Sources Sought HQ0516-FY-25-0001.pdf

Sources Sought Notice Web Enterprise Business Support Services

Sources Sought Tracking Number: HQ0516-FY-25-0001

CONTRACTING OFFICE ADDRESS:

Defense Media Activity

6700 Taylor Avenue Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755

The Defense Media Activity (DMA) is seeking information from industry to assist with the development and planning of a potential new requirement. The intent of this Sources Sought is to gain information on the agency’s requirement for Web Enterprise Business Support Services to support the DMA mission.

Responses provided may be used by DMA to assist in budgetary planning, the development of an acquisition strategy, Performance Work Statement, salient characteristics, and performance specifications.

Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response.

Specific support is required to ascertain industry’s ability to furnish a turnkey solution. The system shall comprise of components that meet the required capabilities detailed later in this document. Vendors are encouraged to provide as much information as possible regarding their proven experience in developing these capabilities.

DMA representatives may choose to meet with respondents and others who express interest and hold one-on-one discussions. Such discussions would only be intended to obtain further clarification of potential capability to meet the requirements, including any development and implementation risks.

The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed. Information provided will be used to assess availability of the anticipated requirement and may lead to the development of a solicitation. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Respondents are encouraged to provide the following:

1. A summary of the respondent’s capabilities relating to DMA’s requirements.

2. Questions related to the SOURCES SOUGHT’s Required Capabilities. Any questions received and subsequent answers will be posted to https://sam.gov/ for the benefit of all interested parties.

3. An itemized budgetary estimate for a system capable of satisfying the SOURCES SOUGHT’s Required Capabilities. Itemized estimates are preferred should DMA need to adjust system specifications.

Purpose

This SOURCES SOUGHT. The Defense Media Activity outlines the Government’s requirement for the for the procurement of professional services, and commodity outlined in the scope to support all information systems supporting the DMA Web Enterprise Business (WEB.mil) component and our customers. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

https://sam.gov/

Scope

The Contractor shall provide a fully functioning best in class Web Enterprise Business operations center and other support requirements as deemed necessary by DMA and other government entities. The scope of this contract is to provide professional, technical, and business services to support all information systems supporting the DMA WEB.mil component and DMA customers. This includes all professional labor services and commodity required to execute this objective, including Cloud, software-as-a-service, Global Content Delivery Network (GCDN) labor and commodity, software subscriptions, collaborative communication platform, Learning Management System (LMS) and training, migration operations, infrastructure operations, provide security, threat log reporting, code scanning, metrics reporting, accessibility reporting, software development and maintenance, customer relations management, program management, project management, security, analysis, continual vulnerability assessments, support to service desk operations, 24/7 technical support, Risk Management Framework compliance and other legal and regulatory compliance as well as transition. Furthermore, this effort will support the reasonable growth of the GCDN.

The WEB.mil component provides hosting capability and related support (e.g., network administrators, developers, software licenses, tools, media subscriptions) to all US Department of Defense (DoD) public-facing, non-authenticated website customers and DMA customers. WEB.mil is preparing for the transition from the legacy American Forces Public Information Management System (AFPIMS) website hosting content management system (CMS) to WEB NextGen (CMS). The DoD Deputy Secretary of Defense has directed that AFPIMS be sunset by September 30, 2027 with all existing websites migrated and fully functional on WEB NextGen by then. A list of websites currently hosted by WEB.mil is located at https://www.web.dma.mil.

The Contractor shall provide labor and commodity, including product and documentation deliverables, that comply with Federal laws, regulations, and policies identified by the Task Manager and COR (e.g., DoD regulations, DoD Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs), TASKORD’s, Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, Cybersecurity, and DMA and DISA policy requirements).

Cloud Commodity and Labor

The Contractor shall provide Cloud software, infrastructure, and platform deliverables, and associated support labor as requested by the Government. Cloud commodity subscriptions must include Government administrator access to a 24 x 7 technical call center (i.e., response from customer agents on technical software, infrastructure, and platform issues and general customer support questions). The WEB.mil may use the following Cloud commodity: Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), Azure, Akamai, AWS and DISA’s Cloud.

