further guidance for competing TOs:

The term “QRADS Prime” is defined as a QRADS Prime Contractor submitting the proposal in response to a Task Order Request Package (TORP); and the term “QRADS Contract Holder” is defined as a QRADS Prime Contractor that is functioning in the role as a Subcontractor under another QRADS Prime.

(i) QRADS Prime subcontracts with the QRADS Contract Holder on competed orders and proposes rates that are “at or below” the QRADS Prime’s contract ceiling rates:

If a QRADS Prime subcontracts with a QRADS Contract Holder, the QRADS Prime and the QRADS Contract Holder may propose up to the ceiling rate in their respective Attachment B-1, Labor Rate Tables, of their QRADS contract. If the rates proposed to SEC, inclusive of the QRADS Prime’s allocable indirect costs and a reasonable profit are at or below the QRADS Prime contract ceiling rates, the QRADS Prime would not have to disclose anything further in their proposal.

(ii) QRADS Prime subcontracts with the QRADS Contract

Holder on competed orders and proposes rates that are “above” the QRADS Prime’s contract ceiling rates:

If a QRADS Prime subcontracts with a QRADS Contract Holder, the QRADS Prime and the QRADS Contract Holder may propose up to its ceiling rate in their respective Attachment B-1, Labor Rate Tables, of their QRADS contract. If the rates proposed to SEC, inclusive of the QRAD’s Prime’s allocable indirect costs and a reasonable profit are above the QRADS Prime’s ceiling rates, the QRADS Prime will have to disclose the amount of the indirect costs and the amount of the profit that were added to the QRADS Contract Holder’s proposed rate. A reasonable profit will be determined in accordance with the policies of FAR 15.404-4 by the TO CO for the specific requirement.

(iii) QRADS Prime subcontracts with non-QRADS Contractors on competed orders and proposes rates that are “at or below” the QRADS Prime’s contract ceiling rates:

If an QRADS Prime Contractor subcontracts with a non-QRADS Contractor and the rates proposed to SEC, inclusive of the QRADS Prime’s allocable indirect costs and a reasonable profit are at or below the QRADS Prime contract ceiling rates in Attachment B-1, Labor Rate Tables, of their QRADS contract, the QRADS Prime would not have to disclose anything further in their proposal.

(iv) QRADS Prime subcontracts with non- QRADS Contractors on competed orders and proposes rates that are “above” the QRADS Prime’s contract ceiling rates:

If a QRADS Prime Contractor subcontracts with a non-QRADS Contractor, the QRADS Prime may then include in its proposal, (i) the fully burdened rate proposed to the QRADS Prime by the Subcontractor,

(ii) allocation of the QRAD’s Prime’s indirect costs in accordance with established accounting practices, and (iii) a reasonable profit. If the rates proposed to SEC, inclusive of the QRADS Prime’s allocable indirect costs and a reasonable profit are above the QRADS Prime’s ceiling rates, the QRADS Prime must disclose the amount of the indirect costs, and the amount of the profit that were added to the Subcontractor’s proposed rates.

A reasonable profit will be determined by the TO CO for the specific requirement.

(2) Non-Competitive Task Orders. For task orders in excess of $750,000, the TO CO will require certified cost or pricing data in accordance with FAR 52.215-20, Requirements for Certified Cost or Pricing Data or Data other than Certified Cost or Pricing Data.

Documentation will include but not be limited to the agreement that the prime has obtained with the Subcontractor showing the rate being paid to the Subcontractor for that labor category. The QRADS Prime shall include in their proposal (i) the allocation of the QRADS Prime’s indirect costs in accordance with established accounting practices and (ii) a reasonable profit. A reasonable profit will be determined by the TO CO in accordance with the policies of FAR 15.404-4 for the specific requirement.

(3) Affiliate Rates. The TO CO will require (a) certified cost or pricing data or (b) data other than certified cost or pricing data, whichever is appropriate, in 15.404-3. The affiliate of the QRADS Prime shall not include profit (unless exempt under paragraph (d) of FAR 52.216-30) in the affiliate rates. However, the QRADS Prime may include an allocation of indirect costs and profit in accordance with their established accounting practices.

