TA-12_Digital_Svcs_Final_01052016.docx

TASK AREA 12 – Digital Services The objective of Task Area 12 is to support Government services provided through digital, electronic means by creating transparent interactions: Government to Citizens (G2C), Government to Business Enterprises (G2B) and interagency relationships, Government-to-Government (G2G).

Offeror shall provide support for the following Sub-Tasks:

Web Development, Management and Support Offeror shall support construction of new web-based systems and modifications made to existing systems following FSA standards.

Key focus areas include:

Construct new web-based systems and perform modifications to existing systems using current Government-approved platforms, such as: HTMP5, Open Source, Javascript, CSS-based frameworks, SAP, Java, .NET, COTS packages, or hybrids Responsible for all work products identified in the SDLC or otherwise specified in the individual task order Write or modify code using programming techniques or industry appropriate technologies and as required by the specific requirements of each task order

1. Deliver required SDLC artifacts, conduct quality reviews, code reviews, performance reviews Ensure code is designed and modified in compliance with FSA Farm Program performance standards as outlined in the Farm Program Software Quality Guidelines Develop web-based User Interfaces using FSA standards and supplemented by Farm Program standards, including the USDA Style Guide, FSA Style Guide

1. Ensure compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Implement automated build processes for Enterprise Archive (EAR) files for automated testing

1. Support other automation technologies (e.g. automated deployments into Java EE Server environment) Develop, document, and deliver code using the automated testing process and technologies, demonstrating at least 80% of internal code tested Develop and deliver the following SDLC artifacts during web development:

Developer Guides Detailed Deployment Plans All Source Code Test Scripts for Unit and Integration Testing Release Notes (where applicable) Support and Maintain all web applications, underlying database systems, and integration platforms to ensure required quality, performance and availability targets are achieved in accordance with FSA guidelines Collaboration Tools Offeror shall provide technical expertise to CIO to develop a comprehensive Collaboration Strategy internally to FSA, with FSA partners, and other agencies. In addition, offeror shall provide recommendations on collaboration tools, platforms and other supporting services to the FSA CIO to enhance collaboration and productivity of the FSA team.

Key focus areas include:

1. Develop, document and publish a Collaboration Strategy that supports full lifecycle for organizational content and Knowledge Artifacts (capturing, developing/storing, sharing and leveraging organizational knowledge), key collaboration types, available FSA tools, their role in collaboration strategy, and all supporting capabilities (e.g. Enterprise Search, Content Management, Portal Platforms, Records Management)

1. Recommend industry best practices and new cloud based SaaS offerings in the collaboration space, and their potential fit for FSA in future

1. Define and develop standard methods to provide collaboration capabilities to users through appropriate platforms (e.g. enterprise portals) aligned with the Agency’s role-based access control (RBAC) model

1. Identify available tools at FSA to facilitate collaboration and address potential gaps, relevant technology platforms and adoption strategy

1. Develop an overall architecture for core collaboration tools, supporting capabilities, content repositories, user access, and security

1. Assist FSA in implementing the Collaboration Strategy and architecture using recommended tools Develop and document policies and procedures to ensure control and governance on use of collaboration tools

1. Ensure compliance with regulatory and legal requirements for archiving records of communications and collaboration artifacts Electronic Commerce and Electronic Data Interchange Offeror shall provide technical and industry subject matter expertise to assist FSA to leverage electronics communication methods that provide standards for exchanging data through any electronic means and facilitate use of standards for FSA to conduct business with its suppliers, partners and customers.

Key focus areas include:

1. Define and Develop standard data formats for exchanging data between FSA and its suppliers and partners using industry standard formats such as XML

1. Develop integration architecture and system interface components to facilitate data exchange between FSA and its partners and customers using standards-based formats.

1. Leverage existing integration technologies for the purposes of system integrations

1. Based on FSA business requirements, develop a comprehensive specification for the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system that includes:

1. Volume of expected EDI traffic and IT infrastructure needed to support it

1. Capacity of internal FSA network infrastructure to support EDI data

1. Network connections necessary to manage traffic with FSA business partners

1. Programming required to ensure that internal systems comply with the data required by business partners and with EDI standards Amount of customization required to integrate internal and EDI systems Recommend EDI vendors, EDI Translator software components, and EDI Network providers to build out a fully supported EDI architecture and environment Perform development tasks for integrating EDI systems with existing corporate FSA applications.

Map the Data required by business partners and EDI standards onto data contained in existing systems Develop custom interfaces and integration components as needed to support the EDI environment and data integration architecture Knowledge Management (IT-Based Sharing/Storing of Agency Individuals’ Knowledge) Offeror shall provide subject matter and technical expertise to FSA to develop the Knowledge Management (KM) Strategy; align the strategy with available collaboration and content management tools and capabilities; and ensure distribution and sharing of knowledge artifacts across FSA based on user roles.