The Contractor shall provide professional labor in migrating existing Web sites into the Cloud and new Cloud site planning, host platform architecture setup, Cloud deployment, making changes to provisioned software, infrastructure, and platform, installing patches/updates, related development, security assessments, analysis of data, reporting, and any other activities required for daily Cloud operations. The Contractor shall utilize personnel with 5 years of experience in performing these tasks and have (or acquire via partnership) Adobe Certified Partner or Adobe authorized reseller credentials for the currently used AEM to indicate expertise, unless the Government approves a different Cloud. The personnel must also have experience with Azure, Akamai, and AWS. The Contractor may propose equivalent products from a different manufacturer for Government to consider for compatibility with current capabilities, but WEB.mil utilizes IT products that have an ATO. The Contractor must previously have been awarded an information technology (IT) contract with commodity and professional labor elements valued at $30M or greater with the requirement for establishing a Cloud architecture. The Contractor shall provide program management and possibly other plans including lifecycle plan, risk management plan, Monitoring and Quality Assurance Plan. The Contractor shall also provide inputs to other plans as required (e.g., System Security Plan, Implementation Plan).

Global Content Distribution Network Distribution https://www.web.dma.mil/

The Contractor shall furnish all the necessary commodity and labor, subscriptions, software and associated products requested by the Government to provide a high performance, worldwide global content distribution network (GCDN) that will accelerate content delivery of public DoD websites to hundreds of DoD, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, and Army clients and thousands of customers while simultaneously protecting the integrity and availability of DMA WEB.mil origin infrastructure located inside the DoD Information Network (DoDIN). The Contractor shall ensure the GCDN service is available 24/7 with 99.999% uptime and provide network administration and reporting for the GCDN.

The GCDN must support the existing configurations in usage, including HTTPS delivery of all products utilizing industry standard certificate management, web application firewall to provide frontline security, caching services to reduce the load on origin servers, static content storage, enhanced domain name system (DNS) capabilities, reporting, and continual support of these services. The Government is currently using Akamai for its GCDN, but the Contractor may propose equivalent products from a different manufacturer to assess for compatibility with current capabilities. The Contractor shall provide the CDN monthly service report, GCDN status report, and security logs.

Software and Associated Products

The Contractor shall propose and procure Cloud bandwidth, storage, virtual networks, key vaults, Cloud App Services, Advanced Data Security, Advanced Threat Protection Storage, SQL databases, collaborative data archives, security centers, virtual machines, Cloud DNS, VPN Gateways, Log Analytics, Cloud Active Directory, Service Buses, and Business, Office, and Customer Support software/subscriptions, and Functions on Government request (e.g., code review software, active directory license, network monitoring license, DNS security subscription).

Hardware and Associated Products

The Contractor shall propose and procure information technology hardware and associated products to support the WEB data center on Government request. The CMS infrastructure is running at capacity and there may be a requirement to increase capacity, so the hardware required may include CPUs, network switches, and firewalls, and includes the associated training/labor (e.g., configure new server to replace an old server in infrastructure currently including Dell systems and Cisco components such as switches).

Contractor may be required to perform the installation, configuration, validation and testing, and after-action reporting of new hardware and associated products. Contractor will also relabel new equipment and update ATO documentation and diagrams to reflect the changes.

Learning Management System (LMS) and Training

The Contractor shall provide training for web hosting and associated topics to customers. This includes administrative support for the Learning Management System (LMS) as required to track and manage the training records of about 9,000 Web Enterprise Business customers/users. The Contractor shall support development of reference documents, FAQs, moderated forums, web-based and in-person courses (e.g., webinars and classroom presentations), videos, interactive courseware, content management system (CMS) inline tips, and a custom training website, maintain historical training records, user certificates, regularly update training essentials, and run analytics on training feedback.

The Contractor shall provide the WEB.mil Training Plan, CMS Training Guide, Weekly Training Report, Monthly Status Report, and Weekly Activity Report utilizing Government Task Manager and COR instructions.

Migration Operations

The Contractor shall provide migration, migration planning, site structure and taxonomy solutions, execution, and follow up to ensure complete and effective website migrations on Government request.

The Contractor shall have migration specialists with a high level of knowledge on the CMS and all associated applications. The Contractor shall have migration specialists available from 7:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Eastern Time (ET), Monday through Friday. The Contractor shall initiate, plan, execute, manage, and monitor website migration projects.

The Contractor shall provide the Website Migration Plan, Website Migration Guide, Migration Quality Control Program, Weekly Website Migration Report, Monthly Status Report, Weekly Activity Report, JIRA project for each migration project, and Website Migration SOP utilizing Government Task Manager instructions and COR guidance as required.

