1_SourcesSought_EAD_v7_12-4-09

Sources Sought Notice:

PSC O&M Support for Enterprise Human Resource Applications Introduction The Program Support Center (PSC) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) wants to identify viable small businesses that can perform application-specific support services for distinct enterprise applications maintained by its Enterprise Systems Services (ESS) program. This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. PSC plans to use the results of this market research to inform its approach for supporting the delivery of the operations and maintenance services it provides for its enterprise human resource systems.

Background PSC is the shared-services provider for HHS. Created in 1995 to reduce duplication in federal administrative support services, PSC provides support services to the department, its component agencies, and other federal agencies on a competitive fee-for-service basis, allowing the agencies to focus on their core missions. Support services include administrative operations, financial management, human resources, strategic acquisition, and federal occupational health.

Managing state-of-the-art Human Resources (HR), Time and Attendance, and Payroll interface applications, the Enterprise Systems Services delivers the highest level of customer service to HHS civilian employees. ESS works closely with HHS and other Federal Agencies to develop, deliver, and support the best possible HR systems that use the latest available technology and maximize efficiency. ESS offers its services to all federal agencies and currently serves every operating division (OpDiv) at HHS.

Currently, the ESS Enterprise Application Division (EAD) manages delivery of operations and maintenance (O&M) services for the HHS enterprise HR systems. EAD delivers these services using a mix of federal and contractor resources.

EAD currently operates and maintains the following distinct enterprise systems:

Enterprise Human Resource and Payroll (EHRP)—the HHS enterprise resource management solution using a department-specific configuration of the PeopleSoft Human Capital Management software. As the enterprise solution, EHRP interfaces to the Department’s Unified Financial Management System (UFMS), Accounting for Pay System (AFPS), its time and attendance system (ITAS), to OpDiv specific HR data repositories and to all enterprise HR reporting tools. In addition, EHRP interfaces support payroll processing by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS).

Integrated Time and Attendance System (ITAS)—the time and attendance solution using a Government off-the-shelf (GOTS) product. ITAS provides information to the payroll process and is deployed nationwide.

Enterprise Workflow Information Tracking System (EWITS)—the HandySoft BizFlow business process management and workflow automation system that facilitates the management of human resources activities, such as recruitment, employee relations/labor relations, parking, Transhare, retirement, and awards; and records workflow metrics that allows EAD to monitor and track HR performance.

Business Intelligence Information System, the enterprise reporting solution using SAP Business Objects, that provides custom and ad hoc reporting of human resources information and performance data.

In addition, the EAD systems inventory includes TITAN, an MVS mainframe using JCL, and PAST, a WANG database containing historical information on prior Department employees.

Purpose EAD is currently in the process of examining its support needs in the near and long term. In the near term, EAD seeks to secure and maintain uninterrupted performance of its enterprise systems for existing customers. In the future, it seeks to continue identifying strategic initiatives to optimize performance and business value for its customers and expand its customer base to other federal agencies. EAD seeks to maintain and enhance its customer service delivery so that is responsive, flexible, scalable, and cost-effective.

EAD will use the results of this sources sought notice to identify small business sources in the market that can reliably provide the application support services it requires for the objectives defined below. EAD may use the research findings to inform a potential acquisition to support its O&M service delivery model in the near future. EAD must also validate its process to support potential acquisitions. Therefore, in addition to determining viable sources, the EAD will use the results of this notice to inform and validate the most efficient way to acquire services for any potential future solicitations.

EAD values your company’s response to this sources sought notice. To be sufficiently informed, you should carefully read the section on EAD’s requirements, and you should provide clear, concise responses to EAD’s questions to industry in the specified format.

Objectives EAD requires services to support two distinct program objectives.

Objective 1: Obtain Application Support Services EAD’s first objective is to obtain and secure application support services across three distinct technology areas of expertise. Examples of the types of services EAD requires can be found in the section below, EAD Application Support Services Requirements. For applications that are COTS, EAD will also require support with tools associated with maintaining those applications. The remainder of this section explains EAD desired outcomes specific to each of the three technology areas of expertise.

