Response to Questions - Comprehensive.doc

1. What are the dimensions of the historical data? What are the dimensions of the monthly data going forward? Can you provide the approximate number of records and size in GB?

The raw historical data as submitted by the participating banks for account level and portfolio level data combined requires a total of approximately 21 terabytes of uncompressed disk space storage. Historical resubmitted data requires an additional 500 gigabytes of uncompressed disk space storage.

The growth rate of the raw monthly data submitted by the banks requires about 502 gigabytes of uncompressed disk space storage.

For retrieval purposes the data is stored in a relational database. In its current structure, the account level data from January 2008 to July 2011 represents a total record count of approximately 22,490,467,000. The portfolio data from 1Q2008 to 2Q2011 is represented by 908 records. The credit bureau attributes from 1Q2009 to 2Q2011 are represented by approximately 3,421,059,000 records.

2. Approximately how many analysts do you expect to access the web-based portal? From what locations?

As indicated in the Performance Work Statement, “The website shall support a minimum of 50 concurrent users”.

The solution shall be scalable to support an unlimited number of named users with logins authorized to access the website. 100 named users for the proposed solution shall be included in the firm-fixed price. As indicated, any additional user licenses required for the proposed solution in excess of 100 named users shall be specified.

Access shall not be limited by location as long as the appropriate user credentials, browser, and internet connection are available.

3. Section 5.3 Task 3: What is your estimate of the amount of data that will need to be stored and queried within the scope of this implementation? This could potentially impact how we would architect the database to enhance the performance of the system.

See response to (Question 1)

4. Section 5.5 Task 5: The document requires that the website shall support a minimum of 50 concurrent users. Depending on what tasks the users are performing could impact the performance of the solution. For example, if all 50 users were simultaneously trying to initiate a model validation of the entire data set, the solution will undoubtedly be very task-burdened. Are you looking at this from more of a general perspective of whether our firewall could handle more than 50 users or is there some implied performance metric that is tied to this number as well?

The OCC expects the proposed solution to support up to 50 concurrent users (performing a single or several different tasks) with no impact on performance.

5. What is the volume of data that is currently being received (section 1.0)?

See response to (Question 1)

6. Can you please provide the specifics for the existing system (section 3.0)? (OS, Database and reporting)

The existing system is provided under a service contract with an industry data aggregator and was developed using modern technology. The legacy systems used by the incumbent are proprietary. Offerors shall propose a system architecture that will meet the requirements of the Performance Work Statement.

7. What is the archival strategy for data collected (section 3.0)?

The storage and archival strategy utilized by the incumbent is provided under a services contract developed using industry best practices. Offerors shall propose a methodology that will meet the requirements of the Performance Work Statement.

8. What is the current format (i.e. text, csv, xls) in which banks are providing data (section 5.1)?

In order to minimize burden, banks currently submit their data to the incumbent in a variety of formats, with mutual consent of the incumbent vendor, depending on the capabilities of the individual bank internal systems.

9. Please confirm our assumption: If any changes are required on Bank's side for providing data, it will be done by the bank (section 5.1).

The PWS states that “The Contractor will not be responsible for developing, modifying or fixing any deficiencies noted in the participating bank systems”. However, the Contractor shall notify the OCC of such findings through status reports discussed in Section 5.10.4.”

10. Please confirm our assumption: Banks will be doing changes to provide credit card data from single and/or disparate information systems based on the banks' information systems (section 5.1).

As detailed in the Performance Work Statement, the Contractor shall, “Collect credit card data from single and/or disparate information systems based on the banks’ information systems.” The Contractor shall work with the banks to achieve data submission compliance. If changes to internal systems are required, “The Contractor will not be responsible for developing, modifying or fixing any deficiencies noted in participating bank systems.”

11. What is the role hierarchy of OCC that needs to be provided in the reporting site (section 5.5)?

Offerors shall propose a technical solution that utilizes modern technology to meet all reporting requirements in the Performance Work Statement.

12. Is the application required to support any browsers other than Microsoft Internet Explorer (section 5.5.1)?

No. Compatibility is only required with Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 7 and higher.

13. What are the formats in which the reports are expected to be exported (section 5.5.5)?

The offeror shall propose a technical solution that utilizes modern technology to meet all reporting requirements in the Performance Work Statement.

14. Are there any predefined performance SLA's available for the analysis tool? Or, will they need to be defined mutually (section 5.5.6)?

Performance SLA’s will be defined mutually with the Contractor based on the technology used to implement the proposed solution.

15. Is OCC open to "train the trainer" concept or only end user training is expected (section 5.9)?

The training requirement in section 5.9 is for end user instructor led training provided by the Contractor.

16. In what format will the "Government furnished information" will be available (section C.8)?

This response is based on the assumption that this question is referring to the historical data previously collected by the incumbent. Government-furnished information will be provided in a delimited text format. To the extent possible, the OCC will work with the selected Contractor to provide the data in a different, mutually agreed upon format.

17. Please confirm our assumption: The historical data being provided will be complete (will not have gaps) to support the requirements described in PWS (section F.2).

