STORES Modernization and FedMall SD RFI Questions.pdf

Request for Information (RFI) for Defense Logistics Agency STORES Modernization and Rationalization/

FedMall Sustainment and Development

This Request for Information (RFI) is issued to support market research in identifying sources capable of providing the system capabilities and requirements detailed in the attached draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) and subject RFI. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI 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. A response to this RFI is necessary to assist the Government in determining the potential levels of interest, adequate competition, market maturity, and technical capabilities within the Large and Small Business communities to provide the required capabilities.

NOTE: The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or reimburse any costs associated with the preparation of responses to this RFI.

Background:

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is a United States (U.S.) Department of Defense (DoD) agency that provides worldwide logistics support for the missions of the Military Departments and the Unified Combatant Commands under conditions of peace and war.

The Subsistence Total Order and Receipt Electronic System (STORES) is DLA’s platform for Class I supply:

subsistence, such as food, water, rations, and items used at a consistent rate by DoD and Non-DoD customers.

STORES currently has over 500 catalogs where customers can order a variety of food and beverage items, including fresh produce, package and canned goods, MREs, and operational rations. STORES provides interfaces among the commercial vendors, DLA Troop Support - Philadelphia, the finance and accounting system of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), and the Military Services’ retail food management systems. STORES goal is to get the right catalog items at the proper price at the right time to customers so they can place their order and receive delivery in a timely manner (usually within two to four days of ordering). STORES consists of 5439 geographical ordering points and has 2542 active users worldwide. Due to the breadth and depth of the STORES mission, the STORES application is required to be accessible 24/7. It is the Government’s intention to modernize and rationalize the STORES application onto the FedMall application, after which point sustainment and development for the STORES application will be on the FedMall platform.

DLA has developed a single Government Electronic Mall (i.e., FedMall) to provide one-stop shopping for customers. The system is configured on a state-of-the-art, Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) e-commerce platform comprised of a hybrid solution of IBM e-commerce suite of applications and Amazon microservice applications: HCL Commerce (runs FedMall front end shopping environment and custom applications), FedMall Enhanced Data System (FEDS) (Manages supplier, user, and program data for FedMall), Application Connect Enterprise (ACE) (interfaces FedMall with internal and external systems/components), FedMall Supplier Portal (runs the environment for suppliers to register, upload and manage catalogs, and view purchase orders), and FedMall Custom Utilities. FedMall is virtualized using RHEL 8, AWS EKS, and other AWS services to meet current and future system needs. The program is broken up into three tiers: application, database, and a web DMZ of servers clustered behind load balancers. There are approximately 32 servers and an EKS Cluster. All operating environments are hosted in Amazon Web Services (AWS) West GovCloud in the Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment (PIEE).

Technical contractor support is required to support the modernization and rationalization of STORES onto the FedMall Platform, as well as development and sustainment of FedMall. The program components itemized below require expertise to design, develop and then monitor the value of capabilities per agency demands, while supporting the subsequent management of the FedMall platform to ensure quality, operational capability development, delivery and sustained health and availability of the overall platform. Additionally, technical contractor support is required to ensure development, deployment, process optimization and operations of applications align with best practice development methodologies, technical governance and cybersecurity best practices.

Objective:

The purpose of this RFI is to elicit information in support of Defense Logistics Agency FedMall Sustainment and Development combined with STORES modernization and rationalization to determine which vendor has sufficient expertise in e-commerce modernization, rationalization, and sustainment projects.

Place of Performance:

The primary place of performance will be at the contractor’s place of performance and or Off-Site. Personnel shall be available to periodically support meetings at HQ DLA (Fort Belvoir, VA), Troop Support (Philadelphia, PA) or commercial spaces, as applicable.

Technical Requirements:

See attached draft PWS.

RFI Response Assessment:

Information provided in response to this RFI will be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for determining how to proceed in the acquisition process. 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. Specific plans will be communicated at a later date.

To assist the contracting office in making a determination regarding the level of participation by small business in any subsequent procurement that may result from this RFI, you are encouraged to provide information regarding your plans to use joint venturing (JV), partnering or consortiums to meet each of the requirement areas contained herein. You may provide information on how you would envision your company's areas of expertise and those of any proposed JV/partnering/consortium would be combined to meet the specific requirements contained in this

RFI.

RFI Instructions:

Responses to this RFI must not exceed 30 pages single-sided with text no smaller than 10 point; however, text included in graphics, tables, and figures can be no smaller than 9 point. The cover page, cover letter, and table of contents are not included in the total page count. The submissions must be in sufficient detail and clarity to provide the information needed to assess your company’s ability to provide a solution.

Responses are due to the Contract Specialist (Whitney Saint-Fleur) and Contracting Officer (Peter D’Innocenzo) via email at whitney.saint-fleur@dla.mil and peter.dinnocenzo@dla.mil no later than August 23, 2024 at 3:00 PM EST.

RFI responses must conform to the format below and provide the following information. When responding to the below questions, please do so in essay form.

● Section 1 - Cover Letter. The cover letter must include the following information:

● Company name

● Company business size with socioeconomic classification based on North American Industry Classification Code.

● Company point of contact and contact information (name, address, phone number, email address, and fax number). NOTE: If more than one solution is proposed from a team of providers, all company information should be presented (name, size, etc.).

● Section 2 - Market Research Questions.

Previous E-Commerce Experience:

1. Describe your company’s experience with e-commerce Platforms, Qlik and ServiceNow. Include in your detailed response the number of years of experience implementing the different products. Also include the volume of e-commerce users, number of transactions, and value of annual sales within the solution.

2. Describe your company’s experience with developing strategies to use analytics capability to capture and display metrics/data related to KPI monitoring and value realization.

3. Describe your company’s experience with a major e-commerce modernization or rationalization and business process re-engineering. Ensure your detailed response outlines and demonstrates how you will satisfy the PWS objectives, system capabilities, and requirements required. Include your three largest clients (Commercial, Department of Defense and U.S. Public Sector).

4. Has your company led an implementation of an e-commerce modernization or rationalization for a federal agency that went live? If yes, provide a summary of the project. Provide examples of your company’s past experience.

5. Describe your company’s experience leading development activities as part of an Agile scrum team for a technical implementation.

6. Explain your company’s experience in handling customizations. What steps have you employed to minimize customization requests. How have you handled ongoing maintenance and sustainment of applications while considering customization thresholds and technical debt.

7. Describe your company’s experience in migrating a database, either in a modernization or other project. Ensure your response outlines and demonstrates how you would migrate a database with disparate data (catalog data and user order history, for example) from a legacy system to modernized solution with multiple databases.

Development and Risk:

8. Describe the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) methodologies (e.g. Agile, Waterfall, Spiral, etc.) you would recommend to execute the requirements.

9. Describe your company’s experience using your preferred SDLC methodologies in large Federal Agency modernization and/or transformation programs.

10. Describe your company’s approach to Risk Management in a major modernization or rationalization.

Misc

11. What are the major labor categories you would leverage and estimated hours needed to complete the type of requirements in this PWS?

12. How long do you think it would take to deliver a Minimal Viable Product for the STORES Modernization, given the requirements provided?

13. What, if anything, would you change regarding the chosen technical approach?

Deployment Questions

14. Describe your company’s experience in planning and executing a solution deployment to a CONUS/OCONUS user base.

15. Describe your company’s experience developing and delivering training materials for a new solution. This includes experience in developing online training materials and delivering remote classroom training as well as videos/job aids for end users?

RFI Instructions: