CPORFI.docx

To: GSA Security Schedule 84 Contract Holders Subject: Request for Information (RFI) Project: GSA Personnel Suitability and Security Process Improvement

The General Services Administration (GSA) Office of the Chief People Officer (CPO) is seeking information on personnel suitability and security process improvement.

This RFI is for information gathering and planning purposes only and should not be construed as a Request for Quote (RFQ) or solicitation of an offer. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or otherwise pay for the information solicited.

I. PROJECT BACKGROUND:GSA CPO has been evaluating the current state Federal Employee Suitability and Security Process as part of its broader Lean Hiring Reform Program. GSA, as other federal agencies, has a performance target of 10 calendar days from the date a tentative job offer is made to an applicant to the date that the Initial Access Determination is made. This cycle, and the sub-activities associated with it, is noted below and is reflected in Steps 1-3. Our current state actual performance with the defined cycle is approximately 27 calendar days. The current state, 5-step process is depicted for illustrative purposes only, and interested contractors are encouraged to discuss their ideas for alternative methods to accomplish the process’ goal – each GSA Federal Employee has an appropriate security clearance that is compliant with OPM and OMB standards, and was adjudicated and investigated in a timely fashion. CPO conducted a process Voice-of-Customer survey in November –December 2010 to help provide the Lean Hiring Project Team the customer’s perspective with the current state process. The survey results are attached as Appendix A.

The scope of the Contractor services includes the following types of service activities; these services may include but are not limited to:

1. Receiving Notice of Tentative Job Offers from up to eleven GSA geographic teams

2. Working with individual Federal Employees and/or Selectees to complete required background investigation paperwork, and capture fingerprints

3. Reviewing of the complete security package and providing suitability recommendations to GSA CPO Government Team for final suitability determination

4. Working with OPM on conducting the background investigation in a timely fashion and ensuring that Service Level Agreements with GSA CPO are met

5. Reviewing the OPM Investigation Report and providing overall recommendations to GSA CPO Government Team for final suitability/security adjudication determination

II. ACQUISITION STRATEGY

Key Priorities:

GSA Federal Employee Security and Suitability professional services support must accommodate several priorities:

1) Provide a viable, cost-effective, and customer service driven resource pool to manage the non-inherently governmental activities of the Security and Suitability Process.

2) Understand the industry estimate for a “Rough Order of Magnitude” (ROM) for providing professional services support for all noted activities within the Scope of Services defined above. This understanding will also help inform the Independent Government Cost Estimate for any possible procurement that may or may not follow this RFI. Note that any ROM received from an industry partner will be considered non-binding and for estimation and/or market research purposes only.

3) Reduce current state cycle time for process steps 1 – 3, Tentative Offer of Employment Made through Review of Paperwork, from approximately 27 calendar days as close to, if not at or below, the Lean Hiring Reform performance target of 10 calendar days.

4) Improve the process Voice-of-Customer results in the following areas:

a. Process Customer Satisfaction (currently 52% report either “Very Satisfied” or “Satisfied”)

b. Process Customer reporting regarding their perception of how long (in calendar days) it took for them to receive their initial e-QIP (security paperwork website) invitation (current perception is 20.9 calendar days on average with a standard deviation of 29.7 calendar days)

c. Process Customer reporting regarding their perception of how long (in calendar days) it took for them to receive preliminary approval for access to GSA facilities and IT resources (current perception is 33.3 calendar days on average with a standard deviation of 41.25 calendar days)

III. INFORMATION REQUESTED:

In response to this RFI, the Government requests the following information no later than 5PM ET on May 6, 2011:

· A completed questionnaire (ATTACHMENT A) intended to compile comments, recommendations, and suggestions on the proposed acquisition strategy and draft requirements.

· A Statement of Capabilities- not to exceed 5 pages.

Responses to this RFI should be emailed to Chet Thompson, Acquisition Analyst at chet.thompson@gsa.gov.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. PROJECT BACKGROUND……………………………………..………………...………. 3

II. ACQUISITION STRATEGY………….......................………………... ………………

III. INFORMATION REQUESTED…………………………………..………………………. 5

IV. RFI QUESTIONNAIRE………...…………………………………….…………………… 6

Attachment A - RFI Questionnaire

GSA Federal Employee Security and Suitability Process Support

Contractor Name: _______________________

Schedule Contract Number: ____________________

Socio-Economic Status (e.g. large, small, disadvantaged):____________________

1. Providing a viable, cost-effective, and customer service driven resource pool to manage the non-inherently governmental activities of the Security and Suitability Process. The RFI seeks to identify possible industry service providers that could help meet the following objectives:

a) The government is seeking the best way to go from the receipt that an Initial Offer of Employment has been made to Final Adjudication. The current state process is depicted, however, vendors are encouraged to think of and describe their alternate ideas for future process performance that would better meet the key priorities of this RFI.

b) The government wants to understand a “Rough Order of Magnitude” of the cost for having a private sector firm perform the non-inherently governmental activities of the Security and Suitability Process. Vendors are requested to provide a non-binding cost estimate with any assumptions of same in their RFI response.

c) The government wants to make quantitative improvements to 1) process customer satisfaction; 2) process customer perception of length of time it took to receive notice to complete security paperwork; and 3) process customer perception of length of time it took to receive an Initial Access Determination. Vendors are requested to discuss other possible measures that would help quantify additional process improvements in their RFI response.

2. Reducing the current state cycle time for process steps 1 – 3 will be a major contributing factor to GSA being able to meet OPM’s overall Hiring End-to-End performance target of 80 calendar days. A major current state measure of process performance is the cycle time (in calendar days) from the date a tentative job offer is made to when the final security paperwork review is completed and an Initial Access Determination is made. Are there other measures of performance the government should consider that would be a better performance indicator given your company’s experience with the Federal Security/Background Check process?

3. What metrics would you recommend the Government utilize to evaluate contractor bids for any possible procurement arising from this RFI?

4. Are there any specific source selection criteria you believe will most effectively differentiate one contractor from another?

5. Do you believe written quotations, oral quotation presentations or some combination of the two will result in the most effective and efficient source selection?

6. What isn’t the government thinking about that it should as it looks to achieve the described process performance improvements? Do you have any other comments, recommendations, or suggestions on the proposed acquisition strategy?

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