(4) Addition of New Subcontractor After Task Order Award. If a QRADS Prime adds a new Subcontractor after task order award, the Subcontractor must have a separate set of fixed hourly rates. The task order will be modified, and the QRADS Prime will have to provide (1) the agreement between Prime and Subcontractor on the Subcontractor rates;

and (2) documentation showing whether the subcontract rate was determined competitively or single/sole source. If subcontract rates were determined competitively, no further cost information will be required. If subcontract rates were based on sole source, the TO CO will require certified cost or pricing data if the result will be a task order modification exceeding $750,000, in accordance with FAR 52.215-20, Requirements for Certified Cost or Pricing Data or Data Other Than Certified Cost or Pricing data. The subcontract rates must not exceed applicable ceilings if the Subcontractor is a QRADS contract holder. The QRADS Prime may include an allocation of indirect costs in accordance with their established accounting practices plus a reasonable profit.

(c) Materials are defined in the clause at FAR 52.232-7, Payments Under Time and Materials and Labor Hour Contracts.

Materials means—

• Direct materials, including supplies transferred between divisions, subsidiaries, or affiliates of the Contractor under a common control;

• Subcontracts for supplies and incidental services for which there is no labor category specified in the contract;

• Other direct costs (e.g., incidental services for which there is no labor category specified in the contract, travel, computer usage charges, etc.);and,

• Applicable indirect costs.

Indirect costs allocated to any direct materials and other direct costs shall be proposed consistent with the payment requirements of FAR Clause 52.232-7, Payments Under Time and Materials and Labor–Hour Contracts, paragraph (b)(5), as follows:

“The Contractor may include allocable indirect costs and other direct costs to the extent they are—

(i) Comprised only of costs that are clearly excluded from the hourly rate;

(ii) Allocated in accordance with the Contractor's written or established accounting practices; and

(iii) Indirect costs are not applied to subcontracts that are paid at the hourly rates.”

Indirect costs allocated to any direct materials and other direct costs shall be proposed consistent with FAR 52.216-7, Allowable Cost and Payment clause.

The cost of general purpose items required for the conduct of the Contractor’s normal business operations are not allowable materials in the performance of task orders under this contract. See also Section G, Section H, and Section L for additional limitations on materials and mandatory support documentation.

Profit is not allowed on materials under a T&M type task order.

(d) Travel (all order types). If authorized in the task order, travel will be reimbursed at actual direct costs in accordance with the limitations set forth in FAR 31.205-46, Travel Costs. No profit is allowed for travel. Subject to the ceiling rates in the table, indirect costs may be applied to travel in accordance with the Contractor’s established accounting practices consistent with FAR 31.2, Contracts with Commercial Organizations. Travel will be a separate Not-To- Exceed CLIN on individual task orders.

B.4.3 Rate Refreshment In accordance with Section B.4(c), additional labor categories may be proposed and added to meet specific requirements. The labor rates and indirect rates are fixed ceiling rates for all contract year periods for the IDIQ contract. Although, the Contractor may submit a proposal reducing the fixed hourly rates and/or indirect rates applicable to materials at any time during the life of this contract. The Government will review these proposals and determine if the revised rates are realistic and in the best interests of the Government. If the rates are accepted, the Government will modify the contract by incorporating the new rates into Attachment B-1, Labor Rate Tables.

At any time and throughout the life of the contract, at the request of either the Contractor or the Government, the Contractor may propose additional labor categories, rates and descriptions in addition to the Government labor categories. These additional Task Order Unique labor categories, rates, and descriptions will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis (See Section G.8.3(G)).

B.5 – Contract Term

The term of the QRADS contract is a one-year (1) base period and four (4) one-year option periods. This is not a multi-year contract as defined in FAR Part 17.1, Multi-year Contracting. TOs may be issued at any time during the base and/or option period. The performance periods will be specified in the TOs and may include option periods which extend the TO up to twelve (12) months beyond the expiration date of this IDIQ contract.

