ITEISS - RFI 70T03024RFI7667001_final.pdf

Transportation Security Administration Office of Information Technology

Request for Information – IT Enterprise Infrastructure Support Services

Request for Information (RFI)

70T03024RFI7667001

Information Technology Enterprise Infrastructure Support Services (ITEISS)

Introduction:

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is responsible for protecting the Nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce. These statutory responsibilities encompass providing the most effective transportation security in the most efficient way possible as a high performing counterterrorism organization.

The TSA is a high-performing counterterrorism organization, providing the most effective security in the most efficient way. In support of TSA’s mission, the TSA Chief Information Officer (CIO) is responsible for providing world-class information technology services to operate, maintain, and improve TSA’s IT equipment, services, and processes.

Purpose:

The TSA Contracting and Procurement (C&P) office is seeking interested contractors and industry partners capable of supporting the Office of Information Technology’s (IT) requirements for Information Technology Enterprise Infrastructure Support Services (ITEISS). TSA is seeking information related to industry capabilities, best practices, technology trends, and specific information relating to managing and supporting TSA’s enterprise IT capabilities and services and other innovative end-to-end IT service delivery.

This is a Request for Information (RFI) only and is solely for the purpose of obtaining information and understanding industry’s technical capabilities available in the marketplace. This does not constitute a request for proposal or an intent by TSA to contract for these services. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. Based in part on the feedback received in response to this RFI, TSA may issue a solicitation. Contractors responding to this RFI should submit the minimum information necessary for the Government to make a determination that the Government’s objectives are feasible and realistic given current industry capabilities. It is not a requirement to respond to all areas of this RFI, however, information not provided or otherwise obtainable through other methods (e.g. government databases, internet queries, etc.) by the Government may give the Government low confidence that the respondent does not possess the capabilities it seeks. Any information provided or obtained by this RFI will not be evaluated nor considered as an offer. All submissions become the property of the Government, and will not be returned. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitation. Respondents are further advised that TSA will not pay nor reimburse any administrative or proposal costs.

Background and Overview:

TSA’s IT infrastructure and customers are currently supported by the Information Technology Management, Performance Analysis, and Collaborative Technologies (IMPACT) II Task Order (TO).

TSA’s IT infrastructure includes a full range of services and solutions necessary to support the TSA mission. Additionally, included is support to analyze requirements, develop and implement recommended solutions, and the capability to operate and maintain legacy systems and equipment.

TSA utilizes a hybrid environment, with multiple clouds and datacenters / server rooms. TSA supports approximately 60,000 Government employees at various locations, including TSA

Headquarters (HQ) in Springfield, VA; approximately 600 airports and Federal Security Director (FSD) offices; international support sites; and numerous other mission critical centers and locations. Approximately 85 percent of TSA users are a combination of Transportation Security

Officers (TSOs) and Federal Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs), while other TSA staff includes TSA HQ employees and field security operations management and administrative support personnel, who may have various remote or telework arrangements. TSA also supports approximately

10,000 contractor staff at TSA and remote locations.

The objectives of TSA and the CIO are the following and are ever-evolving.

1. Operate and maintain TSA’s IT capabilities and assume responsibility for any identified, planned, and on-going work without a break in service.

2. Manage and maintain on-going relationships with TSA’s technology providers for services such as data center, network, Anything as a Service (XaaS), application development, and cloud services to ensure service availability and continuity across the TSA IT enterprise, without a break in service.

3. Design and implement TSA-directed system and infrastructure changes (e.g. new technologies and/or capabilities) and integrate them into the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) support model.

4. Execute an IT service delivery model that meets TSA’s service level requirements in a consistent, timely, and effective manner while providing reliable, sustainable, and standards-based technology.

5. Provide program management activities and other general contract management services needed to achieve the cost, schedule and performance requirements specified under the contract and achieve the previously stated objectives.

6. Identify and propose quantifiable enhancements to improve TSA IT infrastructure and decrease cost and risk for the Government.

