Instructions_for_RFI_responders.doc

Instructions for RFI responders

Responses to this RFI must be no more than 100 total single-sided pages with print no smaller than 10-point. However, text included in graphics, tables, and figures can be smaller than 10-point. The cover page, cover letter, and table of contents are not included in the 100-page count.

Submissions must be in sufficient detail and clarity to provide NFC with the information it needs to assess the feasibility of undertaking this effort and, if applicable, to appreciate your company’s capabilities and track record with SaaS scanning and ECM.

Responses must be submitted in Microsoft Word 2003 or later.

RFI Responses must conform to the below format:

· Cover Letter; including company name, date submitted, company point of contact with telephone number and email address, and applicable GSA schedules, if any.

· Section 1 – Response to Technical Survey contained in Appendix A. OCFO-NO may use the information gathered in developing its requirements in a more detailed RFP.

· Section 2 – Corporate capability relative to providing these services. Please include whether you participate in any Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) or other special acquisition program.

· Section 3 – Past performance, if applicable, relative to hosting an ECM solution and providing scanning services for a federal agency. Each past performance description should not exceed 2-pages each and can be attached to this section of the RFI response and will not be counted as part of the 100-page count response limit.

· Section 4 – A Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) price estimate for outsourced scanning services and an SaaS ECM solution based on the information provided, describing any tiered pricing that would be contingent on actual volumes.

Responses must be submitted to NFC by 5:00 p.m. CT on March 15, 2013. Responses must be emailed to the email address provided below.

RFI Responses and all questions relative to this RFI should be directed to:

Ms. Michaela Klarmann

Lead Contract Specialist

E-Mail Address: Michaela.Klarmann@usda.gov

Appendix A

Enterprise Content Management Technical Survey

1.0 Image-Processing Capabilities

1.1. Capture -- Does your proposed solution provide an image capture/scanning component? If so, do you provide your own document capture solution or use a third-party offering? If a third-party solution, please specify which one.

1.2. Capture -- Does your solution support distributed document capture? If so, describe how this is accomplished.

1.3. Capture -- Does your application support scanning/capture via multifunctional peripheral (MFP) devices?

1.4. Capture – Describe the security protocols to send an image from the OCFO-NO’s local scanners to the cloud ECM?

1.5. Capture -- For imaging history on a scanned document, what type of information (scan date, scan time, batch number, etc.) does your software store and make available to the user? Please explain.

1.6. Capture -- Describe the functionality of your integrated image viewer (rotate, page delete, page up, page down, zoom in, zoom out, magnify, etc.)

1.7. File Formats -- Does your proposed solution support the importing and exporting of images in standard, non-proprietary formats such as XML, TIFF and PDF? Does the proposed solution allow for the import and export of individual documents, small quantities and bulk quantities? Please explain the process, including how indexing works with imports.

1.8. Fax Integration -- Does your proposed solution support an integrated fax capability to support image capture? Does it support fax output? Describe the functionality.

1.9. Image Enhancement -- Does your product provide imaging repair (de-skew, de-speckle, etc.) and annotation capabilities? Describe.

1.10. Performance -- Do you support features for caching and prefetching of images?

1.11. Scalability -- Describe the features that enable your system to scale for high-volume imaging applications.

1.12. Scalability -- Describe the product's scalability in terms of typical image volume supported (for example, 10,000 images per day captured and stored).

1.13. Recognition Technologies -- Describe the recognition engines supported (intelligent character recognition, optical character recognition, bar coding, MICR, etc.) by your capture offering.

2.0 Document Management Capabilities

2.1. Document Import -- Describe how the solution supports the import of content into the repository.

2.2. Indexing Capabilities -- Explain how documents are indexed.

2.3. Metadata Management -- Is document metadata automatically captured? Is metadata versioned? Describe your proposed solution's capabilities.

2.4. Library Services -- Does the proposed solution provide document check-in/check-out capabilities and document-level security? Describe.

2.5. Version Control -- Does the proposed solution provide version control for documents? If yes, does it support both major and minor versions? Explain.

2.6. Compound Documents -- Does you product support generation of compound documents? Explain how compound documents are assembled and which file types are supported.

2.7. Renditions -- Does your proposed solution provide renditioning capabilities? Explain.

2.8. Enterprise Report Management – Describe how your proposed solution can support the import of formatted computer output and reports.

2.9. Organization/Navigation -- What foldering/structuring capabilities does your application provide for organization and classification? How many levels of folders are supported?

2.10. Linking Capabilities -- Describe your document linking capabilities (static, dynamic). State if hypertext links are utilized in compound documents.

2.11. Document Security -- Describe how document security is implemented. Explain how security rights are assigned and modified. Can security be defined and enforced at the document level?

2.12. Access Control – Does your proposed solution support Role-Based Access Control / Role-Based Security? Please describe. Describe the levels of permission needed for security access.

