Sources Sought IRS 01-19-23.pdf

INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE (IRS)

Contact Center Support Division-Strategic Plans and Metrics Framework Support Sources Sought # 2032H5-23-N-00001

This is a Sources Sought Synopsis Only. This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes - it does not constitute a Request for Quote (RFQ)/Invitation for Bid (IFB)/Request for Proposal (RFP). This notice does not commit the U.S. Government to contract for any supplies or services. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all small business categories to include all socio-economic groups.

Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, Small Business, Veteran-Owned, Small Business, small business sources; HUB Zone 8(a), Women-Owned, or small disadvantaged business concerns.

Please be advised that the acquisition strategy and any set-aside decisions may be made based on the information provided in response to this Sources Sought Synopsis.

The U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this notice. Submittals will not be returned to the responder. Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future RFQ or IFB or RFP, if any is issued. To the fullest extent possible, the governments intent is to solicit this requirement utilizing a Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) or Federal Supply Schedule (FSS). In your response, please advise which Government Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) or Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) you are under.

Additionally, please note that the Internal Revenue Service has also posted a Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought (RFQ ID: RFQ1603416) to eBuy https://www.ebuy.gsa.gov/ebuy/buyer/rfqdetail/RFQ1603416?qc=0 to seek information from qualified GSA schedule contractors.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to procure services to provide contractor support to define strategic metrics for managing operations of its contact center infrastructure; perform market research and independent verification and validations (IV&Vs); technology demonstrations, support major contact center initiatives, and support the development and management of the Contact Center Environment (CCE) Strategic Plan in accordance with the attached draft Performance Work Statement (PWS).

The anticipated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes are/is: 541611, Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services, with a Business Size standard of $16.5M.

Capability Statement

Interested parties having the required capabilities necessary to meet the requirements described herein should submit a capability statement addressing the following:

Item #1. Company name, address, telephone number, a point of contact with email address and Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number. Indicate business size status for the NAICS Codes identified in this document. If applicable, please provide the socio-economic group status.

https://www.ebuy.gsa.gov/ebuy/buyer/rfqdetail/RFQ1603416?qc=0

Item #2. Please describe in detail how you would fulfill the requirements of the attached draft Performance Work Statement (PWS).

Item #3. Describe your experience for the following key services:

a. Acquisition Support

b. Spend Management and Invoice Validation & Verification (IV&V).

c. Technical Advisory and Engineering involving analysis of new technologies, analysis of current network infrastructure, and a lab environment for prototyping.

d. Project Management Office (PMO) and Enterprise Life Cycle (ELC) activities

Describe your experience for the following key services:

Item #4. Network Modeling and Simulation Lab

a. Furnishing and maintaining a lab environment that permits periodic testing of new services, technologies, and architectures in a conflict-free network.

b. Developing network models utilizing multiple services, technologies, and architectures; use simulated traffic and workloads to determine the impact/feasibility to the Government.

c. Demonstrating use cases for new technologies, including Software Defined Networking (SDN) / Network Function Virtualization (NFV).

d. Holding onsite demonstrations and testing, as necessary, to aid in planning, decision making and strategy development.

Item #5. Proof of Concept / Piloting

a. Coordinating a Proof of Concept in a lab environment, either within or outside a government environment.

b. Assisting in the process of selection, architectural development, deployments, and test/use cases, including metrics captured to validate and obtain concurrence on Proof of Concepts/Pilots.

c. Coordinating Pilots for new services being deployed within an enterprise environment, determining Pilot requirements (resources, locations, and government assets).

d. Developing and maintaining a pilot schedule; coordinating all Pilot activities with stakeholder groups (field and network operations).

e. Documenting the outcome of all Pilots, determining feasibility and interoperability within the enterprise environment.

f. Completing testing, evaluation, and feasibility analysis.

g. Collaborating with Government resources to facilitate design engineering changes as required in a call center environment.

Item #6. Describe your experience with Multi- or Omni-Channel integration with Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise (UCCE).

a. Describe your experience with eGain cloud integration with premise-based Cisco UCCE.

b. Describe your experience with Natural Language Understanding/Natural Language Processing- NLU/NLP integration using Nuance MIX, Google Dialogflow, Amazon Lex, IBM Watson, and other cloud-based NLU/NLP Chatbot platforms. Please provide details related to the planning, architecture or development processes utilized for Cisco Contact Center Artificial Intelligence (CCAI) or Application Programming Interface (API) integrations.

c. Describe your experience integrating Agent Assist functionality into Cisco Finesse

Item #7. Describe your experience with Contact Recording and Speech Analytics integration with IP-based Contact Centers, including Cisco UCCE.

a. Describe your experience with Extended Media Forking (XMF), Session Initiation Protocol Recording (SIPREC), or other integration methods between Cisco CUBEs and Verint Impact 360.

Item #8. Describe your experience successfully planning migrations to Skill-Based Routing within large Contact Center Environments.

Item #9. Describe your experience developing Security, Privacy, and Section 508 documentation for Contact Center Environment integrations with FedRamp Medium and High Cloud-based platforms/applications (Azure, AWS, Google, Oracle).

Item #10. Describe your experience of sizing/capacity management planning and tracking in large multi-site VoIP/SIP deployments.

Item #11. Describe your experience evaluating, sizing, and deploying Contact Center Reporting tools/metrics (Cisco Unified Intelligence Center (CUIC), Live Data, Aceyus).

Item #12. Describe your experience successfully integrating 3rd Party Agent administration tools into Cisco UCCE.

Item #13. Describe your experience with Infrastructure Monitoring Tool integration into Contact Center Environments.

a. Describe your experience with Riverbed Tool Suites (Aternity, etc.).

b. Describe your experience with SPLUNK integration.

Item #14. Address what elements of work would be performed by the prime, joint venture or teaming arrangement and which elements would be performed by subcontractors.

Item #15. A summary of the company’s relevant experience with related work; to include a minimum of three references in providing the same or similar services as those required in the attached draft PWS during the past three years, including any on-going contracts. Include contracting activities/agencies, contract numbers, contract value, contract period of performance, whether your company served as a prime contractor or subcontractor, and a point of contact (name, email address and telephone number) at the activity who can verify the information you are providing.

Item #16. Recommendations to improve the approach/specifications of the draft PWS to acquire the identified items/services

Please submit your response in Microsoft Word or PDF format. Information should not exceed six (6) one-sided 8 ½ x 11 pages, with one-inch margins, and font no smaller than 12 points. A cover page and an executive summary may be included but is not required however if submitted, the cover page and executive summary will not count towards the total page limit. Any interested vendor capable of providing the required services is requested to submit the information required in items 1-16 to Lawrence.a.blandjr@irs.gov, and, helen.e.tidwell-zaldana@irs.gov no later than 12:00 a.m. Eastern time on 27 January 2023. Please reference Sources Sought # 2032H5-23-N-00001 in subject line of your correspondence mailto:Lawrence.a.blandjr@irs.gov mailto:helen.e.tidwell-zaldana@irs.gov mailto:helen.e.tidwell-zaldana@irs.gov