IRS-OIT-VI RFI Questions.pdf

IRS-OIT-VI Questions

1. Describe briefly the capabilities of your company and the nature of services provided. Include a description of your staff composition and management structure.

2. Detail how your company will bring industry best practices, lessons learned, and innovative solutions to address IRS’s Office of Information & Technology virtualized infrastructure needs.

3. Identify any relevant GSA, NASA SEWP, and/or other GWAC contracts for which your company holds.

4. Provide information regarding your company’s facilities clearance (yes/no), and corresponding level.

5. State whether the NAICS & PSC Codes identified in this announcement are appropriate for the requirement. If not, recommend more appropriate NAICS & PSC.

6. Identify any subcontracting/partnering/teaming possibilities.

7. Provide examples of software solutions that can meet the Statement of Work (SOW) technical requirements listed in Section 4 of the SOW.

• Define whether the solution will allow for option year(s) or only available on an annual basis.

• Provide explanation of inclusion/offering of hyperconverged coverage.

• Explain the prospective solutions business model (i.e.- perpetual, subscription, ingestion, or virtual processor core) associated virtualized infrastructure software, software maintenance, and related support services.

• Provide license Stock-Keeping Unit (SKU) identifiers that are needed to meet the respective solution(s) salient characteristics listed in the SOW.

• Describe the 24/7/365 Operations and Maintenance Support included in the prospective solution.

• Detail level of expertise of service support necessary to implement and maintain the proposed solution.

• Describe the ability for upgrades, patches, enhancements, security improvements, bug fixes, and other product improvements that are commercially available (web and/or telephone based).

• Describe training opportunities included in the initial acquisition, and opportunities offered separately. Provide catalog/retail pricing, available.

• Identify any certifications included in the solution, and opportunities offered separately. Provide catalog/retail pricing, available.

8. Provide comments, or recommendation regarding the draft SOW. Identify any areas of ambiguity, recommend additions/changes to tasks, and highlight best practices relevant to the draft SOW. *Please be sure to reference the SOW page number and section title, corresponding

[Type here] to the SOW that relates to your question and or comment.

9. Pricing:

• Provide retail/catalog pricing for the prospective solution- software, operations & maintenance, and service support (hourly rates). (**Note that this is not a formal request for proposal. There is no funding allocated for this requirement at this time.**).

• Detail potential volume discounts and respective threshold(s) for the prospective solution.

• Identify any one-time-costs associated with the prospective solution.

• Provide a potential ballpark estimate to assist with calculating an Independent

Government Cost Estimate (IGCE), preferably for one, three, and five year periods.

10. Detail any emerging trends or technologies in virtualized infrastructure that the IRS should be aware of, and how can we incorporate them into our procurement strategies.

11. Please provide any recommendations that the IRS might consider overcoming any pain points in business processes, either for your company or as a general recommendation to accomplish IRS enterprise architecture goals and / or become more aligned with commercial business processes such as software license, onerous process elimination, etc.).

12. Describe your organization's experience and approach in communicating complex virtualized infrastructure decisions to the business customer and other IT partners who are not technology or virtualized infrastructure savvy.

13. Demonstrate your company’s familiarity with and ability to adhere to IRS security, data privacy, and disclosure requirements, including applicable Federal standards, such as FISMA.

14. Please provide any recommendations that the IRS might consider overcoming any pain points in business processes, either for your company or as a general recommendation to accomplish IRS enterprise architecture goals and / or become more aligned with commercial business processes (consider streamlining, terms and conditions, asset management, software license compliance enforcement, onerous process elimination, etc.)

15. Describe your company's experience on previous projects similar in scope and complexity to this requirement. Include contract numbers, a brief description of the work performed, period of performance, agency/organization supported, and individual point of contact (Contracting Officer or Program Manager). Specify if prime contractor, sub-contractor, joint-venture, teaming agreement, etc. If sub-contractor, joint-venture, teaming agreement, specify the percentage of work completed by your company.