Document Management Graphic Design Software RFI_V2.pdf

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

BUREAU OF DIPLOMATIC TECHNOLOGY (DT)

OFFICE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITIONS (ITA)

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

for

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT AND GRAPHIC DESIGN SOFTWARE

PART 1: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

1.1 PURPOSE

This request for information (RFI) is issued as market research to determine industry’s capabilities to provide a Commercial‐off‐the‐Shelf (COTS) integrated suite of software tools to support document creation and management workflows, as well as graphic design and creative tools to support the Department of State’s (“State”) communications and eLearning objectives.

State requires document management tools that seamlessly enable users to create/edit/transfer/sign documents in a portable document format (PDF) and facilitate document routing, editing, tracking, and capture of electronic signatures. The solution must also provide an integrated creative suite that can support a broad range of visual content development and graphic design capabilities that enables collaborative creation across desktop and mobile platforms and easy integration across both web‐based and social media distribution channels. State requires a single integrated solution in order to support the enterprise‐wide Information Technology Strategic Plan (ITSP), which includes delivering modern, secure, integrated solutions that enhance user experience through modernized, digital collaboration and knowledge management and enables State’s globally distributed workforce and mission.

The Government does not commit to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or reimburse any costs associated with the preparation of responses. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked “Proprietary” will be handled accordingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responses to this RFI will assist State in determining the potential level of interest, competition adequacy, and technical capabilities of commercial respondents to provide the required products and/or services. The Government does not guarantee any action beyond this RFI. Additional specific capability requirements are enumerated in Part 2 below.

The result of this market research will contribute to determining the acquisition plan and the method of procurement. The anticipated North American Industry Classification System

RFI 1019530047

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED

(NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 541519 with associated small business size standards* and Product service code 7A21.

NAICS Codes NAICS Industry Description

Size standards in millions of dollars

Size standards in number of employees

541519 Other Computer Related Services

$34.0

541519 (Exception) Information Technology Value Added Resellers

1.2 BACKGROUND

State’s mission is to advance the interests of the American people, their safety, and economic prosperity by leading America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance.

The mission of DT is to rapidly and securely deliver anytime, anywhere, the knowledge resources and IT services needed to support the over 300 sites and 275 missions it services worldwide.

DT is seeking input from industry regarding their capability to provide market‐leading solutions capable of meeting the full breadth of functional requirements outlined in this RFI. State requires access to a platform that is compliant with current Federal security requirements, is easy to use, flexible, scalable, customizable, and configurable to meet State’s specific requirements as detailed further below.

1.3 RFI OVERVIEW

As detailed further in Part 2, State is seeking to identify capable and interested partners able to provide the products and/or services required to meet the full range of functional capabilities outlined in this RFI. Viable partners shall have demonstrated experience deploying the solutions and delivering the ongoing support required to maintain, expand, and upgrade the solution over time for an organization of similar size, scope, and complexity as State.

Information requested in this RFI includes the following categories:

Company Information (Section 1) – Identification of interested respondents, socio‐ economic status, and potential acquisition vehicles to inform State acquisition strategy options.

Capability Assessment Against Functional Requirements (Section 2) – Description of respondent’s proposed technical solution and ability to fully meet all stated functional requirements.

Past Experience (Section 3) – Past project example(s) demonstrating respondent’s experience implementing their proposed solution in the federal environment to address the needs or an organization of similar size, global scope, and mission complexity to State.

1.4 SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:

1.4.1 Questions

Interested parties shall submit questions regarding this RFI to John Warner at WarnerJ1@state.gov not later than Thursday, January 23, 2025 5:00 PM EST. All questions shall indicate page number, Part, Section, and any paragraph item respective to the question. Only those questions submitted to this prescribed email address prior to the close date will be acknowledged or answered.

1.4.2 Responses

All written responses should be submitted in Microsoft compatible formats (e.g., Word) or PDF.

Responses must use 12‐point font and 1‐inch margins, including all text, tables, and graphics. Additional attachments, such as data sheets providing additional technical details for proposed solutions may also be provided, if necessary, in addition to the page limits stated below. General brochures or other marketing materials not directly relevant to the stated requirements are not requested and will not be considered as part of the response. Response page limit(s) by section are noted below.

