P02 RFI 9.29.26.pdf

Department of Veterans Affairs Managerial Cost Accounting Software as a Service

Request for Information 36C10B27Q0011

1. Introduction

This Request for Information (RFI) is issued for conducting market research and planning purposes only. Accordingly, this RFI constitutes neither a Request for Quote, Request for Proposal, nor a guarantee that one will be issued by the Government in the future; furthermore, it does not commit the Government to contract for any services described herein. Additionally, this RFI does not restrict the Government as to the ultimate acquisition approach. In accordance with Revolutionary Federal Acquisition

Regulation Overhaul 15.101(c), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract.

The purpose of this RFI is to identify qualified vendors, who can meet Department of

Veterans Affairs (VA) requirements for Managerial Cost Accounting Software as a

Service (SaaS). The purpose of this RFI is to obtain market information on capable sources. Your response to this RFI will be treated only as information for the

Government to consider. The Government is not responsible for any cost incurred by industry in furnishing this information. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested vendor's expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitation if any is issued. Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary. All submissions will become

Government property and will not be returned. Interested vendors are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. VA is under no obligation to provide feedback to the company, or to contact the company for clarification of any information submitted in response to this RFI.

Be advised that set-aside decisions may be made based on the information provided in response to this RFI. Responses should be as complete and informative as possible.

2. Background:

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Finance, Managerial Cost Accounting Office (MCAO), is responsible for systematically accumulating, monitoring, and reporting the full cost of VA-provided services and products in accordance with federal cost accounting standards. MCAO operates under VA Financial Policy Volume XIII, Chapter 3, and aligns with the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, Statement of Federal Financial Accounting Standards (SFFAS) No. 4, the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996, the 2010 Government Performance and Results Modernization Act, Federal Financial Management System Requirements 8, and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130.

MCAO's current cost accounting system is the legacy Decision Support System (DSS), operating on an IBM mainframe (currently z16) hosted at the Austin Information Technology Center (AITC), using COBOL, REXX, and Rocket Software Model 204 — technology first deployed in 1972.

MCAO serves front-end users at VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) nationwide, administrative users within MCAO, and super users within Office of Information and Technology. The system processes upward of 130 million data points per month and supports monthly year-to-date managerial cost accounting modeling for VHA, the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), and the National Cemetery Administration (NCA). The future solution must ingest clinical and financial data and connect securely to VA's Summit Data Platform (SDP), Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW), and source systems including the Financial Management System (FMS), Integrated Financial and Acquisition Management System (iFAMS), the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), and Oracle Health.

VA is committed to modernizing its cost accounting infrastructure in alignment with VA Directive 6517 (Cloud Systems), VA's Zero Trust First Cybersecurity Strategy, Federal Cloud-First Policy, and FedRAMP authorization requirements.

3. RFI Response Instructions:

All responsible sources may submit a response in accordance with the below information:

NO MARKETING MATERIALS ARE ALLOWED AS PART OF THIS RFI.

Generic capability statements will not be accepted or reviewed.

a. Interested Vendors shall at a minimum provide the following information in the initial paragraph of the submission:

Name of Company:

Solution Name:

Address:

Point of Contact:

Phone Number:

Email Address:

Company Business Size & Status:

For VOSB and SDVOSBs, proof of certification with SBA:

NAICS code(s):

Socioeconomic Data:

If a small business, please identify socio-economic category(ies).

Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):

* If you believe there is a more appropriate NAICS code, please provide that to the Government with your rationale.

• FSS - Federal Supply Schedule,

• GWAC - Government-wide Acquisition Contract

• NAICS – North American Industry Classification

• NASA SEWP - National Aeronautics and Space Administration Solutions for Enterprise Wide Procurement

• SBA – Small Business Administration

• SDVPSB – Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business

• VOSB – Veteran-Owned Small Business

For SDVOSB / VOSB concerns, indicate how at least 50 percent of the cost of performance incurred is planned to be expended for employees of your concern or employees of other eligible SDVOSB/VOSB concerns.

Be advised that set-aside decisions may be made based on the information provided in response to this RFI. Responses should be as complete and informative as possible.

b. Brief summary (not to exceed 25 pages), describing your company’s technical approach to meeting the requirements outlined below.

• Submit responses electronically in Microsoft Word and/or Excel format to the points of contact identified below.

• Responses should be organized using the section numbers below. Please do not exceed 25 pages for the narrative response (Sections A–F), excluding the Rough Order of Magnitude cost estimate (see Attachment 2 – ROM Spreadsheet), and any product literature/data sheets provided as appendices.

• Mark any proprietary or business-confidential information accordingly. The Government will treat submissions appropriately in accordance with

Revolutionary FAR Overhaul 15.101 and applicable law, but respondents are responsible for marking such information.

• Respondents are not required to have an existing FedRAMP or VA ATO to respond, but must clearly state their current authorization status per Section C below.

• Vendors can reference their FedRAMP marketplace listing, GSA Schedule, or other applicable contract vehicle in their response.

• If a respondent cannot address a specific requirement within Attachment 1 - Managerial Cost Acctg Solution Req 9.24.26, please say so directly rather than omitting the item — partial capability with a stated gap is more useful to VA's market research.

