RFI-GCS_ 03-03-2021.pdf

UNCLASSIFIED

RFI-GCS

Geospatial-Intelligence (GEOINT) Core Services (GCS)

Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ)

Request for Information (RFI)

3 MARCH 2021

1 DESCRIPTION & PURPOSE

1.1 (U) THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY

(U) The purpose of this RFI is to gain information on current Industry capabilities that would meet NGA’s requirements. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, NGA is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Responders are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI - all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued.

(U) NGA is seeking information on how an interested contractor could enable NGA to maintain the Geospatial-Intelligence Core Services (GCS) Program Baseline Software & Capabilities and to incorporate new data discovery, exploitation, download and collaboration capabilities, supported by the extension and maturation of a continued cloud-based architecture and a litany of Queries, Utilities and Tools that aid in visualization into and across an on-demand environment (which includes three main capability platforms:; Map of the World (transitioning to MapStack during Fiscal Year 2021), Google Earth, and Intelligence Community Geospatial Information

System Portal (IC GIS Portal)). The cloud foundation requires adaptation and extension of existing discovery, exploitation, collaboration, data downloads, update, and visualization capabilities as necessary to access and leverage data held and served through consolidated data storage and dissemination architectures. Adaptation to the emerging Dynamic GEOINT Integration (DGI) data architecture will position the program to support visualization of Structured Observation Management (SOM)-based analysis and Activity Based Intelligence (ABI). GCS will discover, exploit, download, collaborate, update, and visualize content managed by Source through a variety of tools that support data exposure, analysis, disconnected or connected, and collaboration capabilities. GCS will also offer product bundling services for on-demand, and bulk download capacities, to include automatic update prescription services across all NGA environments with global high availability and reliability. GCS will also have the ability to track international partner content requests and routing approvals.

1.2 (U) INTENT

(U) IAW FAR 15.201 (c) and (d), the purpose of this RFI is to solicit information regarding the acquisition strategy, current industry practices, and the feasibility of the requirement and market capabilities in meeting NGA’s requirements. The GCS Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) will encompass support for multiple GEOINT functions and capabilities which are:

Task Order Functional Areas (Severable)

1 Contract Transition-In

1 Operations & Sustainment

Operations & Sustainment - [includes FSR (Korea)]

1 Agile Development

Agile Development

1 Surge Tasks

Task Order Functional Areas (Severable)

Surge Task - Operations & Sustainment

Surge Task - Agile Development

1 Engineering/Cross Capabilities

Engineering/Cross Capabilities

1 Pilot/Prototyping/Studies

Pilot/Prototyping/Studies - Agile Development

1 MapStack

Operations & Sustainment (includes Future GDP)

Basemaps and Content (includes NRL TS)

SOM Discovery (currently using MapLarge product)

1 Google Earth

Google Earth Client

WWCG

Utilities and Queries

1 Collaboration Portal

Operations & Sustainment - Collaboration (IC GIS Portal)

1 Advanced Data Ingest and Management (ADIM)

Operations & Sustainment

1 Enterprise File Delivery System (EFD)

Operations & Sustainment - EFD

1 eGIS (Arnold)

Operations & Sustainment - eGIS (Arnold)

1 FGDRT

Agile Development

Operations & Sustainment

2 L-Seg

Agile Development

Operations & Sustainment

3 N-Seg

Agile Development

Operations & Sustainment

4 E-Seg

Agile Development

Operations & Sustainment

The draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) include with this RFI is for the anticipated requirements for Task Order #1 (TO #1), which includes ~95% of all functional areas within the

GCS IDIQ.

2 (U) BACKGROUND

(U) NGA has a mission-critical need to maintain the GCS program baseline and to incorporate new capabilities, supported by the extension and maturation of a cloud-based architecture. Further background information can be found in the draft TO #1 PWS.

2.1 (U) PLANNED ACQUISITION

(U) This is a NGA acquisition anticipated to occur in calendar year 2021, in accordance with FAR Part 15.

