Sources Sought Notice.docx

Document Type: Sources Sought Notice Source Sought Number: AMD-SS-NB176000-24-00261_GL Title: Retirement and Benefits Software – Full Access Platform

General Information

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/ Office of Human Resource Management (OHRM) requires the procurement of a comprehensive commercial software as a service, specifically retirement and benefits software, able to service up to 6,000 unique employee profiles that is web-based, with capabilities to obtain data directly from a federal payroll provider. The 6,000 profiles will be for current NIST Employees and retirees up to, but not limited to, 5 years past their National Finance Center (NFC) recorded separation date, which includes death, resignation, removal, and retirement. Currently, NIST uses the data from the National Finance Center to accurately compute carious complex estimates needed in assisting employees with their retirement decisions. The purpose of the retirement and benefits software is to automatically calculate all types of Federal employee/survivor retirement benefits, provide retirement case management, auto-populate forms, and provide metrics and reports for employee profiles under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), Civil Service Retirement System Offset (CSRS-Offset), Federal Employees Retirement Systems (FERS/FERS-RAE/FERS-FRAE), the Federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), and the Social Security Administration (SSA) programs. In addition, NIST is seeking customer service support for the retirement and benefits software, and system deployment, adoption and training.

NIST requires software that also provides employees and HR Specialists auto populated forms, financial literacy/retirement planning information, educational tools, downloadable documents, and other educational content via media such as pamphlets, guides, checklists, videos, etc. Additionally, NIST is seeking software that will include internal tools for TSP calculations, SSA calculations, and for HR Specialists to make retirement coverage determinations and Federal Erroneous Retirement Coverage Corrections Act (FERCCA) determinations. HR Specialists must be able to view a federal employee's record within the software to assist employees inquiring about their federal retirement and benefits. The retirement and benefits software must be customizable to direct employees to third party contactors for multiple items.

Furthermore, NIST requires that the software generate the most current versions of retirement forms required for processing retirements and benefits that meet standards and guidance set forth by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Labor - Office of Workers' Compensation Program, Federal Employee Group Life Insurance (FEGLI), Thrift Savings Plan, National Finance Center (NFC) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The purpose of this sources sought is to obtain sources that can provide similar information using an alternate platform suggestion other than the GRB Platform.

Requirements NIST requires a commercial software that is web-based with capabilities to obtain data automatically from the National Finance Center (NFC) or any third party without agency intervention to accurately compute various complex estimates needed in assisting employees with their retirement decisions to include FERCCA.

1. The software shall be offered on a subscription basis, which allows unrestricted access for up to 6,000 unique employee profiles to all the features and functionality. This software will automate the entire retirement lifecycle to include providing estimates, computations, analysis, reporting tools, educational information, and automated forms for submission to the OHRM, NFC and ultimately, the OPM. The system shall comply with all NIST, NFC and OPM requirements for retirements and system security requirements.

2. The Contractor shall provide a full software platform with an integrated suite of web-based software modules into a common system which combines tools and capabilities for federal human resource specialists, managers, and employees. This software platform shall provide HR Specialists with a suite of tools for assisting employees with their retirement decisions, in which increases productivity and lowers cost by providing the framework for organizing and managing a high-volume caseload. The software platform must contain an interface used to communicate with NFC, third-party providers, and any outside parties as required. The software platform must have a moderate or higher IT Security certification.

3. The retirement and benefits software must be capable of using and protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), which will be provided through the Federal payroll system, currently the NFC. NFC serves as the data collection point for employment and compensation data. Only pertinent CUI that is necessary to accurately compute retirement estimates will be extracted from NFC.

4. The retirement and benefit software shall have robust security where any system downtime shall not exceed 48 hours. If system downtime is going to persist beyond 24 hours, the Contractor shall notify the Government of scheduled system downtime in writing. The software shall be accessible to users 24/7.

5. The retirement and benefits software must provide the entire menu of computational functionalities, retirement calculators, system reports, system connectivity, IT Security, auto populated forms, training modules, and customer service support listed below. Licensing for this software will grant up to 6,000 unique profiles access to the following features:

(See section below table for additional information.)

Average Salary Computations

Create various reports to include:

The software must have a comprehensive and context-sensitive automated help system. The automated help system must cover all application tools and functions, as well as reference any governing policy. In addition, it must include a tutorial that is accessible by employees and HR Specialists. The software must be updated to incorporate calculation and policy changes released by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management annually and/or when legislative changes have been implemented.

