SOO Enterprise Product Content Services_20260828.pdf

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES (SOO)

DEFENSE COMMISSARY AGENCY (DECA) ENTERPRISE GROCERY PRODUCT

CONTENT CREATION, MANAGEMENT, AND SYNDICATION SOFTWARE-AS-A-

SERVICE (SAAS) SOLUTION

August 28, 2026

1.0 PURPOSE

The purpose of this Statement of Objectives (SOO) is to obtain a comprehensive, commercial

Enterprise Grocery Product Content Creation, Management, and Syndication Software-as-a-

Service (SaaS) solution and associated technical and creative support services for the Defense

Commissary Agency (DeCA). This capability is critical to modernizing DeCA’s digital commerce, digital marketing, in-store merchandising, automated planogramming, and global store operations across approximately 235 global retail locations.

DeCA is seeking an integrated platform that combines a centralized Digital Asset Management

(DAM) repository and Product Information Management (PIM) system with robust content creation services, automated supplier collaboration tools, and enterprise-grade syndication capabilities. The goal is to establish an end-to-end product content pipeline, eliminate manual and fragmented workflows, improve online search and discoverability, and establish a single source of truth for grocery product content across the entire DeCA global enterprise.

2.0 SCOPE OF MISSION

The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA or the Agency) is a component of the Department of

War (DoW) reporting to the Under Secretary of War for Personnel and Readiness. DeCA is headquartered at Fort Lee, Virginia, and operates a worldwide system of 235 commissaries in 45 states, 13 countries and two U.S. territories (approximately 3,000 lanes including self-checkouts). DeCA is a global agency, with annual sales over $4.6 billion and employing more than 14,000 people. DeCA Commissaries sell food and related household items to Active, Reserve, and National Guard members of the Uniformed Services, retirees of these Services, service-related disabled veterans, authorized family members, and other authorized patrons

(customers).

3.0 SCOPE OF REQUIREMENT

To align with commercial software capabilities and foster maximum market competition, this requirement is structured around a single unified SaaS platform. However, to support modular evaluation or phased integration, the technical requirements of the platform are divided into four

(4) distinct, severable Areas of Interest (AOIs):

• AOI 1: Product Content Acquisition, Photography, & Creation Services

• AOI 2: Centralized Digital Asset Management (DAM) & Product Information

Management (PIM) Platform

• AOI 3: eCommerce Product Content Enablement, Multi-Channel Syndication, &

Merchandising Support

• AOI 4: Supplier Collaboration Portal & Automated Integration Services

4.0 OPERATING CONSTRAINTS & DEFINITIONS

The Contractor’s proposed solution must adhere to the following mission boundaries:

• Geographic Scope: The solution must support global operations, providing seamless accessibility, data consistency, and content synchronization for all 235 commissaries across the continental United States (CONUS) and outside the continental United States

(OCONUS), including Alaska, Hawaii, Europe, and the Pacific.

• Target User Groups: The platform must support multiple user personas with configurable views and permissions, including headquarters-based Category Managers, digital marketing teams, eCommerce platform administrators and operations personnel, store-level personnel executing shelf operations, external suppliers, distributors, manufacturers, and private-label partners.

• Cybersecurity and Information Safeguarding (CMMC Level 2): Because the platform will receive, process, store, transmit, and generate Controlled Unclassified Information

(CUI) and sensitive operational data—including DeCA system configuration parameters, supplier account access details, proprietary brand attributes, inventory statuses, and secure system-to-system exchange protocols—the proposed SaaS solution must fully comply with CMMC Level 2 (or successor requirements), NIST SP 800-171, and

DFARS 252.204-7012. System security controls must be maintained across all platform modules throughout the period of performance.

• Data Rights & Internal Use: The Government requires a standard commercial internal use license for the underlying proprietary datasets, libraries, and SaaS platforms. This license must grant DeCA the irrevocable right to ingest, store, merge, and utilize the raw product data internally within DeCA's enterprise IT environment (including the SAP/ARTS and downstream planogramming environments) for official business analysis and retail operations. The solution must accommodate and legally permit the ingestion, storage, and public/internal display of third-party supplier-provided product imagery and dimensions.

The Government requires unlimited rights to all bespoke reports, custom configuration scripts, database structures, and analytical/creative methodologies generated specifically for DeCA under this effort.

• On-boarding, Deployment, and Initial Operational Capability (IOC): To minimize transition risk prior to the expiration of legacy systems, the contractor must demonstrate a mature, turnkey deployment methodology capable of achieving Initial Operational

Capability (IOC) within thirty (30) calendar days of contract award. IOC is successfully achieved when the proposed solution is fully provisioned in a production environment, initial role-based access is configured for all identified government users, and a validated data exchange is established between the solution and the DeCA SAP/ARTS environment.

• Transition and Descoping Support (Enterprise MDM Alignment): The Contractor must support seamless transition, data handoffs, and modular descoping activities as native, long-term DeCA Master Data Management (MDM) capabilities become operational. The proposed solution must ensure zero operational disruption or content availability gaps across DeCA's global grocery commerce channels during any such transition.

5.0 PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

5.1 General Objectives (Applicable to all proposed AOIs)

The selected solution must encompass comprehensive onboarding, support, and technical services, achieving the following general objectives:

• Program Support: Highly responsive technical and program support to resolve system issues, support ad-hoc configurations, manage metadata exceptions, and maintain steady-state operations.

• Platform Usability & Availability: Provide a secure, highly available (minimum 99.5% uptime measured monthly) user-facing platform. The system must be fully functional via common commercial web browsers without requiring specialized client-side software installs, featuring intuitive ad-hoc reporting, multi-dimensional filtering, and standard data exporting (.csv, .xlsx, .json).