2.2 (U) PERFORMANCE

2.2.1 (U) PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE (POP)

(U) The anticipated PoP of the GCS contract is a 70 month ordering period.

2.2.2 (U) LOCATION(S)

(U) The majority of the GCS effort will be conducted at the Contractor’s facility with minimal activities required at conferences, NGA, DoD, or IC sites. Specific on-site support requirements exist at NGA Campus West (NCW). Activities associated with the ad hoc initiatives and user engagement support shall be conducted at non-NGA sites, as well as deployment support at Continental United States (CONUS) and Outside Continental United States (OCONUS) sites.

2.2.3 (U) SECURITY REQUIREMENTS

(U) Information on security requirements information can be found in the draft TO #1 PWS, Draft DD254 with SCI Addendum, and Contractor Bidder’s Library (CBL).

2.2.4 (U) ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST:

(U) This acquisition is for the development and sustainment of Government-Off-the-Shelf (GOTS) and Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) items. In accordance with FAR Part 9.5, interested contractors should discuss any performance, which may lead to an organizational conflict of interest (OCI) and how the contractor would mitigate, avoid, or neutralize the conflict.

3 (U) REQUESTED INFORMATION

(U) Responses should only contain unclassified information. Responses should also not contain any proprietary information.

Input on the information contained in the responses may be solicited and reviewed by NGA non- Government consultants / experts who are bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements.

3.1 (U) REQUESTED ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Please complete Tab A of the Microsoft (MS) Excel workbook titled “GCS RFI Response Questions”

3.2 (U) REQUESTED TECHNICAL FEEDBACK AND

ANSWERS

(U) Please address the following questions within the RFI’s 20 page response limit.

Note: Do not repeat the question, please cite [e.g. Q3.2.1.1 – Response: (enter your organization’s response)]

(U) A short description of the overall objective requirements are as follows:

(U) The overall objective of Content Preparation, Discovery and Access (PDA) effort is to enable efficient and effective discovery and retrieval of NSG data, data preparation, validation, transformation and Geospatial-Intelligence (GEOINT) publishing services to the Intelligence Community (IC) and the National System for Geospatial Intelligence (NSG). Continued consolidation will also provide middleware for GEOINT data to provide data and services to non-traditional Department of Defense (DoD) users. In addition, this effort will provide Smartdata enablement to enhance the mission utility of NGA data. Finally, the PDA service offering will continue to provide NGA OCONUS Data Center (NODC) activities, an integrated service layer for a forward deployed regional data center that provides GEOINT functionality to specific areas of responsibility (AORs).

(U) In the Foundation GEOINT Content Management Services (FGCMS) effort, NGA’s Content Services Office seeks to maintain the Foundation GEOINT Data Management (FGDM) architecture element baselines and then to incorporate new capabilities as prioritized by the Government. FGDM plays an essential role in enabling NGA’s ability to meet its agency mission.

FGDM provides critical capabilities to enable the production of FG Data. Users of the FGDM systems and services are the NGA S2 Organization, specifically the Aeronautical, Maritime, Topographic, Geopolitical Geography (Human Geography, Political Geography, and Names, Places and Boundaries), Elevation, and Geodesy, Mission Areas. Current customers include the IC, DoD Service Components and School Houses, other Federal agencies, foreign government partners, and, in some cases, the general public.

3.2.1.1 How would you organize/structure incentives on a technology services contract to provide the greatest benefit to NGA?

3.2.1.2 Do you have recommendations on how to use cost sharing incentives to drive down near and long-term operations and sustainment costs?

3.2.1.3 Is there anything within GCS that should be reallocated to another NGA functional area?

3.2.1.4 What governance structures (e.g., IT governance boards) or mechanisms does the NGA need to establish and/or retain to allow for the effective and efficient performance of this contract? What current structures or mechanisms would inhibit success?

3.2.1.5 How would your organization attract the latest talent to drive innovative solutions for NGA? Is there anything NGA can incorporate into the GCS effort to support the onboarding of talented technologists?

