ATTACHMENT 8 Questions and Answers on SEC OEC eFeeds.xlsx
XLSX spreadsheet 26 KB Posted
- Attached to
- DRAFT RFP Automated Financial Institutions and Providers Data Feed Products and Services (eFeeds)
- Solicitation number
- DRAFT50310223EFEEDS
- Issued by
-
Securities and Exchange Commission
About this file
This document contains a set of Questions and Answers related to a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an automated financial data feed service. The draft RFP, referred to as "DRAFT50310223EFEEDS: DRAFT RFP Automated Financial Institutions and Providers Data Feed Products and Services (eFeeds)," outlines the SEC's requirement for a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to support its compliance activities, including pre-trade requests, authorizations, confirmations, and the matching of real-time broker data to employee pre-trade authorization requests and confirmations.
The key details from the document include the SEC's requirement for a FedRAMP-authorized SaaS solution, the need for integrations with financial institutions and restricted/confidential data sources, and the SEC's willingness to sponsor the FedRAMP certification process for the selected vendor. The SEC is also seeking feedback from industry on the draft evaluation criteria and statement of objectives. Responses to the draft RFP, including answers to the SEC's questions and feedback on the draft documents, are due by April 8, 2024.
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Sheet2
| No. | Reference | Category | Question | SEC Response |
| 1 | sam.gov (iv) | Would USG consider a small business competitive bid instead of full and open to encourage small business participation? | Yes, the SEC will consider using a small business if it is in its best interest once all market research has been conducted and considered. | |
| 2 | Evaluation Criteria 1.a. | SaaS providers typically do not provide the 3PAO assessment of controls to system integrators but only provide them to the agency CISO. Would USG consider changing this to an attestation of FedRAMP compliance level and make the 3PAO assessment to be part of the system ATO requirements? | Please see updates to the Evaluation Criteria. SEC will require the 3PAO assessment report as a part of the FedRAMP authorization and system ATO requirements. The assessment will not be shared with other organizations outside of the U.S. government. | |
| 3 | Evaluation Criteria 3.a. | Could USG elaborate on "Number of brokers that the offeror has existing relationships with"? | We would like to know how many financial institutions you currently receive daily feeds from for your application. We have identified our initial list of 11 firms, but need to better understand the entire pool of companies you work with. | |
| 4 | Evaluation Criteria 3.b. | 3.b. reads like a statement. Should this be a sub-bullet of 3.a.? | Yes, 3.b is informational. | |
| 5 | In order to allow vendors time to incorporate answers to questions, can the SEC please provide a 2-week extension to the current RFP response due date? | The response to this DRAFT RFP is now due APRIL 15, 2024 at 6:00pm EST. | ||
| 6 | Can you provide the breakdown of the total number of internal and external users that will be using the system? | We expect to eventually be at 5,000 internal SEC users with zero external users. | ||
| 7 | How important is the "single tenant architecture" requirement? Would you consider a SaaS platform with multi-tenant architecture? | Due to the sensitive non-public information (NPI) and personal identifiable information (PII) of government employees, the SEC requires single tenant enviornment for this system. | ||
| 8 | How does the SEC currently receive data feeds from financial institutions? | Currently we do not receive data feeds for personal financial information from financial institutions. | ||
| 9 | How many financial institutions provide real time data feeds to the current SEC system? | Currently we do not receive data feeds for personal financial information from financial institutions. | ||
| 10 | Can you provide the number of transactions, amount of data that is provided by financial institutions to the SEC currently? | Currently we do not receive data feeds for personal financial information from financial institutions. | ||
| 11 | In the current SEC environment, are data feeds provided in real time? How is that accomplished? | Currently we do not receive data feeds for personal financial information from financial institutions. We do receive daily delta files of financial securities (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.) information (Company, Ticker, CUSIP, IPO Date, Security Type, etc.) via an FTP link. | ||
| 12 | Does SEC have an existing integration solution to enable the real time data feeds from financial institutions? | Currently we do not receive data feeds for personal financial information from financial institutions. | ||
| 13 | How is collaboration between the Government (including the product owner and agency stakeholders) and the contractor structured to ensure a shared understanding of work priorities and changes? | Once the contract is awarded, a project kick-off meeting will be held with all stakeholders from the awarded company as well as the SEC. We will work to establish a project plan, project schedule and cadence for project status, configuration and testing meetings. We expect these meetings to be frequent at first and schdule as needed during the project and eventual launch of the application for the SEC. | ||
| 14 | Does the SEC use any specific collaboration tool or is looking for one? | We currently use Microsoft SharePoint online and TEAMS internally for collaboration. | ||
| 15 | How does the current system facilitate SEC employee's submission of pre-trade authorization requests? | Via a custom SharePoint application that incorporates a rules engine and securities data feed. | ||
| 16 | Can you describe the user interface and user experience aspects considered in the system design? | Guided walk through for employees to set up new accounts and easily access account information. |
Intuitive design/layout for system owners to navigate, sort/filter information, and isolate data via lists, dashboards and other configurable reporting interfaces.