• Training: A comprehensive training program (initial live sessions, quarterly ongoing refreshers, and on-demand materials) to ensure high proficiency across headquarters and store-level users.

• Government Testing & Validation Support: Provide and maintain a dedicated, non-production test environment that fully mirrors production capabilities. The contractor must support independent Government acceptance testing, regression testing, and security validations, with a target of resolving 95% of identified system defects within contract-defined severity timelines (e.g., resolving Critical defects prior to production release.

• Enterprise Integration and SAP Compatibility: The solution must support robust, automated, near real-time and batch data exchange utilizing integration mechanisms (e.g., secure REST APIs and SFTP) that are natively compatible with DeCA's internal IT environments, specifically including the SAP-based Advanced Retail Technology Suite

(ARTS), Oracle, point-of-sale (POS) environments, automated inventory replenishment systems, eCommerce storefronts (such as FreshOp), and downstream planogramming solutions.

5.2 AOI 1: Product Content Acquisition, Photography, & Creation Services

The objective is to acquire comprehensive product photography and custom content creation services to build and maintain high-fidelity grocery assets where manufacturer-provided commercial data is missing or insufficient. The proposed solution should achieve the following:

• Custom Content Creation: Provide professional multi-angle product photography, image editing, transparent-background rendering, mobile-optimized presentation views, and package specification capturing.

• Specialized Brands Support: Support custom asset creation for specialized goods, including private-label/store-brand products, emerging localized brands, and products from smaller, non-traditional commercial suppliers.

• Automated Content Gap Audits: Establish automated workflows to systematically identify, catalog, and report content gaps (such as missing images, incomplete attributes, or outdated packaging designs) within DeCA's active item assortment.

• Non-Standard Merchandise Methodologies: Deliver specialized content capture methodologies for non-standard grocery merchandise, such as random-weight fresh meats, produce, deli, and bakery items that lack traditional consumer packaging and static

GTIN layouts.

5.3 AOI 2: Centralized Digital Asset Management (DAM) & Product Information

Management (PIM) Platform

The objective is to obtain a mature, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)-based SaaS platform that serves as DeCA's centralized repository to store, organize, search, and manage approved grocery product content and digital assets. The proposed solution should achieve the following:

• Unified Database Infrastructure: Deliver an integrated DAM and PIM capability to house product images, digital marketing assets, nutritional metadata, packaging dimensions, specifications, and associated taxonomies within a single, unified database.

• Intuitive Search & Discovery: Implement intuitive, multi-dimensional search and retrieval capabilities, enabling authorized users to locate product profiles instantly via identifiers, brand attributes, or metadata keywords.

• Asset Lifecycle & Version Control: Enforce robust version control and asset lifecycle management to systematically manage packaging updates, seasonal item changes, brand redesigns, and historical content archiving.

• Granular Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): Provide configurable role-based security profiles and access permissions to safely manage administrative, standard user, and third-party partner permissions across global operations.

• Collaborative Working Environments: Support secure, collaborative workspaces and secure import/export pipelines allowing suppliers, manufacturers, and store-level personnel to safely exchange, review, and collaborate on product specifications and imagery.

5.4 AOI 3: eCommerce Product Content Enablement, Multi-Channel Syndication, &

Merchandising Support

The objective is to secure automated publishing, optimization, and syndication tools that streamline the delivery of high-quality digital assets and physical product specifications to

DeCA’s digital storefronts, marketing systems, and space planning software. The proposed solution should achieve the following:

• Automated Storefront Publishing: Enable automated, secure publishing of approved product content directly from the PIM/DAM repository to DeCA's active consumer-facing eCommerce platforms (such as FreshOp).

• SEO & Metadata Optimization: Optimize product search and discoverability across digital shopping channels utilizing structured metadata, automated indexing, standardized taxonomy structures, and search keywords.

• Responsive Multi-Device Layouts: Deliver responsive, mobile-optimized product layouts that display product descriptions, dimensions, nutritional attributes, and packaging visuals consistently across all web and mobile devices.

• Digital Merchandising Capabilities: Support digital merchandising tools, including side-by-side product comparisons, related-item suggestions, and temporary promotional/seasonal content campaigns.

• Planogram-Ready Asset Delivery: Provide planogram-ready digital assets that accurately associate high-resolution product images with validated physical dimensions

(height, width, depth, and weight) and merchandising attributes.

• Shelf-Level Visual Assets: Deliver standardized, high-quality shelf visualization images to enable Category Managers to build highly accurate virtual fixture and shelf mockups within planogramming software.

• Downstream Replenishment Syndication: Ensure approved packaging dimensions and physical attribute changes are automatically syndicated to downstream replenishment and shelf planning databases.

5.5 AOI 4: Supplier Collaboration Portal & Automated Integration Services

The objective is to establish a secure, collaborative portal and automated integration suite that enables suppliers to directly submit product content, while ensuring seamless real-time data sync with DeCA's broader IT enterprise. The proposed solution should achieve the following:

• Self-Service Supplier Portal: Provide a secure, self-service Supplier Portal allowing manufacturers, distributors, and private-label partners to access images, nutritional specifications, dimensions, and packaging updates.

• Automated Asset Validation: Incorporate automated validation engine capabilities that analyze supplier-submitted content for completeness, image quality, and ID accuracy prior to routed review.

• Workflow Automation & Routing: Establish configurable approval and rejection routing workflows, complete with automated notifications to alert suppliers of status changes or required asset revisions.

• Real-Time Enterprise Sync: Deliver high-performance, secure REST APIs and automated data synchronization capabilities to maintain real-time content alignment across SAP-based ARTS, Oracle, and global POS environments.

• Industry Standard Integration: The solution should utilize industry-standard commercial retail data networks to automate the ingestion and validation of national brand supplier product images, digital assets, and physical dimensions