3.2.1.6 Extent to which the responder has the ability to meet the proposed acquisition.

3.2.1.7 Notional schedule and type of plan for transition of this type of service.

3.2.1.8 Security capabilities and plans that demonstrate the ability to meet NGA’s security requirements beginning at contract award and throughout the PoP.

3.2.1.9 What experience does the responder have performing in the IC, unclassified cloud development in accordance with NGA Instruction 5200.1 and the NGA HSPD-12 process managing and migrating code requirements across multiple security fabrics?

3.2.1.10 Extent to which the responder is aware of any potential OCI issues or a non-immitigable OCI related to current development work at NGA.

3.2.1.11 The Government is currently contemplating awarding this requirement as a single award IDIQ contract, providing Operations and Sustainment (O&S) Agile Development, Engineering, and a task surge capability. Please provide any comments regarding the advantages and/or disadvantages for the proposed acquisition strategy, and/or recommendations for an alternate acquisition path/solution.

3.2.1.12 As part of this RFI, interested contractors are requested to review and provide any additional recommended feedback on the Draft GCS TO #1 PWS.

3.3 (U) EXPERIENCE / PAST PERFORMANCE

(U) Please address the following questions within the RFI’s 20 page response limit.

Note: Do not repeat the question, please cite [e.g. Q3.3.1.1 – Response: (enter your organization’s response)]

3.3.1 (U) COMMERCIAL, GOVERNMENT, OR NGA

3.3.1.1 (U) Provide relevant details on the responder providing the same or similar services offered or made to Commercial, Government, or NGA in the last three (3) years. Relevant details to NGA’s proposed acquisition should include, but not be limited to: information regarding the contract number, program name, dollar value, size and length of the effort;

responder performing as a prime or subcontractor; type of pricing and/or cost; security details; the kinds of factors used to evaluate performance; the kinds of performance incentives; the kinds of performance assessment methods; the qualifications of the people performing the services; and any unique terms and conditions, that can demonstrate the responder’s abilities and capacity to meet NGA’s GCS requirements.

3.3.1.2 Provide details on experience relevant to the RFI in which effective performance was delivered in maintaining software configuration baselines.

3.3.1.3 Provide details on experience relevant to the RFI involving ingest, transform, remediate, and export file-based, Full Motion Video (FMV), or other sensor data throughout the IC and an extensive Cloud based environment.

3.3.1.4 Provide details on experience relevant to the RFI involving interfacing with mission partners and NGA/IC/DoD information management services and communication networks.

3.3.1.5 Provide details on experience displaying the ability, initiative, and innovation to discover, engineer, and architect new ways and technologies in fulfilling SOW/PWS requirements in an agile development pipeline environment to meet Government timelines.

3.3.1.6 Provide details on experience relevant to the RFI in which maintaining and modifying software code in large amounts (e.g., over 200K lines of code) was conducted, to include JAVA, C++, and .XML.

3.3.1.7 Provide details on experience relevant to the RFI in which effective performance was delivered in conducting test and evaluation activities.

3.3.1.8 Provide details on experience relevant to the RFI in which disciplined software engineering process was implemented, to include agile development methodologies.

3.3.1.9 Provide details on experience relevant to the RFI in which effective performance in conducting user engagement across a wide customer base, time zones, and global locations.

3.3.1.10 Provide details on experience relevant to the RFI in which effective performance was delivered in demonstrations / conducting high level architectural, engineering, and metrics information briefings to senior level VIPs.

3.3.1.11 Provide details on experience relevant to the RFI in which effective performance was delivered in conducting extensive backend server O&S, and continuous systems upgrade and modernization in cloud environments across multiple fabrics.

3.4 (U) CAPABILITIES

(U) Please address the following questions within the RFI’s 20 page response limit, addressing the responder’s capabilities to meet the proposed acquisition.