(End of Section B)

SECTION C – DESCRIPTION/SPECIFICATIONS/STATEMENT OF

WORK

C.1 Background

The Division of Economic and Risk Analysis (DERA) provides a wide range of data-driven economic analyses and analytics to the Commission and staff across the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). DERA has five primary mission functions:

(1) To support agency rulemaking and policy development;

(2) To develop cutting-edge, customized risk assessment tools and models to assist SEC divisions and offices to proactively detect market risks indicative of possible violations of the federal securities laws;

(3) To serve as the central hub for the Commission’s approach to intake, processing, and use of data – including analytical methods and the production of market statistics;

(4) To support the Division of Enforcement through the provision of sophisticated economic and statistical analysis to assist in investigations and litigated cases; and

(5) To inform the public about relevant securities issues through the publication of white papers, working papers, and other research publications.

DERA’s sophisticated analytic and data services are mission focused, comprehensive, and include:

• Providing detailed, high-quality economic and statistical analyses, and specific subject-matter expertise to the SEC;

• Identifying, evaluating and recommending ways the SEC staff can use financial data, including interactive data, as well as providing expertise in data analysis;

• Identifying and analyzing issues, trends, and innovations in the marketplace;

• Developing analytical tools, approaches, methods, and models in order to identify trends, risks, or potential securities law violations in the capital markets;

• Working with outside experts in academia and industry to strengthen the SEC’s foundation of market knowledge;

• Analyzing and maintaining public and private financial and market data to support relevant initiatives and analytic projects;

• Creating knowledge through high-quality research and publication in peer-reviewed journals; and

• Participating in, and contributing to, academic and industry conferences.

Quantitative Research and Analytical Data Support Program

In order to enhance its capacity and efficiency, DERA awarded the initial Quantitative Research and Analytical Data Support (QRADS) contract in September 2013. The first of its kind, QRADS provided DERA with a pool of vendors committed to support its core mission and the growing demand for DERA’s assistance in producing high quality financial market data and robust analytical tools, processes, and solutions.

Specifically, QRADS enabled DERA to (1) enhance the capabilities of analytical models and tools that support data-enabled risk assessment programs; (2) increase DERA’s capacity to support standardized quantitative reports of financial market and SEC registrant activity requested by SEC offices and divisions and developed by DERA financial economists; and (3) produce timely and higher quality financial datasets needed for Commission rulemaking and risk assessment activities. Through this program, DERA has developed tools, evaluated data sets, developed and maintained data sets and conducted text analytics on data sets.

Projects executed under the QRADS vehicle have spanned the five work categories in that IDIQ, and resulted in a number of high-profile accomplishments, in the form of projects that directly support the mission of the SEC, in regards to rule-making, enforcement and risk mitigation. Project teams have analyzed large data sets, and developed risk assessment tools for the Office of Compliance, Investigations and Examinations (OCIE), and the Divisions of Corporation Finance and Enforcement.

Vendor teams developed technical documentation for internal reporting systems, and prepared data in corporate forms and filings to enable text analytics. QRADS has also been responsible for developing and maintaining highly complex commercial and non-commercial financial data in the Oracle, Netezza and Hadoop environments, making these data accessible to economists, statisticians and researchers within the SEC, the federal government and the academic community.

QRADS 2018

Building on its predecessor, this SOW is an IDIQ for the next generation of QRADS projects. The demand for analysis of data sets, data analytics and text analytics is growing with the expanding streams of commercial and regulatory data ingested at the SEC. The development of risk assessment tools has fed the appetite in offices and divisions to envision new tools that may assist in research, compliance and enforcement.

This QRADS contract has renamed the Work Categories of the first IDIQ as “Channels,” but that is merely to illustrate the way DERA is thinking about how the contract supports not only DERA, but the entire agency. Given the broad set of skills required across all of these activities, the SEC is seeking to expand the number of vendors to fulfill future tasks. As detailed below, the newly named channels align to the prior work categories and envision continued broad support for all the offices and divisions of the SEC.

