FUTURE Industry Engagement 2025.pdf

SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS

Department of Education

FUTURE: Forward-facing, Uniting Technological Enhancements, Reimagining Education

THIS SOURCES SOUGHT IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR

PROPOSAL. IT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION AND SHALL NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A

COMMITMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT. RESPONSES IN ANY FORM ARE NOT OFFERS, AND THE

GOVERNMENT IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO AWARD A CONTRACT AS A RESULT OF THIS

ANNOUNCEMENT. ANY INFORMATION SUBMITTED BY RESPONDENTS TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS

STRICTLY VOLUNTARY. NO FUNDS ARE AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR PREPARATION OF RESPONSES TO THIS

ANNOUNCEMENT.

STATEMENT OF NEED

The Department of Education (Department) is seeking potential sources to provide services that include but are not limited to the following:

• Information Technology Management

• Information Management

• Project Management

• Portfolio Management

• Integration of technical services

• Multimedia Services

• Other services in alignment with the Capability Statement Questions

If your organization has the potential to provide the services in the areas listed above, please respond to this notice by submitting a Capability Statement and Optional Question and Answers by the deadline.

Data received in response to this RFI that is marked or designated as corporate or proprietary will be fully protected and not released by the Department to outside sources. All qualified firms are encouraged to respond.

The Department does not intend to respond to RFI submissions. However, the Department reserves the right to schedule follow-up meetings or contact some or all respondents to discuss information and ideas provided in the RFI responses. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged.

BACKGROUND

A key mission of the Department of Education’s Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) is the optimization of information technology investments. OCIO’s improve planning and control of information technology investments. The Enterprise Technology Services (ETS) division supports enterprise-wide initiatives that include infrastructure security, core infrastructure services, telecommunications engineering and operations, end user services, application development and testing environments, production server hosting services, and the agency's intranet and Internet services. ETS maintains and operates the Department's primary IT hosting environment and disaster recovery sites, as well as infrastructure, platform, and software as a service cloud environment. As assigned, ETS develops and maintains common business solutions that are required by multiple program offices and provides technical and functional support to internal and external users of the Department's IT systems.

The FUTURE: Forward-facing, Uniting Technological Enhancements, Reimagining Education is the follow-on to the ETS PIVOT-I services contract. Under the PIVOT operational framework, IT services are currently delivered via multiple contracts.

The PIVOT operational framework below depicts the current operational environment. These contracts include, but are not limited to, the following:

Administration (PIVOT-A) The PIVOT-A Contractor is responsible for providing services for OCIO Enterprise Technology Services (ETS). The services provided include Project Management Administrative Support, Acquisitions Formulation, Analysis, and Controls, Budget Formulation, ETS Portfolio Investment and Resource Management, ETS Portfolio Investment and Resource Management, and ETS Infrastructure Data Support and Management, Cross Functional, and Transition Out Services.

Integrator (PIVOT-I) The PIVOT-I contractor is responsible for the technical management and integration of PIVOT IT services. The PIVOT-I contractor ensures that the end-to-end user experience meets contractually obligated operational parameters.

Hosting (PIVOT-H) The PIVOT-H contractor is responsible for providing a hosting environment for Department data and systems. Other PIVOT contractors will host their solutions in accordance with the terms and conditions of their respective contracts.

Network (PIVOT-N) The PIVOT-N contractor is responsible for providing LAN/WAN/Telecommunications/wireless connectivity throughout the PIVOT infrastructure to facilitate all PIVOT IT services. PIVOT-N is responsible for Virtual Private Network (VPN) Terminal Services supporting any remote access solution implemented by PIVOT. PIVOT-N is responsible for multimedia capabilities.

Printing (PIVOT-P) The PIVOT-P contractor is responsible for providing managed printing services for the Department.

Mobile (PIVOT-M) The PIVOT-M contractor is responsible for providing mobile device services for the Department.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

• The Department may require surge support during the base or any option period, and surge modifications will be within the scope of the contract and provide increased support for one or more defined task areas of this PWS. Surge support over the life of the contract will not exceed 75% of the contractor’s total proposed cost/price for the base and all option periods. This requirement will provide a full range of services as defined in this PWS.

