VACO IT DSS Draft PWS.docx

VACO IT Tier II Desktop Support Services

VA-24-00007087

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS)

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

Office of Information & Technology End User Services

VACO IT Tier II Desktop Support Services

Date: January 30, 2024

VA-24-00007087

PWS Version Number: DRAFT

Contents

BACKGROUND

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Veterans Affairs Central Office (VACO) Campus, Information Technology (IT) Support Service (ITSS) strives to provide high-quality, effective, and efficient IT services to those responsible for providing care to the Veterans at the point-of-care, as well as throughout all the points of the Veterans’ health care in an effective, timely, and compassionate manner. VA depends on Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) systems to meet mission goals of providing benefits and services to Veterans of the United States.

Additionally, VACO ITSS (hereinafter referred to as VACO) provides IT Tier II administration support to approximately 10,000 devices located throughout 12 sites within the National Capital Region (NCR) and national remote locations. The sites within the NCR are in Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS

In the performance of the tasks associated with this Performance Work Statement, the Contractor shall comply with the following (this is not a firm and final list and will be adjusted as the PWS matures):

1. 44 U.S.C. § 3541-3549, “Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002”

2. “Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014”

3. Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) Publication 140-2, “Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules”

4. FIPS Pub 199. “Standards for Security Categorization of Federal Information and Information Systems,” February 2004

5. FIPS Pub 200, “Minimum Security Requirements for Federal Information and Information Systems,” March 2006

6. FIPS Pub 201-2, “Personal Identity Verification of Federal Employees and Contractors,” August 2013

7. 10 U.S.C. § 2224, "Defense Information Assurance Program"

8. 5 U.S.C. § 552a, as amended, “The Privacy Act of 1974”

9. Public Law 109-461, Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Information Technology Act of 2006, Title IX, Information Security Matters

10. 42 U.S.C. § 2000d “Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964”

11. VA Directive 0710, “Personnel Security and Suitability Program,” June 4, 2010, https://www.va.gov/vapubs/index.cfm

12. VA Handbook 0710, “Personnel Security and Suitability Program,” May 2, 2016, https://www.va.gov/vapubs/index.cfm

13. VA Directive and Handbook 6102, “Internet/Intranet Services,” August 5, 2019

14. 36 C.F.R. Part 1194 “Information and Communication Technology Standards and Guidelines,” January 18, 2017

15. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, “Managing Federal Information as a Strategic Resource,” July 28, 2016

16. 32 C.F.R. Part 199, “Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS)”

17. NIST SP 800-66 Rev. 1, “An Introductory Resource Guide for Implementing the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule,” October 2008

18. Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d), as amended, January 18, 2017

19. Homeland Security Presidential Directive (12) (HSPD-12), August 27, 2004

20. VA Directive 6500, “VA Cybersecurity Program,” February 24, 2021

21. VA Handbook 6500, “Risk Management Framework for VA Information Systems VA Information Security Program,” February 24, 2021

22. VA Handbook 6500.2, “Management of Breaches Involving Sensitive Personal Information (SPI),” March 12, 2019

23. VA Handbook 6500.5, “Incorporating Security and Privacy into the System Development Lifecycle,” March 22, 2010

24. VA Handbook 6500.6, “Contract Security,” March 12, 2010

25. VA Handbook 6500.8, “Information System Contingency Planning,” April 6, 2011

26. VA Handbook 6500.10, “Mobile Device Security Policy,” February 15, 2018

27. VA Handbook 6500.11, “VA Firewall Configuration,” August 22, 2017

28. OIT Process Asset Library (PAL), https://www.va.gov/process/ . Reference Process Maps at https://www.va.gov/process/maps.asp and Artifact templates at https://www.va.gov/process/artifacts.asp

29. One-VA Technical Reference Model (TRM) (reference at https://www.va.gov/trm/TRMHomePage.aspx)

30. VA Directive 6508, “Implementation of Privacy Threshold Analysis and Privacy Impact Assessment,” October 15, 2014

31. VA Handbook 6508.1, “Procedures for Privacy Threshold Analysis and Privacy Impact Assessment,” July 30, 2015

32. VA Handbook 6510, “VA Identity and Access Management,” January 15, 2016

33. VA Directive and Handbook 6513, “Secure External Connections,” October 12, 2017

34. VA Directive 6300, “Records and Information Management,” September 21, 2018

35. VA Handbook, 6300.1, “Records Management Procedures,“ March 24, 2010

36. NIST SP 800-37 Rev 2, “Risk Management Framework for Information Systems and Organizations: A System Life Cycle Approach for Security and Privacy,” December 2018