2.13. Rights Management -- Does the product/proposed solution provide added rights management capabilities to protect the content once checked-out of the repository? For example, can it prevent documents from being forwarded or printed? Please describe the capabilities.

2.14. Taxonomy -- Does your product/proposed solution support taxonomy development? Does it integrate with standard taxonomy tools and approaches, and if so how? Does it support standards such as Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)?

2.15. Scalability -- Does your application support a distributed repository architecture? Describe.

2.16. Scalability -- Does your application support replication of content across distributed servers? If so, describe how this works.

3.0 Information Indexing and Search

3.1. Indexing Capabilities -- Describe indexing features and the process used for indexing documents.

3.2. Basic Search -- Does your product/proposed solution include a search engine for searching document properties/metadata and content? Describe.

3.3. Basic Search -- Can a search be saved for later use?

3.4. Basic Search -- Can relevancy measures be "tuned," such that different elements of data and metadata are given different weightings in determining how to respond to a query? Indicate what factors may be used, including factors that are the product of document analysis.

3.5. Basic Search -- May users employ Boolean operators? List such operators.

3.6. Basic Search -- May users employ operators that address nearness of terms (for example, "in the same paragraph," "within 10 words distance")? Explain, and detail such operators.

3.7. Basic Search -- Are results highlighted so that users can see why a document was selected?

3.8. Federated Search -- Does your product support searching across multiple servers/document databases? Please describe how this is accomplished.

3.9. Federated Search -- Does your product allow searches to be performed against third-party content stores/repositories? (Yes/No). If yes, please describe how this is accomplished.

3.10. Classification -- Does your product support summarization and automatic content classification? (Yes/No). If yes, please describe how this is accomplished.

4.0 Records Management

4.1. Records Declaration -- Does your product/proposed solution support manual and automatic records declaration? Is rules/policy-based or workflow-based records declaration supported? Describe how records are declared and indexed.

4.2. Classification -- Does your product support semiautomatic classification and/or automatic classification of records? Describe the classification process.

4.3. Records Repository -- Does your records management solution use your core document management repository or a separate repository ?

4.4. Physical Records -- Is the management of physical records supported? Do you partner with another provider for physical records management? Please describe.

4.5. Email Management -- With your proposed solution, can email and attachments be managed as records? Explain.

4.6. File Plan -- Describe the file plan creation and maintenance features (including retention schedule administration). Does your product/proposed solution allow a file plan to be imported?

4.7. Legal Holds -- Does your product/proposed solution support retention holds for records? Describe how these are applied.

4.8. Alerts -- Are records review cycles and alerts provided?

5.0 Social Content Management

5.1. Team Spaces -- Does your application allow users to set up collaborative workspaces? If yes, describe.

5.2. Threaded Discussion -- Does your application support threaded discussions around documents/content?

5.3. User-Generated Content -- Does your product include wikis, blogs and Atom/RSS feed capabilities? Describe.

5.4. Real-Time Collaboration -- Does your proposed solution allow for real-time collaboration by integrating with or supporting presence awareness, instant messaging, chat or Web conferencing? Describe how this is accomplished.

6.0 Workflow/BPM

6.1. General -- Does your proposed solution include capabilities for document/content routing?

6.2. Routing -- Explain how "work" and/or content is routed through a workflow. What are the different methods of routing — for example, rules-based routing, sequential routing and parallel routing?

6.3. Routing -- Explain the "rule-based triggers" that can be used in the workflow — for example, time, event, volume and user-defined.

6.4. Routing -- Which data can be used by the logic of the workflow routing processes?

6.5. Routing -- Can the content be routed by email and the Web? Describe the process and exactly what is routed — for example, files, indexes, links and URLs.

6.6. Process Design -- Can the workflow be graphically defined? Describe how workflow processes can be defined and built.

6.7. Process Design -- Explain the workflow development tools provided — for example, library of starter objects, workflow templates and a test environment.

6.8. Electronic Signature Support -- Does your product/proposed solution have the ability to associate electronic (digital) signatures with any file or event that is managed by the solution? Describe the capabilities of the proposed solution to manage digital signatures. How is this accomplished? If via third-party integration, specify which third-party products you support.

6.9. User Environment -- Describe the "inbox" functionality provided. How is "work" received and distributed?

6.10. User Environment -- Explain how documents can be reviewed and approved — for example, annotation capabilities, group review and approval, and electronic signatures.

6.11. E-Forms -- Do you have an e-forms application or integrate with a third-party e-forms application? Please provide details.

6.12. Analysis and Modeling -- Do you provide or have partnerships for business rules, process modeling analytics and reporting?

6.13. Analysis and Modeling -- Can the workflow be simulated prior to implementation? Describe the capabilities.

6.14. Reporting -- Can the product integrate with external reporting tools?

6.15. Audit Trails -- Is it possible to create an audit trail of all actions carried out on the workflow package?

6.16. Solution Accelerators -- Do you provide process templates or process frameworks that use a model-driven, declarative approach, rather than traditional procedural and workflow coding to accelerate the design and implementation of case management or other solutions?