Objective 1.1, PeopleSoft HCM—Within the PeopleSoft HCM area of expertise, EAD requires vendors to provide application and infrastructure support services specific to HHS’s implementation of PeopleSoft HCM modules and related extensions and integration software (EHRP). EHRP uses an Oracle database and is implemented on a Unix and Windows platform. EAD maintains the following:

PeopleSoft HRMS for US Federal Government version 8.9 Base Benefits version 8.9 Benefits Administration version 8.9 PeopleSoft Payroll Interface version 8.9 PeopleTools 8.48.04 Current Server hardware = HP-UX v11.11 Current RDBMS = Oracle 9.2.0.8 Objective 1.2, Time and Attendance GOTS—Within the Time and Attendance GOTS area of expertise, EAD requires vendors to specifically provide application support services for HHS’s implementation of ITAS, a GOTS time and attendance application. ITAS operates on a Windows and Sun Solaris platform and uses a SQL server database management system.

Objective 1.3, Business Objects—Within the Business Objects area of expertise, EAD requires vendors to provide application support services for EAD’s enterprise reporting system, BIIS. The reporting system uses SAP BusinessObjects, and Oracle DBMS and runs on an HP Unix platform. In addition, EAD requires vendors to maintain tools associated with supporting the application.

Objective 2: Obtain EAD Enterprise HR Subject Matter Expertise EAD’s second objective is to ensure the functional knowledge necessary to operate and maintain its EHRP solution.

Objective 2, EAD Enterprise HR Functional Knowledge—Within the EAD Enterprise HR functional knowledge area of expertise, EAD requires vendors to provide subject matter expertise in enterprise HR business processes and associated information specific to the EAD EHRP implementation.

EAD is interested in identifying small business sources that can perform any or all of the four distinct objectives listed above. Companies may prepare a response to address one, two three, or all four objectives. Companies should follow carefully the instructions to this notice in order to prepare an accurate and helpful response.

Overall, EAD is seeking uninterrupted performance of the specified applications as the primary outcome for all of its objectives. This includes performance outcomes such as timeliness, responsiveness, and accuracy in addressing issues and implementing changes. The following subsections further detail the services required.

EAD Application Support Services Requirements In general, EAD program support involves performing the day-to-day activities required to keep the program operating smoothly and effectively across all applications supported by EAD. These required activities are to manage and implement changes, manage and resolve issues, provide quality assurance prior to implementing changes, support management of the content of new software releases, support management of the environments where application code and data reside, support the successful migration of new releases into production, and ensure timely and effective communication on the impact of changes to end users. Other critical program elements include responding to customer requests in a timely manner and ensuring the underlying technical infrastructure is performing as required to maintain EAD applications.

In order to respond to this notice, contractors must be able to clearly convey its experience and/or ability to perform the services below. At a minimum, to effectively support one or more of the above objectives contractors must satisfy the following service requirements:

Operations Operations services involve the activities required to support the application and users on a daily basis. There are several key areas within operations – application administration, issue resolution, configuration management, and instance/environment management.

Application administration support includes the configuration and monitoring required to maintain EAD applications each day, ensuring that they are operating accurately and efficiently. Examples of application administration services for EAD include performing system configuration maintenance such as maintaining initialization code, profile options, and parameters; setting up, deleting, and deactivating users and associated profiles; and coordinating with disaster recovery personnel to ensure that backups occur and are valid.

Issue resolution support includes analyzing and resolving issues that cannot be resolved by EAD’s help desk. Support includes troubleshooting and resolving issues, as well as coordinating with necessary parties (such as commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) vendors and infrastructure personnel) as required. The contractor shall follow EAD change management processes and procedures for tracking, managing, and resolving issues Configuration management involves establishing application baselines and all associated configuration items, and maintaining the ongoing versioning of the baselines in a repository as new releases and enhancements are rolled out. Examples of configuration management services EAD requires includes using a government provided configuration management tool to maintain application baseline and version configurations, organizing and managing the content of each application release, and performing applications builds and promoting new configurations.

Instance/environment management involves managing the environment in which the application code and data reside, including managing the application code configuration items. An example of instance/environment management services EAD requires includes maintaining the various application instances (production, testing, development, and so forth) and ensuring configuration integrity as changes are applied, and synchronizing the development and testing instances with the production instance on a periodic basis.

