RFI-Telecomm Expense Management and Asset Tracking.pdf

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

BUREAU OF DIPLOMATIC TECHNOLOGY (DT)

OFFICE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION (ITA)

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI)

for

TELECOMMUNICATIONS EXPENSE MANAGEMENT AND ASSET

TRACKING SOLUTION

PART 1:

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

1.0 PURPOSE

This Request for Information (RFI) is issued as market research to determine industry’s capabilities to provide integrated Telecommunications Expense Management and Asset Tracking (TEM-AT) solutions that will support the Department of State’s global diplomacy mission and Departmental business processes.

The Government does not commit to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or reimburse any costs associated with the preparation of responses. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked “Proprietary” will be handled accordingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responses to this RFI will assist the Department in determining the potential level of interest, competition adequacy, and technical capabilities of commercial vendors to provide the required products and/or services. The Government does not guarantee any action beyond this RFI.

The results of this market research will contribute to determining the acquisition plan and the method of procurement. The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 513210 and Product Service Code (PSC) 7A21.

2.0 BACKGROUND

The Department's mission is to advance the interests of the American people, their safety, and economic prosperity by leading America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance. The mission of the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology (DT) focuses on providing effective management of State’s technical infrastructure, digital assets, and deployment of crucial technologies at home and around the globe to enable diplomacy at the physical and digital edge. To do this, DT requires solutions that enable integrated management of telecommunications services and assets to ensure America’s foreign service professionals are able to retain uninterrupted communications with our partners and allies while effectively managing spend across multiple communications providers and asset types.

To this end, DT is seeking input from industry regarding their capability to provide market-leading solutions capable of meeting the full breadth of functional requirements outlined in this RFI. The Department requires access to a platform that is compliant with current Federal security requirements, is easy to use, flexible, scalable, customizable, and configurable to meet specific Department requirements as further detailed below.

3.0 REQUEST FOR INFORMATION OVERVIEW

As further detailed in Section 4, the Department is seeking to identify capable and interested partners able to provide the products and/or services required to meet the full range of functional capabilities outlined in this RFI. Viable partners should have demonstrated experience deploying the solutions and delivering the ongoing support required to maintain, expand, and upgrade the solution over time for an organization of similar size, global scope, and mission complexity as the Department of State.

Information requested in this RFI includes the following categories:

• Company Information (Section 1) - Identification of interested vendors, socio-economic status, and potential acquisition vehicles to inform the Department’s potential acquisition strategy options.

• Capability Assessment Against Functional Requirements (Section 2) - Description of vendor’s proposed technical solution and ability to fully meet all stated functional requirements.

• Past Experience (Section 3) - Past project example(s) demonstrating vendor’s experience implementing their proposed solution to address the needs of an organization of similar size, global scope, and mission complexity as State.

4.0 SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

All written responses should be submitted in Microsoft compatible formats (e.g., Word) or PDF.

Responses must use 12-point font and 1-inch margins, including all text, tables, and graphics. Additional attachments, brochures, or other marketing materials are not requested and will not be considered as part of the response. Response page limit(s) by section are noted below.

• Section 1 - 1 Page

• Section 2 - 10 Pages

• Section 3 - 5 Pages

Please submit all materials to Andrew Rothstein at RothsteinAT@state.gov no later than February 27, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. EST (Eastern Standard Time).

The Government will not accept questions after February 23, 2026. Please submit questions to Andrew Rothstein at RothsteinAT@state.gov.

The Government will post the questions and responses on Sam.gov with sufficient time for contractors to complete their responses.

Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD ANY RESPONDENT

CONTACT ANY DEPARTMENT PERSONNEL REGARDING THIS

NOTICE.

PART 2: REQUESTED INFORMATION

Respondents are asked to provide the information requested below in accordance with the instructions outlined in Part 1, Section 4.0 above.

Section 1 - Company Information

Please provide the following details regarding your organization:

• Company name.

• Company’s point of contact (POC) name.

• Company’s POC phone number.

• Company’s POC email address.

• Company’s URL/web address.

• Company’s Cage Code.

• Company’s Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) Number.

• Company Federal socioeconomic classification(s), if any, based on NAICS

Code that applies to the proposed solution.

• List General Services Administration (GSA) schedule, Government wide acquisition contracts (GWACs), or other federal Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity IDIQs or contracts your company holds that are accessible by the Department and where the full proposed solution can be procured, including corresponding schedule number/or contract number.

Section 2 - Functional Requirements Assessment The Department’s functional requirements for the solution are outlined below.

