693KA8-23-RFI-INVERSE-01.pdf

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Contract Opportunity Announcement

SAM.gov

Notice ID: 693KA8-23-RFI-INVERSE-01

Title: Invoice Validation and Expense Reconciliation Services (INVERSE)

Issue Date: 24 August 2023

Response Date: 15 September 2023

Contracting Officer: Mary Johnson

Maria Ashby

This Market Survey / Request for Information (RFI) is issued in accordance with the Federal

Aviation Administration (FAA) Acquisition Management System (AMS) Section T3.2.1.2.1

Market Research and Analysis. Interested parties are advised that:

This is not a Screening Information Request (SIR) or Request for Proposal (RFP);

The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals;

Any costs associated with responding to this Market Survey/RFI are incurred solely at the interested party’s expense;

FAA, at its sole discretion, may contact one, some, all, or none of the respondents to the

Market Survey/RFI to request additional information;

This Market Survey/RFI and any follow-up inquiries by the Government are for informational purposes only and do not constitute a promise or obligation of future business with the FAA; and

Vendors responding to this Market Survey/RFI are not required to participate in any future RFIs, market surveys, or SIRs related to this requirement, if any are issued.

1. Purpose

The purpose of this Market Survey/RFI is to assess capabilities within the commercial marketplace to provide telecommunications invoice review and reconciliation services for the

FAA Telecommunications contracts such as FAA Enterprise Services (FENS) contract and FAA

Enterprise Infrastructure Solutions (EIS) Task Orders.

2. Background

The FAA requires telecommunications invoice review and reconciliation services to support the prompt payment of invoices for telecommunications services. The FAA currently obtains telecommunications invoice review and reconciliation services for the FTI contract and FAA/EIS task orders through FAA’s Invoice and Financial Management Services (IFMS) with Peraton, contract number DTFA01-02-C-00206. FTI is being phased-out and will be succeeded by FAA

Enterprise Network Services (FENS). The review and reconciliation of FENS invoices represents a new requirement since the invoice formats and contents will differ from FTI. The FAA also reserves the right to include the invoices for other telecommunications services contracts in the scope of INVERSE.

The FENS contract was awarded to Verizon Business Network Services in March 2023 and it will have a 15-year period of performance if all options are exercised. INVERSE services will be required from the initial implementation of FENS telecommunications services (projected for the fourth quarter of calendar year 2024) through contract close-out. The EIS contract has a period of performance from 31 July 2017 through 30 July 2032. Based on a “Fair Opportunity” conducted by the FAA, AT&T is the service provider for the FAA under EIS.

Sample electronic formats for FENS and EIS invoices are provided as Attachments 2 and 3 to this Market Survey/RFI.

To avoid actual or perceived conflicts of interest, the INVERSE contractor cannot have a business relationship with the telecommunications carriers providing services under FENS and

EIS.

3. Description of Requirement

The FAA requires services to support the automated review and reconciliation of telecommunications invoices submitted under the FENS and FAA EIS Task Orders and possibly other contracts through which the FAA obtains telecommunications services. While some elements of the invoices may be based on industry standard formats such as Carrier Access

Billing System (CABS) and Consolidated Billing Account (CBA), a significant portion of the invoices will consist of unique contract specific Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) based charges.

The level of effort on the INVERSE contract will be a function of the number of services ordered, the number of CLINs per order, the number of discrepancies identified, and other factors. Approximate projection of services are 30,000 services per month on FENS and 24,000 services per month on FAA/EIS Task Orders.

In addition, as part of the review and reconciliation of telecommunications invoices, the invoice charges must be mapped to the appropriate accounting codes for payment. The FAA’s telecommunications invoices include Service Level Agreement (SLA) credits and other adjustments that must be validated for accuracy. Requirements may include but not limited to:

Invoice Review and Reconciliation – Review all invoices submitted by the FENS and

FAA EIS contractor to ensure that invoiced items and the associated charges are consistent with the current active service orders and quantities, contractual prices, and service credits due. Identify and notify the FAA of any discrepancies. Coordinate the resolution of discrepancies with the FENS and FAA EIS contractor and notify the FAA of the outcome of the discrepancy resolution process.

Payment Reconciliation – Based on government provided payment rules, provide government with detailed payment record of accounting codes used for each invoice and review government accounting reports to ensure that specific charges were expensed to the appropriate accounting and appropriation accounts. Identify discrepancies and required account adjustments.

Budget Forecasting, Tracking, and Analysis – Track all FENS and FAA EIS charges by accounting and appropriation code, type of funds, and fiscal year of funds. Compare the actual expenses to the amount of funds budgeted and obligated for the associated services. Develop projections of future costs and advise the FAA of potential variances between obligations and projected costs.

