B02 Attachment A_Statement of Objectives.docx

Attachment A -- Statement of Objectives

A.1 Objective The objective of the STRATUS Pool 3 Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) is to obtain access to a breadth of commercial Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in support of the USDA mission and goals. The BOA will support the following goals:

1. Enterprise SaaS procurement approaches to achieve cost efficiency.

2. Rapid, easy access to multiple SaaS offerings.

3. Organizational visibility into license management, usage analysis, software auditing, data management and ownership.

4. Secure access and use of SaaS with capability “baked in” for cyber hygiene, threat awareness, and testing, with FedRAMP designations as applicable.

For USDA to achieve the vision, objectives and goals of the STRATUS program, industry partners must be able to provide secure cloud SaaS solutions that leverage commercial best practices that achieve results through continuous capability enhancements, minimal downtime, prompt response to emerging needs, demonstrated reliability and availability, and optimized performance with minimized resource utilization.

All SaaS will be considered commercial products or services and must be provided using commercial best practices and industry standards. The Contractor shall ensure each SaaS offering provided meets or exceeds the commercially advertised level or published SLA. The Contractor shall not limit or otherwise restrict the ability of the USDA or its authorized customers to access, download, or otherwise retrieve, partially or in full, data from the provided cloud services.

While forecasted requirements are to be included in Task Orders (TOs), the contractor shall support emergent needs and ensure room for innovation and change to take place as solutions evolve. New capabilities, targeted professional services, or strategic training may be included in TOs to support needs. The Contractor shall provide qualified personnel as necessary with relevant experience and domain knowledge in line with TO requirements. For example, the Contractor may be required to support cybersecurity requirements, USDA communities of practice and knowledge sharing, as well as periodic requirements and license analysis to ensure TOs provide appropriate license types and quantities.

Pool 3 BOA awardees may include a SaaS provider, e.g. “OEM” developer, or an authorized reseller or distributor. An authorized reseller is an entity that has been explicitly authorized by the SaaS provider to act as an authorized agent or intermediary to offer, negotiate, and sell the SaaS provider’s services. Authorized resellers shall be responsible for immediately notifying the Contracting Officer regarding any changes to the relationship (e.g., business, contractual) between the authorized reseller and SaaS provider (e.g., no longer an authorized reseller).

USDA intends to utilize Pool 3 to mature its enterprise approach to commonly used SaaS offerings. The Contractor shall provide pricing and discounting mechanisms to ensure USDA achieves best value use of taxpayer funds, regardless of whether a consolidated enterprise TO is issued for a particular SaaS. As one example, the Contractor may offer and propose utilization-based discounts, at the TO award level, that allows authorized ordering entities to earn utilization-based discounts in one Period of Performance (PoP) and apply those discounts to the next PoP (e.g., option period) for SaaS.

As USDA’s enterprise SaaS buying approaches evolve, the agency will be leveraging opportunities to “True-Down” or reduce software licensing throughout the organization and “True-Up” to increase licenses as they are needed. These activities and options must be available not only at TO award but prior to exercising each option year throughout the life of the BOA and resulting TOs. All licensing purchased will be considered USDA licensing and can be used by any USDA agency or DISC customer, as applicable. As OCIO works to establish enterprise economies of scale, specific SaaS will be designated as “enterprise” and will be purchased on a centralized TO. This list will be maintained by OCIO. Any non-enterprise wide TO, regardless of award date, should align with a license end date of end of May, unless otherwise specified by USDA. This alignment will significantly reduce complexity if/when demand for such software rises to the level of a centralized enterprise buy.

To the maximum extent possible, TO responses must identify specific (or assumed) IaaS or PaaS dependencies or required APIs from other vendors and any pricing impacts. Unless otherwise specified at the TO level, all SaaS procured under Pool 3 are expected to have published, standard APIs, as well as a knowledge base for interface connectivity and exchanging data.

The Contractor shall provide access to user-friendly visibility of current SaaS capabilities, which may take the form of a catalog. However, a static list is not required at the BOA level. TO specific requirements may also include provider/reseller advisory professional services or training support.

The initial Pool 3 awards will cover a broad suite of capabilities; however, it is anticipated that new SaaS offerings will be added throughout the BOA PoP to address evolving enterprise needs. Pool 3 SaaS contractors are expected to provide breadth of coverage as much as possible, i.e. provide access to multiple SaaS requested by USDA at the TO level. USDA understands the coverage range may vary from only one SaaS offering per BOA awardee to all requested SaaS offerings for some BOA awardees. At all times throughout the BOA PoP, USDA intends to create an environment of TO competition and flexibility for Mission Areas and other authorized customers.

A.2 Pricing A.2.1 General Requirements The following specify the requirements on pricing models and discounts:

a) The prices for all services under this pool shall be based on percentage discounts off the SaaS established commercial list unit prices, unless otherwise agreed to.

b) The discounts may vary by type of services, product category, individual product/SKU or by any other structure or a combination of structures the Contractor chooses to utilize.

A.2.2 Discount Methodologies The following specify the requirements on calculating and application of discounts:

a) The Contractor shall provide tiers/banding thresholds and discounts for each tier/band; however, the Contractor has flexibility to provide other innovative pricing frameworks and is encouraged to do so. Each Contractor defines their own tiers/banding and there is no intent to normalize these tiers/bands between the Contractors.

b) The component of discount that is based on the business volume shall be based on the aggregate demand/consumption across all STRATUS task orders under an individual BOA, including those held by DISC, other OCIO organizations, MAs, and outside agencies. The addition of a new task order or increase in business volume of existing task orders will contribute to reaching a potential next threshold.

c) Adjusted discounts and associated changes in net unit prices shall be communicated with DISC and the task order owners when they occur.

A.2.3 Pricing Data At the TO level, as applicable, the Contractor shall provide the percentage discount structure in one or more tables that remain readily available and updated annually.

A.3 Performance Management and Service Level Agreement Requirements

The Offeror shall provide SaaS-specific SLAs at the TO level, as applicable. TO-level SLAs may include, but are not limited to:

a) A set of services the Contractor will deliver.

b) A complete, specific definition of each service.

c) The responsibilities of both parties (provider and consumer).

d) A set of metrics to determine whether the Contractor is delivering the service as promised.

e) An auditing mechanism to monitor the service.

f) The remedies available to both parties if the terms of the SLA are not met.

g) A description of how the SLA will change over time.

h) A mechanism to track SaaS license usage or utilization.

RFQ #12314423Q0144 STRATUS Pool 3 SaaS Page 1 of 3 Attachment A: Statement of Objectives