Infrastructure Operations

The Contractor shall manage, maintain, and improve the WEB.mil owned/managed infrastructure supporting all technologies employed to manage and deliver all DMA public websites associated with the CMS. The Contractor shall provide experienced onsite technical personnel to manage and administer all WEB.mil related systems and resources to include mission hardware, software, operating systems, networks, database administration, database development, maintenance, application support, storage, IT security services, integration services, configuration management, acquisitions support, risk management, disaster recovery, and contingency operations using best industry and DoD best practices, and perform other support tasks.

The Contractor shall provide the Test, Development & Acceptance Test Plan, Hardware Lifecycle Management Plan, COTS/GOTS Lifecycle Management Plan, Risk Management Plan, Monthly Status Report, Weekly Activity Report, Enterprise Backup SOP, Disaster Recovery Plan, COOP Plan, After Action Report, Security Plan, and compelling evidence of compliance for each Assessment Procedure (AP) in eMASS utilizing Government Task Manager instructions and COR guidance. The Contractor shall support the development and update of any and all documentation required for Risk Management Framework (RMF) utilizing WEB.mil ISSM guidance.

Software Development

The Contractor shall provide an experienced and fully functioning software management team to provide software development and management support for Web Enterprise Business owned, used, and supported CMS software and products using industry best practices. The Contractor shall also provide an experienced Section 508 software expert to review, test, validate, verify, report, and perform other tasks to ensure compliance. The Contractor shall manage, monitor, maintain, and enhance the content management system software and other products (e.g., web-based and non-web-based software such as DotNetNuke based CMS and third-party applications). The Contractor shall perform software development and management tasks such as data and information engineering, requirement definition, software design, software development, scripting functions, software maintenance, configuration management processes, source control, testing, evaluation, and quality assurance processes.

The Contractor shall provide the Project Plan, Project Management Tracking Application, Weekly Activity Report (WAR), Vulnerability Scanning Report, Monthly Status Report, Software Requirements Specification, Functional Requirements, Software Development Life-Cycle Plan, Software QA Plan, Software Test Incident Report, Software Test Summary Report, Functional Blueprint, and Use Case utilizing Government Task Manager instructions and COR guidance.

Security

The Contractor shall manage and secure the DMA WEB.mil infrastructure to ensure all Government approved Web products and support delivered by the organization are compliant with all Federal laws, DoD policies and general security best practices (e.g., 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act;

Policy Standards and Guidance - Web Enterprise Business, https://www.web.dma.mil/Policy-Guidance).

The Contractor shall support recurring cybersecurity tasks with respect to incident response, OPORD/TASKER compliance, ACAS, HBSS, VDPs, PPSM, DMZ NIPRNet Whitelist, application scanning & security, threat logs/customer access support, 8140 Workforce Improvement, POA&Ms, RAMs, and Accreditations in-support of the CMS, and any other Web Enterprise Business initiatives as required. The Contractor shall support cybersecurity inspections, and related activities. The Contractor shall also support the WEB.mil’s transition into the Zero Trust movement.

https://www.web.dma.mil/Policy-Guidance

The Contractor shall aid the ISSM in the development of security related plans, policies, and procedures, and support implementation of these mechanisms and processes. The Contractor shall provide the Monthly Status Report, Weekly Activity Report, Security Procedure Training Plan, and IA Training Certificates utilizing ISSM instructions and COR guidance. The Contractor shall also support the development and update of any and all documentation required for Risk Management Framework (RMF) utilizing ISSM instructions.

Analysis

The Contractor shall provide a software and hardware solution on WEB.mil owned or managed networks related to CMS identified by Government Task Managers capable of downloading, processing, and storing current usage levels and will possess the ability to grow. The Contractor shall provide a Web analytics service (DAP (Digital Analytics Program by GSA) or equivalent) based upon log file analysis (e.g., site sessions, page views) and JavaScript tracking using best industry standards to designated users for each web site, and other support tasks requested by Government Task Managers and as directed by the COR. The Contractor shall provide the Monthly Status Report and Weekly Activity Report utilizing Government Task Manager instructions and COR guidance.

Program and Project Management

The Contractor shall provide a Program Manager (PM) who shall be responsible for the performance for the work specified in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract. The Contractor shall manage personnel and resources to ensure completion of all tasks. The Program Manager will oversee the program's performance at a strategic level, including planning and improvement initiatives. The Contractor shall participate in planning sessions, compile customer inputs regarding DMA products, inform COR of issues, develop plans for improvement, review project documentation, and perform other related tasks as directed by the COR. The Contractor shall provide the Monthly Status Report and Weekly Activity Report utilizing COR guidance.