In regard to FERRCA calculations, the retirement benefits software must:

i. Analyze employee service histories and identify where there are retirement coverage error(s);

ii. Create canned FERCCA determination packages based on OPM guidance that

· Create FERCCA determination worksheets;

· Create eligibility letters for each type of error - mandatory correction or election opportunity;

· Prepare Out-of-Pocket (OOP) Expense letters to include OPM's OOP Guidelines.

iii. Create detailed comparisons of total retirement benefits packages (Federal Annuity, Social Security benefits, TSP, survivor benefits, COLAs, etc.) under CSRS, CSRS Offset and FERS for which the employee has an election opportunity, and;

· Include information about FERS annuity supplements and CSRS Offset amounts if applicable.

6. Historical Data Transfer The Contractor must transfer historical data to the software. The Contractor will review all historical data profiles from the current calculator, which contains approximately 2,736 current/former employee profiles, and transfer the current employee profiles to the software. The Contractor must determine which profiles in the former software are separated employees from 2018 to present, then transfer those profiles to the software. The Contractor must retain all separated profiles that were active as of January 1, 2018 and later in its software. Any historical profiles older than December 31, 2017 will be archived by the Contractor in a searchable database.

Historical data consists of information such as federal employment/service history, military time, determinations of whether the employee was full-time or part-time during specific periods, status of Federal Employee Government Life Insurance (FEGLI), Federal Employee Health Benefits (FEHB), high three years of salary, etc.

The Contractor is responsible for transferring historical data into software and ensuring that data errors negatively impacting employees and retirees through delayed response times and/or miscalculations do not occur. The Contractor will be responsible for data integrity and validation of all identified historical data records identified by NIST.

7. Case Management System The retirement and benefits software will include an integrated case management system designed specifically for organizing and tracking a high-volume workload. Each employee profile shall provide detailed information such as when requests are initiated, type of request(s), the current workflow step, the assigned specialist name, and the open/closed status. The software shall include a request and response feature for employees requesting assistance. The system's case tracking shall automatically create a new case with a predefined workflow. The system shall provide the ability to edit the workflow status of the case, add notes to the case, and attach documents to the case which will support the HR Specialist in completing the task at hand. The system shall also allow for the administrator to filter functionality for a view of overall or individual case load, as well as the ability to re assign cases as necessary. The Contractor shall provide the capability to source and generate reports from historical data, such as estimates, service computation date and retirement cases.

8. Retirement Application Preparation and Processing The Contractor shall provide software that provides financial literacy to NIST employees through printable informational pamphlets, written documents, and videos contained in the software. The software shall be compatible with NIST requirements and will allow NIST employees to access the software, create fillable forms, electronically sign all forms using their PIV Card, and submit an electronic retirement package in PDF format to the HR Specialist. HR Specialists will use the software to create packages ready for submission to the NFC and OPM. The software must be able to automatically populate, edit, print, and electronically submit information in various Government forms.

Contracting Office Address

Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640

NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 513210 Software Publishers, as those domestic sources having less than $47M. Please include your company’s size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice.

Instructions to Responders

Interested parties that have the capabilities to meet the Government’s requirements with alternative platform suggestion shall email their capability statement/platform information of no more than 10 pages, describing their abilities to meet all requirements to gina.lee@nist.gov no later than the response date of December 20, 2023, 8:00 a.m. EST for this sources sought notice. The report should include relevant information to your capabilities including any requirements that cannot be met or is deemed close to but not meeting an identified requirement.

Also, the following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice:

1. Name of company(ies), their addresses, and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, fax number and email address) that provide the services for which specifications are provided.

2. Indication if the company(ies) are small business and/or any other social economic category(ies). Please highlight if company is an 8(a) and/or owned by an Alaska Native Corporation, Indian Tribe, Native Hawiian Organization, Community Development Corporation; HUBZONE, SDVOSB, EDWOSB or WOSB.

3. Indication of whether the services required are currently on one or more GSA Schedule (i.e. Multiple Award Schedules [MAS]) contracts and, if so, the GSA MAS contract number(s).

4. Indication if the company(ies) can provide all, or some, of the services.

5. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in developing its minimum specifications and finalizing its market research.