C.2 Objectives

The objectives of this contract are to:

• Provide enterprise analysis, analytical software, tools, dashboards, reports and analytical data support to SEC customers;

• Increase the SEC’s capacity to provide quantitative reports and analytical solutions based on methods and models developed by financial economists;

• Provide data services to enable quick turnaround of high quality data sets for analytical purposes across the Commission;

• Develop and maintain expert knowledge-base for key data sets;

• Develop and maintain technical and analytical documentation for tools such as the

Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT) and the Office of Research and Data Services Information Delivery System (OIDS), reports, and data sets;

• Increase enterprise support for text analytics; and

• Provide other analytical services to SEC customers as needed.

This SOW will support a variety of individual analytical projects executed through Task Orders. These task orders may require work during different phases of the project(s).

Thus, the work for each project may require different schedules and occur over dissimilar durations. The work will be described in separate task orders. The SEC does not expect to issue task orders for the entire base year or option years at one time, instead, multiple task orders will be initiated at different times during each of the contract periods.

C.3 Scope

The Contractor(s) shall have the ability to provide enterprise support services including economic subject matter expertise, analytical tool development, quantitative and statistical analysis and other analytical data services to provide robust support for SEC quantitative and risk analysis. The Contractor(s) shall work with SEC staff to expand and maintain an analytical environment that accommodates expanding SEC analyses and customers. The efforts anticipated in this Statement of Work (SOW) require a combination of quantitative skills, subject matter expertise, and technical experience to support quantitative analyses and methodologies for specific unique analytical tasks. The purpose of this SOW is to provide a flexible means to obtain functional and technical capabilities to support quantitative development environment and analytical programs as well as analytical and financial data development and maintenance requirements across the SEC.

DERA expects to deliver a number of analytical projects in support of the Commission over the next eight to ten months that utilize government-developed analysis, research, tools, data and reports. Over the life of the contract, the number of task orders will vary based on internal and external factors. DERA anticipates the need for analytical and technical resources and skills to identify, integrate, deliver, and maintain data and analytical projects to support SEC research and development mission over the next five years.

These projects are expected to range in size and complexity from small projects that involve adding new reports to existing models, to projects of a more analytically demanding nature that may require the Contractor(s) to conduct complex econometric analyses and which may involve manipulating very large databases.

The Contractor(s) shall place a high emphasis on human interface, flexibility, and ease of use for the analysis, reports, graphs, applications, data development and maintenance, analytic documentation and other deliverables. The SEC will obtain and the Contractor(s) shall assign and deliver to the SEC all the Contractor(s)’s rights, including without limitation all copyrights, in the software and analysis first produced in the performance of this contract, as provided in the specific clauses in Section H.1 and Section I. This work is advisory in nature and shall not establish SEC policy. Services shall be provided in accordance with specific task orders and all deliverables shall be subject to review by SEC employees and approved by the COR.

This SOW is composed of the following five channels of support:

C.3.1 Channel 1: External Research Support and Technical Expertise (SET-ASIDE

FOR SMALL BUSINESS)

This requirement is to provide strong subject matter expertise in the financial markets, securities, and related financial data analyses; to quickly provide a deep understanding of financial data, databases, technical applications, and operational requirements relying on these data to supporting SEC analyses and repeatable results in the SEC analytical development environment.

C.3.2 Channel 2: Analytical Tool Development

This requirement is to develop and implement analytical software and tools, in accordance with the SEC’s Office of Information Technology (OIT) guidance, to support SEC research and reporting, and Commission investigations and examinations.

C.3.3 Channel 3: Database Development and Maintenance

This requirement is to provide technical analytical Database Management expertise to assist in designing and/or maintaining SEC data sets. This requirement ensures data acquisition, conversion, and interfaces are managed so that the analytical databases are efficiently maintained for use by SEC economists, statisticians, researchers and other users.

C.3.4 Channel 4: Analytical Reports and Data Analyses

This requirement is to provide highly skilled technical expertise to assist SEC economists, statisticians, researchers and other users in developing customizable reports and project-specific programs to process data sets using modern econometrics methods, statistical modeling techniques, and graphical analysis, analyzing and interpreting statistical data; computing supporting metrics; producing and maintaining models or other analytical products, reports, software, tools and/or graphical displays. The Contractor(s) will coordinate with OIT as appropriate to provide documentation for and web-based communications to support analytical projects, data set design and implementation, data governance, and/or operations and maintenance procedures of various projects.