CONTEMPLATED PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

Performance will occur at the Contractor’s site(s) and Department’s site(s).

Department of Education FUTURE – INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT EVENTS

Overview: In support of the Department of Education FUTURE acquisition, the Department will host two virtual industry engagement events that will include:

1. Program Briefing and interactive PM Q&A Session on Monday, January 27, 2025, from 09:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST). Session will be recorded.

2. Lightning Network Session (LNS) on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, from 09:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Eastern Standard Time (EST). Session will be recorded.

PROGRAM BRIEFING and PM Q&A SESSION

Purpose: The virtual Program Briefing and interactive PM Q&A Session is to provide an opportunity for Companies to learn more about the FUTURE program through a Department program briefing and by asking questions to the program management and technical teams. This session will be an open forum for Companies to ask questions that they may have regarding the Program or the Department’s priorities in a potential solution.

Meeting information: Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer or mobile app by pasting the link into your browser or by dialing in by phone.

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NTVhNGUyZWUtMzlkOC00YmFlLWE2OWItN2Y4YzI4ZGFkZDhm%40thread.v2/0?con text=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22bd5d4514-84de-4928-a9fd- 6ae10bbad677%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f5d55ccc-d71a-45f8-88e7-fed995ef4b99%22%7d

Meeting ID: 212 686 531 248 Passcode: vj228eQ2

Dial in by phone:

+1 202-991-0393,,94131222# United States, Washington Phone conference ID: 941 312 22#

Agenda:

- Program Briefing

- PM Q&A Session

Notes for the PM Q&A Session:

• This is an interactive PM Q&A. Written questions in advance are appreciated but not required and can be submitted via email to Jennifer Smith at jennifer.smith@ed.gov by 1400 EST Friday January 17 2025. The e-mail shall contain the following subject line: FUTURE PM Q&A.

• The Department may not have answers to all questions immediately available and reserves the right to both provide answers following the event and refuse questions that threaten the integrity of the acquisition.

• Any responses to questions provided by the Department will be documented and made publicly available after the session.

LIGHTNING NETWORKING SESSION

Purpose: The Department expects that strong vendor teams, with the ability to apply a broad range of knowledge, skills, and tools across the entire FUTURE need, will form the basis of successful offers. To https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NTVhNGUyZWUtMzlkOC00YmFlLWE2OWItN2Y4YzI4ZGFkZDhm%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22bd5d4514-84de-4928-a9fd-6ae10bbad677%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f5d55ccc-d71a-45f8-88e7-fed995ef4b99%22%7d https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NTVhNGUyZWUtMzlkOC00YmFlLWE2OWItN2Y4YzI4ZGFkZDhm%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22bd5d4514-84de-4928-a9fd-6ae10bbad677%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f5d55ccc-d71a-45f8-88e7-fed995ef4b99%22%7d https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NTVhNGUyZWUtMzlkOC00YmFlLWE2OWItN2Y4YzI4ZGFkZDhm%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22bd5d4514-84de-4928-a9fd-6ae10bbad677%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f5d55ccc-d71a-45f8-88e7-fed995ef4b99%22%7d https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NTVhNGUyZWUtMzlkOC00YmFlLWE2OWItN2Y4YzI4ZGFkZDhm%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22bd5d4514-84de-4928-a9fd-6ae10bbad677%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22f5d55ccc-d71a-45f8-88e7-fed995ef4b99%22%7d tel:+12029910393,,94131222 encourage such partnerships and teaming, the Department intends to allow companies the opportunity to participate in a virtual Lightning Networking Session.

Meeting information: The Department will provide meeting information via email to Companies who provided a point of contact and LNS presentation.

Agenda:

-Introduction and Meeting Approach

- Company Presentations Approach: Companies will be given the opportunity to provide a presentation (of no more than 3 slides, excluding cover slide, and 3 minutes) on their capabilities, for the purposes of partnering with other companies in this acquisition. This session will be entirely virtual. Each participating company will be given up to 3 minutes to present the following:

• A brief overview of the company’s interest in the FUTURE program – this can include a summary of strength areas that the company can offer against FUTURE needs

• A brief summary of what the company is looking for in a teaming partner

• Points of Contact information for interested partners

Companies will be limited to 3 slides and 3 minutes for their presentation. Should a Company reach this time limit without completing their presentation, the Department moderator will terminate the presentation at the 3-minute mark and advance to the next company. The order of presentations will be randomly assigned on the day of the event.