Respondents are asked to provide a structured response that meets the following format requirements:

• Response should be structured and annotated to clearly map the detailed description of the proposed solution’s capabilities to the numbered requirements captured in the sections below. Responses should clearly map to the information detailed in the requirements below.

• Response narrative content should provide sufficient details regarding the proposed solution’s specific technical capabilities to demonstrate that the solution is capable of fully satisfying requirements.

2.1 General Requirements

Proposed solutions must meet all of the following general requirements, in addition to the detailed technical requirements outlined in subsequent sections to be considered viable for State’s needs. Vendors should assess these requirements carefully, and fully describe their ability to meet them:

a. The solution shall provide commercially proven, enterprise-grade commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products (no custom-built solutions) with demonstrated experience successfully deploying and operating the solution in the Federal environment.

b. The solution shall provide substantial out-of-the-box functionality, enabling core features to be operational on the first day of deployment. The platform must also support rapid configuration to meet agency specific requirements, with the ability to implement custom workflows, data fields, and integrations within expedited timelines (e.g., within 90 days of contract award).

c. The vendor shall provide comprehensive professional services, including implementation, configuration, training, and ongoing support, delivered by a dedicated team of subject matter experts with demonstrated experience supporting federal Government clients.

d. The solution shall support native integration with existing State infrastructure and systems, including, but not limited to, identity management, network security, and data exchange protocols, without requiring extensive middleware or third party-provided custom connectors.

e. The solution shall support the Department’s cybersecurity objectives through vendor-neutral automation of the systems patching process to comply with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) patching Mandate Binding Operational Directive 22-01 CISA (BOD 22-01).

Provide details regarding solution functionality focused on helping the Department meet these federal directives.

f. The solution shall be compliant with Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) security standards and have Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) certification at the Moderate Level or above.

g. The solution shall be fully compliant with the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, and vendor shall be able to provide copies of the VPATs (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) supporting such compliance.

h. The solution shall be certified to the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 27001 standard for information security management systems.

i. The solution shall possess a current attestation of compliance with the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type 2 standard at the time of submission.

j. The solution provider shall meet Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for Development (CMMI-DEV) Level 5 requirements, demonstrating mature and optimized processes for software development and service delivery.

k. The solution shall comply with the Department's Cybersecurity Supply Chain Risk Management (C-SCRM) policy. The vendor must describe its ability to keep its software and product supply chains secure.

2.2 Data Integration Capabilities

State requires a solution that can effectively integrate data from various government and third-party sources to enable visibility and management across State’s telecommunications footprint. The solution will need to be able to receive data from all of State’s communication and technical service providers, State and the United States Government’s (USG) various contract and finance reporting applications, and various third-party hardware and software providers. The solution will also require an ability to natively integrate its own analysis and outputs into State and USG’s reporting systems and applications.

a. The solution shall natively support integration with Government-specific Contract Line-Item Number (CLIN) structures and federal budgeting hierarchies and codes and enable accurate tracking, allocation, and reporting of expenditures at the line-item level.

b. The solution shall support enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO) and Personal Identity Verification (PIV) login.

c. The solution shall support third-party multifactor applications that are Request for Comments (RFC) 6238 compliant, to include Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Authy, and DUO.

d. The solution shall deploy information security protocols to include OAuth 2.0, Kerberos, and SAML 2.0.

e. The solution shall provide encryption of data at rest using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 encryption and be capable of encrypting data in transit using Mutual Transport Layer Security (mTLS), TLS 1.2, and TLS 1.3 standards.

f. The solution shall provide out-of-the-box or easily configurable, no-code integration with federal financial management systems, supporting automated data exchange for billing, payments, and reconciliation.

g. The solution shall support integration with enterprise service management platforms used within State's environment, including but not limited to incident management, asset management, and workflow automation modules.

h. The solution shall enable centralized management and tracking of all asset and service types, contracts, service level agreements, suppliers, and original equipment manufacturers through a single, unified portal.

i. The solution shall support integration for ServiceNow.

j. The solution shall provide support for Application Programming Interfaces

(APIs) protocols and standards to include support for Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Representational State Transfer (REST), Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), and email-based tracking.

k. The solution shall support centralized management of contracts awarded through any federal acquisition vehicle, providing a consolidated view and management interface for all active and historical contracts.

l. The solution shall provide integrated data management and asset tracking capabilities for wireless, wireline and satellite device types and service providers.

m. The solution shall support full lifecycle management of wireless, wireline, and satellite from acquisition through disposal within a centrally managed portal.

n. The solution shall be able to provide analysis and reporting to State and the United States Government’s internal reporting systems and applications, including OMB Integrated Data Collection (IDC).