C.3.5 Channel 5: Analytical Methods and Support

This requirement is to provide highly skilled technical expertise to assist SEC economists in developing text analytics capabilities, and any related support, such as: developing and writing project-specific programs to process data sets using modern econometrics methods, statistical modeling techniques, machine learning and statistical process;

analyzing and interpreting statistical data; computing supporting metrics; producing and maintaining models or other analytical products.

C.4 Tasks

C.4.1 Channel 1: External Research Support and Technical Expertise (SET-ASIDE

FOR SMALL BUSINESS)

C.4.1.1 Scope

The Contractor(s) shall provide strong subject matter expertise in the financial markets, securities, and related financial data analysis. The Contractor(s) shall quickly provide deep understanding of financial data, databases, technical applications, and operational requirements relying on these data SEC analyses and repeatable results in the SEC analytical environment.

C.4.1.2 Tasks

The Contractor(s) shall provide subject matter experts (SMEs) to support SEC research and analytical projects as required and to develop analytical and statistical methods and models supporting SEC research, investigations and studies. The Contractor(s) shall support the SEC in providing expert advice, and policy and procedures to guide quantitative and statistical analysis across the SEC. The Contractor(s) shall review and advise SEC staff on the meaning and applicability of the data contained in various quantitative and statistical analyses, studies or research and provides in-depth understanding of and recommendations to improve the quality of quantitative methods, models and data used in various analyses. The Contractor(s) shall provide timely assessments and recommendations regarding models and data contained in SEC research, outlining applicable strengths and limitations in their use in research and analytical studies.

The Contractor(s) shall assist SEC economists and other staff in identifying requirements, and correctly applying SEC data sets to support SEC analyses by testing analytic solutions and models based on the most current academic research and financial industry practices. In addition to providing subject matter expertise and recommendations to the SEC, the Contractor(s) shall produce research, reports, analytic methods and models related to the above tasks as required. The Contractor(s) shall advise and comply with all relevant SEC data standards.

Contractor(s) provide economic, statistical, and risk analysis to support the SEC’s mission, including:

• Analyzing issues relating to the structure and regulation of markets including equity, bond, option, securities lending, securities-based swaps and other OTC derivative markets;

• Analyzing issues related to the regulation and examination of broker-dealers, financial institution and analysts affiliated with broker-dealers; and

• Analyzing issues related to the regulation of investment advisors, investment companies, and other institutional advisors.

C.4.2. Channel 2: Analytical Tool Development

C.4.2.1 Scope

The Contractor(s) shall develop and implement analytical software and tools, in accordance with OIT guidance, to support SEC research and reporting, and Commission investigations and examinations.

C.4.2.2 Tasks

The Contractor(s) shall support SEC economists, statisticians, researchers and others in developing analytic software, applications and tools to process complex SEC data sets using agile methodology, modern econometrics methods, statistical modeling techniques and graphical analysis. The analytic tool development will enable SEC subject matter experts to analyze and interpret statistical data, compute supporting metrics, produce reports and generate graphical dashboards and displays in Windows or UNIX platforms.

The Contractor(s) shall provide application software and tool development expertise to support SEC analytical research, reporting, investigations and examinations as required.

The Contractor(s), in collaboration with OIT, will comply with all applicable software development and security requirements using standard OIT protocols and processes.

The Contractor(s) will utilize industry best practices, agile methodology and standard SEC system development lifecycle practices to deliver analytical applications and tools.

The Contractor(s) will perform analytical application and tool development tasks based on SEC requirements and specifications including but not limited to:

• Develop application design based on SEC requirements, incorporating OIT standards, processes and licensed software agreements in the design;

• Develop software prototypes according to SEC specifications, incorporating SEC subject matter experts’ feedback into an iterative tool development effort;

• Perform system integration testing of applications and tools, ensuring that the software performs with other applications and data in the SEC development, stage and production environments;

• Perform user acceptance testing with SEC subject matter experts to ensure that the tools developed meet the analytical requirements of the end-users.

• Deliver the software/tools to production for incorporation in SEC’s production environments; and

• Maintain and enhance analytical tools as required.