The historical data will include all reporting periods. However, there may be instances where resubmissions of data for reporting periods previously collected by the incumbent will be necessary. Such resubmissions may be required to address data quality issues or missing data within give set of accounts.

At the OCC’s discretion, one or more of the currently participating banks may be replaced by another bank or banks. In such cases, historical data collections may be required for reporting period earlier than the contract award date from these banks.

18. Will test data be made available for the potential demonstrations in November and for development and testing prior to the Base Period award?

Test data will not be provided by the OCC.

19. Given that there is not a guarantee of award prior to the demonstration, is it acceptable that the potential demonstration in November will be of a subset of reports and functionality?

Deadlines for production ready reports and system functionality are detailed in the Performance Work Statement. However, if demonstrations are held, the Contractor should ensure that their proposed solution for reporting and system functionality is presented in a sufficiently representative manner.

20. Are there any specific regulatory reporting requirements the Contractor must support?

Any report required by the OCC pursuant to the requirements in the Performance Work Statement shall by provided by the Contractor.

21. What is the requirement for retention of standardized reports? Is accessibility to the history or archive of reports a requirement?

Only standardized reports populated using the most current design of a given standard report need to be available and/or maintained. Offeror’s proposed solution shall allow for access to all standardized reports rendered with content for any bank(s) that participated in the data collection for a given reporting period.

22. How often is the data quality reporting and benchmarking exercise required? Quarterly?

Frequency and delivery dates for both standardized reports and reports of an administrative nature are detailed in the Performance Work Statement.

23. What happens if a bank does not submit on time?

The Contractor shall work with the bank and the OCC to ensure that any obstacles for a given bank to report on time are mitigated. However, the Contractor shall not be held responsible for banks that do not submit for reasons beyond the Contractor’s control.

24. Is there a requirement to keep a log of data (eg quality, technical, etc.) issues?

See section 5.10.1 of the Performance Work Statement.

25. What are the banks responsibilities for managing and ensuring data quality?

Submissions from banks are expected to be of high data quality. However, as detailed in the Performance Work Statement, it is the responsibility of the Contractor to validate the data submitted by the banks in terms of compliance with the OCC’s data definitions. If data quality issues are identified with a bank’s submission, a resubmission with corrected data may be required at the direction of the COTR.

26. Are there specific development methodologies, tools or processes to which the Contractor must adhere?

Offerors shall propose methodologies and tools which will meet the requirements of the Performance Work Statement.

27. Is the Contractor required to keep an on-line data dictionary or metadata repository of all current elements and new elements?

No. Providing an online data dictionary or metadata repository is not a requirement within the scope of the Performance Work Statement.

28. Is the Contractor required to provide updated definitions? If so, how often?

As stated in the Performance Work Statement, “As additional supervisory requirements are defined, additional data elements or portfolio types may be added to the scope of data collection and validation. Any additional data elements and portfolio types added to the data collection and valuation by the request of the COTR will be considered within the scope of this requirement and included in the firm-fixed price.”

In the event that existing definitions need to be changed or that new data elements are added, the OCC may consult with the Contractor, but final decisions on any definition language reside with the OCC.

29. What are the disaster recovery requirements? Is full redundancy required?

Offerors shall include a proposed disaster recovery plan in the Data Management Plan. As stated in the RFP, the Data Management Plan shall, “Describe plans for emergency response backup operations, and post-disaster recovery to ensure the availability of critical information resources and continuity of operations in emergency situations.”

30. Ad Hoc Data extracts are due within 1 day of request. Does this apply to very complex queries as well?

The OCC requires that the proposed solution allow for any data extract requests to be completed in one business day after a request from the OCC. At the OCC’s discretion, if there is flexibility with the timeline of a given request, the OCC will work with the Contractor to determine a mutually agreed upon deadline.

31. Are there any formal Service Level Agreements (SLAs)? (except those stated in this document)?

No. However, any additional performance SLA’s will be defined mutually with the selected Contractor based on the technology utilized to implement the proposed solution.

32. For the training sessions: are the materials, travel, etc. included in the award OR are these reimbursable outside of the award?

Training materials and all other tasks associated with providing training shall be included in the firm-fixed price.. Travel costs (airline tickets, lodging and meals) will be covered under the Travel CLIN.

33. Do materials like the data management plan, data models, SQL, etc. need to be accessible by users? Or can the Contractor maintain them (separately) and provide them on request?

Unless the required schedule for submission of an individual item is defined in the Performance Work Statement, the Contractor may maintain these materials separately and will provide them upon request to the COTR.

34. What test data is available for dev and testing prior to announcement of the award?

See response to Question 19.

35. What is the monthly volume of new data, by record count, file count, megabytes, and # of banks and other data sources?

See response above (Question 1) for sizing.

36. What is the method of data transfer? Secure FTP?

Offerors shall propose a technical solution which will support the secure transfer of FISMA moderate data and to satisfy all requirements in the Performance Work Statement.

37. What is the current database size in megabytes, what is the actual # of databases, how many tables are in each database, and can you provide the schema?