2.3 Data Automation and Management

State is seeking a solution that enables the efficient and effective use of data to support better decision making and faster action based on service and asset posture across the enterprise. The solution will need to provide capabilities to automate the routing and updating of data from all relevant sources and the automation of key actions based on established standard procedures. The solution shall also support the streamlining of manual data analysis, provisioning of roles and authorities within management functions, and enabling of key business intelligence tasks and dashboard creation.

a. The solution shall provide out-of-the-box capabilities for expense management, including automated cost allocation across business units, projects, and funding sources.

b. The solution shall provide ordering and delivery performance metrics that measure time to submit, fulfill, and complete orders, including device delivery times for department destinations.

c. The solution shall possess a dynamic workflow engine for multi-step approvals and conditional routing.

d. The solution shall be capable of generating reports and possess tracking capabilities that support compliance with the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Circular A-123 requirements for enterprise risk management internal controls.

e. The solution shall possess a data loader and exporter supporting TSV, PSV, TXT, XLS, XLSX, EDI, ZIP, GZIP, SQL, CSV, XML, JSON, EDI, and PSV formats for both bulk and incremental loads. The data loader shall also support secure API-based extraction.

f. The solution shall be able to normalize data from domestic and international carriers to include currency, plan codes, asset types, and service types through a configurable automated process.

g. The solution shall support non-English language data sets using Unicode (UTF) 8 encoding standards.

h. The solution shall support automated ingestion, processing, and validation of invoices from any service provider.

i. The solution shall include native reporting and business intelligence tools, enabling users to generate standard and ad hoc reports, dashboards, and analytics without requiring third-party add-ons.

j. The solution shall support management of any inventory types, including physical assets, services, and billing records, with the ability to track status, location, and ownership.

k. The solution shall provide end-to-end tracking of procurement and fulfillment processes for assets and services, including order initiation, approval, shipment, receipt, and activation.

l. The solution shall support the creation, submission, and tracking of order requests, with configurable approval workflows that can be tailored to Department policies and hierarchies.

m. The solution shall provide robust capabilities for auditing asset and service usage, allocating costs, reconciling invoices, and identifying opportunities for cost optimization.

n. The solution shall enable real-time and historical monitoring of usage from any service provider, with tools for identifying underutilized resources and recommending optimization actions.

o. The solution shall provide mechanisms for creating, submitting, and tracking disputes with service providers, including automated notifications and status updates.

p. The solution shall automate management of assets across all stages of the inventory lifecycle, including request, allocation, reassignment, and disposal, with audit trails for all actions.

q. The solution shall provide configurable, role-based dashboards and views within a unified interface, enabling users to track, analyze, and act on inventory and management requirements according to their assigned roles.

r. The solution shall allow administrators to assign and enforce functionality limitations based on user roles, including permissions for inventory moves, adds, changes, and disconnects.

s. The solution shall support electronic bonding for services, enabling automated reconciliation of bills, identification of discrepancies, detection of low- and zero-usage users, and configurable workflows and approvals at the sub-organizational level.

3.0 PAST PERFORMANCE

The Department is seeking a TEM-AT solution provider that has a proven track record in the U.S. federal space with demonstrated experience supporting agencies of similar size, global scope, and mission complexity as the Department. Such experience is critical to ensure that the solution has a proven record of expense and asset tracking management within the federal environment. Please provide the following information regarding your experience deploying your solution for federal customers.

3.1 Federal Past Performance (Last Three Years Only)

Please list all federal agencies where you have successfully deployed your solution in the last three years. For each experience noted, in a single table, please provide:

• Agency and organization name.

• Period of Performance.

• Solutions provided to the agency.

• Schedule, GWAC, or contract used for the requirement.

• State whether your company was a prime or subcontractor.

3.2 Past Performance Description (Three Projects)

For at least three, but not more than four projects, of the federal implementations provided in Section 3.1 above, please provide the detailed information requested below to further demonstrate relevant past experience.

• Dollar value of contract (across full period of performance).

• Period of performance dates.

• Description of how the past performance demonstrates ability to meet the requirements outlined in this RFI, particularly for customers requiring a global footprint for deploying the solution and/or an ability to support the handling of sensitive information.

Disclaimer: This RFI Notice is for information gathering purposes only as a means to identify interested and capable sources that can provide a solution that fully meets all requirements outlined in Part 2 of this notice. The information provided in this Notice is subject to change and is not binding on the Government.

The Department has not made a commitment to procure any of the items/services discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought. State will not publicly disclose proprietary information obtained as a result of this RFI. To the full extent that it is protected by law and regulations, information identified by a respondent as Proprietary or Confidential will be kept confidential. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.