C.4.3 Channel 3: Database Development and Maintenance

C.4.3.1 Scope

The Contractor(s) shall provide technical analytical database management expertise to assist in designing and/or maintaining data sets. This requirement ensures data acquisition, conversion, and interfaces are managed so that the SEC analytical databases are efficiently designed, developed and maintained for use by SEC economists, researchers and other users.

C.4.3.2 Tasks

In support of the Commission, the Contractor shall support SEC economists, researchers and analysts that utilize a wide variety of data that contain information about indices, sensitive public company data, hedge fund data, mutual fund data, and trade and quote data from multiple commercial, public and government sources. SEC Database Management services create novel combinations of information from multiple sources to support the development of white papers, analyses, models, reports, dashboards and tools used agency-wide for rule-making, investigations, quantitative research and analysis.

SEC Database Administrators (DBAs) create and maintain a secure and well-formed analytic data environment, working collaboratively with OIT, to enable SEC analytic and research projects.

The Contractor(s) shall support the SEC by providing Data Management expertise that is skilled technically and possesses technical or subject matter expertise with an in-depth knowledge of complex analytical tools, reports and environments relying on the data within the SEC. Many of the data sets utilized by DERA are large and may include structured, semi-structured and unstructured data. For example, it is possible that storage of an accumulated data set may require tens or hundreds of terabytes (TBs) of space to process. Some data may consist of text files and some may reside in structured relational databases. Growth rates vary from data set to data set; however, rough estimates indicate that 3 billion records a week could come into a single large database. Data are updated monthly, daily or on an ad hoc basis depending on the data set. Some data sets are static or are not accessed frequently and are updated on a less frequent basis.

In support of SEC’s analytic database maintenance function, the Contractor(s) shall perform data architecture, analysis and design, ETL development, Metadata Management, Data Quality management, Data warehousing, enhancements to existing jobs, and ongoing production support to new and existing datasets which are sourced to SEC and are stored in multiple Database Management Systems (DBMS), Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) systems, Hadoop Distributed File Systems (HDFS) and other file systems. Maintenance tasks under this Channel include maintenance and enhancement of existing and new extract transform and load (ETL) processes developed by SEC, scheduling and scripting jobs, enhancing the transformation process of unstructured data and structured data. Contract support will include the development and maintenance of datasets that have or will be moved to the production environment and require ongoing maintenance.

In support of SEC’s analytic data development efforts, the Contractor(s) shall develop, monitor and maintain processes and components of the ETL system jobs and processes for loading dataset into the SEC DataMart. All ETL jobs including IBM Datastage ETL jobs that are developed or revised should follow the guidelines and best practices defined in the SEC DataStage Job Design Standards Guide. In addition, all revisions, if possible, should be done in accordance with SEC guidelines and/or procedures for source code version control as they are released. The Contractor(s) shall be required to make adjustments to the format of the dataset based on file structures that change periodically to accommodate industry inconsistencies in the data.

C.4.4. Channel 4: Analytical Reports and Data Analysis

C.4.4.1 Scope

The Contractor(s) shall provide highly skilled technical expertise to assist SEC economists in developing customizable reports and project-specific programs to process data sets using modern econometrics methods, statistical modeling techniques, and graphical analysis, analyzing and interpreting statistical data; computing supporting metrics; producing and maintaining models or other analytical products, reports, software, tools and/or graphical displays. The Contractor(s) will coordinate with OIT as appropriate to provide documentation for and web-based communications to support analytical projects, data set design and implementation, data governance, and/or operations and maintenance procedures of various projects.

C.4.4.2 Tasks

SEC economists, statisticians, researchers and others respond to inquiries regarding regulatory implications of SEC rule changes on capital formation and market liquidity, conduct economic research to understand market conditions, and develop analytical methods, benchmarks, and models to analyze potential fraud, wrongdoing, or lack of transparency. This includes analyzing current and historical financial reports, regulatory filings, public and commercial data, conducting trend analyses, among others, that are used to develop economic and statistical models to address policy related questions. SEC staff members spend significant resources developing extensive analyses that include interpreting and manipulating data and applications utilizing quantitative analytics implementing scoring models.