Scope of the Anticipated Requirement

The Government anticipates a firm-fixed-price acquisition consisting of two components:

1. SaaS subscription/licensing for a Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) managerial cost accounting platform (the predominant cost element); and

2. Implementation and configuration services, priced as a bounded, fixed-scope service rather than an open-ended professional services engagement.

Separately, VA is interested in understanding the market for optional premium/white-glove support services (e.g., enhanced help desk, expedited break/fix response) that may be available above the vendor's standard subscription support tier. See Section D.7 below.

The period of performance shall include (1 12-month Base Period followed by 4 12-month Option Periods.

The attached draft Performance Work Statement describes the technical specifications for this effort.

A. Company and Solution Overview

A.1. Provide your company name, business size (per NAICS 513210/518210), headquarters location, and a brief company overview including years in the federal managerial cost accounting / cost allocation market and years serving federal healthcare customers (VA, DoD, HHS, etc.).

A.2. Identify the specific product/platform you are proposing (name and version) and describe whether it is offered as a standalone SaaS product or as a module within a broader platform (e.g., broader ERP or EPM suite).

A.3. Describe your company's experience implementing your solution at large, multi-site healthcare organizations, ideally at a scale comparable to VHA (2,000+ cost centers, 100,000+ cost activities, 130 million+ monthly data points). Provide at least one relevant past performance example, including customer name (if permissible), scope, and outcomes.

B. Functional and Technical Capability

Respond to each item below indicating: Fully Meets / Partially Meets (with explanation) / Does Not Meet, along with a brief narrative that substantiates the response.

Cost Modeling and Allocation

B.1. Support for activity-based costing, job costing, and standard costing methodologies consistent with SFFAS No. 4, including administrator-configurable allocation rules, cost drivers, cost activities, mappings, and business rules without custom software development.

B.2. Support for year-to-date (YTD) costing with 12-month accumulation, equalization, and normalization adjustments.

B.3. Ability to complete month-end cost model processing within 3 business days of receipt of all required source data, at the scale described in Section A.3.

B.4. Support for scenario ("what-if") analysis without impacting production cost models, including Care in the Community vs. VHA-provided care cost comparisons for make/buy analysis.

Data Ingestion, Integration, and Reporting

B.5. Describe your solution's approach to ingesting a minimum of 130 million records per month from multiple financial, operational, and clinical source systems. What are the practical upper bounds of your platform's ingestion architecture?

B.6. Describe supported integration methods (API-based connectivity, flat file, delimited file, etc.) and your experience integrating with systems comparable to VA's FMS, iFAMS, VistA, Oracle Health, and a cloud data platform such as VA's Summit Data Platform (Azure-based).

B.7. Describe reporting and data extract capabilities, including support for CSV, TXT, and Microsoft Excel export formats, configurable ad hoc reporting, and outbound extract throughput. State your platform's actual sustained/peak throughput capacity.

AI/Automation

B.8. Describe any embedded artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), or intelligent automation capabilities relevant to cost modeling, anomaly/outlier detection, data quality management, or reporting. Note whether these are included in the base subscription or require additional licensing.

B.9. If AI/LLM capabilities are included, describe your approach to VA's Unbiased AI Principles (Truth-Seeking and Ideological Neutrality) per OMB Memorandum M-26-04, and your ability to provide model/system documentation consistent with federal transparency requirements.

C. Security, Compliance, and Authorization

C.1. State your platform's current FedRAMP authorization status (Not Authorized / In Process / Authorized) and, if authorized, the impact level (Low/Moderate/High), authorizing agency, and FedRAMP Marketplace listing ID. Note: VA's internal documentation reflects both "Moderate (or higher)" and "High" as potential required impact levels for this effort; the required level has not been finalized. Please indicate your authorization status at both the Moderate and High levels if they differ, so VA can assess the market at each threshold. VA's security and authorization requirements will be met through NIST SP 800-53 Revision 5, VA Directive 6500, and VA Handbook

6500.6 Appendix C. Current FedRAMP authorization status is requested for market research and planning purposes only and is not a condition of eligibility to respond to this RFI or compete for any resulting solicitation.

C.2. State whether your solution currently holds, or has previously held, a VA Authority to Operate (ATO), and if so, provide details (system name, sponsoring VA office, approximate authorization date).

C.3. Describe your hosting architecture and confirm whether all VA data would be hosted on infrastructure physically located within the Continental United States

(CONUS).

C.4. Describe your approach to Trusted Internet Connection (TIC) 3.0 compliance for a cloud-hosted SaaS solution accessed by federal users.

C.5. Describe your Section 508 / WCAG 2.0 (Level A and AA) accessibility conformance, including any current Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) or accessibility audit.

C.6. Describe your data retention and destruction capabilities, and your approach to supporting federal records management/NARA requirements.

C.7. If your platform is not currently FedRAMP authorized, describe your company's plan and estimated timeline to pursue authorization at the required impact level, including whether you would pursue this independently or would require agency (VA) sponsorship. (Reference C.1.)