| 17 | Throughout the RFI you mention the importance of FedRAMP certification. Are you willing to sponsor "VENDOR's" certification efforts, should the SEC choose our services? | Yes, the SEC is willing to sponsor the company that is awarded the contract for the FedRAMP authorization. |
| 18 | In Attachment 5 you reference the need for 11 direct broker feeds. Could you please specify which direct broker feeds are required? Are there additional direct broker feeds beyond the 11 that you will want to leverage? | Yes, we will be looking to receive data from more than the initial 11 brokers listed below. |
Charles Schwab Vanguard Fidelity Morgan Stanley E*Trade Merrill - Bank of America Wells Fargo T. Rowe Price J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
Robinhood Financial Edward Jones
TIAA
19 /ATTACHMENT+3+-+OEC+E-Feeds+DRAFT+Statement+of+Objectives+(SOO).pdf General Scope In the statement of Objectives, the SEC has outlined that they are looking to acquire:
'a software as a service (SaaS) solution that can support OEC’s compliance activities related to pre-trade requests, authorizations, confirmations, flagging trading violations, and matching real-time broker data to employee pre-trade authorization requests and confirmations, and certification of holdings.'
However later in the same document (under 'Performance Objectives') there are references to software development methodology and 'agile development' other deliverables that do not equate to an off the shelf vendor product.
| Could you confirm that the SEC is looking for a vendor product that can be configured to me the needs of the SEC, and not a development team to build a bespoke product? | Yes, a SaaS product is desired that can be configured according to the business needs of the SEC. While we are not looking to do traditional software development, we want to use the agile methodologies to track the various configuration and testing tasks associated with this effort. SEC will work with the vendor to develop a product roadmap and product backlog for configuring these items. | ||||
| 20 | /ATTACHMENT+3+-+OEC+E-Feeds+DRAFT+Statement+of+Objectives+(SOO).pdf | General Scope | Is FedRAMP certification a must have requirement? Or can other security certifications be accepted instead? | Yes, FedRAMP Authorization is a must have requirement before the system can be operational. It is not a pre-requisite for contract award. SEC will work with the selected vendor to achieve FedRAMP authorization. | |
| 21 | /ATTACHMENT+3+-+OEC+E-Feeds+DRAFT+Statement+of+Objectives+(SOO).pdf | General Scope | Ability to consume data from an external system. Aside from broker feeds and the restricted/confidential list, what other system integrations are envisaged at this stage? | A securities data feed and multiple restricted and confidential lists, which includes the ability to flag select staff and/or securities for specific action or attention. | |
| 22 | What is meant by "labor categories"? Is there a list of them you can point us to? | Labor Categories (sometimes called “LCATs”) are personnel roles on a government contract. Private sector may call them job titles. For the Government, a labor category describes the work that will be performed under that title and includes an education level, skillset, and level of experience. On the General Services Administration's eLibrary website https://www.gsaelibrary.gsa.gov/ElibMain/sinDetails.do?executeQuery=YES&scheduleNumber=MAS&flag=&filter=&specialItemNumber=511210&subcategoryCode=51112 there is a list of contractors and each of them has a Contractor T&Cs/Pricelist. Those T&Cs/Pricelist is where you can see many examples of labor categories and descriptions as examples of labor categories that various Government contractors use in the software and Programming (Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS)) industry. These should be helpful as you try to determine the labor categories your company has to offer. The SEC has not determined the labor categories that will need to be used for this potential requirement and will be looking for Offerors to make that determination when an actual RFP is issued. | |||