Maintenance and Development Maintenance and development involve managing and implementing approved customer requests for application changes, as well as implementing application patches and upgrades. There are several key areas within maintenance and development – application development, patch and upgrade management, quality assurance testing, change management, and subject matter expertise.

Application development involves the implementation of approved customer requests. Customer change requests will fall into one of two categories: break fixes and releases. Break fixes are initiated through incident resolution management and involve changes to ensure the system is functioning as designed. Releases are changes that enhance or modify the system design. Some changes may require significant new development. Major releases are treated as projects and must follow EAD’s full development lifecycle. Examples of application development services for EAD include performing an impact assessment that will identify the level of effort and cost associated with each requested change, making any configuration or coding changes necessary, coordinating with the COTS vendor as necessary, and testing the changes to ensure they are functioning as designed.

Patch and upgrade management involve assessing the impact of application and database upgrades, and recommending and coordinating the implementation of application patches and upgrades. Examples of patch and upgrade management services for EAD include performing strategic planning, determining the implementation schedule, coordinating with the hosting site, and testing. Major upgrades, such as the migration to PeopleSoft 9.0, shall follow the full development life cycle and include sufficient planning and preparation to ensure success.

Change management involves managing change to the users’ business processes or application functionality based on the implementation of change requests. Examples of change management services for EAD include reviewing changes, identify training implications (if any), and prepare and provide training of users as necessary; reviewing business process implications of changes and coordinating with functional and training personnel to ensure that any business process changes are coordinated with the system changes rolled out to users.

Quality assurance testing involves performing the necessary testing activities, post unit testing performed under application development, to ensure the quality and user acceptance of all application changes. Examples of post unit testing coding activities include system testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing, and independent validation and verification testing.

EAD Subject matter expertise involves providing expertise and assistance to EAD and other contractors in EAD specific business processes, and EAD legacy applications and data, as applied to its configuration of EHRP. EAD business processes are specific to HHS personnel policies and practices and cover the entire range of types of personnel employed across HHS. Specific activities may include performing strategic planning, preparing impact analysis, conducting testing or providing assistance to testing personnel, and preparing change management materials or providing assistance to change management personnel.

Infrastructure Management Program infrastructure management services involves ensuring that the EAD technical infrastructure is performing as required—at the required locations, during the required hours, and at the required capacity. It involves executing processes and activities to maintain the technologies and environments that support EAD applications. It also involves performing core database management activities required to ensure the integrity, quality, and performance of EAD data and database management systems. Examples of the infrastructure management services EAD requires include:

Providing COTS product and application specific technical expertise to EAD and the application support service providers.

Assisting with trouble shooting COTS product related performance issues.

Assisting patch and upgrade management personnel in major COTS upgrade planning and impact analysis, assessing the implications to the Windows and Unix operating systems, and recommending an approach that minimizes impacts while allowing for compatibility.

Monitoring the infrastructure and coordinating with the hosting provider to execute infrastructure maintenance, infrastructure capacity planning and performance management activities Reviewing application and infrastructure support tools (such as performance monitoring software) with vendors and selecting, installing, and administering tools Identifying opportunities for infrastructure improvements and additional program tools to enhance performance and justify recommended actions to EAD Project Management Examples of project management services EAD requires include:

Operational reporting involves reporting operational metrics in status meetings that are held daily or several times a week. The information from these reports will be used to formulate the program-level results for weekly reporting or other reporting required to delivery high-quality customer service.

Project or task management involves identifying weekly schedule changes/issues for a proactive schedule management approach. Monthly reporting on the program status will integrate the results of the weekly schedule monitoring to provide an accurate status from a schedule perspective. Discuss program status, reviewing performance metrics, identifying performance issues, and addressing administrative matters as needed is also required.

Cost reporting involves producing monthly cost management reports, providing budget versus actual cost data by cost area (service area/CLIN). The cost reports should promote a thorough understanding of budgets and actuals for the total program and each task by service area. Availability to provide PSC a detailed walk-through of monthly invoices as needed is also required.

Operating Environment Requirements EAD operates in a complex environment. To meet customer needs, EAD requires the following:

The ability to perform in a complex federal operating environment that requires ready agility, insight, and communications ability to respond.

The ability to manage developer resources to address spikes in demand, both planned and unplanned.

