RAS SOO_DRAFT.docx

Attachment 1

FA5000‐XX-X-XXXX

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (SOO)

FOR

Department of the Air Force (DAF) Research and Advisory Services

7 July 2025 v.1 Final

Table of Contents

SECTION I

1.0 DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES

1.1 General. The DAF has an estimated FY26 $240B DAF budget of which more than $17B dollars is spent on mission and mission support IT. The DAF is experiencing significant changes in manpower end strength, the range and scope of the core missions and the ways and speed in which we modernize to secure the peace through strength for our nation. To help guide the DAF in making the right decisions on a range of capability investments, expert insight from Research and Advisory Service providers is needed. This Statement of Objectives (SOO) outlines the DAF goals and outcomes for RAS.

1.1.1 Background. Research and Advisory Services (RAS) from commercial service-providers provide knowledge capabilities to the DAF to assist in DAF decision making. These services include capabilities to perform market research, conduct cost and performance benchmarking, inform policy changes, architectures and establish performance and service levels. Historically, the DAF has purchased these services in a decentralized manner. This has led to excess cost, redundancy and suboptimal use of the knowledge paid. SECDEF E.O. 14222 and SECAF Implementation Memorandum on E.O. 14222 require the DAF to reduce cost and redundancy in these and other consulting services. Equally as important, these memos require the DAF to better align these types of costs to priority mission capabilities.

1.2 Scope.

Research and advisory services equip the DAF with crucial insights, in-depth analysis, and expert guidance required to make informed decisions and achieve strategic goals. By seamlessly combining rigorous research methodologies with tailored expert advice, these services empower clients to effectively navigate complex challenges, identify new opportunities, and drive sustainable growth.

Program Goals:

· Achieving stronger alignment of DAF RAS investments mission priorities and outcomes

· Achieving tangible and measurable outcomes from investments in RAS

· Have better visibility into RAS usage and impact

Program Efficiencies:

· Reduce the contracting and requirements management overhead for processing RAS orders

· Reduce redundancies in purchasing overlapping capabilities

· Improve ability to track usage and transfer capability to other demand areas quickly

Change Areas:

· Shift from a decentralized unmanaged process to a PMO that manages the enterprise needs

· Expect cost savings from existing budgets to help pay for RAS investments

· Implement greater accountability for results in DAF RAS investments

SECTION II

2.0 PROBLEM STATEMENT

A SAF Category Management (CM) study conducted in FY25 revealed that in FY24, the DAF spent over $40 million on Research and Advisory Services (RAS). This was accomplished using decentralized purchasing with no DAF enterprise level budget target. DAF RAS use lacked consistent impact and benefit reporting, enterprise coordination, limited visibility in usage, and had confusing prioritization and accountability to the DAF mission. The study concluded that the current purchasing method of RAS caused the DAF and RAS vendors to incur excessive time and effort on issuing and managing numerous task orders with a range of contract end dates, quantities and products. The CM Study noted these problems were not entirely reflective of the quality of the RAS capabilities or vendors, but more a lack of controls by the DAF. The SAF/AMP CM study recommended establishing a Program Management Office (PMO) to define an enterprise budget target; align RAS requests with DAF mission priorities; collect and monitor usage data; and require offsetting expenses for all RAS investments.

2.1 Applicable Regulations (if any).

DODI 5000.75

DAFI 63-144

NDAA 2023

2.2 Objective(s). Utilizing industry’s best practices, the DAF requires a comprehensive, executable RAS capability to reduce costs, align RAS impact and benefit to the DAF mission priorities, improve usage visibility and lower the time, cost and effort for acquiring and managing RAS. The RAS capability shall provide the DAF with the knowledge and information to make tangible decisions that impact the DAF mission faster and more cost effectively. Specific objectives are:

· Access to a robust catalog of RAS information, content, expertise and data to help inform the DAF across a range of IT and mission/business decisions. The RAS capability will provide DAF expertise and knowledge across a technical, mission and use case domain. The DAF desires the RAS capability to be delivered over a digital platform to maximize scalability.

· RAS capability that helps the DAF accelerate and expand its understanding of trends, technologies, use cases, risks and costs when integrating IT with mission and business processes. The DAF does not desire long-term consulting engagements with dedicated resources advising a single program. RAS must be scalable across the enterprise to maximize the investment and impact.

