DRAFT_PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (rev sls033121).docx

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

Enterprise Digitalization Program Support Enterprise Digitalization & Case Management Office

Part 1

General Information

1. GENERAL: This is a non-personal services requirement to provide Enterprise Digitalization Program Support. The Government shall not exercise any supervision or control over the Contractor’s personnel performing the services herein. The Contractor’s personnel shall be accountable solely to the Contractor who, in turn is responsible to the Government.

1.1 Background: The recently expanded Enterprise Digitalization and Case Management Office (EDCMO) will spearhead IRS efforts to empower taxpayers and IRS employees to rapidly resolve issues in a simplified digital environment. Our office's efforts will support overall IRS modernization and implementation of long-term changes stemming from multiple strategic initiatives including the Taxpayer First Act (TFA), the 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act (IDEA), OMB M-19-21 (NARA 2022 mandate), etc. Our new stand-alone office will focus on enhancing the taxpayer experience by updating policy, improving business processes and modernizing systems by focusing on digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation, as defined below. Our multi-disciplinary team will apply data-driven decision making, agile-like methodologies, industry-best practices, customer experience/user experience (CX/UX) thinking, and draw on leading industry test-and-learn practices to rapidly identify what combination of policy, business process, and technology works best, and increases customer and business value through digitalization for the IRS's customers and employees.

· Digitization: the process of converting analog information (i.e., physical documentation that requires physical storage) into a digital format that can be stored digitally through traditional scanning processes, transcription, or other technology. For example, digitization commonly involves scanning paper documents into imaged files or PDFs. In some instances, digitization is a sufficient end state for information received.

· Digitalization: the process of converting text, pictures, or sound into a digital form that can be processed by a computed, easily shared, and accessed (i.e., machine readable data). For example, it could include performing optical character recognition (OCR) on the digitized file to extract machine-readable text, comprehensive business process redesign, and/or policy updates to eliminate paper.

· Digital Transformation: the process of using digital tools to improve business processes and the user/taxpayer experience, that do not necessarily involve paper. For example, it could include using chat bots to respond to Frequently Asked Questions instead of calling the IRS.

1.2 Introduction: The EDCMO is pursuing three overarching goals:

1) Reduce reliance on and costs associated with paper;

2) Increase amount of access to digital / machine-readable data; and

3) Prepare the IRS to manage digital data, shifting from low-value to high-value work, and improving the taxpayer experience.

To achieve our overarching goals, we have developed four general efforts. These efforts were originally listed in the Task Paragraph; however, many RFI responses conflated program and project management work with developing hardware or software solutions or integrating new technology. Instead our office is focused on identifying/managing, developing/implementing, and analyzing value those opportunities. Specifically EDCMO work includes:

A. Managing the EDCMO Project Pipeline and Project Selection While Adhering to and Enhancing an Existing Strategic Framework:

Due to a significant level of interest across the enterprise, EDCMO, including its existing contracted industry partners, continues to identify and receive opportunities/ideas for projects from stakeholders which must be consolidated into the EDCMO Project Pipeline and further distilled for project selection. In accordance with (IAW) the draft IRS Digitalization Strategy, EDCMO affects digitalization at the IRS through three transformational change levers, 1) Business Processes; 2) Policy; and 3) Technology and has establish foundational prioritization criteria (see Paragraph 3.2.3). EDCMO not only addresses technology issues or needs – it also tackles business process and policy issues, either by themselves or in conjunction with technology issues. However, EDCMO is not and is not seeking a technology integrator, nor makes or implements technology changes, configurations, determinations, or decisions. Transversely, EDCMO efforts will align to and/or influence changes to other strategic efforts as described in Paragraph 1.2.B.

At the Program and Project level, EDCMO works to ensure there is a mix of incremental, adjacent, and transformative type projects selected from the EDCMO Project Pipeline for project execution.

· Incremental is a near-term activity that requires a relatively low level of resources and time to pursue, and generally works within existing constructs and tools with little adjustment or change.

· Adjacent is a mid-term activity that likely requires moderate levels of time/resources and expands the use of or slightly modifies existing policies, business processes, or technology.

· Transformative is frequently a long-term activity that requires significant levels of time/resources and represents a fundamentally disparate approach to solving a problem.

Projects will both inform and be governed by existing strategic frameworks, and EDCMO may not be successful in all individual projects as it ‘swings for the fences.’ As a result, focused and intentional program/project management efforts, balanced (just-enough) CX/UX, and a rigorous Return on Investment (ROI) will be very important. In addition to ensuring the projects selected reflect the existing strategy, EDCMO will also need to ensure that subsequent efforts and versions of the strategy are informed by the success and failure of executed projects.

