NOISS 36C24524Q0887.docx

Special Notice

GENERAL INFORMATION

VA Maryland Health Care System Contracting Officer (90C) P.O. Box 1000, Bldg. 101, Room 26 Perry Point MD 21902

POINT OF CONTACT*

Contract Specialist Sylvia Honesty sylvia.honesty@va.gov

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

AGENCY CONTACT’S EMAIL ADDRESS

EMAIL DESCRIPTION

Special Notice

Interface Maintenance and Support Veterans Health Affairs, Network Contracting Office 5, is issuing this Notice of Intent to Sole Source in order to identify any potential sources that have the resources and capabilities to provide license and technical support services. This requirement is defined primary by existing hardware already in use at the Beckley VA Medical Center, 200 Veterans Avenue, Beckley, WV 25801.

The government is contemplating a Base +4 option period Firm Fixed Price contract to satisfy this requirement and meet the needs of the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service (PLMS) at Beckley VA Medical Center.

INTERESTED & CAPABLE RESPONSES

NCO 5 is seeking responses from businesses that are interested in this procurement and consider themselves to have the resources, rights, and capabilities necessary to provide these services.

Please respond with your:

· Business name

· Business type

· Socio-economic status (e.g., Veteran-Owned, Woman-Owned, Disadvantaged Small Business, 8(a), etc.)

· Person of contact (including telephone number & email address)

· GSA Contract number if applicable

· DUNS number and SAM UEI number

· Capability statement

· Authorized Distributor Letter

Responses must be submitted by 3:00 PM (EDT) Thursday, September 12, 2024. Responses to the information requested above may be submitted via email to Sylvia.Honesty@va.gov. No telephone calls will be accepted.

DISCLAIMERS

This Notice of Intent to Sole Source does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this notice that is marked proprietary will be handled accordingly in accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e). Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses incurred associated with responding to this RFI.

This Special Notice of Intent to Sole Source is for planning purposes ONLY. The results of this notice will assist in the development of (1) the requirement, and (2) the acquisition strategy (e.g., small business set-aside, full and open competition, etc.). VA assumes no responsibility for any costs incurred associated with the preparation of responses submitted as a result of this notice.

STATEMENT OF WORK

PART A - GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Project: Maintenance and support services for Data Innovations (DI) LLC software, used by the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service (PLMS) at Beckley VA Medical Center

2. Scope of Work: The software support and maintenance should include upkeep on the current version and any upgrades during the scope of practice. (CS-MAS-01 Instrument Manager maintenance and support license 333871) Interfacing issues will be resolved with technical support. Auto-verification issues will be resolved with technical support. Any down time processes or switch from primary to back up issues will be addressed by Data Innovations technical support. Any issues developing from the Data Innovations software will be resolved with the assistance of technical support from Data Innovations. Data innovations will provide a test system for testing. (CS_MAS-01-Test Manager Maintenance and Support for test license 344071). Data Innovation will provide a low complexity AV support for ADM Siemens Attellica Worksystem.

PART B – WORK REQUIREMENTS

B.1 Tasks to be accomplished:

Initiation and Planning:

DI Responsibilities: DI will provide an assigned DI resource responsible for the following tasks as part of the initiation and planning of the project:

· Development of a Project Plan and timeline with target Go-Live date(s)

· Development of a resource plan detailing roles and responsibilities for all assigned resources for all tasks identified in the Project Plan

· Estimated effort and duration for project tasks

· Development of a communication plan to ensure alignment and escalation pathways for all project resources and key stakeholders.

· Testing strategy and validation planning support

· Prepare for full team kick off to include all project resources and key project stakeholders.

Build and Test – Standard Upgrade:

DI Responsibilities: DI is responsible for the following to complete the Build and Test phases of the project, according to the agreed-upon project timeline:

· Assist Customer to install the latest version of IM Software on applicable Customer provided production, High Availability (“HA”), Disaster Recovery (“DR”), arbiter, and test servers.

· Assist Customer with configuration of test server, if necessary, to mimic the existing production server configuration.

· Provide a brief technical overview of the mirroring functionality including pre-requisite steps to ensure successful configuration at Go-Live.

· Assist Customer to configure HA and/or DR as licensed and applicable to Customer’s desired end-state redundancy configuration.

· Assist Customer with troubleshooting as necessary while the Customer executes their validation plan for the upgrade and Go-Live planning.