37. NIST SP 800-53 Rev. 5, “Security and Privacy Controls for Federal Information Systems and Organizations,” September 23, 2020 (includes updates as of 12/10/2020)

38. VA Directive 0735, “Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) Program,” October 26, 2015

39. VA Handbook 0735, “Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) Program,” March 24, 2014

40. OMB Memorandum 05-24, “Implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12 – Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors,” August 5, 2005

41. OMB Memorandum M-19-17, “Enabling Mission Delivery Through Improved Identity, Credential, and Access Management,” May 21, 2019

42. OMB Memorandum, “Guidance for Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12 Implementation,” May 23, 2008

43. Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management (FICAM) Roadmap and Implementation Guidance, December 2, 2011, (NOTE: Part A of the FICAM Roadmap and Implementation Guidance, v2.0, was replaced in 2015 with an updated Architecture (https://arch.idmanagement.gov/#what-is-the-ficam-architecture)

44. NIST SP 800-116 Rev 1, “Guidelines for the Use of Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Credentials in Facility Access,“ June 2018

45. NIST SP 800-63-3, 800-63A, 800-63B, 800-63C, “Digital Identity Guidelines,” updated March 02, 2020

46. NIST SP 800-157, “Guidelines for Derived PIV Credentials,” December 2014

47. NIST SP 800-164, “Guidelines on Hardware-Rooted Security in Mobile Devices (Draft),” October 2012

48. Draft National Institute of Standards and Technology Interagency Report (NISTIR) 7981, “Mobile, PIV, and Authentication,” March 2014

49. VA Memorandum, VAIQ #7100147, “Continued Implementation of Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12),” April 29, 2011 (reference https://www.voa.va.gov/documentlistpublic.aspx?NodeID=514)

50. IAM Identity Management Business Requirements Guidance document, May 2013, (reference Enterprise Architecture Section, PIV/IAM (reference https://www.voa.va.gov/documentlistpublic.aspx?NodeID=514)

51. VA Memorandum “Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Logical Access Policy Clarification,” July 17, 2019, https://www.voa.va.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DocumentID=4896

52. Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) 3.0 Core Guidance Documents, https://www.cisa.gov/publication/tic-30-core-guidance-documents

53. OMB Memorandum M-19-26, “Update to the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Initiative,” September 12, 2019

54. OMB Memorandum M-08-23, “Securing the Federal Government’s Domain Name System Infrastructure,” August 22, 2008

55. Sections 524 and 525 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, (Public Law 110–140), December 19, 2007

56. Section 104 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, (Public Law 109–58), August 8, 2005

57. Executive Order 13834, “Efficient Federal Operations,” dated May 17, 2018

58. Executive Order 13221, “Energy-Efficient Standby Power Devices,” August 2, 2001

59. VA Directive 0058, “VA Green Purchasing Program,” July 19, 2013

60. VA Handbook 0058, “VA Green Purchasing Program,” July 19, 2013

61. Office of Information Security (OIS) VAIQ #7424808 Memorandum, “Remote Access,” January 15, 2014, https://www.voa.va.gov/DocumentListPublic.aspx?NodeId=28

62. Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996, 40 U.S.C. §11101 and §11103

63. “Veteran Focused Integration Process (VIP) Guide 4.0,” January 2021, https://www.voa.va.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DocumentID=4371

64. VA Memorandum “Proper Use of Email and Other Messaging Services,” January 2, 2018, https://www.voa.va.gov/DocumentListPublic.aspx?NodeId=28

65. “DevSecOps Product Line Management Playbook” version 2.0, May 2021, https://www.voa.va.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DocumentID=4946

66. NIST SP 500-267B Revision 1, “USGv6 Profile,” November 2020

67. OMB Memorandum M-21-07, “Completing the Transition to Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6),” November 19, 2020

68. Social Security Number (SSN) Fraud Prevention Act of 2017

69. Section 240 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) 2018, March 23, 2018

70. Enterprise Service Desk (SD) Operations Procedures

71. Automated Notification Report Procedures

72. New Onboarding Data Collection Template

73. Administrative SD On-Boarding Master Template

74. Knowledge Document Publishing Standards

75. Knowledge Manager Roles and Responsibilities

76. SLR 2.4 Enterprise Service Desk

77. VA Directive 6102

SCOPE OF WORK

The Contractor shall provide services and support for the full range of IT functions to support work that is performed by the VACO Help Desk/Desktop that supports both on-site and remote VA customers. The scope of the work to be performed under this conract encompasses providing deskside technical, remote technical, and operational user support; deskside service support for both Windows and Apple operating systems for an estimated 10,000 onsite/remote devices. These devices are distributed to customers within the VACO Campus Sites located throughout the NCR and national remote locations. The exception to this would be services for Senior Executives (“white glove” service described in Section 5.3 and 5.3.3). Tier II deskside technical and operational user support is assigned by the Enterprise Service Desk (ESD).