Some projects are very specific to a particular process or office, whereas others may be obvious in their potential for scaling across the enterprise. EDCMO must balance the nature of the projects with the level of effort required for each project to make substantive data-driven decisions about whether to continue pursuing executed projects or if the projects should transition to pilot efforts.

B. Supporting Sequencing and Alignment Activities Relative to Case Management and Other Strategic Efforts:

Although Enterprise Digitalization activities are a priority for the IRS, they do not exist in a vacuum. For instance, activities to ensure that Enterprise Digitalization projects, as appropriate, feed into and reflect existing Case Management efforts, various cross-agency roadmaps, value stream maps, align with IRS-wide strategic goals and legislative requirement timelines, etc. are necessary.

C. Supporting Multiple Projects, and Finalization & Application of Metrics for the Purposes of Scaling Successful Projects/Pilots:

EDCMO is currently managing multiple pilots, and anticipates beginning roughly five more pilots in FY21. EDCMO anticipates a minimum of 20 pilots running concurrently each FY; however, has no maximum threshold established. EDCMO advocates agile project management when applicable; however, regardless of methodology used, expects pilot phases to observe consistent timeboxing of 30-to-120-day increments. Additionally, EDCMO anticipates pilots may be completed with internal resources; however, some will require procurement actions. For those that require procurement actions, test and learn procurement vehicles (i.e., Pilot IRS) will be used.

EDCMO is pursuing data-driven and intentional decisions about where and how to modify or scale the most promising projects (or portions of them) to a pilot, typically after the initial 30-to-120-day period. EDCMO expects collaboration, recommendations, and quantitative analysis from a pilot, and program vector with final decisions occurring at the program level.

There are numerous logistical efforts required to support EDCMO, including stakeholder engagement, briefing materials, development and monitoring of quantitative performance metrics, demonstrating the program’s value proposition, etc. EDCMO anticipates these activities will be divided amongst the contracted support as appropriate with a seamless flow vertically and horizontally.

An ability to balance brevity and conciseness in generating briefing materials and other artifacts with in-depth analyses of complex and large-scale problems will be particularly important.

D. Supporting Broader Acquisitions Led by EDCMO:

EDCMO will be taking the lead for several larger and more traditional procurements and acquisitions. At least some of that effort will support EDCMO-focused support needs (like those anticipated in this potential requirement). Additionally, acquisitions and procurements which support enterprise-wide needs of the IRS (e.g., a replacement contract for the hard copy IRS files that are currently being stored with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)) will also be pursued by EDCMO.

1.3 Objective: To provide the Programmatic, Project, Operations, and Communications support necessary for EDCMO to achieve its overarching goals through the governance, selection, management, evaluation, and scaling of project efforts and related acquisitions, and enhancing the EDCMO Strategic Framework while maintaining alignment with the IRS’s strategic frameworks.

2. SCOPE: The Contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and services necessary to perform Enterprise Digitalization Program Support as defined herein except for those items specified as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) and services. The Contractor shall perform to the standards in this Performance Work Statement.

2.1 Contract Type / Period of Performance:

The contract type shall be a Single-Award Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA). The first Task Order will be Hybrid Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP)/Labor Hour (T&M). The first and last 120-day periods shall be T&M with all remaining periods FFP.

The period of performance is anticipated to begin on June XX, 2021. The period of performance shall be for one (1) 12-month base period from the date of award with four (4) 12-month option periods. The Period of Performance reads as follows:

2.2 Place of Performance:

It is anticipated that work will be performed primarily at the Contractor’s facilities. The Contractor shall participate in weekly ongoing/recurring meetings on-site at the IRS EDCMO at facilities in downtown Washington, D.C. and/or Lanham, MD.

Local travel within a 50-mile radius from the Contractor’s facility to the Government’s facility is considered the cost of doing business and will not be reimbursed. No other travel will be authorized. Basic facilities such as workspace will be provided while on-site in Government facilities. Activities requiring the participation of IRS employees shall be conducted during normal business hours, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST.

The Contractor is not required to provide service on U.S. Federal holidays. Unless required under the terms of the contract or authorized by the CO, the Contractor shall not work at any Government facility, nor should any deliveries under this contract be made to any Government facility, on any of the following holidays:

· New Year’s Day – 1 January

· Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday – 3rd Monday in January

· President’s Day – 3rd Monday in February

· Memorial Day – Last Monday in May

· Independence Day – 4 July

· Labor Day – 1st Monday in September

· Columbus Day – 2nd Monday in October

· Veteran’s Day – 11 November

· Thanksgiving Day – 4th Thursday in November

· Christmas Day – 25 December

· Election Day – 3 November

· Inauguration – 20 January

· Any other day designated by Federal Statute, Executive Order or a Presidential proclamation.