Build and Test - Add on Instrument Integration:

DI Responsibilities: DI is responsible for the following to complete the Build and Test phases of the project, according to the agreed-upon project timeline:

· Schedule and conduct the Project Kick-off

· Create the Shell Configuration - Assist Customer to download and install Drivers, and create configurations and connections for the instrument(s) defined below: One (1) Siemens Atellica Data Manager (“ADM”) with Siemens Atellica instruments connected.

· If purchased, register assigned Customer resource(s) for IM Fundamentals training.

· If purchased, register assigned Customer resource(s) for IM Foundations of Rule Writing training.

· Assist Customer with modifying the instrument configurations, including necessary test code, fluid code, error code, and instrument ID mapping if applicable.

· Assist Customer with writing necessary rules in IM to format orders and results correctly for instruments and the LIS for pass-through connectivity. The scope of this project does not include Professional Services to write rules for additional AV Workflows in IM outside of the AV Workflows described herein, Professional Services to write rules or provide Specimen Management Workspace setup to manage any other non-AV workflows in IM, or complex rules or setup to replace any current middleware solutions.

· Assist Customer as needed with all phases of testing to include Instrument Connectivity Testing, Functional Testing, Mapped Record Testing, and Validation Testing for all instruments in scope. Provide application guidance and mentoring to the Customer while the Customer executes their Validation Test Plan according to the project timeline and regulatory requirements of the laboratory. Execution and sign-off of Validation Test Plans are the responsibility of the Customer.

· Provide consulting support to Customer resources as they determine requirements for and execute on end user training and maintenance strategy for long-term support of the IM application.

DI Responsibilities: DI is responsible for the following to complete the Build and Test phases of the project, according to the agreed-upon project timeline:

· Conduct schedule of meetings as designed during project planning

· Provide Customer with the Data Collection Worksheet and facilitate the Data Collection Worksheet Blitz

· For the existing IM system, design up to one (1) AV Workflow for the following instrument platforms at a single lab location:

ADM Siemens Attellica Worksystem

· AV Workflows may include, but are not limited to the following types of rules:

Calculation Processing Critical Result Processing Delta Range Processing Dilution Processing Drugs of Abuse (“DOA”) Interpretation Error Code Processing Hepatitis Result Formatting LIS Formatting Pre-processing QC Processing (Bio-Rad Unity Real Time) Reference Range Processing Reflex Processing Rerun Comparison Result Formatting Second Level Review Processing Serum Indices Processing Specimen Integrity Processing Specimen Management Rules Validate or Hold for Review Processing Provide tutorial on AV Workflow maintenance.

· Provide tutorial on creation and execution of dry test cases within the IM rules engine o Provide application guidance to Customer as they build and successfully execute dry test cases for rules created as a part of this project.

· Assist with creation and customization of Specimen Management Workspaces to manage rules-held test results including test profile setup, coded entry setup, and modification of language locale settings in IM if needed.

· Assist with User Security setup and clustering setup as they apply to AV Workflows.

· Provide application guidance on rules validation techniques and assist with troubleshooting and/or modifying rules, as needed, during instrument wet testing and rule Validation Testing

· Provide guidance to Customer such that they gain application expertise to create customized self-designed AV Workflows

Wrapper Rules AV Workflow Development:

DI Responsibilities: DI is responsible for the following to complete the Build and Test phases of the project, according to the agreed-upon project timeline:

· Conduct schedule of meetings as designed during project planning

· Provide Customer with the Data Collection Worksheet and facilitate the Data Collection Worksheet Blitz

· For the existing IM system, design up to one (1) Wrapper Rules AV Workflow based on lab standard operating procedures (“SOPs”) as follows:

· One (1) Wrapper Rules AV Workflow for the Atellica Data Manager middleware platform

· The scope of this project does not require Specimen Management workspace configuration in IM.

· Provide tutorial on Wrapper Rules AV Workflow maintenance

· Provide tutorial on creation and execution of test cases within the IM rules engine

· Provide guidance on rules validation techniques and assist with troubleshooting and/or modifying rules, as needed, during the validation phase.

Additional Training:

Basic and advanced training the first year for the Pathology & Laboratory Medicine LIM Technologist. Additional training each year if the LIM position is encumbered by a new employee.

PART C – SUPPORTING INFORMATION

C.1 Place of Performance - Beckley VA Medical Center, 200 Veterans Avenue, Beckley, WV 25801.

C.2 Period of Performance - The Vendor shall perform all work during normal business hours, (unless other times are stipulated by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR). Contract period will be:

Work is to begin as soon as possible but no later than fifteen calendar days after the receipt of the purchase order. The start date must be approved and coordinated with the COR.

Special Notice