The Contractor shall provide the necessary Tier II IT services to support the overall availability and functionality of the VA work environment. These requirements include supporting the full suite of Microsoft applications, performing standard network setup at the users’ level, learning new technologies quickly, being customer oriented and able to provide direct Tier II deskside support and training to users.

CONTRACT TYPE

The effort shall be proposed on a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) basis.

PERFORMANCE DETAILS

PERFORMANCE PERIOD

The Period of Performance (PoP) shall be 12 months from date of award, with four 12-month option periods.

PLACE OF PERFORMANCE

Efforts under this contract shall be performed in VA facilities in the Washington metropolitan area, detailed below. During periods of physical office closures due to inclement weather or other unforeseen events, the Contractor staff shall provide seamless remote IT support to VA Staff who are teleworking.

The Contractor is permitted to work remotely during periods of emergencies, physical office closures due to inclement weather or other unforeseen events. Any remote work requests by the Contractor staff for weather (non-closure of office) or other reasons will be authorized by the Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) assigned to this contract on a case-by-case basis.

The Contractor shall provide on-site IT support to the 12 VACO Campus sites listed below. VACO Campus locations may change in the future; however, new locations will not exceed a 50-mile radius of the NCR.

1. VACO-Headquarters Locations:

a. 810 Vermont Ave., N.W. Washington, D.C. (“VACO”)

b. 811 Vermont Ave, N.W. Washington, D.C. (“VACO”)

c. 1575 I. Street, N.W.

2. VACO-Area West:

a. 1722 I. Street, N.W. Washington, DC.

b. 1800 G. Street, N.W.

3. VACO-Area East:

a. 1100 First Street N.E. Washington, DC

b. 801 I. Street, N.W. (Washington, DC “TechWorld”)

c. 425 I. Street, N.W. Washington, DC

d. Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC

e. Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC

4. VACO – Virginia:

a. 1700 N. Moore Street, Suite 2300 Rosslyn, VA

5. VACO – Maryland:

a. 7100 Old Landover Road, Landover, MD

TRAVEL

The Government anticipates only local travel (the local area which is defined as the NCR and VACO locations identified in Section 4.2) to perform the tasks associated with the effort, as well as to attend program-related meetings or conferences throughout the PoP. Any associated travel costs will not be directly reimbursed by the Government.

HOURS OF CONTRACTOR OPERATIONS

The Contractor shall provide services on a staggered shift basis Monday through Friday during the hours of 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM with the core hours of 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM local time. Extended hours of support may be required as defined in Section 5.4 below. The Contractor shall provide an adequate number of technical resources as the Contractor deems necessary to perform the tasks outlined below.

SPECIFIC TASKS AND DELIVERABLES

The Contractor shall perform the following:

VACO requires a variety of specialized engineering services to support delivery of IT technical services to its customers. The IT services required by VA require various levels of skillsets and subject matter expertise depending on task complexity. The VACO IT environment is primarily based on Microsoft (MS)/Intel Operating Systems (OS) and Apple Macintosh OS (macOS) distributed computing infrastructure, both server and desktop. VACO IT utilizes MS Office applications basic networking protocols, network printers, as well as multiple software applications such as Adobe DC, Blackboard, Microsoft SharePoint, MS Office (365), MS Visio, MS Project, MS Access, and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). During the life of the contract, the Contractor shall provide support for the latest versions of existing IT equipment and products as deployed by VACO.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

CONTRACTOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN

The Contractor shall deliver a Contractor Project Management Plan (CPMP) that lays out the Contractor’s approach, timeline and tools to be used in execution of this contract effort. The CPMP should take the form of both a narrative and graphic format that displays the schedule, milestones, risks and resource support. The CPMP shall also include how the Contractor shall coordinate and execute planned, routine, and ad hoc data collection reporting requests as identified within the PWS. The initial baseline CPMP shall be concurred upon and updated in accordance with steps 1 thru 4 of this section. The Contractor shall update and maintain the VA PM approved CPMP throughout the PoP.

The CPMP shall also describe how the Contractor will implement the following activities:

1. Coordinate with VA staff to provide and/or obtain needed information for day-to-day operations.

2. Ensure Contractor staffing to provide required coverage.

3. Ensure Contractor staff is trained and oriented on VACO IT Support Service processes within four (4) weeks of being assigned.