Interested Companies for the LNS must provide their Point of Contact for the LNS and their presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint or PDF format via email to Jennifer Smith at jennifer.smith@ed.gov by 1400 EST Monday January 28, 2025. The e-mail shall contain the following subject line: FUTURE LNS Presentation. Links to presentations will not be accepted.

Every participant in the Lightning Networking Session must provide a presentation. Companies will not be permitted to “listen only.” Only Companies who are interested in forming partnerships to meet the FUTURE need should attend the session.

SOURCES SOUGHT RESPONSE REQUESTED

Interested firms responding to this sources sought synopsis should provide a Capability Statement demonstrating their experience, skills and capability to fulfill the Department’s Statement of Need. The Capability Statement shall be in sufficient enough detail, but not to exceed 8 pages TOTAL (excluding cover page), so that the Department can determine the experience and capability of your firm to provide the required services at the scale and complexity of this project.

If your organization has the potential capability and interest to perform these services, please provide the following information in your 8 page (maximum excluding cover page) response:

1. Vendor Information to include:

a. Business name and address of company and/or companies (if there is a teaming arrangement or joint venture)

b. Name of company representative/point of contact (primary) and their Business Title, Phone Number, and Email Address

c. Company website

d. DUNS and Unique Entity Identifier

e. Company Business Size, type of ownership for the organization, and Small Business Socio-economic status (if small) that apply to your firm under the designated NAICS code

f. Current Facility Clearance Level and CAGE CODE (if applicable)

g. Prime contract vehicles from which the solution can be procured through; to include

ENCORE III, SETI, NIH CIO-SP4, NASA SEWP V, General Service Administration (GSA):

OASIS, ALLIANT II, VETS II, STARS III, MAS (including applicable SIN(s), groups, or pools), or any other Government Agency contract vehicle that allows for decentralized ordering.

(This information is for market research only and businesses with a valid cage that lack prime contract vehicles are still encouraged to respond to this notice.)

h. Potential Interest in this Acquisition as a Prime, Subcontractor, Teaming Arrangement, etc.

2. Tailored Capability Statements addressing the questions below including past performance supporting efforts of similar scope and complexity.

If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated to deliver technical capabilities, organizations should address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements.

REQUIRED CAPABILITY QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED

Describe the following capabilities of your business. Highlight experience performing these activities for U.S. federal agencies and describe the outcome of the activities.

1) Briefly describe your company and the types of services performed.

2) List all current certifications inclusive of ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and

IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission), such as ISO 2800:2022 – Security and resilience

– Security management systems – Requirements or ISO-IEC 20000-1:2018 Information Technology - Service Management, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) level, such as CMMI Level 3, and any other certifications you might possess.

3) List all current partnership levels with applicable entities that would support the execution of the tasks specified in the contract.

4) Demonstrated capability, with specific contract references to existing or past clients, operating as the primary integrator of managed information technology services for Cabinet-level Government organization over 5k users with 5K endpoints.

5) Demonstrated experience implementing Federal Risk and Management Access Program (FEDRAMP) within the managed service technology stack to meet the government’s requirements.

6) Demonstrated experience implementing Omni-channel chatbots and virtual agents for Cabinet-level Government organization over 5k users with 5K endpoints.

7) Demonstrated experience implementing security orchestration and automated response solutions for Cabinet-level Government organization over 5k users with 5K endpoints.

8) Demonstrated experience implementing Palo Alto PRISMA Access across endpoints using Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) for Cabinet-level Government organization over 5k users with 5K endpoints.

9) Demonstrated capability to provide Government personnel with ubiquitous information to support comprehensive government oversight and management of the provisioned managed services.

10) Documentation representing your status as a currently approved ServiceNow Elite Partner, that thereby demonstrates your capabilities across the entire ServiceNow product suite.

