RFI - Technology Helpdesk Services Support.docx

Request for Information and Sources Sought Office of Information & Technology (OIT)/Technology Services Desk (TSD) Technology Helpdesk Services Support

Purpose:

This public posting is for informational, planning, and market research purposes only and constitutes a Request for Information (RFI) and a Sources Sought Request (SSR) only for United States, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP). This announcement does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise that a solicitation or procurement will be issued. This is not a solicitation, Request for Proposal (RFP), or Invitation for Bids (IFB). No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement or any follow-up information requests.

All information received resulting from this RFI will be used by CBP for acquisition planning and market research purposes only. However, your response may be releasable to the public under the Freedom of information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552, and the DHS FOIA regulation, 6 C.F.R. Chapter 1 and Part 5. If you wish CBP to consider any portion of your response as "confidential commercial information", you should clearly mark the portion as "confidential commercial information". The procedures for identifying "confidential commercial information" are set forth in the DHS FOIA regulation cited above and are available on the DHS website: http://www.dhs.gov/xfoia/editorial0579.shtm. CBP, at its discretion, may request respondents to this RFI to meet with CBP program and contracting officials and to elaborate on information in their written response. Respondents to this RFI will not be notified of any results derived from a review of the information provided. All information contained in this RFI is preliminary and is subject to revision and is not binding on the Government.

The purpose of this public posting is to give contractors the opportunity to provide information regarding their capability to support the Technology Helpdesk Services Support.

Background:

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Office of Information and Technology (OIT) has a requirement to provide Technology Service Desk (TSD) operations 24x7x365. The TSD is the primary point of contact for answering and responding to incoming calls, chats, emails, self service requests and reports of information system problems by documenting, diagnosing, and tracking reported Issues/requests of all CBP systems of data and communications with end-users.

CBP technology support services provide global support to ensure CBP customers as well as other authorized enforcement agencies and authorized members of the Office of Trade (OT) have access to the systems needed to accomplish their mission.

TSD support operations are conducted via electronic media (e.g., telephone, chat, email, web-based self-service) with limited walk-up or in-person support.

The TSD requirement includes technology support services for more than 65,000 CBP employees and Contractors, trade partners, and Participating Government Agencies (PGAs) at over 1,800 CBP and Non-CBP locations worldwide. The TSD resolves customer-reported technology issues/requests for nearly 300 custom and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) system applications and, when necessary, escalates more complex problems to other internal or external support service providers.

Draft Requirement Overview:

The Contractor shall provide program management, customer-focused technology service desk support for Tier 1 Internal and External Operations, Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Account Service Desk (ASD), and Advanced Support Operations. The Contractor shall also support TSD development, implementation and execution of Information Technology (IT) support policies and procedures.

Information Request:

1. Background: CBP Technology Service Desk currently leverages a standard online “Erlang" calculator to estimate staffing needs for Tier 1 support per day and half-hour—using call/contact volume indicated in ADDENDUM C – TASK 2 (TIER 1) CALL AND EMAIL VOLUME THRESHOLD, setting occupancy at 80%, shrinkage at 30%, and average talk/handle time at 10 minutes.

Question: Estimating Staffing Needs for Task 2.

Please provide your input for the following:

1. What tool do you use (if other than Erlang) and why?

1. Do you recommend any different occupancy or shrinkage rates other than those presented above?

1. Are there any factors other than those presented above that you would leverage to provide an accurate staffing/coverage estimate for Tier 1 support?

2. Background: CBP Technology Service Desk also currently leverages the same standard online “Erlang" calculator to estimate staffing needs for Tier 2 support per day and half-hour—using call/contact volume indicated in Addendum D – Task 3 (ACE ASD) Call, Email and Ticket Volume Threshold and Addendum E – Task 4 (TSD Advanced Support) Call and Ticket Volume Threshold, setting occupancy at 80%, shrinkage at 30%, and average talk/handle time at 15 minutes.

Question: Estimating Staffing Needs for Tasks 3 and 4.

Please provide your input for the following:

1. What tool do you use (if other than Erlang) and why?

1. Do you recommend any different occupancy or shrinkage rates other than those presented above?

1. Are there any factors other than those presented above that you would leverage to provide an accurate staffing/coverage estimate for Tier 2 support?

3. Background: The CBP Technology Service Desk is currently in the process of piloting and deploying live agent Tier 1 chat support. CBP Technology Service Desk also currently leverages the same standard online “Erlang" calculator to estimate staffing needs for Tier 1 live agent chat support—using call/contact volume indicated in ADDENDUM C – TASK 2 (TIER 1) LIVE CHAT VOLUME THRESHOLD, setting occupancy at 80%, shrinkage at 30%, average talk/handle time at 20 minutes, and concurrency (number of concurrent chats an individual agent can handle simultaneously) at 3. Note that, regarding concurrency, we divide the number of agents needed from Erlang by the concurrency number (3) to determine staffing. For example, if Erlang states 45 agents needed based on volume, occupancy, shrinkage, handle time, we divide that number by 3 to get 15 agents needed.

Question: Estimating Staffing Needs for Live Agent Chat.

Please provide your input for the following:

1. Have you successfully staffed and executed Tier 1 and/or Tier 2 live agent chat support?

1. What tool do you use (if other than Erlang) and why?

1. In your experience, what is the recommended concurrency (number of concurrent live chat contacts) should be set for a fully trained agent?

1. Do you recommend any different occupancy or shrinkage rates other than those presented above?

1. Are there any factors other than those presented above that you would leverage to provide an accurate staffing/coverage estimate for Tier 1 and/or Tier 2 live agent chat support?

Instructions:

The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 541519 (Other Computer Related Services). Interested parties are encouraged to respond to this notice if they have the capability and capacity to provide the identified services. Please do not submit capability statements at this time. If provided, the vendor will be considered non-responsive to this RFI.

Please be advised, no questions will be addressed at this time. Please be advised, the Government has not identified a contractual vehicle or contract type at this time.

The due date and time for responses is no later than 1:00 PM EST, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. The RFIs shall be submitted via email to: monica.y.watts@cbp.dhs.gov with the subject line " Technology Helpdesk Services Support RFI" to be considered.

All responses must adhere to the page limits of 6 pages total. Please note, cover pages do not count towards the page limit. The submission shall be logically assembled. Each response section shall be clearly identified and shall begin at the top of a page. All pages of each response section shall be appropriately numbered and identified by the complete company name, date, and referenced number listed on the Notice in the header and/or footer.

Primary Point of Contact:

Monica Y. Watts Contracting Officer/Branch Chief Enterprise Network Technology Services (ENTS) Contracting Branch Information Technology Contracting Division DHS Customs and Border Protection 1331 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington DC 20029 MONICA.Y.WATTS@cbp.dhs.gov 571-363-7066