The ability to cooperate flexibly and professionally with a number of other service providers to coordinate, integrate, and resolve issues. The following are examples of other service providers, which may be providing similar or complementary services as those described in this notice:

EAD O&M application-specific service support providers Primary Data Center hosting service providers Security providers performing penetration testing Vendors providing agency-specific support or supporting other feeder systems.

Vendors providing ESS program management or planning support All contractors must comply with all HHS/PSC policy for information technology (IT) and information resources, including its capital planning and investment control and IT security procedures. These policies can be found at http://www.hhs.gov/read/irmpolicy/index.html.

In the future, EAD will continue to mature its business processes to ensure enhanced service delivery. For example, EAD will adhere to any PSC or ESS policy requirements for following IT service management principles and using the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) method. (Further information on ITIL certification and standards can be found at http://www.itil.co.uk/).

Place of Performance The majority of work will occur on-site at the EAD program office located at HHS’s Silver Spring facility, 8455 Colesville Road, Room 1600, Silver Spring, MD 20910. All contractor personnel working on-site must either have HHS badges or have the ability to readily obtain a badge following the HHS security process. PSC is willing to consider the use of off-site resources for the development and unit testing of change requests, provided that the development facilities adhere to HHS’s security standards.

Information Sought In order for PSC to assess the availability and viability of small businesses that can perform application support services specific to its program objectives, respondents are requested to address the questions below.

Note, in responding to questions 1 through 4, companies that do not want to be considered as a potential source to support one or more of the four objectives should answer that question with “Not Applicable.” For example, companies that do not want to be considered as a potential source to support Objective 1 should answer Question 1 with “Not Applicable’; companies that do not want to be considered as a potential source to support Objective 2 should answer Question 2 with “Not Applicable.” However, companies must respond to at least one of the first four questions (that is, companies may respond “Not Applicable” to only three of the first four questions) and may respond positively to all four. Companies must answer all remaining questions. The questions are as follows:

1. Describe your related experience, including proposed team members (prime and subcontractors), to perform the required services within the PeopleSoft HCM area of expertise for EAD. Complete the Related Experience Template (Attachment A) for each related experience. Under “Objective Number and Name” in the template heading, write Objective 1.1-PeopleSoft HCM. Teaming arrangements are encouraged, and the information required should also be provided for each entity expected to team with the respondent for the performance of the work for Objective 1. Provide up to three related experiences for each team member. Include experience in the following categories:

PeopleSoft HCM O&M in a federal environment PeopleSoft HCM system integration in a federal environment PeopleSoft HCM infrastructure services.

2. Describe your related experience, including proposed team members (prime and subcontractors), to provide the required services within the GOTS Time and Attendance area of expertise for ITAS. Complete the Related Experience Template (Attachment A) for each related experience. Under “Objective Number and Name” in the template heading, write Objective 1.2-GOTS Time and Attendance. Provide up to three related experiences for your firm and each team member. Include experience in the following categories:

ITAS systems integration and O&M Time and Attendance systems integration and O&M in a federal environment

3. Describe your related experience, including proposed team members (prime and subcontractors), to provide the required services within the Business Objects area of expertise to support EAD enterprise HR reporting. Complete the Related Experience Template (Attachment A) for each related experience. Under “Objective Number and Name” in the template heading, write Objective 1.3-Business Objects. Provide up to three related experiences for each team member. Include experience in the following categories:

Development and support of Business Objects reporting solutions Oracle database management and performance tuning (for SAP Business Objects reporting solutions) EAD enterprise HR reporting.

4. Describe your related experience, included proposed team members (prime and subcontractors), to provide EAD subject matter expertise services as applied to the HHS EHRP solution (at the process, data and systems levels) within the EAD Enterprise HR Functional Knowledge area of expertise. Complete the Related Experience Template (Attachment A) for each related experience. Under “Objective Number and Name” in the template heading, write Objective 2-EAD Enterprise HR Functional Knowledge. Provide up to three related experiences. Include your experience providing functional support to EAD in the following categories:

Strategic planning and management reporting Testing EAD Enterprise HR business processes and data EAD legacy systems. Include experience related to PAST.