Report Generation - Establish and maintain a secure, on-line repository of all order, invoice, and financial data received as inputs and generated as outputs in the performance of the INVERSE contract. The on-line repository must be capable of generating pre-defined and ad hoc reports.

Data Tracking and Analysis – Conduct analyses of invoice data, associated funding and usage data to identify trends and cost drivers. Prepare cost forecasts and advise the FAA of potential issues.

Security Management – Provide the requisite security measures to interface with FAA systems, ensure data integrity, and protect FAA data from unauthorized access.

Programmatic and Technical Support – Provide other programmatic and technical support to the FAA as specifically tasked. Support may include such items as participation in FENS program reviews, service improvement meetings, and technical interchange meetings.

Program Management – Manage the INVERSE contract to ensure that all required functions are performed according to the program schedule and within the allocated cost.

Conduct program status reviews and participate in technical interchange meetings related to the INVERSE.

4. NAICS Code

The FAA anticipates designating one of the two North American Industry Classification System

(NAICS) codes to INVERSE:

541618 Other Management Consulting Services

541690 Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services

Both possible NAICS codes have a size standard of $19M in average annual receipts with no limit on the number of employees.

5. Questions / Requests for Information

Each respondent to this Market Survey/RFI is requested to provide the following information:

a. Company Information: Company Name, DUNS number and CAGE Code, Universal

Reference Locator (URL) for the company’s website, company point-of-contact (POC), and

POC phone number and e-mail address.

i. Indicate whether your company qualifies as a small business relative to each NAICS code identified in Section 4 of this Market Survey/RFI.

ii. If you qualify as a small business relative to at least one of the NAICS codes in

Section 4 of this Market Survey/RFI, please indicate if you have any specific designation such as 8a, HubZone, Woman-owned Small Business (WOSB), Service-

Disabled Veteran-owned Small Business (SDVOSB), etc.

b. Capability information associated with the INVERSE requirements identified in Section 3 of this Market Survey/RFI:

i. Who are your clients for whom you provide or have provided invoice review and reconciliation services for?

ii. Describe your method for the recovery of costs associated with providing invoice review and reconciliation services, e.g., fixed monthly cost, volume-based, performance-based incentives, etc.

iii. What is the maximum dollar value of invoices you have processed for a single client in a month?

iv. What is the maximum number of services you have processed on a single monthly invoice for a particular client?

v. Are the invoices CLIN-based or based on a specific carrier billing standard? If based on carrier billing standards, which ones?

vi. Describe the processes utilized to validate the invoice.

vii. Do monthly invoices that you review include SLA credits? If so, describe the processes utilized to validate the SLA credits.

viii. Describe the software utilized for invoice validation including whether the software was custom built or COTS-based software. If COTS-based, provide the name of the product(s) and indicate the extent to which modifications have been made.

ix. Describe your company’s experience resolving discrepancies found during the invoice review.

x. Describe your company’s experience with working with the Electronic Data

Interchange (EDI) formats provided in Attachments 2 and 3 to this Market

Survey/RFI.

c. Identify any items not listed in 5(b) that the Government should consider in finalizing its market research and acquisition strategy.

d. Please provide any comments and feedback on the draft Statement of Work for INVERSE to better align with industry best practices and/or to minimize or eliminate the need for software development.

6. Industry Responses

Responses to this Market Survey/RFI must be in writing and are limited to fifteen (15) pages.

Feedback on the INVERSE Draft SOW (item 5d) does not count towards the 15 pages.

Respondents must address each question individually and provide specific details rather than high-level descriptions to the extent practicable within the page limit.

Responses must be submitted via e-mail to the FAA Contracting Officer Maria.J.Ashby@faa.gov by 4:00 pm Eastern Time on 15 September 2023.

Documents or files submitted must be compatible with MS Office 365. No other form of submission will be accepted. Any company proprietary information submitted must be clearly marked as such. Any information submitted in response to this Market Survey/RFI will not be returned. Responses will be reviewed by U.S. Government employees and a limited number of

Government support contractors working under non-disclosure agreements.

Written questions related to this Market Survey/RFI must be submitted via e-mail to the FAA

Contracting Officer listed above by 4:00 pm Eastern Time on 15 September 2023. No telephonic inquiries will be accepted.

Attachment 1: Draft INVERSE Statement of work

Attachment 2: FENS Invoice Requirements

Attachment 3: DRAFT FAA EIS EDI File Format

(End of Announcement) mailto:Maria.J.Ashby@faa.gov