Key focus areas include:

1. Develop and publish the KM Strategy and definition to ensure common understanding of what is considered as ‘Knowledge,’ along with a full knowledge lifecycle for FSA (defining, capturing/storing, sharing, leveraging, archiving knowledge artifacts)

1. Align the KM Strategy with available collaboration tools to ensure knowledge can be shared across FSA community and with FSA partners

1. Leverage tools and capabilities to ensure content is shared in accordance with Agency’s data classification framework and policies

1. Develop integration interfaces and data exchange formats with content sources to ensure content is available in corporate knowledge repositories and FSA users can access the knowledge artifacts using corporate tools such as search engines and knowledge portals based on access control rules

1. Develop and maintain user interfaces (e.g. enterprise portals, intranet, SharePoint) to distribute knowledge artifacts through a central mechanism

1. Support capabilities such as Enterprise Search Document and follow a standard KM lifecycle for knowledge artifacts in accordance with Agency records management policy, compliance, and regulatory requirements IT –Enhanced Public Relations Offeror shall provide subject matter and technical expertise to assist FSA to leverage its IT environment, specifically social software (e.g. Linked-In, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) to release organizational messages and increase brand awareness to support the PR initiatives.

Key focus areas include:

1. Develop, document and implement integration architecture and methodology for integrating social software with FSA marketing, messaging and communication platforms

1. Define and implement business rules and best practices for publishing content through social media to ensure FSA is compliant with regulations, and industry standards

1. Provide systematic planning, implementing, monitoring, and revision services for all channels of communication within an organization and between organizations;

1. Organize and disseminate new communication directives connected with an organization, network, or communications technology

1. Support public sector marketing initiatives with marketing products and services to various government levels through integrated marketing communications techniques (e.g. strategic public relations, branding, , web-based communications) Provide governance and oversight over content that is published, shared and communicated through social software media Deep Web and Federated Searching Offeror shall provide technical expertise to support information retrieval technology that allows simultaneous search of multiple searchable resources (search engines); aggregate results; and present to the end-user.

Key focus areas include:

1. Make recommendations on the Enterprise Search platforms that fit with FSA needs, and develop adoption and integration strategy with FSA information collection and dissemination platforms

1. Develop appropriate data classification techniques and standards to ensure only authorized consumers are able to access the information based on the classification of content and consumer access roles

1. Develop integration components between search engine and FSA content repositories to ensure content is available to FSA users for sharing through centrally available platforms, such as intranet and portals

1. Identify additional content repositories (internal and external to FSA) and develop federation capabilities to integrate multiple search capabilities

1. Develop content indexing techniques and software components to ensure content is available for sharing and searching quickly through enterprise portals and other dissemination channels Develop reports to advise FSA IT management regarding organizational use of content, most searched content, search times, and performance of the search capabilities and trends across FSA for content searching and sharing Computational Linguistics and Machine-Based Translation Offeror shall provide SMEs and technical expertise to assist FSA statistical or rule-based modeling of natural language from a computational perspective. Offer shall draw upon experts (e.g. artificial intelligence, mathematicians, logicians, philosophers, cognitive scientists, cognitive psychologists, psycholinguists, anthropologists, neuroscientists).

Key focus areas include:

1. Develop and document key capabilities to support FSA requirements for linguistic and machine-based learning objectives (e.g. speech recognition, morphological analysis, tagging techniques); include objectives such as word classes and understanding different date formats

1. Develop, document and implement an architecture and software components necessary to facilitate Machine Translation through full or computer aided (human) translation techniques

1. Develop, document and manage a Machine Translation (MT) Dictionary that contains the business rules used for translations and word definitions leveraged by the MT applications and interfaces

1. Develop, document, and maintain linguistic knowledge architecture that documents source-to-target language mapping to support the MT components

1. Develop and build a Machine Learning Strategy by leveraging a MT capabilities and knowledge generated by the MT components Train FSA IT staff on use of MT architecture and software to build a roadmap of MT capabilities based on FSA priorities Interactive Marketing Offeror shall provide technical expertise to support an interactive marketing approach (versus transaction approach), allowing the ability to address an individual and gather and remember the responses of that individual, with the goal of engaging the individual in a more conversational manner. A common example is the use of preferences at e-commerce sites that reflect previous purchases.

Key focus areas include:

1. Perform analysis of customer data to understand trends and high-priority marketing channels critical to a successful interactive marketing strategy

1. Develop information models and develop integration interfaces with key strategic marketing channels, including social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)

1. Make recommendations on key data sources and strategy to leverage those sources for interactive marketing with a technical integration approach

1. Develop and deploy software components to integrate the data sources with marketing channels Develop and deliver periodic reports and statistics related to effectiveness of the strategy to FSA executive management

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