When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday will be observed as a legal holiday. When a holiday falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday is observed as a holiday by U. S. Government agencies. The amounts in schedule of the contract include an allowance for holidays to be observed. The Government will not be billed for such holidays, except when services are required by the Government and are actually performed on a holiday, as applicable.

3. TASK REQUIREMENTS

The work described in this PWS consists of the following task areas:

The tasks included in this requirement are:

1. Contract Program Management

2. Program Management Support and Controls

3. Project Management Support and Controls

4. Operations Support

5. Strategic Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Support

6. Transition to Support (Optional)

7. Surge Support

a. Incremental Surge Support (Optional)

b. Adjacent Surge Support (Optional)

c. Transformative Surge Support (Optional)

d. Other Surge Support (Optional)

3.1. Task 1—Contract Program Management

3.1.1. The Contractor shall conduct an Orientation Briefing for the Government. The intent of this briefing is to initiate the communication process between the Government and Contractor by introducing key participants, explaining roles, reviewing communication ground rules, and assuring a common understanding of PWS requirements and objectives.

The orientation briefing shall be held virtually and both parties shall mutually agree upon the date and time.

The completion of this briefing shall result in the following:

1. The Contractor and Government personnel who will perform work under this PWS will be introduced.

2. Obtaining Contractor clearances for Contractor personnel will be discussed.

3. Obtaining Government Furnished Equipment and SMART cards will be discussed.

4. The Contractor shall demonstrate confirmation of their understanding of the work to be accomplished under this PWS.

5. Orientation briefing meeting minutes, to include any initial deliverables or taskings.

3.1.2. —Contract Management Plan

Prepare a Contract Management Plan describing the technical approach, organizational resources, staffing plan, technical and functional activities required for the integration of all tasks specified within this PWS, and management controls to be employed to meet the cost, performance, and schedule requirements. Include a mitigation of Organizational Conflict of Interest strategy throughout contract execution.

3.1.3. —Quality Control Plan (QCP)

The Contractor shall develop, implement, maintain and utilize a QCP which correlates to the Performance Requirements Summary and Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) throughout the life of the contract. The QCP is designed to implement a standardized methodology for monitoring and documenting Contractor performance. The QCP should be a detailed, well-written plan providing the Government an understanding of services and associated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to be performed. Following initial approval, the QCP will be reviewed by the Government and modified by the Contractor on a semi-annual basis. The QCP must contain, at a minimum:

· A description of the inspection system that shall cover all services in the QASP. The description must include specifics as to the areas to be inspected on both a scheduled and unscheduled basis, frequency of inspection, and the title and organizational placement of the inspectors.

· A description of the methods used for identifying and preventing defects in the quality of service performed.

· A description of the records that shall be kept to document inspections and corrective or preventive actions taken.

The records shall be kept and made available to the contracting officer, when requested, throughout the contract performance period and for the period after contract completion until final settlement of any claims under this contract.

3.1.4—Knowledge Management Repository

The Contractor shall develop and deliver a Knowledge Management Repository using SharePoint to EDCMO for review, comments, and approval. The purpose of the Knowledge Management Repository is to logically organize and store ALL work products and metadata related to this PWS, as well as pertinent legacy documents provided to the Contractor. The SharePoint site will act as a single repository, providing a logical and organized system for documenting and preserving all products developed in support of this contract.

3.1.5.—Contractor Reporting Requirements

The Contractor shall provide a weekly status report detailing Contractor tasks, task status, issues, and Government POC for each task.

The Contractor shall provide a monthly status report containing a roll-up of information contained in weekly reports including a deliverables table with percentage complete, delivery status (i.e. Not Started, In Progress, Delivered, Accepted, Reworking), and Government POC. The monthly report shall also include a table with names of Contractor employees currently and previously working on the project, serial numbers of issued GFE, recordation of date onboarding documentation submitted to Contractor Security Management (CSM), all requisite training, new COR details for personnel transitioning from project and other personnel status items. The monthly status report shall coincide with the monthly invoicing schedule. Invoices shall be submitted via email to COR and backup COR in concurrence with the Beckley Finance submission.

The Contractor shall provide a period of performance status report of work performed, including a list of deliverables and the dates they were accepted at the end of the Base Year and each Option Year thereafter.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required

The resource(s) supporting these tasks shall have documented experience performing contract management activities.

3.2. Task 2—Program Management Support and Controls

3.2.1 —Program Management Support

The Contractor shall provide Program Management support utilizing industry best practices and industry standard documentation in support of all incremental, adjacent, and transformative pilots included in the program.