D. Implementation, Support, and Licensing

D.1. Describe your typical implementation methodology and timeline for a deployment of this scale (2,000+ cost centers, 100,000+ cost activities). Note: VA does not plan to migrate historical data from the legacy DSS mainframe system; describe your approach to initial data onboarding and cutover to production based on net-new data loads going forward.

D.2. Describe standard environments provided within the base subscription (e.g., Development, Test, Production, Training).

D.3. Describe your licensing model (named user, concurrent user, tiered, etc.).

D.4. Describe whether your standard training offering aligns with VA's stated training requirement (up to two instructor-led virtual sessions plus virtual administrator training for up to eight personnel), and note any additional training available as a paid service.

D.5. Describe your standard Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for system availability, and your support tiers/options, including any options for additional/premium technical support.

D.6. Describe your backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity capabilities.

State whether your standard commitments meet or exceed VA's planning targets of a 12-hour Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and 72-hour Recovery Time Objective (RTO), and if not, describe the gap.

D.7. Describe any optional "white glove" or premium support offerings available above your standard subscription support tier — for example, dedicated/expedited help desk support, accelerated break/fix response times, a named technical account manager, or enhanced incident response. For each such offering, describe: the service scope and how it differs from standard support; typical response/resolution time commitments; and rough order of magnitude pricing (e.g., flat annual fee, per-user uplift, or percentage of subscription cost). This information is for market research purposes only and will not obligate VA to procure any such service.

E. Organizational and Contract Vehicle Information

E.1. Identify any GSA Schedule, NASA SEWP, CIO-SP3/Alliant 2, or other applicable federal contract vehicle(s) through which your solution could be procured, and the associated contract number(s).

E.2. Describe whether your solution is currently listed on the VA Digital Marketplace or has been used by any other VA administration (VBA, NCA, or other VHA offices).

E.3. Identify any known teaming partners, system integrators, or resellers you would anticipate using for VA implementation, and describe the division of responsibility (e.g., platform vendor vs. systems integrator for configuration/integration work).

F. General Feedback

F.1. Based on the salient characteristics and functional requirements outlined in this RFI, identify any requirements that you believe are unclear, unnecessarily restrictive, potentially limiting competition, or that could be more effectively stated to reflect current market capability.

F.2. Identify any requirements you believe are missing that VA should consider given the scale and complexity of this modernization effort.

F.3. Provide recommended quality assurance Performance Standards and Acceptable Level of Performance other than those identified in draft PWS Section 6.4.

F.4. Provide any recommended technical discriminators the Government should consider when developing evaluation factors.

F.5. Provide any recommendations on acquisition strategy or contract structure (e.g., single award vs. multiple, base plus options, minimum viable scope for a pilot/phased approach) that you believe would benefit both VA and industry.

Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) Cost Estimate

Please provide a ROM cost estimate reflecting your best understanding of the requirement as described in this RFI. Attachment A is provided for your convenience.

Please also address:

• The pricing model and unit basis used (e.g., per named user/year, per data volume tier, flat enterprise rate) and how costs would scale with additional users, VISNs, or data volume. Note: VA's current planning assumption of 120 users is preliminary and subject to change based on market research findings; please indicate pricing at 60, 120, and 250 users if your model is user-tiered, to help VA understand cost sensitivity to this variable.

• If AI is part of your solution, address how usage is estimated, tracked, and charged.

• Any assumptions made (e.g., number of users, data volume, level of customization, timeline) that materially affect the estimate.

• Whether costs would differ materially if implementation/integration services were performed by your company directly versus through a systems integrator partner.

Note: This ROM is for market research and budgetary planning purposes only. It will not be used to evaluate quotes/proposals in any future competitive procurement and does not bind the Government or the respondent.

See attached draft PWS for further information.

Questions relating to this RFI must be submitted electronically no later than 10:00 AM

Eastern Standard Time, October 1, 2026, via email to the Technology Acquisition

Center (TAC) points of contact(s):

Contract Specialist, Brianna Feaster at Brianna.feaster@va.gov and Contracting Officer, Lori Walker at Lori.walker1@va.gov

Responses to this RFI shall be submitted electronically no later than 10:00 AM Eastern Standard Time, October 7, 2026, via email to the Technology Acquisition Center (TAC) points of contact:

Contract Specialist, Brianna Feaster at Brianna.feaster@va.gov and Contracting Officer, Lori Walker at Lori.walker1@va.gov

Please note Managerial Cost Accounting SaaS in the subject line of your response.

Mark your response as “Proprietary Information” if the information is considered business sensitive. All proprietary/company confidential material shall be clearly marked on every page that contains such.

The email file size shall not exceed 5 MB.

Complete responses shall be limited to 25 pages (ROMs and Attachment 3 - MCA SaaS Compliance Matrix will be excluded from the page limitation) and shall include the following:

(A) Capability Statement,

(B) Narrative response to Sections A–F

(C) Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM), in the form of a completed Attachment 2

(D) Completed Attachment 3 - MCA SaaS Compliance Matrix

RESPONDENTS ARE ADVISED THAT THIS REQUIREMENT MAY BE DELAYED,

CANCELED, OR REVISED AT ANY TIME.