DATA_Act_RFI_Update_v07.26.19.pdf

The purpose of this posting is to provide an update on the status and intended path forward for this RFI.

The government received more than 50 responses to the RFI, and would like to voice its appreciation for the resources dedicated to those responses. They were very useful in informing the government’s internal conversations, as well as its path forward. As noted in the original posting, the Department of Treasury planned on continuing the market research process via one-on-one meetings with a subset of the industry partners who provided responses to the RFI – those meetings are complete. In the interests of transparency, we are sharing the concepts discussed during all phases of market research (including RFI responses and one-on-one meetings) that are the most relevant/notable to the government are shared below:

1) Sharing and communicating the relative importance of near-term improvement with the scope and cost of efforts will be very important. I.e., does / to what extent does the government prefer the improvement of a singular data field in the near term over a larger number of data fields in the long term?;

2) The government will need to consider rights to the solution offering when making award decisions. I.e., if a solution offering will not allow for use across the Department of Treasury or other government agencies, but is available in the near-term and at a low cost, is that a ‘deal-breaker’?;

3) This approach will require a greater and more frequent level of engagement with many of the industry partners who receive funding. Decisions, access to data and SMEs, and truncated timelines to provide funding will be necessary in order to be successful;

4) Industry and government must have a common understanding of the potential and likelihood for subsequent funding streams – contract period options are often perceived as ‘sure bets’ by industry partners and that will not be the case here; and,

5) It is quite possible that a solution which does not directly improve the data contained within Treasury systems or directly decrease manual rework will be a good candidate for funding, depending on the costs associated with it. This was contrary to some of our initial assumptions.

In terms of the path forward and timelines, the Department of Treasury will focus on potential solutions relative to the Internal Revenue Service, as opposed to the entire Department at one time. An FY19 (i.e., prior to September 30, 2019) solicitation and award for multiple solutions is still anticipated. Initial funding amounts and timelines will be very short term (i.e., 30 days and $25K), and the aspirational goal for the portfolio of funded projects is that multiple funding decisions will occur prior to December 30.

By August 2, the Internal Revenue Service plans to release a draft solicitation, which is expected to be less than 20 pages. Roughly one week later, a teleconference will be held that will include a ‘listening session’ where government employees will discuss topics around the potential solutions, background information regarding FPDS-NG and how data enters the system, as well as potential areas for focus in terms of specific FPDS-NG data fields. Questions from attendees will also be answered at that time.

Roughly one week after that, a final solicitation will be issued with a condensed response time, likely 2 weeks or less. It’s important to note that the maximum allowable page limit for the initial response is anticipated to be 10 pages or less, and that a subset of responses will be selected for an oral presentation/pitch, which will be no more than 30 minutes.