The Contractor shall develop, optimize, and maintain an Enterprise Digitalization Program Management Plan that aggregates data from all Enterprise Digitalization projects and workstreams in order to provide a program level view. EDCM desires brevity and conciseness in all reporting. At a minimum the Program Management Plan shall incorporate:

· Charter with all supporting governance-related documentation;

· Integrated Master Schedule;

· Aggregate cost schedule and performance baseline and metrics;

· ROI aggregated from project level information;

· Program level quality management plan;

· Risk management plan (to include a consolidated risk management matrix);

· Stakeholder engagement plan (to include taxpayers);

· Strategic communications plan (internal and external);

· Change management plan;

· Lessons learned; and

· All program documentation and work products (slide decks, reports, research conclusions, etc.)

The Contractor shall develop, optimize and maintain multiple, functional project management plans that will support and inform the Enterprise Digitalization Program Management Plan. The multiple parallel project plans will be used to identify and track key activities and milestones for program implementation at all levels and delivery work streams. In addition, the Contractor shall support approximately 7-10 Enterprise Digitalization teams to gather updates and support task tracking.

The Contractor shall optimize and leverage risk processes to support effective risk management for all Enterprise Digitalization work streams to include updating the Risk Register, devising risk response strategies, identifying candidate risks, and creating documentation to facilitate executive-level risk reporting. In conjunction with representatives from each Enterprise Digitalization stakeholder group, the Contractor shall identify and document program-wide and release level risks, associated mitigations, contingencies, and issues.

3.2.2. —EDCMO Project Pipeline

The Contractor shall develop the pipeline of pilots, manage and maintain the pipeline of projects, and develop project plans for projects selected from the pipeline for execution.

The Contractor shall assist EDCMO with developing and updating the existing methodology for applying criteria to prioritize projects, pilot efforts, and requests, or define exceptions for special cases and generate and further distill the EDCMO Project Pipeline for project selection.

The Contractor shall maintain and continually groom the EDCMO Project Pipeline for preparation for project selection.

EDCMO evaluates opportunities/ideas across three change levers, 1) business process; 2) policy; and 3) technology, and has proposed five prioritization criteria and developed 14 cross-cutting learning questions; however, expect the criteria and learning questions to continually evolve to meet the needs and challenges at the IRS. The Contractor shall continually make improvement recommendations, update, and maintain the program management plan, prioritization criteria, and learning questions.

The Contractor shall assist EDCMO to ensure a mix of incremental, adjacent, and transformative type projects are selected from the EDCMO Project Pipeline for project execution.

The Contractor shall assist EDCMO to ensure the projects selected reflect the existing draft IRS Digitalization Strategy and subsequent efforts and versions of the strategy are informed by the success and failure of executed projects.

The Contractor shall assist EDCMO in ensuring that Enterprise Digitalization efforts are aligned with existing Case Management efforts, various roadmaps, value stream maps, as well as IRS-wide strategic goals and legislative requirement timelines, etc. EDCMO efforts will not happen in a vacuum.

The five proposed prioritization criteria with their working definitions described below are not weighted and appear in no particular order.

The 14 cross-cutting learning questions described below are aligned to EDCMO’s three overarching goals but appear in no specific order.

1. What new digital channels can we provide to reduce incoming paper?

2. How do we shift customer behavior from paper to digital channels?

3. How do we reduce duplicative scanning efforts?

4. How can we partner with external agencies / companies to outsource digitization / digitalization efforts where appropriate?

5. What policy changes can we implement to reduce paper volume (e.g., incoming, retention requirements, storage, transfer to Federal Records Centers)?

6. Can we change how forms are designed to enable increased data capture / digitization?

7. How can we expand current digitization capabilities (e.g., scanners, Optical Character Recognition, Intelligent Character Recognition) to additional paper-based documents?

8. How do we enhance digitization / digitalization capabilities (e.g., improved efficiency, accuracy, scanning at volume)?

9. How can we use emerging technology to reduce manual labor for digitalization?

10. How do we increase the amount of data we capture from paper-based documents?

11. How can we improve our ability to digitize documents with unique data characteristics?

12. How can we increase the amount of data we extract from electronic images?

13. Can we use managed services to conduct digitalization activities?

14. How do we make currently electronic data more accessible across the IRS?

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required

Resource(s) supporting these tasks shall have documented experience performing program management & analysis, risk management & analysis, strategy management & analysis, data collection & analysis, performance management/metric/return on investment analysis, quality assurance and master scheduling type activities of the skill level and scope necessary to meet the requirements supporting enterprise-level programs combining both IT and business inputs, in large-scale enterprise environments. EDCMO requires an appropriate mix of tracking/governance alongside robust implementation efforts. In all reporting requirements, EDCMO desires clarity and brevity over density. The goal is on implementation and analysis efforts not documenting and reporting.