5. Briefly describe the project roles and skills that your firm would rely on to build your application-support team for the EAD O&M program and explain how you would staff these roles. In addition, submit a recommended team profile for the specific objective(s) you would support that includes the years of experience, employment classification (team lead, teaming partner, or subcontractor), and the minimum certifications you could ensure for an individual in each role. (At a minimum, please indicate if an individual would hold ITIL and PMP certifications). Use of a simple table to communicate the recommended team profile within your response is acceptable.

6. If ITIL certification was required to support any of the four objectives noted above, would your firm presently be able to fulfill the requirement with your existing employees? If your firm is unable to fulfill the requirement at present, would it have the capacity to fulfill it in the future?

7. What supporting capabilities, including certifications, tools, best practices, and methods, are critical for managing and executing this effort? Please highlight your corporate capabilities, including supporting certifications or accreditations, partnerships, tools, best practices, and methods, to achieve the EAD objectives as stated in this notice. Clearly indicate your firm’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) appraisal level, if any.

8. What contracting vehicles do you currently have in place to conduct business with the federal government? If through another firm, please indicate the formal name of the firm and the vehicle. Also identify the firm’s General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule contracts by schedule number and contract number, as well as special item numbers that are applicable to PSC’s requirements.

9. Provide your firm’s DUNS number, CAGE code, tax identification number, and company structure (corporation, LLC, partnership, joint venture, etc.). Companies also must be registered in the Central Contractor Registry (www.ccr.gov) to be considered as potential sources. Provide this information for each entity expected to team with the respondent for the performance of the work for the proposed objective(s).

10. Provide your firm’s current annual revenue and number of employees. Identify any recent acquisitions that are relevant. Please indicate your firm’s status, if qualified as an 8(a) firm (must be certified by SBA), small disadvantaged business (must be certified by SBA), woman-owned small business, HUBZone firm (must be certified by SBA), or service-disabled veteran-owned small business (must be listed in the VetBiz Vendor Information Pages). Firms must submit copies of documentation, such as letters or certificates, indicating their status.

11. If the company has a government-approved accounting system, please identify the agency that approved the system.

Instructions to Industry This notice is for PSC’s planning only. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).

Interested small business firms are highly encouraged to respond to this notice. However, firms should understand that generic capability statements are not sufficient for effective evaluation of their capacity and capability to perform the work required. Responses must directly demonstrate the company’s capability, experience, and ability to marshal resources to effectively and efficiently perform the objectives described above.

The written response to this notice should consist of the following items:

Cover letter that includes the following information:

Company name Company DUNS number Company mailing address, telephone and fax numbers, and website address Name, telephone number, and e-mail address of a company point of contact who has the authority and knowledge to clarify responses with government representatives Date submitted Applicable company GSA Schedule number or other available procurement vehicle.

All of the above-cited information for each entity on the proposed team, if a team is proposed.

An indication of which objectives your company’s submission addresses (Specify by objective number and name) Responses to Questions 1–11 Completed Related Experience Templates (Attachment A).

Copies of any documentation to indicate small business status.

Responses to Questions 1–11 of this notice must total no more than 8 pages. The responses should follow the format shown in Attachment B. Text should be in Times New Roman and no smaller than 11 point. Information included in graphics, tables, and figures can be smaller than 11 point but must be legible. The header of every page of the response—not including the cover letter—should contain, in 10 point Times New Roman, the following information:

Company name The cover page, Related Experience Templates, and status documentation are not included in the 8-page count total. The submissions must be in sufficient detail and clarity to provide the PSC with the information it needs to assess your company’s capabilities.

If, after answering the PSC’s questions, an organization has sufficient space available, it may offer additional, related information that may assist PSC with better defining its objectives.

Responses must be submitted in Microsoft Word 2000 or a later version, excluding Microsoft 2007 (docx format).

Responses to this notice must be submitted to PSC by 4:00 p.m. EST, December 10, 2009. E-mail one soft copy of all response files to the contracting officer, Bettie.Hartley@psc.hhs.gov. As previously stated, the Government will not entertain questions regarding this Market Research. Interested parties may not contact technical personnel of the PSC about this notice. To ask general questions about any aspect of this notice, your company should contact only the contracting officer issuing this letter. She may be contacted at the e-mail above or by telephone at 301-443-7848.