4. Ensure Contractor staff certifications and skill sets are maintained to current technology platforms supported at VA as indicated in paragraph 5.3 of this PWS. Verification of certifications shall be provided to the VA PM.

Deliverable:

A. Contractor Project Management Plan

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

In addition to the Monthly Progress Report, the Contractor shall also provide a Weekly Operational Report, an Annual Operational Report and VA Senior Leadership After Hour Report. The Contractor shall submit status updates detailing work performed as part of the Weekly Operational Report. The Government will use the Weekly Operational Report, Annual Operational Summary Report and the Senior Leadership After Hour Report as a basis for reviewing Contractor performance in the execution of tasks in this contract effort. The Weekly Operational Report shall also serve as a baseline for reviewing project execution as well as schedule performance. The Contractor will utilize data from VA’s Service Now (SNOW) and provide the following reports (Weekly Operational Report, Annual Operational Report and the Senior Leadership After Hours Report) for 100% of all VACO Helpdesk Tickets.

The Weekly Operational Report shall cover all work completed during the reporting period and work planned for the subsequent reporting period. The report shall also identify any problems/issues that arose and a description of how the problems/issues were resolved. If problems have not been completely resolved, the Contractor shall provide an explanation including its plan and timeframe for resolving the issue. The Contractor shall monitor performance against the CPMP and report any deviations. The Contractor shall keep in communication with the VA PM and COR accordingly so that issues that arise are transparent to both parties to prevent escalation of outstanding issues.

The Weekly Operational Report shall include:

a. A description of the work performed during the reporting period, broken down by each required task;

b. A detailed report of activities, accomplishments, and risk mitigation actions undertaken during the reporting period;

c. A list of activities planned for the next reporting period as well as all deliverables (both planned and actual);

d. A copy of the Weekly Service Desk Request Report detailed in section 5.3

e. Lessons Learned (e.g., Problem Identification, issues or delays, any corrective actions taken); and

f. A list of the deliverables submitted during the reporting period.

The Annual Operational Report shall include a summary of all activities from the Weekly Operational Report as well as:

a. Category 1 (Standard Tickets)

1. Ticket Priority

2. Number of Tickets

3. Percentage that was resolved in allowed time

b. Category 2 (Senior Leadership Tickets)

1. Ticket Priority

2. Number of Tickets

3. Percentage Resolved with timeframes stated Response Time Interval Table 1

c. Category 3 (Change Management, Maintenance and Patching)

1. Ticket Priority

2. Number of Tickets

Deliverables:

A. Monthly Progress Report B. Weekly Operational Report C. Annual Operational Report

TECHNICAL KICKOFF MEETING

A technical kickoff meeting shall be held within 10 days after contract award. The Contractor shall coordinate the date, time, and location (can be virtual) with the Contracting Officer (CO), as the Post-Award Conference Chairperson, the VA PM, as the Co-Chairperson, the Contract Specialist (CS), and the COR. The Contractor shall provide a draft agenda to the CO and VA PM at least five (5) calendar days prior to the meeting. Upon Government approval of a final agenda, the Contractor shall distribute to all meeting attendees. During the kickoff-meeting, the Contractor shall present, for review and approval by the Government, the details of the intended approach, work plan, and project schedule for each effort via a Microsoft Office PowerPoint presentation. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Contractor shall update the presentation with a final slide entitled “Summary Report” which shall include notes on any major issues, agreements, or disagreements discussed during the kickoff meeting and the following statement “As the Post-Award Conference Chairperson, I have reviewed the entirety of this presentation and assert that it is an accurate representation and summary of the discussions held during the Technical Kickoff Meeting for the VACO IT Tier II Desktop Support Services.” The Contractor shall submit the final updated presentation, Final VACO IT Tier II Desktop Support Services Plan, to the CO for review and signature within three (3) calendar days after the meeting. The Contractor shall also work with the CS, the Government’s designated note taker, to prepare and distribute the meeting minutes of the kickoff meeting to the CO, COR, and all attendees within three (3) calendar days after the meeting. The Contractor shall obtain concurrence from the CS on the content of the meeting minutes prior to distribution of the document.

Deliverables:

A. Final VACO IT Tier II Desktop Support Services Plan

BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSIS AND IMPROVEMENT SUPPORT

The Contractor shall perform analysis, document findings of existing processes, and provide recommendations for improvement of processes and service delivery standards to VACO Operations leadership. The Contractor shall:

1. Perform analysis of VACO Operations processes to identify best practices to improve IT services.

2. Use VA’s current SNOW to extract Helpdesk Ticket data and provide Executive Level Dashboard Reports using MS Excel or other pictorial representation.