Additionally, all resources supporting these tasks shall be expert users of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Project, Visio, Outlook, Teams and Skype; with a working knowledge of Microsoft SharePoint and WebEx. All resources shall possess strong grammar skills, attention to detail, and verbal & non-verbal communication skills.

3.3. Task 3—Project Management Support and Controls

3.3.1. —Project Management

The Contractor shall enforce, promote, and provide Project Management best practices and documentation.

The Contractor shall manage a minimum of 20 pilot efforts concurrently each FY. The Contractor shall scale resources (up or down) as projects/pilots and resources are available, which may exceed the minimum concurrent effort threshold. Currently, one EDCM team member supports between one and three pilot efforts, depending on complexity, deadlines, etc.

Projects will be undertaken to evaluate potential solution sets using some combination of the three transformational change levers: Technology, Business Processes, and Policies. Project work will consist of identifying, analyzing, recommending, and implementing innovative solution sets to address the IRS’s digitalization capability gaps. The goal of a pilot is to enable enterprise level solutions that provide the IRS with the most value while minimizing time and resources applied to solutions that ultimately do not work or demonstrate sufficient value.

Pilots are opportunities to test and evaluate potential solutions in order to determine feasibility, affordability, and scalability. Pilots provide the IRS with the capability to try a solution before committing to a long-term acquisition.

EDCMO anticipates pilots may be completed with internal resources; however, some will require procurement actions. For those that require procurement actions, test and learn procurement vehicles (i.e., Pilot IRS) will be used and will be separately solicited.

The Contractor shall break all pilot activities into phases being timeboxed to 30-to-120-day increments. At the end of the phase, the Contractor shall present analysis and make recommendations as to the value of project continuation or termination.

3.3.2. —Other General Requirements

1. Coordinate with Contracting Officer / Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR).

2. Apprise senior management on productivity and quality assurance.

3. Develop rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimates for Contract surge and/or modifications.

4. Gather stakeholder requirements.

5. Manage program schedules and coordinate Contractor activities IAW the PWS.

6. Identify and communicate issues and risks to the Government and offer recommendations on how issues / risks should be mitigated to successfully satisfy requirements.

7. Notify the COR when the Contractor believes that any Government activity may impact performance, schedule, or cost.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required

The resource(s) supporting these tasks shall have documented experience performing agile project management & analysis, pilot management & analysis, risk management & analysis, strategy management & analysis, scrum management (or agile like practice), communications management, stakeholder management, data collection & analysis, performance management/metric/return on investment analysis, and quality assurance type activities of the skill level and scope necessary to meet the requirements.

Additionally, all resources supporting these tasks shall be expert users of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Project, Visio, Outlook, Teams, and Skype; with a working knowledge of Microsoft SharePoint and WebEx. All resources shall possess strong grammar skills, attention to detail, and verbal & non-verbal communication skills.

3.4. Task 4—Operations Support

3.4.1. The agency expects a strong return on investment for resources applied to the EDCMO. As such, it should be the Contractor’s expectation that turnaround times for documents and other requests for support under this subtask will also be short, with many deadlines one business day or less.

Documentation lowers overall Government risk and ensures the Government retains necessary knowledge base. As such, documenting is a guiding principle that needs to occur at all levels for all services requested. Key documents (e.g., SOPs/CONOPs, KPIs, tools utilized, reports generated, white papers, presentations, process diagrams/documents, road maps, meeting minutes, business cases, use cases, models, etc.) will be documented in the Knowledge Management Repository. The Knowledge Management Repository is a consolidation point for all documentation as defined in General Requirements paragraphs herein this PWS.

The Contractor shall support activities across all levels and workstreams. Examples of work products that will be required include ad-hoc reports, briefing materials, articles, white papers, and content for Enterprise Digitalization’s web presence (i.e. SharePoint, Knowledge Management, IRS Source). SharePoint functionality will be used throughout all areas of Contractor support with Contractor responsible for uploading and sharing documents, creating and implementing workflows, collecting stakeholder feedback, facilitating document approvals, using metadata, version controls, and creating dashboards and reports while adhering to IRS records management standards.

Contractor shall maintain the existing Digitalization SharePoint. The Contractor shall review existing Enterprise Digitalization SharePoint structure and functionality and make recommendations for optimization.

Contractor shall make updates to program and project artifacts in response to significant mission changes. In addition, Contractor will provide ad hoc executive support including but not limited to executive presentations, white papers, and research.