The Contractor shall provide a Project Manager (PM) who shall analyze project needs and assist program and management staff in coordinating and planning IT, communications, and business projects and quality assurance for DMA support activities. The Contractor shall identify work requirements, client programming needs, access, and other issues associated with the project. Based on findings, the Contractor determines and develops the recommended work schedule and budget required to achieve project goals, making recommendations. The Contractor shall provide the Monthly Status Report and Weekly Activity Report utilizing COR guidance.

Service Desk Support

The Contractor shall provide a service desk that is the single point of contact (SPOC) to answer DMA Web Enterprise Business (DMA WEB.mil) incidents for approximately 9,000 internal end-users using multiple platforms such as telephones, emails, and social media. The Contractor shall staff the service desk with qualified employees trained in preliminary diagnostics and resolution of issues relating to customer websites and related areas of operation. Typical issues include, but are not limited to, new account setup, maintenance of existing accounts, password resets, updates or deletion of roles and permissions, troubleshooting misconfigured websites, modifying website content, identifying system faults, and escalating issues appropriately.

The Contractor shall escalate and respond to issues IAW service level agreements (SLAs) and answer with sufficient detail for the Government to discern technical approach (e.g., respond within 3 hours and provide routine resolution within 8 hours). Initial response may be accomplished via auto response from DMA's Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. The Contractor shall staff the service desk 7:00 a.m.to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) Monday through Friday and 9:00 a.m.to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) Saturday through Sunday. After hours emergency on call support will be provided by the Government outside of these service desk hours. The Contractor shall provide the Service Desk Plan, Monthly Status Report and Weekly Activity Report utilizing COR guidance.

Transition

The contract transition and stabilization period will be from contract award and continue for 30 days after contract award. The incumbent Contractor will provide experienced personnel on-site during the transition period to ensure all PWS tasks are properly accomplished and ensure contract performance can commence at the end of the phase-in period without incumbent Contractor support.

The incumbent Contractor will provide the successor Contractor access to the site, equipment, material, security information/passwords, and to all technical documentation and publications, and is required to allow the successor Contractor to observe the performance (over-the-shoulder) of all required maintenance and support tasks as an on-the-job (OJT) function on a not to interfere with training and maintenance basis throughout the transition phase. The Contractor shall provide the Transition/Phase-In Plan.

Email Subscription Service

Contractor shall provide troubleshooting of email software service (GovDelivery/Granicus or equivalent) failures, provide custom reports as required, modify user accounts, notify COR and JIRA Service Desk Manager of issues, and other support tasks utilizing Government Task Manager instructions and as directed by the COR. The Contractor shall provide the Monthly Status Report and Weekly Activity Report utilizing COR guidance. The Contractor must provide deliverables that comply with Federal laws, regulations, and policies identified by the Government Task Managers and COR.

Provide Optional Services The Contractor shall provide a series of integrated optional services supporting public websites Including custom development work, creative services, search engine optimization services, sentiment analysis services, news clip services, website customer satisfaction surveys, and other services as required.

The Contractor shall provide creative services support utilizing Government Task Manager instructions and as directed by COR. The Contractor shall perform multimedia and web product development and management support tasks using industry best practices. The Contractor shall manage, monitor, maintain, and enhance systems and other products as required. Additional support and development may be required (e.g., test multimedia on Government and commercial systems to ensure no issues exist). The Contractor shall provide the Products (Multimedia and Web), Weekly Activity Report, and Monthly Status Report utilizing Government Task Manager instructions and COR guidance.

Contractor shall research, edit, create, and manage web products on web sites; design, develop, and edit multimedia products; create and revise other multimedia related products; manage web sites as content manager; and perform other support tasks identified by the Government Task Managers and as directed by the COR (e.g., researching websites; creating news content; developing multimedia, briefings, flyers, pamphlets, and posters; and managing websites). The Contractor shall provide the Products (Multimedia and Web), Weekly Activity Report, and Monthly Status Report utilizing Government Task Manager instructions and COR guidance.