Scope:

TSA is currently exploring alternate models of IT management and support. Specifically, TSA is seeking information about: the possible IT service delivery models to provide the required support; recommended Service Level Agreements (SLAs)/Service Level Requirements (SLRs) to measure contractor performance and service delivery; industry best practices for adoption and integration of emerging technologies; Enterprise Architecture (EA); best practices for IT

Operations & Maintenance (O&M); and the ability to scale up and scale down systems and services.

IT Service Delivery Models: Includes the proactive yet cost-effective delivery of service operations in a Government-Owned Contractor-Operated (GOCO) IT environment by a third party. Includes identifying services that should continue to be consolidated or broken out into different service areas and the effects thereof.

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) / Service Level Requirements (SLRs): SLAs related to the proposed service delivery model, preferably SMART (specific, measurable, attainab le, relevant, time-bound). Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) / metrics that reflect Contractor performance of O&M and engineering activities. Qualitative, as well as quantitative, SLAs/SLRs, performance metrics and standards are anticipated. How to ensure that O&M activities are performed at a level that is timely and not on a “best effort” basis. How to determine the appropriate quantity of SLAs/SLRs while ensuring the Contractor performs at a high level of performance.

Emerging Technologies: Includes the introduction, adoption, and onboarding of emerging technologies and services; modernizing or sunsetting of legacy IT systems and infrastructure;

transitioning to “X as a Service” (XaaS) (to include transitioning to DHS or another government agency as a service provider) and embracing public and private cloud computing.

Enterprise Architecture (EA): EA is the alignment of people, processes, strategies, information, and technology.

Best Practices: Any additional IT methods or techniques that have consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other techniques to deliver cost-efficient, mission focused, customer-centric IT services, as demonstrated by experience.

Scalability: The ability inside the contract to scale up and scale down support and other services as systems are increased in a cloud or data center, migrated to a cloud, decommissioned, shifted from other contracts to this, or vice versa. Identifying points (based on systems, hardware, virtual infrastructure, etc.) at which the Government would realize additional or reduced contract cost.

Contract Administration: Includes recommendations as to whether the support should be under one contract or multiple, along with the structure (e.g. Firm-Fixed Price (FFP), Time and

Materials (T&M), Labor-Hour (LH), or combination thereof) for each contract(s).

Other Information: Information (metrics, directives, procedures, locations, etc.) required to respond to the requirements.

Requested Information

Submission Requirements:

All responses should be submitted via e-mail to thomas.zamfino1@tsa.dhs.gov and no later than 10:00 AM (ET) on August 14, 2024. Only attach MS Word/Excel compatible files or Adobe Acrobat PDF files in electronic correspondence. There is no specific format for the paper responses but they shall be limited to no greater than 30 pages in total, including graphical depictions, to highlight and address the questions and capabilities within. The Government is not responsible for confirming receipt of any electronic correspondence, will not accept capabilities statements or white papers, nor entertain unsolicited phone calls, meetings, or messaging systems.

Corporate Information:

Company Information to include Name, Phone Number, UEI, Cage Code, POC, and website.

Federal Contracts to include Federal Supply Schedule(s), GWAC(s), DHS contracts, etc.

Identify available North American Industry Classification Systems (NAICS) codes or Special Item Number (SIN).

Small Business Size Status to include socio-economic status and any SBA-certified status.

IT Service Delivery Models:

The Government is looking for industry to recommend and suggest an IT service delivery model that will accomplish the following key challenge areas:

1. Innovation and efficiency while ensuring performance.

2. Proactive yet cost-effective delivery of service operations in a Government-Owned

Contractor-Operated (GOCO) IT environment by a third party.

3. Operations, maintenance, and management of the IT enterprise (hardware, software, network, etc.).

4. On-site support for local, remote, field, and international locations.

5. IT infrastructure monitoring parameters and reporting frequencies for each.

6. Coherence with external partners in an end-to-end solution where multiple vendors cross boundaries (professional services, hardware/software vendor support, public cloud vendors, etc.).

7. Numerous infrastructure environments (Development and Test, Integration and Test, and

Production).