Contractor shall make recommendations to optimize all areas of support to increase program administrative efficiency and to accommodate various work streams. Contractor will ensure Enterprise Digitalization work products are in alignment with EDCMO, the Deputy Commissioner of Services & Enforcement’s Project Management Office (S&E PMO), and other EDCMO stakeholder offices. Support will include meeting planning, preparation of meeting agendas, development and assembly of meeting materials, distribution of materials in advance of meetings, recordation of meeting notes and minutes, executive reports and presentations, consolidation of information for reporting from all Enterprise Digitalization work streams, and preparation of documentation to capture and archive key program decisions. Additionally, the Contractor shall revise, review, and update the program benefits based on evolving external and internal direction and feedback from benefits reporting and measurement.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required

The resource(s) supporting these tasks shall have documented experience performing administrative support, writing/editing, business research, customer experience/user experience research, business analysis, technology business analysis, business process analysis & reengineering, policy analysis, business case/use case development & analysis, communications management, stakeholder management, data collection & analysis, and SharePoint administration & management type activities of the skill level and scope necessary to meet the requirements.

The lead supporting SharePoint tasks shall have documented experience designing and implementing SharePoint sites and possess a familiarity with NARA record retention standards.

Additionally, all resources supporting these tasks shall be expert users of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Skype; with a working knowledge of Microsoft SharePoint, Project, Visio, Excel, and WebEx. All resources shall possess strong grammar skills and attention to detail.

3.5. Task 5— Strategic Communication and Stakeholder Engagement Support

3.5.1. The Contractor shall develop and implement a strategic communications plan to effectively engage all Enterprise Digitalization stakeholders vertically from the front-line employee level up to the Commissioner-level, as well as horizontally to include stakeholders across the enterprise. The Contractor shall assist EDCMO working alongside our internal communication partners (i.e. Communications and Liaison) with coordination across the organization to understand our customer’s and our own digital needs, the challenges in meeting these needs, and gain a deep understanding of our ongoing digitalization efforts. The Contractor shall occasionally conduct short innovation seminars, such as lunch-and-learn discussions, on topics and trends relevant to the Enterprise Digitalization program such as our goal for the IRS to adopt and commit to a digital culture which is “digital by default.” These seminars will support communication and learning across the EDCMO organization.

The Contractor shall identify internal and external opportunities to engage stakeholders (including taxpayers), provide top line messaging and talking points for Executives, develop information releases for IRS Source page and similar websites, conduct and video-record interviews with the Commissioner and EDCMO leadership for use on intranet, etc.

Essential Knowledge, Skills and Abilities Required

The resource(s) supporting these tasks shall have documented experience performing strategic communication efforts associated with organizational change planning & implementation, communications management, and stakeholder management type activities of the skill level and scope necessary to meet the requirements in an enterprise-level, matrix environment.

Additionally, all resources supporting these tasks shall be expert users of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and Skype; with a working knowledge of Microsoft SharePoint, Project, Visio, Excel, and WebEx. All resources shall possess strong grammar skills, attention to detail, and verbal & non-verbal communication skills

3.6. Task 6— Transition to Support (Optional)

3.6.1. The Contractor shall develop a Transition to Support Plan to facilitate the transition of all products & services developed under this contract. The Contractor shall assist the Government in connection with the Government and its customers’ obligations associated with the transition services. Except as otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract, the Contractor shall perform the transition services in a manner that shall not:

· Disrupt or have an adverse impact on the activities or operations of the Government or the Government customers;

· Degrade the Services then being received by the Government or the Government customers, or

· Disrupt or interfere with the Government's or the Government customers’ ability to obtain the full benefit of the services.

Without limiting its obligations or responsibilities, prior to implementing any transition services, the Contractor shall discuss with the Government and the relevant Government customers all known Government and Government customer-specific material risks and shall not proceed with such activity until the Government is reasonably satisfied with, and approves, the plans with regard to such risks. Such plan is described in the deliverables section as a Transition to Support Plan and will only be needed in the final year of the contract. This task is optional.

3.7. Surge Support

The Government 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 the defined task areas of this PWS. Optional surge capability support will be invoked at the Government’s discretion through a written modification issued by the Contracting Officer. Surge support over the life of the contract, will not exceed 10% of the Contractor’s total proposed cost/price for the base and all option periods, excluding any six-month extension of services pursuant to FAR 52.217-8.

Incremental/Adjacent/Transformative surge support is intended for pilots exceeding the minimum of 20 pilot efforts concurrently each FY as stated in PWS paragragh 3.3.1. Tasks and deliverables necessary to support incremental/adjacent/transformative pilots are established in PWS paragrapghs 3.3 (Project Management Support and Controls) and 3.4 (Operations Support).

The Government understands additional surge support, not attributable to an incremental, adjacent, or transformative pilots, may be necessary. Task 3.7.4 (Other Surge Support) is established to meet these ad hoc requirements should they arise.