The Contractor shall provide media analysis support to research, analyze, and report on news media and other information sources identified or approved by the Government Task Manager in support of DMA customers. DMA customers have requested daily and periodic news product reports to identify relevant content for public websites supported through the DMA WEB.mil's Content Management System, facilitate informed decisions on issues impacting public affairs, and share information technology trends with government organizations supported by DMA WEB.mil.

The Contractor shall provide the Monthly Status Report, Weekly Activity Report, Daily News Report, Periodic News Report, and Accessibility reports as required.

Requested Information:

a. Company’s Name, mailing address, phone number, company’s website, and e-mail of designated point(s) of contact.

b. Business Type: Based upon North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 541512, Computer Systems Design Services or contractor’s recommended NAICS. Identify the type of entity (large business, small business, small disadvantaged, woman-owned, 8(a), HUBZone, service-disabled veteran-owned, etc.).

c. Cage Code

d. Contractor’s past performance in meeting stated objectives/requirements, statement of qualifications to include information that clearly demonstrates the respondent’s capabilities, expertise and experience to perform the specific requirements contained in this SOURCES SOUGHT.

e. Contract vehicles that would be available to the Government for the procurement of the product and service, to include SAM.gov (This information is for market research only and does not preclude your company from responding to this notice.)

Response Guidelines:

Vendors who wish to respond to this should send responses via email NLT 13 January 2025 04:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (EST) to Contracting Specialist thomas.j.brown314.civ@mail.mil and Contracting Officer colette.b.jones.civ@mail.mil and Interested parties are requested to respond to this SOURCES SOUGHT with a white paper.

Submissions cannot exceed 10 pages, single-spaced, 12-point type with at least one-inch margins on 8 1/2” X 11” page size, not including any manufacturer cut sheets or system block diagrams.

Responses must specifically describe the contractor’s capability to meet the requirements outlined in this SOURCES SOUGHT.

Questions:

Questions or comments regarding this notice may be submitted via email to:

colette.b.jones.civ@mail.mil and thomas.j.brown314.civ@mail.mil. Verbal questions will NOT be accepted. Any questions received, and subsequent answers, will be posted to https://sam.gov/ for the benefit of all interested parties. All correspondence shall reference “Web Enterprise Business Support Services PWS” in the subject line of your email. The deadline to submit a question regarding this notice is 4:00 PM EST on 6 January 2025.

Disclaimer:

This SOURCES SOUGHT is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award a contract. Responses will not be considered as proposals nor will any award be made as a result of this synopsis.

All information contained in the SOURCES SOUGHT is preliminary, as well as, subject to modification and is in no way binding on the Government. FAR clause 52.215-3, “Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes”, is incorporated by reference in this SOURCES SOUGHT. The Government does not intend to pay for information received in response to this SOURCES SOUGHT.

Responders to this invitation are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this SOURCES SOUGHT. This SOURCES SOUGHT will be the basis for collecting information on capabilities available. This SOURCES SOUGHT is issued solely for information and planning purposes.

Proprietary information and trade secrets, if any, must be clearly marked on all materials. All information received in this SOURCES SOUGHT that is marked “Proprietary” will be handled accordingly. Please be mailto:thomas.j.brown314.civ@mail.mil mailto:colette.b.jones.civ@mail.mil mailto:colette.b.jones.civ@mail.mil mailto:thomas.j.brown314.civ@mail.mil https://sam.gov/ advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned nor will receipt be confirmed. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this SOURCES SOUGHT are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract.

PARTICIPATION IN THIS SOURCES SOUGHT IS STRICTLY VOLUNTARY AND FOR

PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY

THE GOVERNMENT TO PROCURE ANY ITEMS/SERVICES OR FOR THE GOVERNMENT

TO PAY FOR THE INFORMATION RECEIVED. THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT BE

RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ASSOCIATED COSTS AS A RESULT OF PROSPECTIVE OFFERORS

INTEREST, RESPONSE OR PARTICIPATION IN THIS SOURCES SOUGHT. ANY FORMAL

SOLICITATION WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT A LATER DATE. THE GOVERNMENT

RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CANCEL THIS REQUIREMENT AT ANY TIME DURING THE

ACQUISITION PROCESS.

ANY SOLICITATION RESULTING FROM THE ANALYSIS OF INFORMATION OBTAINED

WILL BE POSTED TO THE PUBLIC IN FEDERAL BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN

ACCORDANCE WITH THE FAR PART 5. HOWEVER, RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE WILL

NOT BE CONSIDERED RESPONSES TO A SOLICITATION.