7.0 Archiving

7.1. General -- Does your product/proposed solution have the ability to archive content? Describe how this is accomplished.

7.2. Content Archiving -- What content types does your product/proposed solution archive. For example, do you support report data, print streams, email, SAP data, static images, files, SharePoint content and so on?

7.3. Content Archiving -- Is the archiving component your own or a third-party offering?

7.4. Repository -- Do you have a separate repository for storing archived content? Or, does your archive solution use your core CM repository?

7.5. Purging -- Is document purging supported? Explain.

8.0 Architecture and Platforms

8.1. Architecture -- Describe how your product supports Web services or service-oriented architecture (SOA). If this is planned for a future release, please provide a timeframe for availability.

8.2. Standards -- Does your product support the JSR 170/JSR 283 standard? If yes, please describe how.

8.3. Standards -- Does your product/proposed solution support industry standards such as XACML, WEBDAV or CMIS? If yes, please describe its support.

8.4. Security Management -- Describe your security architecture and how your application handles security/access to content — definition, authentication and implementation.

8.5. Security Management -- Does your application support authentication (LDAP, NT Domains, Active Directory, please specify)? Describe how it supports this.

8.6. Audit Trails – Does the proposed solution create an audit trail of all actions taken in the system? Are standard reports produced? Can ad-hoc reports be run against audit trail data?

8.7. Integration -- Describe how suite integration is accomplished and what makes your product suite unique in terms of suite integration.

8.8. Application Development -- Describe the application development tools, programming languages, and APIs that enables the user to develop and customize their ECM applications.

8.9. APIs -- Describe your APIs. For example, do you provide a .NET API, a Java API and/or a Web services API?

8.10. Portal Integration -- Does your product provide integration with portals? If so, describe how your product integrates with the portal products (API, Web services or custom code). List which portals your product currently integrates with.

8.11. Microsoft Office Integration -- Does your product integrate with Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010? If yes, please describe how this integration is accomplished.

8.12. Application Integration -- Does your product provide any off-the-shelf (open API) integration capabilities with major ERP, HRM and CRM applications. Describe the specific APIs that you support for each system.

8.13. Application Development -- Which scripting languages does the system support or require?

8.14. Mobile Device Support -- Does the proposed solution support mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) for browsing the content repository, participating in review/approval workflows and/or capture images?

8.15. Reporting -- Does the proposed solution provide reporting capabilities? Describe these reporting capabilities, including, but not limited to, third-party reporting tool interfacing, types of reports (for example, preconfigured vs. ad hoc), statistical reports and exporting of reports.

9.0 Services and Support

9.1. Scanning Services – Describe your ability to provide outsourced scanning support, including your facility’s ability to receive and process OCFO-NO’s mail in a secured environment with personnel who have the required federal security clearances.

9.2. Performance Monitoring – Describe the method of performance monitoring that you perform on your offering.

9.3. Service Level Agreements -- What is your standard arrangement for:

· System support hours including physical access to servers

· Application support/help hours

· Uptime guarantee

· Number of outages per time period

9.4. System and Application support -- Describe the type of support that is available (e.g. help desk, email).

9.5. System and Application support -- How are software updates and upgrades rolled out? To what degree will business operations be disrupted?

10.0 Cloud Infrastructure

10.1. Cloud Provider -- Describe the ownership of physical assets and support responsibilities for the cloud infrastructure that hosts the ECM system (i.e. is the system hosted on a third-party cloud provider?)

10.2. Cloud location -- Where (geographic location) is your application physically hosted?

10.3. Backup and Redundancy -- Describe your data backup/system redundancy capabilities.

10.4. Software vendor -- Describe your relationship to the ECM application vendor.

10.5. Software vendor -- Describe your relationship to the scanning application vendor.

11.0 Security

11.1. SSAE-16 Type II -- Is the data center where the system is hosted SSAE II audited?

11.2. SSAE-16 Type II – Are the proposed scanning operations SSAE II audited?

11.3. DoD 5015.2 -- Is the ECM application DoD 5015.2-STD Certified for Records Management?

Describe how your solution is compliant with the following standards and requirements:

11.4. NIST FIPS 200 -- NIST FIPS 200: Minimum Security Requirements for Federal Information and Information Systems

11.5. NIST SP 800-53 -- NIST Special Publication 800-53: Recommended Security Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations

11.6. NIST FIPS 140-2 -- NIST FIPS 140-2: Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules Describe how your SaaS solution is meeting the guidelines established in:

11.7. NIST SP 800-146-1 -- NIST Special Publication 800-146-1: Cloud Computing Synopsis and Recommendations.

11.8. FedRAMP -- Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) Concept of Operations (CONOPS) document providing guidance on the adoption and use of cloud services.