3. Coordinate with VACO Operations leadership to develop and provide Governance Process Documentation for six separate technical entities of support within VACO to track and coordinate improvements with Field Operations and Service Delivery & Engineering Governance. These entities include Desktop Support, Asset Management, VOIP, VTC, Network, and Wireless.

4. Perform a process inventory to document all VACO “As-Is” processes and provide the Process Inventory Documentation. Deliver the “As-Is” Process VISIO Documentation to include all VACO “As-Is” processes mapped out in VISIO Diagrams.

5. Evaluate “As-Is” processes and collaborate with VACO operations leadership to determine service improvement processes. Provide Recommendations for “To-Be” Processes.

6. Develop and provide IT Industry Best Practices/Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Metrics on “To-Be” Processes.

7. Develop standards for IT service delivery and customer experience satisfaction in accordance with ITIL, VACO, Field Operations, and End User Operations guidance.

8. Randomly gather customer IT service delivery satisfaction data via an approved vendor or VA-developed survey tool to evaluate the current state VACO customer experience satisfaction on a quarterly basis.

9. The Contractor shall provide the current state of customer satisfaction and collaborate with VACO leadership to develop recommendations for service delivery and customer experience satisfaction improvement. The Contractor shall provide a Quarterly Customer Satisfaction Report that shall include the statistics of customer satisfaction, conclusions, and recommendations.

Deliverables:

A. Governance Process Documentation B. Process Inventory Documentation C. As-Is Process VISIO Documentation D. Recommendations for To-Be Processes E. Metrics on IT Best Practices/ITIL F. Quarterly Customer Satisfaction Report

DAILY SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION SUPPORT

The Contractor shall provide deskside services by performing installation, configuration, maintenance, and troubleshooting on VACO personal desktop computers (Windows operating system), MAC computers (Apple operating system), laptops, and peripherals such as printers, monitors, and scanners. The Contractor shall support all VACO Campus Customers with respect to the computer equipment and the software installed on their systems, making sure that the appropriate software functions properly in VACO's environment. During the life of the contract, the Contractor shall provide support for latest versions of existing IT applications, IT equipment and products as they are deployed by VACO. This support includes providing technical support for all IT equipment including computers, laptops, projectors, on a continual basis. The VACO Team Leader will provide an orientation for the Contractor on the existing procedures.

Currently, VACO has approximately 10,000 Customers located in VACO Campus buildings in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, Maryland, Virginia, and national remote locations. The VACO Campus locations are within 50-miles of VA Headquarters at 810 Vermont Ave., NW, Washington, DC. There are approximately 2,000 remote Customers. The Contractor shall support VACO Customers in the current and future VACO campus locations. The number of customers requiring support is expected to remain constant throughout the life of the contract.

The Contractor shall provide services Monday through Friday during the hours of 6:00 AM to 8:00 PM. The core hours of operations for Customers both on site and remote are 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM. From 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, the Contractor shall provide a minimum of two (2) staffing resources available to support any tickets that are urgent to be addressed during these two timeframes. Extended hours of support may be required as defined in Section 5.3.3. The Contractor shall provide an adequate number of technical resources as the Contractor deems necessary to perform the tasks outlined below.

In seeking assistance, submission of a request by the VACO Customers to ESD will precede Contractor provision of support. Prior to approaching the Contractor resource, a request ticket will be placed to the ESD via phone or the YourIT Service Portal icon on the desktop by the requestor, and proof of submission provided by the VACO employee to the Contractor resource. This will aid the Contractor’s technicians in maintaining order for services and tracking of assignments. Senior Executives shall be provided “white glove” service on-site and/or remotely, as detailed in Section 5.3.3.

In support of its customer base, the VACO support, currently includes 18 VA staff and 19 Contractors, and receives approximately 27,000 desk-side service calls per year. Approximately three percent (3%) of the calls are for MAC systems. SNOW is used to record and track trouble tickets. The Contractor shall process approximately 7,800 Service Now tickets per each 12-month period of performance.

The Contractor shall prepare and provide a Weekly Service Desk Request Report, and Annual Service Desk Request Report (by fiscal year) detailing the total tickets. Reports shall include: Total Tickets Created, Total Closed, Total Still Open, and Total Percentage closure rate. These reports shall be part of the Weekly and Annual Operational Reports as defined in Section 5.1.2 of this document.