Section 1 – 1 page

Section 2 – 20 pages

Section 3 – 5 pages

Please submit all materials to John Warner at WarnerJ1@state.gov by Friday, January 31 at

12:00 PM/EST.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL ANY RESPONDENT CONTACT ANY STATE PERSONNEL

REGARDING THIS NOTICE.

PART 2: REQUESTED INFORMATION

Respondents are asked to provide the information requested below in accordance with the instructions outlined in Section 1.4 above. Submissions not adhering to the submission instructions may be deemed non‐responsive and may receive no further consideration.

Section 1 – Company Information

Please provide the following details regarding your organization:

a. Company name

b. Company’s point of contact (POC) name

c. Company’s point of contact (POC) phone number

d. Company’s point of contact (POC) email address

e. Company’s URL/web address

f. Company’s Cage Code

g. Company’s UEI Number

h. Company business size in terms of revenue and number of employees

i. Company federal socioeconomic classification(s), if any, based on North American Industry Classification (NAICS) Code that applies to the proposed solution.

j. List GSA schedule, Government wide acquisition contracts (GWACs), or other federal IDIQs or contracts the Respondent holds that are accessible by State and where the full proposed solution can be procured, including corresponding schedule number or contract number.

Section 2 – Functional Requirements Assessment

State’s functional requirements for the solution are outlined below. Respondents are asked to provide a structured response that meets the following format requirements:

k. Response must be structured and annotated to clearly map the detailed description of the proposed solution’s capabilities to the numbered requirements captured in Section 2.1 – Section 2.7 below. Responses that do not clearly map to the information stated in the listed requirements below or are otherwise unclear regarding where a particular requirement is addressed may be deemed non‐responsive and may not receive further consideration.

l. Response narrative content should provide sufficient details regarding the proposed solution’s specific technical capabilities to demonstrate that the solution is capable of fully satisfying each stated requirement. Responses that lack sufficient detail to explain how and to what extent the solution’s capabilities achieve the stated requirement or simply state the solution meets the requirement, may be deemed unresponsive and may not receive further consideration.

2.1 Mandatory Qualifications

The following qualifications and capabilities are mandatory requirements for any potential solutions addressing the needs outlined in this RFI. Respondents should assess these “Go/No‐ Go” requirements carefully, as solutions unable to meet these requirements will not be considered as viable options by State and will not receive further consideration.

a. Solution must be based on a commercially proven, industry‐leading original equipment manufacturer (OEM)‐integrated software platform. State is not seeking custom‐ developed solutions that have not yet been successfully deployed at other Federal agencies similar in size and scope to State.

b. Solution must provide a single integrated platform with end‐to‐end solutions, leveraging seamless integration across capabilities and tool sets.

c. Solution must provide the ability to comply with established NIST requirements and be Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140‐2 certified to meet security standards for PDF creation and digital signature.

d. Solution must support State cybersecurity objectives through vender neutral automation of the systems patching process to comply with the CISA patching Mandate Binding Operational Directive 22‐01 CISA (BOD 22‐01) and Presidential Executive Order 14028 for Cybersecurity, Zero Trust and Secure Software Pipeline (White House EO 14028). Provide details regarding solution functionality focused on helping State meet these federal directives.

e. Solution shall meet System and Organization Controls (SOC) compliance, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, CSA STAR, Cyber Essentials, SecNumCloud, European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), Information Security Registered Assessors Program (IRAP), Information System Security Management and Assessment (ISMAP), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements.

f. Solution must have moderate level or higher Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) authorization for a commercial software solution.

Please note any relevant security certifications including FedRAMP authorization and compliance with relevant NIST and other Federal security requirements.

g. Solution must be able to comply with State’s Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management (C‐SCRM) policy. Please review Attachments A (C‐SCRM Attestation Form) & B (C‐SCRM Questionnaire) and note whether your company is able to provide the requested information and attestations requested for your proposed solution.