| 23 | N/A | General Scope | Will a Project Sponsor and Project Manager from your side be assigned to this project? | Yes | |
| 24 | N/A | Data Migration | Will data from the current system(s) be migrated to the new platform? If so, can you please explain what data you are expecting to be migrated to the new platform and the source of that data? | Yes. The data source is a custom SharePoint application. SEC will work with the vendor to develop a data migration strategy. | |
| 25 | Registration | Is the SAM (System Award Management) registration a requirement before completion of the RFP? Or is there an additional way to register if the RFP is awarded? | To respond to this DRAFT RFP vendors are not required to be registered in SAM. No contract award will be made as a result of this DRAFT RFP. Please carefully read the posting on SAM.gov as this is not an official solicitation/Request for Proposals. If and when an actual RFP is issued for this requirement all Offerors must be registered in SAM.gov to be considered for award. | ||
| 26 | /ATTACHMENT+3+-+OEC+E-Feeds+DRAFT+Statement+of+Objectives+(SOO).pdf | General Scope | Is it possible to provide a list of the eleven (11) broker feeds that the SEC is looking to capture? Is there potential scope to add more brokers as the project grows? | Refer to question #18 above. | |
| 27 | /ATTACHMENT+3+-+OEC+E-Feeds+DRAFT+Statement+of+Objectives+(SOO).pdf | Format and Content of response | In terms of a response, what is the SEC expecting? Should we respond to scope items and objectives in the document ATTACHMENT 3 - DRAFT SOO or are you just expecting a response to |
Attachment 4: DRAFT OIT Security Questionnaire for eFeeds Offerors Attachment 6: OEC eFeeds Questions for Industry
| What other information or documentation is required or would be helpful to the SEC at this stage of the project? | This is a DRAFT RFP. Most importantly the SEC is expecting a response to each question in ATTACHMENT 6: OEC eFeeds Questions for Industry, and comments on the draft evaluation criteria/factors (ATTACHMENT 5). The SEC is also looking for feedback on the DRAFT SOO (ATTACHMENT 3) and the DRAFT OIT Security Questionnaire (ATTACHMENT 4) so the SEC can make sure its draft requirements are clear to industry. | ||||
| 28 | N/A | General Scope | Is there budget allocated to this project? | Yes. | |
| 29 | N/A | General Scope | I there a target go live or implementation start date for the project? | No, we do not have a target go live date as this is dependent on FedRAMP authorization. We would like to start the implementation of the project shortly after the contract is awarded. |
| 30 | N/A | General Scope | We understand that a key objective is 'allowing SEC to | |
| decommission its existing systems as features and capabilities are replaced by this new application.' Are there any contractual dates by which some of these system need to be replaced? Further to that, in what order do you want to implement the features of the new system? | No. |
Broker data feeds to assist in the annual certification of holdings process and pre-trade clearance request and confirmation process.
| 31 | N/A | General Scope | Has consideration been given to include other employee conflict activities in the scope of this project e.g. monitoring of G&E, Political Contributions, Outside Business Activities, Close Personal Relationships etc.? | These would be subsequent priorities to possibly be explored at a later time. |
| 32 | Appendix B | General Scope | In Apendix B, RQ-057, you reference single tenant. Is there a requirement for the vendor to provide a single tenant env or would multi tenant SaaS also be acceptable? | Refer to question #7 above. |
ATTACHMENT 8 Questions and Answers on SEC OEC eFeeds &"Calibri,Regular"&14&K000000 SEC Nonpublic Information
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