Working within VACO’s IT environment, the Contractor shall perform a variety of deskside service support functions, including installation, configuration, maintenance and troubleshooting on VACO desktop computers (Windows operating systems) and Mac computers (macOS Monterey), laptops and peripherals such as printers, monitors and scanners for approximately 10,000 VACO Customers. The Contractor shall support all VACO Campus Customers’ computer equipment and software installed on their systems, making sure that the appropriate software is installed and functions properly in VACO's environment. VACO senior technicians will provide an orientation for the Contractor PM on the existing procedures and thereafter, the Contractor PM will be responsible to train/brief their employees. In addition, the Contractor shall perform device deployment and inventory lifecycle responsibilities.

Currently, there are approximately 3,500 Desktop PCs, 200 Macs, 8,000 laptops, and 615 Virtual Machine Desktops, which the ITSS team troubleshoots and manages. These systems are standardized desktops/laptops with MS Windows 10, and Mac OS, MS Office (365) and other standard products, VA related software, and approved peripheral devices. The specific software versions may change as new versions are released by Microsoft, Apple Computing, or other product manufacturers, and the Contractor shall be prepared to provide support for new versions of the software as the VA adopts it during the life of the contract.

Tier 2 services require the following minimum qualifications:

· Microsoft Certified: (Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician or equivalent) Windows 10 certification.

· If providing Apple support, Apple Certified Support Professional certification.

Deliverables:

A. Weekly Service Desk Request Report B. Annual Service Desk Request Report

DESKTOP/LAPTOP (PC/MAC) SUPPORT COVERAGE

The Contractor shall support the VACO customer base by delivery of services in response to Helpdesk tickets. The Contractor shall maintain logs and document ticket resolution daily in SNOW and escalate unresolved issues to the VACO team. The Contractor shall analyze and resolve problems in the computing environment at the deskside and over the telephone, using remote control software provided by VA. The Contractor shall be expected to provide the VA Full Time Equivalent to lead a daily roll call to show availability of technicians and locations and Weekly Service Desk Request Report. The Contractor shall provide the following services:

1. Troubleshoot any problems or issues that arise from the network drop to the Windows and Mac desktops/laptops, while prioritizing systems infected with viruses.

2. Respond to alert notification or escalation of an issue from members of the VACO team. Determine the probable cause of the issue and take the appropriate intervention action(s) to restore the Windows and Mac desktop/laptop to operational status.

3. Support the MacOS and various Apple tools and applications.

4. Provide operating system updates for Mac desktops/laptops.

5. Provide graphical user interface-level assistance with macOS Monterey Server configuration and server administration. Document any troubleshooting and corrective actions taken to resolve Windows and Mac desktop/laptop issues in the Help Desk system.

6. Document daily status of tickets; opened, pending, and closed in the ticketing database.

7. Provide Tier 2 PKI assistance.

8. Install virtual desktop client (CAG) to existing office platform.

9. Load and reload, configure, and update anti-virus and virus scan software on desktop/laptop as required.

10. Create and distribute "clean-up kits" (including instructions and other user documentation) for Windows and Mac remote laptops.

11. Load, configure, and update VPN and RESCUE software on desktop/laptop as required.

12. Provide lessons learned as input to the evolution of standard processes in the Monthly Lessons Learned Report

13. Disconnect and/or reconnect desktop and peripherals in support of office moves within the VACO Campus.

14. VA will provide remote access support through Proxy to an individual desktop/laptop to identify and resolve reported problems. The Contractor shall respond to any VACO Campus location for the purpose of dealing with hardware and/or software problems that cannot be solved through remote tools and that require the physical presence of a technician.

15. Support BitLocker software issue(s).

16. Document any troubleshooting and corrective actions taken to resolve Windows and Mac desktop/laptop issues in the Help Desk system.

17. Image, configure, deploy, and install new devices to VACO campus Customers.

18. Microsoft Active Directory system management.

19. Support Remote Customers.

20. Produce new and update/maintain existing Standard Operating Procedures.

21. Windows/Mac OS and Application troubleshooting and support.

22. Resolve systems management issues related to device security and software configuration.

23. Troubleshooting systems related issues impacting encryption and device applications.

24. Testing and validating new and related applications to ensure compatibility within the VA IT environment.

25. Troubleshoot network ports associated with desktop/laptop moves and trouble tickets.

26. Activate network ports for desktop/laptop moves or inactive ports discovered in the process of resolving desktop/laptop trouble tickets.

27. Document any troubleshooting and corrective actions taken to resolve inactive network ports related to moves or desktop/laptop trouble tickets in the SNOW Help Desk system.