Note: Do not repeat the question, please cite [e.g. Q3.4.1.1 – Response: (enter your organization’s response)]

3.4.1 (U) SERVICES NEEDED TO SUPPORT THE RFI

3.4.1.1 (U) Service capabilities that the responder currently possesses. Responses should include the relevant information regarding specific skills, experience, and clearances that its employees, by labor category, currently possess in performing these services, and any needed hardware, software, and communications infrastructure.

3.4.1.2 (U) Detail the service capabilities that the responder currently does not possess in order to meet the RFI requirements, to include needed specific skills, experience, clearances, hardware, software, and communications infrastructure.

3.5 (U) OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

(U) Please address the following within the RFI’s 20 page response limit.

Note: Please cite [3.5 Other – Response: (enter your organization’s response)]

(U) The responder is invited to provide information and recommendations for fashioning this proposed acquisition. Recommendation areas may include the type of contract, anticipated contract terms & conditions, incentives, variations in delivery schedule, price and/or cost proposal support, and data requirements, contract pricing, and any other areas that the responder believes is relevant for the Government to achieve its stated objectives. The responder may opine regarding what portion of the work could be set-aside for small businesses if all the required work cannot be provided by a small business. Details to support any recommendations for partial small business set-asides should be included.

4 (U) Responses

(U) Interested parties are directed to respond to this RFI by answering all questions provided in Sections 3.2 to 3.5 above. Responses to the questions shall not be more than 20 pages in Microsoft (MS) Word for Office or compatible format. A page is defined as each face of an 8½” x 11” sheet with information contained within a one inch margin on all sides. Font type shall be set at Times

Roman 11 point. A cover page may be included; however, will not be included in the total page count. No CLASSIFIED material or information shall be submitted in response to this RFI. If a respondent believes it is necessary to submit classified information as part of its RFI response, the respondent may contact the Contracting Officer via email to obtain submission instructions at grant.i.njoku@nga.mil.

a. Responses are due no later than 12:00pm ET on 1 April 2021. Responses shall be submitted under the GCS webpage on the Unclassified Acquisition Research Center (ARC) website (https://acq.westfields.net). Respondents shall also send a courtesy email to Contracting Officer upon their submission of the proposal electronically on the Unclassified ARC website under the GCS webpage. Respondents should be noted that the maximum size of a file submitted on the Unclassified ARC website cannot exceed 100 Megabytes (MB). Proposals shall not be hand delivered, physically mailed, or submitted by facsimile.

b. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY

MARKED. To aid the Government, please segregate proprietary information. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

c. Each interested party’s submission shall include:

i. 20 Page RFI response. File naming convention shall be “Company

Name_GCS_RFI_Response.File Extension”.

ii. Completed “GCS RFI Response Questions” MS Excel workbook. File naming convention shall be “Company Name_GCS_RFI_WB.xlsx”.

4.1 (U) QUESTIONS

(U) The Government will allow the submission of questions for the GCS RFI until 12:00pm ET on 18 March 2021, via the Unclassified ARC website under the GCS webpage. After the deadline for questions, respondents should submit any questions regarding the GCS effort with their RFI submission via Tab B of the “GCS RFI Response Questions” MS Excel workbook. Respondents should be advised that all questions submitted will be posted (at a later date along with answers) on the Unclassified ARC website for all respondents to view, although the identity of the requesting organization will be withheld. The Government will make every attempt to answer all questions.

4.2 (U) MEETINGS AND DISCUSSION

(U) The Government representatives may or may not choose to contact and/or meet with potential RFI service respondents. Such meetings and discussions would only be intended to gain further clarification of potential capability, especially for any agile development and sustainment, certifications, or additional clarification of a respondent’s submission.

5 (U) SUMMARY

(U) This RFI is only intended for the Government to identify sources that can provide the needed services to fulfill the Government’s requirements. The Government may use the information provided to develop a comprehensive procurement strategy and solicitation. Any information used will be on a non-attribution basis. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding to the Government. The Government has not made a commitment to procure any of the RFI requirements 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.