Request_for_Information_1_23_18.pdf

Notice Type:

Sources Sought

Synopsis:

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) NUMBER: 70FA6018I00000001

FEMA/Federal Insurance Mitigation Administration (FIMA) – National Flood Insurance

Program (NFIP) Insurance Transformation Initiative Support Services

Anticipated NAICS Code: 524298

The purpose of this sources sought is for: 1) market research purposes for NFIP Insurance

Transformation Initiative Support Services in the field of flood insurance for the National Flood

Insurance Program (NFIP) within the Federal Insurance & Mitigation Administration (FIMA) under Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and 2) to invite interested vendors to an

Industry day for the subject procurement. See below for registration information.

The Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA) is a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which operates the Risk Management and Flood Insurance Directorates and the National Flood

Insurance Program (NFIP).

FEMA’s NFIP has been offering flood insurance coverage to homeowners, renters and businesses as protection against flood losses for almost fifty years. In return, local governments provide commitment to sound floodplain management and related flood disaster mitigation efforts. In addition to offering flood insurance, the duties of the NFIP include identifying communities’ flood risks, mapping and publishing Flood Insurance Rate Maps of those risks, helping communities meet floodplain management requirements, and communicating the benefits of flood insurance protection so that more disaster survivors are reimbursed for flood damage through the insurance mechanism, rather than through Federal disaster assistance funds.

In light of recent events, FEMA identified the following service gaps within the NFIP’s current flood risk rating approach: (1) policyholders didn’t understand their flood risk and (2) the relationship between risk and rate are often inconsistent between structures with similar risk.

Therefore, FIMA is redesigning and modernizing their current risk rating approach to address these service gaps and improve overall customer experience through the Risk Rating and Product

Redesign Program.

The Risk Rating and Product Redesign Program is being developed within FIMA’s Risk

Management Directorate, which delivers quality risk data, modeling and programs that increase the public’s awareness of risk across the range of natural hazards and leads to actions that reduce risk to life and property and Federal Insurance Directorate, which provides customer-focused flood insurance to help survivors and their communities effectively recover from flood events.

FEMA requires solutions that align with industry’s best practices and are proven, efficient, easy to implement and effective. To achieve this goal, the Risk Rating and Product Redesign

Program is being completed in three phases:

Phase 1 – Explore

• Development of a rating methodology “proof of concept”

• Evaluation of rating methodology using two geographies

Phase 2 – Build

• Development of new policy forms and test against new rating plan

• Scaling the rating methodology to national level

• Development of risk rating engine

Phase 3 – Finish

• Training of key program stakeholders

• Country-wide communications

• Delivery of new rating engine

FIMA has procured contractor support for risk rating and classification services to support

Phase-1 efforts to deliver accurate, cost-effective ratings of flood risk to property owners. FIMA has also recently procured contractor support for risk rating and policy forms development services to begin Phase-2.

FIMA is now engaging industry to determine what services will be required to support these efforts during Phase 3 – Finish. Upon completion of market research FIMA intends to contract for the support on a competitive basis.

The market research is for industry capabilities in the following areas:

Objective 1: NFIP Insurance Transformation Change Management and Organizational

Alignment

Objective 2: Training

Objective 3: Communications

Objective 4: Public Awareness Campaign

Objective 5: Integration

Objective 6: Support Services

Objective 7: Rate Engine Delivery

This sources sought is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the U.S. Government, nor will the U.S. Government pay for information solicited. The information from this notice will help the FEMA, Acquisition Operations

Division Mitigation Branch, plan their acquisition strategy; as well as providing input to

FIMA’s phase-3 requirements.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL, NO SOLICITATION

EXISTS AT THIS TIME.

It is anticipated this requirement will be within the anticipated North American Industry

Classification System (NAICS) code, 524298 All Other Insurance Related Activities. The small business size standard for this NAICS Code is $15.0M.

Responses should include your company’s capability statement. Oral Communications ARE

NOT acceptable in response to this notice. However, follow-up discussions /market research may be performed.

Responses should provide the following information:

A. Company Information (e.g. name, business address, point of contact, telephone number, e-mail address). Also include DUNS Number or CAGE Code;

B. Summarization of projects showing capabilities and past performance in the applicable areas and list relevant projects.

C. Statement of current business size status (ie HUBZone small business concern, service-disabled veteran-owned small business firm, 8(a) contractor, woman-owned small business, small business, or large business concern). Also business size in relation to the NAICS code size standards assigned to this acquisition.

D. Please disclose any Organizational Conflict of Interest concerns that you foresee at this time.

E. Responses are to discuss:

1. Upon consideration of the upcoming wholesale transformation of the NFIP presented during Industry Day and after reviewing the Background and Requirements document, please answer the following questions as they pertain to your expertise:

a. The Government’s Draft Requirements Document. The NFIP currently has in place multiple capabilities to support the upcoming risk rating and policy forms implementation and the successful Contractor(s) for this award, if any, will be responsible for working with and integrating existing systems and capabilities.

i. Do you see gaps in the Government’s draft requirements document?

ii. Which services would you recommend including?

iii. Please note that this RFI may result in zero, one, or multiple solicitations for services. Are there services that should be grouped together and others that should be separate?

iv. Alternatively, could one Contractor provide all the required services?

v. What is an appropriate scope or level of effort for a project like this?