See response above (Question 1) for sizing. The existing solution is under service contract and the internal architecture is proprietary to the incumbent Contractor. The respondent shall propose a technical solution that utilizes modern technology to satisfy all requirements in the Performance Work Statement.

38. What standard reporting tools does OCC use and license and can we leverage the existing OCC infrastructure?

As indicated in the Performance Work Statement., “The Contractor shall provide and maintain the technology used to complete the tasks as set forth”.

Offerors shall propose a technical solution that utilizes modern technology to satisfy all requirements in the Performance Work Statement.

39. What are the DR requirements? Is it assumed that full redundancy is required by the SLA? What test data is available for dev and testing prior to announcement of the award?

The response shall include the offerors proposed disaster recovery plan in the Data Management Plan. As stated in the RFP, the Data Management Plan shall “Describe plans for emergency response backup operations, and post-disaster recovery to ensure the availability of critical information resources and continuity of operations in emergency situations.”

Test data will not be provided by the OCC.

40. Are there any obligations to support systems, including the website built by the current/previous contractor?

No. There are no requirements or obligations to maintain or support any software or hardware solutions built by the incumbent Contractor.

41. What is the contract duration? And when will the contract be awarded?

See paragraph F.1, page 23 of the solicitation for the contract duration and award date.

42. Will banks provide data on only new originations by the “as of date” or will they provide updates to existing credit card accounts as well? Does OCC require the Contractor to provide model results (probability of default/credit losses) as of only the date the account enters the database, or on a monthly basis going forward?

The scope of account level data to be submitted each month by banks is detailed in the OCC’s Field Definitions (Attachment 1 of the RFP).

Requirements for individual ad hoc or reoccurring modeling tasks will be provided by the COTR and will be developed based on the specific needs of the OCC.

43. Are deadlines for submission of portfolio level data, data quality reports and other deliverables negotiable with the OCC?

No

44. Will there be a transitional phase from the current 3rd party aggregator to the Contractor, and can legacy systems used by the 3rd party aggregator be used by the Contractor?

As stated in the Performance Work Statement, “The base period of performance includes a 3 month transition period with the incumbent.”

The legacy systems used by the incumbent are proprietary. Offerors shall propose a technical solution that utilizes modern technology to satisfy all requirements in the Performance Work Statement

45. Please clarify the following statement: “Given the sensitive nature of this information, account level credit bureau attributes to be collected by the contractor will be provided as government furnished information at the time of contract award”.

Credit bureau attributes are currently provided to the OCC by the incumbent under a contractual agreement between the incumbent and one of the industry credit bureaus. Offerors shall provide sufficient information in their technical response to demonstrate their ability to provide bureau attributes from an industry credit bureau.

46. Attachment 1: Page 9 – 13 of the document shows lots of skips in the numbering of the required data elements. Is this just a case of mis-numbering or are we missing some data elements from this list?

The numbers displayed in this document are reference numbers to the data elements, not an ordinal numbering. As new data elements were added to the original version of the list, they were often inserted into the document and not appended to the end.

47. Please confirm whether the population of credit cards included in the monthly banking disclosures includes both Visa- and Mastercard-branded debit cards?

The populations of accounts submitted by the banks do not include Visa or Mastercard-branded debit cards.

48. Can the following section below be excluded from the 30 page limitation for the technical proposal? They were excluded in the previous RFP for this requirement.

· Test plan

· Business execution and continuity

· Online analytical tools/reporting

· Data quality management plan Edit and data quality rules

· Data management plan

· Training programs/Change management

· Managerial and administrative considerations

· Transition plan

· Draft project plan

These are to be included as attachments and are excluded from the 30 page limitation. The solicitation will be amended to incorporate this change.

49. Section 5.7 Task 7: We are very experienced with modeling, per the description in the solicitation. How many models would you expect the Contractor to build over a one year period?

The PWS task for data modeling has been removed; however, modeling capabilities shall still be included in the offeror’s proposal. See amendment 0001.

50. The contractor has 10 days to support additional reporting requests. However, is the Contractor required to support any internal or external audits?

The contractor is required to cooperate as requested in information security audits, OCC audits, Government Accountability Office (GAO), Inspector General (IG) audits and investigations or any other audits required by law, regulation, or policy. If the contractor is a third party service provider to financial institutions, interagency examination audits may be conducted in accordance with applicable regulations. The OCC does not anticipate the contractor will be required to participate in any other type of internal or external audit under execution of this contract.

51. OCC is asking that the pricing for the data include not only the data elements currently requested in the RFP (Attachments 1 and 2) but also any other future data elements and portfolios for which the monthly analysis/reports need to be generated. We need more direction on how potentially how many extra elements/portfolios they may want to add. Plus will Contractor have an opportunity to discuss additional extra elements/portfolios requested by OCC prior to implementation?

Under the current contract spanning a 3 year period, the OCC has requested 13 additional definitions for elements to be collected. All 13 definitions were added during the first month of the contract.

52. OCC is requesting return of account level data back to not just OCC but also to other government entities … are all these entities FCRA-compliant?

The provision of account level data to other government agencies will be done in accordance with applicable law.