· Information and content that will aid and accelerate DAF in decision making and execution in areas such as policy updates, market research, budget and cost estimating, architecture, service level and performance reporting and standards and other engineering, acquisition and life cycle tradeoffs and decisions the DAF makes as it integrates technology and mission.

· Near real time on-line visibility into DAF usage of the purchased RAS capabilities to show what has been purchased, what is being consumed, overages/under usage, benefits and outcomes gained, and other consumption data used as a best practice. This outcome includes having the ability to transfer RAS capability across DAF when demand may be higher in another program or use case.

· Flexible and diverse methods of consumption of RAS capabilities to account for the different ways professionals learn and engage with experts and knowledge.

· Capability to simplify order management and contract administration by reducing task order volume, contract end date diversification, product item description and pricing complexity.

· Capability to refresh and keep current with RAS expertise and content that reflects the ever-changing nature of IT integration and other investments with mission and business processes.

· Ability to be able to, currently or with approval (government will sponsor facility clearance), support different classification levels up to TS.

2.3 Final Outcome. The Department of the Air Force will have obtained the knowledge and insights to make informed and impactful decisions on IT and other investments with better alignment to DAF mission priorities and at lower cost.

** The Contractor shall provide all services, materials, supplies, equipment, and project supervision, as required in connection with this Statement of Objective (SOO).**

SECTION III

3.0 PERFORMANCE THRESHOLDS

All deliverables and performance that fall below the outlined thresholds below will be re-performed at no cost to the Government. Any task, performance, or deliverable(s) that is not corrected greater than 95% acceptance for accuracy and timeliness will be reflected negatively on the contractor’s past performance. Any task or deliverable that is corrected at a level higher than 95% for accuracy and timeliness will be reflected positively on the contractor’s performance.

Deliverables and Performance are not considered acceptable until the Government provides written notice of acceptance. This can be in the Monthly Status Report (bi-lateral signatures from the contractor and COR) and/or written acceptance via email.

SS-1

Adoption and Usage rates

SS-2

Impact on DAF Decisions

SS-3

Cost Savings/Return on Investment Impact

SS-4

User Satisfaction

SS-5

End User Provisioning and Account Management

SECCTION IV

4.0 DELIVERABLES / ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

The Contractor shall propose deliverable(s) in a format mutually agreed upon by the Government and the Contractor. The following deliverables are not expected to change. Due Date intervals are not expected to change but actual dates may need to be revised depending on actual contract start date.

SECTION V

5.0 TIMELINE, STAKEHOLDER (collaborating offices)

5.1 Timeline.

Within 30 days after the award, the contractor shall have available to the DAF the on-line RAS catalog and platform. The contract period of performance is three years.

5.2 Stakeholders (Collaborating Offices).

SAF/AMP will act as the DAF RAS Program Management Office (RAS PMO). The RAS PMO will be responsible for:

1) DAF order and account management to provide the RAS service provider with approved organizations and users for the service.

2) DAF enterprise RAS intake requests processing and facilitation of SAF/CN approvals or disapprovals

3) Service catalog updates and life cycle management with the RAS service provider

4) Issue and problem management resolution for any RAS, DAF PMO or DAF end user items.

5) Performance management and usage management monitoring and reporting.

6) Contracting Officers Representative Functions

SAF/CN is the executive sponsor and requirement owner of the DAF RAS program. SAF/CN will be responsible for:

1) Prioritization and selection of DAF use cases and organizations to be provisioned RAS capability.

2) Establishing annual RAS budget targets

3) Communicating DAF priorities to the DAF Enterprise to which any RAS request needs to align

4) Performance management and usage management review and approval

SECTION VI

6.0 GENERAL INFORMATION

In support of the DAF’s mission, the identified tasks and/or outputs may take the form of information, advice, opinions, alternatives, analyses, evaluations, training, processes to eliminate waste, standardize best practices, reduce cycle times and reduce the cost of doing business, or recommendations to complement the Government’s technical expertise in accomplishing its mission and day-to-day activities. The contractor shall provide services, capability, knowledge and training to satisfactorily perform the services required under this contract.