2.2 Document Creation & Collaboration

State requires a robust tool for document creation and management that includes the ability to develop and manage customized workflows for collaborative development. Please describe your solution’s ability to meet the following requirements and provide information on any additional core capabilities provided by your solution that State should be aware of relative to other market alternatives for collaborative document development and management.

a. Solution must enable the creation, sharing, and collaborative editing of documents in portable document format (PDF) through customizable workflows and defined user roles/permissions.

b. Solution must provide robust document management capabilities enabling users to create, manage, sign, route, print, and view PDF files on any device, including mobile devices.

c. Solution must be capable of supporting development of multiple workflows integrating PDF development, editing, and secure signing across the organization.

d. Solution must be easily integrated into other enterprise platforms and applications such as Microsoft Office and ServiceNow.

e. Solution workflow capability must allow for the assignment of roles including signer, approver, acceptor, form filler, certified recipient, delegator, and other customized roles.

f. Solution must enable document routing to recipients or groups in a defined order with permissions controlled by the user’s defined role.

g. Solution must capture an audit trail for each step in the document routing and approval process.

h. Solution must provide the ability for certain documents to be accessed or printed without the need for single sign‐on or government identification approval via PIV card access.

i. Solution must enable easy conversion of PDFs into different formats such as Word, Excel, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and PowerPoint.

2.3. Digital Signature Capability

State requires that the document creation and management capabilities described above integrate a highly secure digital signature feature. Please describe your solution’s ability to meet the following requirements and provide information on any additional core capabilities provided by your solution that State should be aware of relative to other market alternatives for digital signature.

a. Solution must integrate digital signature capability into PDF creation and management workflows described above and seamlessly integrate with common desktop productivity applications (e.g., Microsoft Office Suite).

b. Solution must support certificate‐based digital signatures for increased signer identification.

c. Solution must provide robust tools for managing user identities, authentication, and access controls.

d. Solution must provide tools to certify document integrity and prevent unauthorized changes to signed documents through the routing process.

e. Solution must maintain audit trails throughout document workflows including all recipient actions.

f. Solution must enable assignment of roles by an administrator including Sender, Signer, Approver, and other roles as defined by the administrator and tailoring of user access and permissions according to assigned roles.

g. Solution must be capable of managing document distribution and signature for hundreds of simultaneous recipients, including dashboard tracking of signature status for all recipients.

h. Solution must offer cost‐effective pricing that is below $2.00 per signature transaction, assuming greater than 100,000 transactions annually.

2.4. Knowledge Management & eLearning

State requires access to a suite of tools to facilitate the creation, editing, curating, and sharing of technical and business content to support eLearning and broader knowledge management objectives. Please describe your solution’s ability to meet the following requirements and provide information on any additional core capabilities provided by your solution that State should be aware of relative to other market alternatives for authoring, publishing, and communicating technical content and documentation.

a. Solution must enable a broad range of technical content development capabilities in support of knowledge management and eLearning requirements.

b. Solution must handle complex technical documentation such as user guides and technical manuals while adhering to privileged security standards.

c. Solution must support multilingual content development.

d. Solution must enable publishing to PDF, HTML, and other formats for content delivery, to include mobile.

e. Solution must offer ready‐made templates to expedite content creation/development.

f. Solution must be able to create and update complex structured/ unstructured content and provide intuitive navigations and tools to insert media into templates.

g. Solution must contain an authoring tool to create, manage, and publish online help resources, policies and procedures, and other self‐service content.

h. Solution must enable creation of interactive eLearning content with an intuitive, low/no code user interface that does not require significant programming expertise.

i. Solution must support image, audio, and media galleries to enhance eLearning content development.

j. Solution must enable published content to automatically adapt and be accessible across various device types (desktop, mobile) and screen sizes to support eLearning from any connected device.

