Request for Collaboration Summary

This is a Request for Collaboration (RFC) issued by the U.S. Census Bureau on April 14, 2026, seeking industry input to support planning and acquisition strategy for the 2028 Dress Rehearsal and 2030 Census Decennial as-a-Service (D-X) program. The RFC follows an initial Request for Information (RFI) issued in August 2025 and is designed to gather additional industry expertise on capability areas not fully addressed in the original RFI responses.

The Census Bureau seeks a single fully integrated, nationwide equipment and endpoint lifecycle management ecosystem operating under a single-integrator model to support logistics, equipment handling, cellular services, site deployments, and operational support functions across all states and U.S. territories. Key required capabilities include: devices and equipment management services (provisioning, configuration, maintenance, repair, replacement, inventory tracking); logistics, warehousing, and deployment operations (warehousing, kitting, staging, order fulfillment, shipping, returns, and reverse logistics); mobility and Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) with cross-platform governance and Mobile Device Management (MDM); security, compliance, and continuous monitoring (FedRAMP and NIST SP 800-53 compliance); operational support and ITSM integration; reporting, analytics, and automation; and program, vendor, and contract management. The solution must support approximately 360,000 smartphones, 20,000 tablets, and 20,000 laptops with surge capacity to handle peak volumes of 50,000–70,000 devices staged at peak and 100,000+ weekly shipments. Additional focus areas include Managed Service Integrator (MSI) model governance, Command Center operations, data interoperability and integration across commercial and government systems, OEM-agnostic device and equipment as-a-service models, warehouse operations as managed service, surge readiness and scalability, sustainability and reuse models, and risk identification and mitigation strategies. Responses must be submitted by Thursday, May 14, 2026, at 4:00 PM EST to pithy.t.sar@census.gov and paul.w.boesch@census.gov, following a Microsoft Word format with specified page limits for four sections: Company Overview Information (1 page), Integrated Service Delivery and Operational Coordination (6 pages), Acquisition Approach and Evaluation Considerations (2 pages), and Closing Thoughts and Feedback (3 pages). This RFC is for planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment to issue a future RFP or contract award.