What are the biggest cost drivers?

b. Change Management and Organizational Alignment

i. What are the most important aspects of success?

ii. What are the biggest challenges?

c. Rate and Policy Forms Implementation

i. How does industry approach introducing a new product to the market?

1. What are the most important aspects of success?

2. What are the biggest challenges?

ii. How does industry approach introducing major changes to a product’s rate or coverage?

1. What are the most important aspects of success?

2. What are the biggest challenges?

iii. How does industry manage legacy products or rating systems?

d. FEMA-owned Risk Rating Engine

i. What are you looking for in a rating engine and how do you use it in current business model?

ii. How do you envision a FEMA-provided Risk Rating Engine working within the current environment?

iii. How would you envision a FEMA-owned Risk Rating Engine interfacing with WYO and/or vendor systems?

iv. How would you envision a FEMA-owned Risk Rating Engine interfacing with the public?

v. What do you see as the biggest benefits of a FEMA-owned Risk Rating

Engine?

vi. What do you see as the biggest challenges of a FEMA-owned Risk Rating

Engine?

vii. What additional costs are associated with a FEMA-owned Risk Rating

Engine?

viii. How should the engine collect the information from the agents? Please describe the back-end processes.

e. Public Awareness Campaign and Communications

i. What are industry best practices for marketing new insurance products?

Specifically natural catastrophic events products?

ii. What is done currently to market the NFIP program?

iii. What are the biggest strengths and weaknesses of the NFIP’s current marketing strategy?

iv. How would you recommend the NFIP sell its new policy?

f. Training

i. What training occurs today (type, duration, frequency)? Conducted by

WYOs? Vendors? FEMA? Others?

ii. What level of training services will FEMA need to adopt if they own the risk rating engine?

g. Ongoing Support

i. How do WYO’s currently manage and support their agents?

Policyholders?

ii. What support will FEMA be responsible for if they maintain the risk rating engine?

2. Please highlight any experience implementing new risk rating approaches.

3. If applicable, please describe any previous experience helping the government or quasi-governmental entities develop insurance rating and policy forms.

4. Do you currently have a GSA schedule that would be able to provide the required services? If yes, please provide your GSA schedule.

Submission requirements:

1. Page limit – ten (10) pages (20 pages front and back) 8 ½ x 11 pages

2. 1 inch margins (top, bottom, and sides)

3. Times New Roman font – 12 point

4. Page limitation does not include: 1 cover page or 1 letter of introduction

5. Do not include promotional materials

Any proprietary information should be clearly marked.

To register for Industry Day, venders shall submit a request to Contracting Officer, David

Orris via email at David.Orris@fema.dhs.gov and the Contract Specialist, Renee Gardner via email at Renee.Gardner@fema.dhs.gov. Registration is required no later than 2:00 PM (EST)

January 30, 2018. The request shall include Vendor Name, Point of Contact (POC), phone number, and number or attendees.

Questions pertaining to this RFI are due to the Contracting Officer, David Orris, via email at

David.Orris@fema.dhs.gov and Contract Specialist, Renee Gardner via email at

Renee.Gardner@fema.dhs.gov no later than 2:00 PM (EST) February 7th (two days after the scheduled Industry Day). The subject line of the email shall contain the following: Questions for Sources Sought Notice70FA6018I00000001 – NFIP Insurance Transformation Initiative

Support Services.

Only electronic submissions (sources sought responses) will be accepted and are to be sent only to the Contracting Officer, David Orris, David.Orris@fema.dhs.gov and Contract Specialist, Renee Gardner, Renee.Gardner@fema.dhs.gov no later than 2:00 PM (EST) on

February 13, 2017. The subject line of the email shall contain the following: Response to

Sources Sought Notice 70FA6018I00000001 – NFIP Insurance Transformation Initiative

Support Services.

The Government tentatively intends to conduct a virtual industry day on February 5th from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. EST (link and dial-in to be determined) during this market research period to afford industry the ability to learn more about the Government’s needs within the Risk Rating Redesign Program after reviewing the draft requirements documents. Registration is required to participate. The industry day participants will include:

Prospective offerors WYOs Vendors Agents Other key stakeholders

All industry day participants are encouraged to provide feedback on the Government’s draft requirements documents via written response pursuant to this sources sought.

This Sources Sought is an advance notice for informational and acquisition strategy planning purposes only and is not a solicitation. In order to receive an award from any resultant solicitation, should one be issued, the successful offeror must be registered in the System for

Award Management (SAM). The SAM website is https://www.sam.gov.

This Sources Sought synopsis notice should not be construed in any manner to be an obligation to issue a contract, or result in any claim for reimbursement of costs for any effort you expend in responding to this request. No solicitation is currently available. Any future solicitation package will be made available on the Federal Business Opportunities (FBO) website https://www.fbo.gov. Interested parties are solely responsible for monitoring the FBO website for the release of a solicitation package and/or any updates/amendments.

The Government will NOT provide funding to the interested party or submitter in response to this notice. The Government will not pay for any costs incurred in preparing a response to this sources sought