3.7.1. Task 1— Incremental Surge Support (Optional)

Incremental is a near-term activity that requires a relatively low level of resources and time to pursue, and generally works within existing constructs and tools with little adjustment or change.

3.7.2. Task 2— Adjacent Surge Support (Optional)

Adjacent is a mid-term activity that likely requires moderate levels of time/resources and expands the use of or slightly modifies existing policies, business processes, or technology.

3.7.3. Task 3— Transformative Surge Support (Optional)

Transformative is frequently a long-term activity that requires significant levels of time/resources and represents a fundamentally disparate approach to solving a problem.

3.7.4 Task 4— Other Surge Support (Optional)

The Government reserves the unilateral right to exercise Optional Surge Capability to support unforeseen, ad hoc requirements or unplanned increases in workload that may arise under the scope of this PWS and not attributable to an incremental, adjacent, or transformative pilots. The Contractor shall provide ad hoc support for Enterprise Digitalization-related requirements such as the development of short white papers exploring business improvement opportunities, preparation of high-level project plans, Proof-of-Concept, and administrative and technical support for short-term studies.

4.0 INSPECTION AND ACCEPTANCE

Inspection at the Government’s locations stated herein in accordance with FAR 8.406-2 “Inspection and Acceptance”

4.1 Specific Acceptance Criteria

Specific quality measures as set forth below will be applied to each deliverable received from the Contractor under this contract. Any perceived conflict with the quality measures listed below should be immediately reported to the Contracting Officer.

· Accuracy – Deliverables shall be accurate in presentation, technical content and specifications and adherence to accepted elements of style.

· Clarity – Deliverables shall be clear and concise. All diagrams shall be easy to understand and relevant to the supporting narrative.

· Specifications Validity – All deliverables shall satisfy the requirements of the Government as specified herein.

· File Editing All text and diagrammatic files shall be editable by the Government.

· Format – Deliverables shall be submitted electronically as defined in the PWS. The government will indicate formatting for each deliverable during execution of the contract.

· Timeliness – Deliverables shall be submitted in accordance with the days identified in the deliverables table.

4.2 Rejection Procedures

Any deliverable that does not comply with the acceptance criteria outlined in Section 5.1, “Specific Acceptance Criteria” shall be considered rejected. The COR has 10 business days to inform the Contractor that the deliverable is rejected, and the Contractor has 5 business days to re-submit the deliverable for inspection and acceptance. The number of days allotted to the Contractor for re-submission of deliverables may be adjusted if agreed upon by both parties. This process shall continue as required until acceptance has been issued by the COR.

5. SECURITY REQUIREMENTS:

5.1 PHYSICAL SECURITY: The Contractor shall be responsible for safeguarding all government equipment, information and property provided for Contractor use.

6. POST AWARD CONFERENCE/PERIODIC PROGRESS MEETINGS: The Contractor agrees to attend any post award conference convened by the contracting activity or contract administration office in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation Subpart 42.5. The contracting officer, COR, and other Government personnel, as appropriate, may meet periodically with the Contractor to review the Contractor's performance. At these meetings the contracting officer will apprise the Contractor of how the government views the Contractor's performance and the Contractor will apprise the Government of problems, if any, being experienced. Appropriate action shall be taken to resolve outstanding issues. These meetings shall be at no additional cost to the government.

7. CONTRACTOR EMPLOYEE ON-BOARDING REQUIREMENTS

7.1 Staff-Like Access Definition and Requirements

Only those contractors/subcontractors who require staff-like access to IRS systems, data, or facilities will follow the outlined process below. Those whose access is infrequent, or will not need staff-like access, and will be 100% escorted while in IRS space, will be managed by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR). Escort access is only permitted for infrequent access to IRS facilities and is NOT permitted if subjects require sensitive but unclassified (SBU) data access or systems access.

Contractors/subcontractors are not permitted to have “staff-like access” to IRS facilities, systems, or SBU data until they are determined to be both eligible and suitable to perform work as an IRS contractor by IRS Personnel Security (PS). Each contractor/subcontractor assigned to work under an IRS contract shall undergo investigative processing commensurate with the risk level designation associated with the work to be performed, and comparable to that required for Federal employees who occupy the same positions and who have the same position sensitivity designation.