8. Defining field support and travel requirements to ensure customer service SLRs are met within FFP structure.

9. Supporting remote/telework customers.

10. Decommissioning and migrating applications to Cloud (AWS, Azure, Google) or equivalent.

11. Maintaining service areas (e.g. server support, application support, network support, end user support, etc.) under one or multiple contracts.

mailto:thomas.zamfino1@tsa.dhs.gov

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) / Service Level Requirements (SLRs):

The Government is looking for industry to recommend and suggest SLAs/SLRs that will support the recommended and suggested IT service delivery model and accomplish the following key challenge areas:

1. Supporting Key Performance Parameters (KPPs) for IT service engineering, delivery, operations & management, and customer support.

2. Reduction in cost, level of effort (LoE), and number of SLAs/SLRs while maintaining a high level of performance.

3. Incorporation of SLA/SLR dis/incentives including structure and fees.

4. Tools used for measuring IT service delivery.

5. SLAs/SLRs for O&M tasks.

6. SLAs/SLRs for IT service engineering projects.

Emerging Technologies:

The Government is looking for industry to address emerging technologies that will support the recommended and suggested IT service delivery model and accomplish the following key

1. Introduction, adoption, onboarding of emerging technologies and services; modernizing or sunsetting of legacy IT systems infrastructure; transitioning to XaaS (include transitioning to DHS or another government agency as a service provider) and embracing cloud computing.

2. Transitioning and managing custody of emerging technologies between various providers and contracts to ensure responsive and effective O&M support.

3. Staffing models to isolate O&M and engineering activities without compromising timely and effective transitioning of engineering and integration to O&M.

4. Ramp-up/Ramp-down of O&M support, including training and suitability determinations, once an engineering change occurs or new technology is integrated.

5. Defining scope and magnitude of O&M environment adequately such that LoE can be reasonably priced.

Enterprise Architecture:

The Government is looking for industry to address enterprise architecture that will support the recommended and suggested IT service delivery model and accompl ish the following key

1. Information required to estimate the level of effort for Enterprise Architecture and Governance support.

Best Practices:

The Government is looking for industry to address best practices that will support the

1. IT methods or techniques to deliver cost-efficient, mission focused, and customer-centric

IT services.

Scalability:

The Government is looking for industry to address scalability that will support the recommended and suggested IT service delivery model and accomplish the following key challenge areas:

1. Scalability to address changes in the environment (shift from data center to cloud, increase or decrease in quantity and types of equipment supported, shifts of technology, etc.) while considering increased funding constraints.

2. Scale up and scale down support and other services as systems are increased in a cloud or data center, migrated to a cloud, decommissioned, shifted from other contracts to this, or vice-versa.

3. Identifying points (based on systems, hardware, virtual infrastructure, etc.) at which the

Government would realize additional or reduced contract cost.

Contract Administration:

The Government is looking for industry to address contract administration that will support the

1. Contract type for O&M versus engineering changes.

2. Appropriate quantity of contracts to efficiently and effectively perform the necessary services and to identify the type(s) of contract best utilized for these IT services (FFP, T&M, Performance (incentives/disincentives).

3. Balancing risk and availability and decrease in government funds.

4. Key Personnel labor categories and minimum qualifications.

5. Time to transition from incumbent considering suitability determinations can take up to

(60) days.

6. How should Transition-Out activities and costs be addressed, in light of the possibility of contract extensions or bridges?

7. Two evaluation factors that would be most appropriate to determine best value .

8. Evaluation techniques industry like to see be used (oral presentations, advisory down -select, confidence ratings, comparative evaluations, other).

9. Factors / evaluation techniques best suited in Phase 1 and Phase 2 of an Advisory Down- Select.

Other Information:

The Government is looking for industry to recommend and suggest other information pertaining to the following key challenge areas:

1. Time for industry to respond to solicitation requirements.

2. Proposal requirements to demonstrate that the Contractor is able to perform all functions at the levels specified in the solicitation.

3. Metrics, directives, procedures, locations, staffing, etc. required to submit a proposal.

4. Access to any pre-proposal sensitive information.