Contractor employees performing services under this contract shall be controlled, directed and always supervised by the management personnel of the contractor. The contractor's management shall ensure that employees properly comply with the performance standards outlined in this Statement of Objectives, the DOD ESI BPA Terms and Conditions and as required by the contracting officer or the contracting officer's representative (COR). Contractor employees shall be capable of performing independently and without the assistance of Government personnel. Actions of contractor employees shall not be interpreted or implemented in any manner which results in a contractor employee creating, modifying or violating Federal policy, obligating the appropriated funds of the U.S. Government, overseeing the work of Federal employees, providing direct personal services to any Federal employee or otherwise violating the prohibitions set forth in Parts 7.5 and 37.1 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). If the contractor feels that any actions constitute or are perceived to constitute personal services, it shall be the contractor’s responsibility to notify the COR immediately.

No contractor personnel will perform any work on this contract that can be defined as inherently governmental according to FAR Subpart 7.503(c). Contractor personnel will be performing tasks under FAR Subpart 7.503(d); however, contract personnel will be in a supporting role to the Government task lead and will not be in a decision-making role. The Government will be the sole authority for decisions.

6.1 Location.

The preponderance of the work can be completed remotely or via telework. Some services may be provided on site which will be identified as part of the RAS provider offering.

6.2 Travel (TDYs)

There are no government travel requirements. The government will not fund any contractor travel.

6.3 Identify Known or Possible Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI) The contractor may have access to data that can be perceived as competition sensitive contract information or support the development of acquisition strategies. Therefore, by definition in FAR 9.5, be a Conflict of Interest as either Impaired Objectivity or Unfair Competitive Advantage (unequal access to information). Due to the unknown task requests, it is impossible to complete a focused OCI plan at the BPA order level; however, if vendors either during the RFP process, during the performance of a task order, or at any time become aware of an OCI, they shall immediately inform the Contracting office. This may result in a work stoppage until (if) the OCI can be neutralized or mitigated. If it cannot, the task order will be terminated immediately and re-competed. If a vendor does not inform the Contracting officer of an OCI that it has been made aware of, the Contracting office may terminate the task order.

If an OCI is discovered during the RFP process, provide (in writing) the nature of the OCI and why the OCI is precluding the vendor from proposing. The CO will determine if the OCI is mitigated and provide a response in writing, notifying the vendor if they are exempt from the offering. If the CO does not exempt the vendor, the vendor may propose.

6.4 Security and Training Requirements

This effort will require access up to a Top-Secret clearance. The government will sponsor contractors facility clearance if one is not already established.

Building access with escort privileges and swipe access will be granted for up to five (5) contractors with government approval.

6.5 Data Rights

Contract data rights and RAS commercial content provided herein are to be consistent with the terms and conditions defined in the DOD ESI BPA and the contractors’ commercial RAS subscription/license agreement. For RAS content the contractor has developed for the government, the copies of any Contractor generated records, files, documents, data, and work papers, provided to the Government in performance of this task order shall become and remain Government property and shall be maintained and disposed of IAW Air Force Manual 33-363, Management of Records, and are disposed of in accordance with the Air Force Records Disposition Schedule which is located in the Air Force Records Information Management System; and other regulations, as applicable. The copies of any Government generated records, files, documents, data, and work papers, provided to the Contractor in performance of this task order, or derivatives thereof, are and shall remain Government property, and shall be returned to the Government at the completion of this contract.

Other than the RAS web portal for DAF end user access to the RAS content and dashboards, no software licenses are to be furnished to the DAF on this contract. The government shall not be bound by any licensing terms or other restrictions on the use, modification, reproduction, release, performance, or disclosure of software not incorporated by attachment or other appropriate mechanism.

6.6 Government Furnished Equipment and Property

No GFE is planned to be provided as part of this contract. If a GFE requirement does arise, the contactor and the government shall modify the contract.

SECTION VII

7.0 APPENDIX 1

7.1 DEFINITIONS, ABBREVIATIONS, AND ACRONYMS

Contracting Officer (CO). The duly appointed Government agent authorized to award or administer contracts. The contracting officer is the only person authorized to contractually obligate the Government.

Statement of Objective (SOO). A formal contracting document used to describe the goals and objectives expected from soliciting contractor work.

Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI). Unequal access and competitive advantage are two conflicts that the government is aware of that could result from Non-Financial Recommendations (NFR)

Performance Threshold. The minimum performance level of a performance objective required by the Government.

7.2 ACRONYMS

pg. 11