11) Overview of existing, not planned, technology integration centers that support broader service integration and delivery related requirements.

12) Contractor Owned – Contractor Operated (COCO) and/or Government Owned – Contractor Operated (GOCO) IT Services Experience. Describe your experience with providing cost efficient and service optimized management of a Contractor Owned Contractor Operated (COCO) and/or a Government Owned – Contractor Operated (GOCO) IT service model. Specifically:

a) Provide recommendations and best practices on appropriate SLA’s/SLO’s, and Quality Assurance

Surveillance targets in a COCO and/or GOCO environment with appropriate remediations/incentives for underperforming/overperforming targets.

13) Service Desk Operational Management. Describe your experience providing:

a) Technical and functional support, Tier 1/Tier II/Tier III helpdesk services in support of applications, capabilities, and business functions and achievements in optimized call resolutions, sustainment, and maintenance of the ticketing software (presently ServiceNow (SNOW)).

b) Migration/Consolidations between SNOW environments, and/or alternative solutions currently existing in the marketplace.

c) Instantiating and/or scaling Configuration Management Database, Service Catalog, and other related IT Service Management solutions. Specifically:

i) Provide best practices and recommendations for conducting these operations in a multivendor environment from the lens of the contracted Integrator, and overall responsible part for the successful Service Desk Operational Management function.

14) Prime Integrator Experience. Describe your experience serving as the prime integrator in the following areas:

a) Achieving and maintaining compliance with U.S. federal law/regulations/directives.

b) Leading federal security (Zero-Trust, FISMA, NIST, etc.) initiatives and obtaining positive results/outcomes.

c) Developing and deploying Lean Business Process Automation

d) Customer Service and Delivery.

e) Enablement of enhanced outcomes for the vendor teams in which you supported as the integrator, and related benefits realized by the Department.

f) Providing vetting of intake requests, to include level of estimate/story point/capacity/velocity estimates, in a managed lean workflow.

15) AI Adoption and Implementation. Describe your experience and/or relevant best practices in the deployment and/or maintenance of AI Adoption and Implementation in federal agencies. Specifically include any relevant information related to the following:

a) Resources needed for FUTURE to effectively benefit from the use of Generative AI.

b) Strategies for employing "foundation" models in the analysis of omics data and high-throughput screening data.

c) Challenges and barriers to incorporating Generative AI into federal agencies, and ways that these challenges might be mitigated/addressed.

d) Best practices for using Generative AI for federal Government, and how the Department of

Education may benefit from these practices.

e) Types of training needed to effectively incorporate Generative AI at the Department of

Education.

f) Specific research questions that could be addressed using Generative AI at Department of Education

g) Safeguards or protocols necessary to ensure the ethical use of Generative AI at the Department of Education

h) Validation and verification of Generative AI insights

i) Experience providing Proof-of-Concepts (POC’s) for the use of Generative AI in the federal sector.

j) Any publications or examples that showcase the use of Generative AI models and/or Large

Language Models in the federal sector.

16) Security and Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA). Describe your experience and/or relevant best practices in the deployment and/or maintenance of Security and Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) in federal agencies. Specifically include any relevant information related to the following:

a) Experience obtaining and maintaining an Authority to Operate (ATO) for U.S. federal information system(s). Include any information related to the management of multi-cloud tenants/environments, DEV/Test/Prod, FedRAMP, CUI, Privacy, etc.

b) Experience supporting the core logical components of a ZTA, namely the Policy Decision Point (PDP) and Policy Enforcement Points (PEPs).

c) Experience migrating users on different domains from legacy Virtual Private Network (VPN) to more modern approaches, namely Secure Access Service Edge (SASE).

d) Experience in network modernization including migrating from Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) to Business Internet Service (BIS) and Software Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN).

e) Experience supporting the implementing of ZTA using the enhanced identity governance, specifically identifying the logical ZTA components.

f) Experience supporting the implementing ZTA using micro-segmentation, specifically identifying the logical ZTA components.

g) Experience implementing Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC) in support of ZTA.

h) Experience in data categorization, data labeling, data tagging, and maturing Data Loss Prevention

(DLP).

i) Experience in implementing FedRAMP authorized Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) capabilities, integrating data governance platforms with CASB, and coordinating with system owners to enable SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM) and DLP.

j) Experience supporting how the implementing of ZTA using network infrastructure and software-defined perimeter, specifically identifying the logical ZTA components.