“Staff-like Access” is authority granted to perform one or more of the following:

· Enter IRS facilities or space (owned or leased) unescorted (when properly badged);

· Possess login credentials to information systems (IRS or Vendor-owned systems that store, collect, and /or process IRS information);

· Possess physical and/or logical access to (including the opportunity to see, read, transcribe, and/or interpret) Sensitive but Unclassified (SBU) data, wherever the location; (See IRM 10.5.1 for examples of SBU data);

· Possess physical access to (including the opportunity to see, read, transcribe, and/or interpret) security items and products (e.g., items that must be stored in a locked container, security container, or a secure room, wherever the location. These items include, but are not limited to security devices/records, computer equipment, Identification media. For details and further security requirements, see IRM 1.4.6.5.1, Minimum Protection Standards); or,

· Enter physical areas, wherever the location, that store/process SBU information (unescorted).

Staff-Like Access is granted to an individual who is not an IRS employee (and includes, but is not limited to: contractors/subcontractors, whether procured by IRS or another federal agency, Vendors, delivery persons, experts, consultants, paid/unpaid interns, other federal employees, cleaning/maintenance employees, etc.), and is approved upon required completion of a favorable suitability/fitness determination conducted by IRS Personnel Security.

7.2 Eligibility requirements

Contractors must be eligible for IRS contract employment prior to submitting investigative forms/documentation used to determine their suitability. The vendor must communicate the eligibility requirements to their employees up front and state that only employees who meet the eligibility requirements should apply for IRS contract employment.

7.2.1 Contractor employees shall be federal tax compliant and must remain compliant while working on an IRS contract. Tax compliance will be determined by a check of the contractor employee’s federal tax accounts by trained IRS employees, to ensure that the contractor employees are not currently delinquent on their federal tax obligations.

7.2.2 Contractor employees shall be U.S. citizens or Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR), based on their designated risk level. For foreign-born subjects requiring staff-like access, they shall provide their Alien Registration number, full name, and date of birth.

7.2.3 Male contractors born after December 31, 1959, must be registered with Selective Service. If they are not registered, or are exempt from the requirement, they must provide a Status Information Letter from Selective Service.

7.2.3.1 Selective Service Registration Documentation – all male contractors/subcontractors requiring staff-like access who are born after 12/31/1959 must be registered with Selective Service (SS). Registration can be verified at the SS website at www.sss.gov.

Requirements include:

1. If the subject is properly registered, he must provide an official letter of verification from the SS website to the IRS. Letters can be printed/saved from the SS website upon verification of registration;

1. If the subject is foreign-born, the subject must contact the Selective Service (SS) Office and obtain the following to provide to the IRS:

1. a letter from SS stating the subject was not required to register; or,

1. a letter from SS stating the subject was required to register, but it’s too late. The subject must also provide a written explanation as to why his non-registration was not knowing and willful.

1. If the subject is a US Citizen and was required to register but is not registered, the subject must provide a written explanation as to why his non-registration was not knowing and willful and provide it to the IRS.

7.3 Suitability Screening Requirements

Once deemed eligible, contractors will be screened for suitability or fitness for duty based on their backgrounds. This process begins with timely submission of required investigative forms. The vendor shall assign a Vendor point of contact (POC) to manage this process.

Contractors/subcontractors needing staff-like access are not permitted to begin work on the contract until the required forms and documentation have been completed and properly submitted, to PS (incomplete/inaccurate forms will be rejected by PS); and PS has granted, at a minimum, interim staff-like access approval to the contractor/subcontractor. Only those needing staff-like access are required to submit the forms.

7.3.1 Investigative Forms/Documentation

The COR and vendor will work together to determine risk levels for each unique position type required by the contract as prescribed by PS, prior to or concurrent with submission of investigative forms.

Once the contract is entered into the tracking systems, the IRS will send the assigned Vendor POC an e-mail that will include the current investigative forms for all investigative processes, general guidance for completing documents, and instructions for properly submitting the completed documents. In addition, the Vendor POC e-mail will include instructions for what selective service registration and citizenship documentation is required from each applicant needing staff-like access. The e-mail will include the following forms, due within 10 business days of receipt (if IRS approval is required to confirm the qualifications of proposed contractor personnel, i.e. key personnel, documents must be submitted within 10 business days of receipt of this approval).

1. Risk Assessment Checklist (RAC) (this form provides PS with all required personal information about each contractor employee requiring staff-like access);

2. Master Survey / Position Designation Tool – This questionnaire asks the vendor POC and COR to identify the duties the subjects will be performing for IRS in order to determine risk level for the position. A separate risk assessment must be completed for each position type on the contract (i.e., Systems Administrator, Programmer, Clerk Typist, etc.).

3. Optional Form 306 (OF-306), Declaration for Federal Employment (investigative form used by PS to aid in determining subject’s eligibility and suitability for staff-like access);

4. Non-Disclosure Agreement (all contractors who will have staff-like access to Sensitive But Unclassified (SBU) information are required to complete an agreement);

5. Form 13340, Information Provided Concerning the Disclosure and Authorization…