Desktop support requests shall be categorized as demonstrated in the table below. The nature of the Desktop/Laptop Support Coverage work is critical, and tickets must be immediately addressed by priority once assigned. The Contractor shall meet the following Service Level Agreement (SLA):

The Contractor shall return a user's call, of any nature, at least one time per day via phone or e-mail for three consecutive business days in an effort to reach the customer, then leaving voice messages when possible. After the third attempt, a fourth and final call must be made, and an email must be sent notifying the user that the ticket has been closed. At that point, the user must contact ESD to open a new ticket if any problems still exist.

Deliverables:

A. Monthly Lessons Learned Report B. Standard Operating Procedures C. Desktop Support Metrics Compliance Report

DEVICE IMAGING & WARRANTY SUPPORT

The Contractor shall perform device imaging, configuration, and warranty services (contact the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for warranty support) from the VA Landover location. The Contractor shall update Service request tickets documenting receipt and completion of requests. The Contractor must analyze problems that indicate systemic issues and escalate unresolved issues to the VACO Desktop team. The Contractor shall analyze and resolve problems in the computing environment onsite. Historically, the customer base and deskside service calls that can originate via trouble tickets, phone calls, or email have increased by five percent (5%) annually. The Contractor shall perform the following responsibilities as part of Tier 2 level daily operations:

1. Imaging of devices from the Landover location. This is the central imaging location established for VACO Customers. Currently the Government has three (3) onsite technicians assigned on a rotation process. There are a minimum of 30 devices imaged per day and the Contractor shall provide a Daily Image Report with the status of number of imaged devices completed. In addition to the work performed by the three (3) dedicated image technicians at Landover, the rest of the contracted technical team shall Image other Customers’ devices in other office space at the Landover site as needed for support. Historically, the warehouse team has imaged on average 150 devices per week.

2. Warranty support (contact OEM for warranty support) services from the Landover location is currently supported by one dedicated technician; this technician trouble shoots the devices locally and determines if OEM support is needed. If needed, the Contractor will process the device to be repaired by OEM. Once devices come back from the OEM or is deemed to be functioning properly, the technician shall ensure that it is returned to stock. If Warranty services are needed, the technician shall call in the service ticket and provide a Weekly Warranty Spreadsheet Tracking for tracking the warranty work performed.

3. Support the loaner and VIP Emergency devices (Desktop PCs and Laptops) located in A46 at VACO Headquarters. The Contractor shall ensure that all loaner and VIP devices on the racks are hardwired to the network and logged in to the Windows home screen (CTRL-ALT-DEL). The Contractor shall reboot the devices daily, login to each device, test VPN daily, and remove old profiles from the User folder. The Contractor shall also run diagnostics on returned equipment Return Material Authorization (RMA) if determined excess (equipment that is no longer repairable and needs to be turned in), mark it as such with labels provided and move to the area marked “excess.” If diagnostics reports the device is good, re-image using the latest VA provided checklist, use the respective naming convention, and ensure the RAM is upgraded to 16 GB. If issues occur during the imaging process, the Contractor shall note specific issues on the labels provided, check for warranty, and follow those guidelines if applicable. Provide the diagnostics report twice a day to VA Leadership. The Contractor shall also provide first-time login support to new users picking up equipment in A46. This task includes ensuring the End Users successfully log in to the imaged device, the MS Outlook profile is successfully created, all requested applications are installed, and to test VPN connectivity.

Deliverables:

A. Daily Image Report B. Weekly Warranty Spreadsheet Tracking

WEEKEND/AFTER HOUR AND SENIOR LEADERSHIP EMERGENCY ON-CALL SUPPORT

The Contractor shall provide extended operational support for approximately eight VA Senior Leaders, to be identified upon contract award. These duties can be performed remotely or onsite at VACO Campus locations within the NCR depending on the nature of the customer’s issue. The Contractor shall contact the customer within 30-minutes of the customer’s initial call to the after-hours mobile phone. The Contractor shall assist the customer remotely if possible but is required to report to the Government site if the problem cannot be resolved remotely. VA Senior Leaders may request assistance prior to creation of a ticket. On these occasions, the technicians shall follow up with the submission and closure of a ticket for services. All tickets must have detailed solutions documented by the technician.

a. Monday through Friday - Emergency on-call requests can occur between 8:00pm EST and 6:00AM EST; and/or

b. Weekends and Federal Holidays between 7:00AM EST and 12:00AM EST.

Historically, VACO has utilized approximately 520-hours of support for this effort in a 12-month period. It is estimated that support this will remain at 520-hours for the base period and for each option period.