2.5. Graphic Design & Web Development

State requires access to a suite of robust graphic design tools to facilitate the design, creation, and editing of a broad range of visual content to support State communication campaigns across numerous mission areas. Please describe your solution’s ability to meet the following requirements and provide information on any additional core capabilities provided by your solution that State should be aware of relative to other market alternatives for graphic design and web development tools.

a. Solution must provide robust tools for photo editing and management including, but not limited to, enabling photo resolution enhancements, clarifying tools (e.g., removing backgrounds), adding/customizing text, cropping/resizing/combining images, retouching and repair tools, etc.

b. Solution’s photo editing platform must incorporate security features to manage, track and control editing history, and secure photos and edited images from further editing to enable users to securely manage and control the integrity/authenticity of photo/image content.

c. Solution must offer a vector‐based design tool to enable easy creation of a variety of digital and printed images, including charts, diagrams, graphs, logos, infographics, icons, forms, brochures, illustrations and similar visual content and artwork.

d. Solution must facilitate website creation through generating HTML and/or Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) code for text, objects, or entire layouts.

e. Solution must enable collaboration and creation across both web and mobile and integrate easily with major social media platforms for content publication.

f. Solution must have full scripting support and the ability to convert HTMLs to PDF files.

2.6. Other Security & Compliance Requirements

a. Solution must adhere to and align with all 508 compliance standards ensuring accessibility for users with vision, hearing, cognitive, mobility, and other impairments.

b. Solution must include automated security detection tools such as an endpoint detection and response (EDR) agent, query process of APIs for logging and environment configuration data and ability to ingest the information into a data warehouse, vulnerability scanning, host scanning, collection of system logs and event messages, port scanning, container scanning, and Kubernetes monitoring.

c. Solution includes credentials and access control tooling to enable enforcement of State’s identity and access management policies across the managed cloud services, while logging user activities.

2.7. Additional Capabilities & Questions

In addition to addressing how your solution addresses the requirements stated above, please provide a response to the following additional questions regarding your solution’s capabilities:

a. Does your solution have a State Department Authority to Operate (ATO) for any/all capabilities? If your solution does not have an ATO, please describe your approach to achieving the required ATO including approximate timeframe and cost to achieve this authorization.

b. Does your solution integrate generative AI capabilities into any of its tools? If so, please describe these capabilities and their primary use cases and benefits.

c. Please describe any additional security features of your overall solution not already addressed in your response to the requirements above (e.g., password protection, encryption, MFA, etc.).

d. Please describe any other enterprise platforms or applications (e.g., Microsoft, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Ariba, others) where your solution has pre‐defined and tested integrations or business partnerships facilitating use of your solution with other enterprise platforms. Please highlight the key features and benefits of these integrations.

e. Please note any key functionality or differentiators of your proposed solution related to the requirements defined above that State should be aware of or consider.

Section 3 – Past Performance

State is seeking a solution that has a proven track record in the U.S. federal space with demonstrated experience supporting Federal agencies of similar size, global scope, and mission complexity as State. Such experience is critical to ensuring the solution has been proven to be secure and reliable under the required IT security, data management, privacy, and other federal regulations that govern both domestic and overseas information technology implementations within the federal environment.

Please provide the following information regarding your experience deploying your solution for federal customers.

a) Please list all federal agencies where you have successfully deployed your solution in the last five years. For each experience noted, in no more than one paragraph, please provide:

i. Agency and organization name

ii. Period of Performance

iii. Solutions provided to the agency

iv. Point of Contact Name, email and phone State can contact regarding this experience

b) For at least one, but not more than three, of the federal implementations noted above, please provide the additional detailed information requested below to further demonstrate your relevant experience.

v. Contract and task order number

vi. Contract type

vii. Dollar value of contract (across full period of performance)

viii. Period of performance dates

ix. State whether your company was a prime or subcontractor

x. Customer point of contact (Name, Title, Email, Phone) that State may reach out to for more information and

xi. Description of the scope of the work your company performed and its relevance and applicability to demonstrating your solution’s ability to deliver the full set of capabilities outlined in Section 2.

Disclaimer: This RFI is for information gathering purposes only as a means to identify interested and capable sources that can provide a solution that fully meets all requirements outlined in Part 2 of this request. The information provided in this notice is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. State has not made a commitment to procure any of the items/ services discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought.

State will not publicly disclose proprietary information obtained as a result of this RFI. To the full extent that it is protected by law and regulations, information identified by a respondent as Proprietary or Confidential will be kept confidential. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.