Amendment_001_(USM-RFI-14-0001).pdf

VENDOR QUESTIONS

USM-RFI-14-0001

DATA MART AND DATA WAREHOUSE

FORMAL RESPONSES – GROUP I

1. Does the US Mint have existing infrastructure investments in place they would like to leverage?

i.e. Enterprise database licenses, business intelligence tools, data loading (ETL) tools, data analysis tools?

Response: No, the US Mint is looking for your recommendations for end to end technology (i.e., database, ETL tools, BI tools, etc.) and solution approach for building a data mart and data warehouse solution.

2. Can you share some idea of the size and scope of the data to be ingested?

Response: The size of data is estimated to be a maximum of 7 TB and data marts around maximum of 2 TB. The scope of data is from various business units like Sales & Marketing data – this data will be from multiple sources like COTS applications, social media, surveys, customer data, product data; similar data sources exist for Manufacturing business unit, and Financial business unit data. Financial and Manufacturing data is primarily in COTS applications.

3. Can you estimate the number and types of users of the data mart and data warehouse?

Response: The data mart is estimated to have 15 Super Users, and 35 Users; the data warehouse is estimated to have 50 Super Users, and 250 Users.

4. Is this a new requirement or there is a previous provider of this service? If so, could you provide the vendor and/or contract number.

Response: This is a new requirement.

5. Is there a specific technology that the US Mint ITD is planning on using? If not, is the RFI looking for technology suggestions or just the process and architecture required to develop a successful Data Warehouse and Data Mart solution?

Response: The US Mint has no technology preference and is looking for your technical recommendations and solution approaches which will result in a scalable, efficient, manageable Enterprise Data Warehouse and Data Mart solution which has high performance standards.

6. Is this RFI for providing a recommendation for the solution or for implementing a solution or product which has already been designated?

Response: The RFI is simply intended to obtain recommendations for the solution.

7. What database types are currently in use at the US Mint and Sales and Marketing Department?

Response: Sales & Marketing currently uses CommercialWare Direct (until the new order management system is implemented in October 2014) and the other business units use Oracle databases and MS SQL server.

8. Is this Data Warehouse intended to replace the existing separate databases? Or will those remain in place and this project is for an additional central repository?

Response: This is to potentially build an additional central repository.

9. What is the place of performance for this proposed project? Will it be approved to do the majority of the work remotely?

Response: Majority of work can be performed remotely, but remote location must be in United States of America. Contractors working remotely must meet the US Mint contractor standards as it applies to their residency and background checks. Routine Program Management and Project Management teams visit to the US Mint Headquarters will be needed for review, as well as, project management review sessions.

10. Is the USM interested in identifying small firms that can provide only sales and marketing analytic solutions or those that can provide general data warehousing and specific analytics solutions for overall data centers?

Response: At this time the US Mint is interested in small firms as well as large businesses which can provide general data warehousing and specific analytics solutions.

11. Does the US Mint have a current data warehouse?

Response: No

12. If so, what is the technology for building that warehouse? What is the size of the data warehouse? What are the sources for the data to build that warehouse?

Response: N/A

13. What does the US Mint use to generate reports, dashboards and how many reports and dashboards do you currently have?

Response: The US Mint uses the following report tools: AS400 query tool, Crystal report, and Oracle Discoverer.

14. If there is no current data warehouse, is there a preference for a particular technology?

Response: There is no preference for a particular technology.

15. What is the approximate timeframe anticipated for this impending effort?

Response: The US Mint would like to implement the data mart in FY14 and the data warehouse in FY15 or FY16. The US Mint’s fiscal year for FY14 runs from 10/01/13 through 09/30/14.

16. How many users will be accessing the pending data warehouse?

Response: Please reference Question 3.

17. Will the US Mint provide additional information on the current data mart environment?

Information that can be used to assist with responses would include: Responses: See below.

a) How many data marts currently exist? None

b) What is the size and type of data being used for reports? N/A

c) What tools are being used to provide data mart access to US Mint stakeholders? N/A

18. What are the US Mint source transactional systems (e.g., sales and marketing system (TBD), financial system, manufacturing system, etc.) that will provide the data for the data mart / data warehouse solution?