17) Asset Management and FinOps. Describe your experience and/or relevant best practices in leading and providing Asset Management and FinOps services in federal agencies. Specifically include any relevant information related to the following:

a) Discovering software entitlement records: Integrating with supplier portals, sourcing and vendor management systems, and other data sources to obtain software contract, purchase and procurement records while tracking changes to software license policies as workloads evolve.

b) Discovering installed software: Capturing platform configuration information and extracting a list of all installed software on a platform. This is a prerequisite to discovering installed software consumption.

c) Discovering cloud and software consumption (metering): Identifying cloud and software consumption usage information, including last run date, inactive users, and unused features.

d) Normalizing software consumption data: Consolidating multiple platform consumption datasets and other information to resolve duplicated or conflicting records. This creates a single, accurate, organized, and categorized inventory of software consumption from data collected by multiple tools.

e) Reconciling software asset information: Harmonizing contract, purchase, and entitlement information with normalized inventory data.

f) Optimizing software entitlements and consumption: Presenting guided recommendations to prevent and remediate software compliance findings and opportunities to optimize software license consumption to reduce the number, type and expense of licenses needed and in use.

g) Connectivity/adapters: The ability to interact with a range of different inventory data sources and types. Everyday use cases may include populating software inventory data to a CMDB, SharePoint lists, obtaining SaaS consumption data, integrating with procurement tools to obtain software entitlement data, integrating with IT FM tools to support software forecasting and chargeback, and integrating with existing discovery sources such as SCCM and Intune.

h) Providing management, oversight, and visibility in Cloud FinOps.

i) Cost optimization through taking advantage of reserved instances and other means available.

j) Cloud service performance tracking and benchmarking.

k) Accessible and timely reporting providing accessibility to build a chargeback system for missions.

l) Provide real-time expenditure information to business owners.

m) Drive decisioning by providing analysis and recommendations related to value in the cloud.

n) Early cost anomaly identification.

18) Contract Management. Describe your capability and capacity to manage this contract including:

a) Meeting the Special Requirements described earlier in this document.

b) Delivering solutions requiring expertise in the services outlined in this announcement.

c) If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated to deliver technical capabilities, describe the administrative and management structure of such arrangements.

OPTIONAL QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED

The following questions assist the Department with refining their acquisition strategy and Statement of Need. These Optional Questions and Answers do not count towards the 8 page maximum page limit for the Capability Statement.

• Describe any issues with the provided information that would impair or prevent project execution.

• Identify any potential barriers to competition that could be mitigated to foster a more competitive environment for this procurement.

• Discuss the ability of a small business to perform the provided requirements. Provide supporting rationale describing the likelihood and any potential barriers/impediments to small business concerns along with measures that could be implemented to maximize small business participation as primes and as subcontractors of any tier.

• Recommend the contract type or types considered the best fit for this type of work (e.g., Firm- Fixed- Price, Cost-Reimbursable, IDIQ, Time & Materials, etc.), along with rationale.

• Discuss the suitability of NAICS is 541519, Other Computer Related Services, to the contemplated contract, and any potential challenges or risks. Your company may recommend any relevant NAICS it deems more appropriate for this contemplated contract, along with rationale.

• What should be considered to encourage full participation and contribution of organizations and individuals (e.g., outreach efforts and innovative partnerships) in performance of this requirement?

Only electronic copies of Capability Statements in PDF or Microsoft Word will be accepted and should be emailed to jennifer.smith@ed.gov by 1400 ET Wednesday, January 22, 2025. The e-mail shall contain the following subject line: Response to Sources Sought Synopsis – Department of Education FUTURE:

Forward-facing, Uniting Technological Enhancements, Reimagining Education. Links to Capability Statements will not be accepted.

Decisions made as a result of information provided, including whether to proceed with the acquisition, are at the sole discretion of the Department. Late responses will not be considered in this market research.