Response: The Sales and Marketing system of record is CommercialWare Direct (until the new order management system is implemented in October 2014) and the other business units use Oracle ERP.

19. What tools are available for business intelligence and data warehousing at the US Mint?

Response: None

20. What are the standards or technologies used in the current data warehouse architecture? Response: There are no current data warehouse architecture standards or technologies. Are these tools expected to be used in the new solution? N/A

21. Is there an expectation of an end-to-end solution (Business Intelligence and Analytics, Extract, Transform and Load, Quality) or just a data warehouse/mart system?

Response: End to end solution.

22. What are the expected volumes of data in terms of total data volume (not including aggregates or Indexes) and growth of the data?

Response: The size of data is estimated to be maximum of 7 TB, and individual data marts around maximum of 2 TB. Scope of data includes data for various business units like Sales and Marketing data – this data will be from multiple sources like CWDirect Order Management, CWDirect Contact Center, Social Media, Surveys; data sources for Manufacturing business unit are Maximo, Oracle Manufacturing Applications, and some custom applications like Die Information Systems, Coil Racking Systems, and data sources for Financial business unit are primarily from Oracle Financial Applications ERP modules.

23. What is the expected latency from the transactional system into the warehouse? Daily? Hourly?

Minutes?

Response: The expected latency is daily.

24. How many data sources are there? What are the data source characteristics e.g., relational database management system, social network feeds, and other structured or unstructured data?

Response: Please reference Question 22 above.

25. What are the types of users that will be expected to use the system, and how would they be classified (e.g. power users, 10 concurrent, deep analytics)? How many of each type of user are there?

Response: At this time, the Data Mart is estimated to have 15 Super Users, and 35 Users; the Data Warehouse is estimated to have 50 Super Users, and 250 Users.

26. Is the "new order management system" referenced in the RFI being implemented using a home-grown solution or commercial off the shelf software? What products/ technologies are used in this system?

Response: Commercial off the shelf, specific products and/or technologies are yet to be fully determined.

27. As part of the RFI, it appears we need to submit 2 references: Responses: See below.

a) Do they need to be Federal agency reference only or commercial okay? References may be either federal or commercial; whichever are most closely comparable.

b) When do you plan on reaching out to these references? The reason being, we can give heads up to our clients so that they know when to expect a call. An approximate timeframe would be helpful. United States Mint personnel will coordinate any calls with the respondee prior to reaching out to references.

c) Do you plan on asking any additional references as part of solicitation/RFP or would these 2 references be enough? Additional reference requirements may be included in the formal solicitation (RFP) at a later date. That is yet to be determined.

28. The RFI is looking for technical information regarding a data warehouse (DW) and a data mart (DM) solution. Would you like to see general information about our approach or should it be any product specific?

Response: The US Mint is looking to receive technical information about your suggested approach.

29. Do you plan on using a COTS product or home grown product for the final effort? What are the technologies do you plan on using – either for COTS or home grown?

Response: The United States Mint has not made a determination on this; it is seeking and open to recommendations.

30. How big will the data warehouse be – in terms of millions of records or storage in gigabytes?

This will determine what type of framework we need to propose for a successful launch.

Response: Please reference Question 22 herein.

31. It’s been mentioned in the RFI that there will be number of sources where DW should get the data from. Can you elaborate on type of source systems and their underlying technologies?

Response: Please reference Question 22 herein.

32. Who is the incumbent?

Response: N/A, there is no incumbent contractor for these services.

33. What is the size of the incumbent’s contract value in $$?

Response: N/A

34. Do you plan on putting this as a small business set aside?

Response: This acquisition is in the early planning phases; the full procurement strategy has not been determined at this time, a decision has not been made as to whether the impending solicitation will be set aside for small businesses.

35. Approximate timeframe of RFP/Solicitation?

Response: TBD, but likely late-1st Quarter or early-2nd Quarter of FY14.

36. Approximate timeframe on contract award?

Response: The United States Mint does not have an approximate timeframe for award at this time.

37. Is responding back to this RFI a mandatory for the final solicitation or RFP? In other words, do we need to respond to this RFI to be eligible for RFP participation?

Response: No, responding to the RFI is not required in order to be eligible for participation in the eventual solicitation (RFP).