The Contractor shall provide a Senior Leadership After Hour Report. This report shall include a detailed narrative that specifies customer name, time incident reported, time resolved, description of problem, support provided and resolution. This report is to be emailed to the COR and PM before the end of the after-hour period. The Senior Leadership After Hours Report shall be delivered only when After Hours Support is required.

Deliverables:

A. Senior Leadership After Hours Report

SUPPLEMENTAL DESKTOP SUPPORT SERVICES (OPTIONAL TASK)

ADDITIONAL DESKTOP SUPPORT SERVICES (BASE PERIOD)

This Optional Task may be exercised by VA at any time during the last three (3) months of the Base Period. If exercised, the Contractor shall provide supplemental resources to perform tasks in paragraphs 5.2 and 5.3 of this PWS. The Contractor shall provide resources to process up to 650 additional SNOW tickets.

ADDITIONAL DESKTOP SUPPORT SERVICES (OPTION PERIODS 1 THROUGH 4)

This Optional Task may be exercised by VA at any time during Option Period 1 through Option Period 4. If exercised, the Contractor shall provide supplemental resources to perform tasks in paragraphs 5.2 and 5.3 of this PWS. The Contractor shall provide resources to process up to 2,675 additional SNOW tickets.

OPTION PERIODS ONE THROUGH FOUR

If the Option Period(s) are exercised by VA, the Contractor shall continue to perform the services required by PWS paragraphs 5.1 (except 5.1.3, Technical Kickoff Meeting) through 5.3, and all subparagraphs for each Option period exercised. The Contractor shall perform tasks and provide the deliverables described herein under this contract during the Optional Periods of Performance.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

ENTERPRISE AND IT FRAMEWORK

VA TECHNICAL REFERENCE MODEL

The Contractor shall support the VA enterprise management framework. In association with the framework, the Contractor shall comply with OIT Technical Reference Model (VA TRM). The VA TRM is one component within the overall Enterprise Architecture (EA) that establishes a common vocabulary and structure for describing the information technology used to develop, operate, and maintain enterprise applications. Moreover, the VA TRM, which includes the Standards Profile and Product List, serves as a technology roadmap and tool for supporting OIT. Architecture & Engineering Services (AES) has overall responsibility for the VA TRM.

FEDERAL IDENTITY, CREDENTIAL, AND ACCESS MANAGEMENT (FICAM)

*The Contractor shall ensure Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) product(s), software configuration and customization, and/or new software are Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card-enabled by accepting HSPD-12 PIV credentials using VA Enterprise Technical Architecture (ETA), https://www.ea.oit.va.gov/EAOIT/VA_EA/Enterprise_Technical_Architecture.asp, and VA Identity and Access Management (IAM) approved enterprise design and integration patterns, https://www.oit.va.gov/library/recurring/edp/index.cfm. The Contractor shall ensure all Contractor delivered applications and systems comply with the VA Identity, Credential, and Access Management policies and guidelines set forth in VA Handbook 6510 VA Identity and Access Management, VA Handbook 0735 Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) Program, and align with the Federal Identity, Credential, and Access Management Roadmap and Implementation Guidance v2.0.

The Contractor shall ensure all Contractor delivered applications and systems provide user authentication services compliant with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-63-3, VA Handbook 6500 Appendix F, “VA System Security Controls”, and VA IAM enterprise requirements for direct, assertion based authentication, and/or trust based authentication, as determined by the design and integration patterns. Direct authentication at a minimum must include Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) based authentication supportive of PIV card and/or Common Access Card (CAC), as determined by the business need.

The Contractor shall ensure all Contractor delivered applications and systems conform to the specific Identity and Access Management PIV requirements set forth in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memoranda M-05-24, M-19-17, and NIST Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201-2. OMB Memoranda M-05-24 and M-19-17 can be found at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/omb/memoranda/2005/m05-24.pdf, and https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/M-19-17.pdf respectively. Contractor delivered applications and systems shall be on the FIPS 201-2 Approved Product List (APL). If the Contractor delivered application and system is not on the APL, the Contractor shall be responsible for taking the application and system through the FIPS 201 Evaluation Program.

The Contractor shall ensure all Contractor delivered applications and systems support:

1. Automated provisioning and are able to use enterprise provisioning service.

2. Interfacing with VA’s Master Person Index (MPI) to provision identity attributes, if the solution relies on VA user identities. MPI is the authoritative source for VA user identity data.

3. The VA defined unique identity (Secure Identifier [SEC ID] / Integrated Control Number [ICN]).

4. Multiple authenticators for a given identity and authenticators at every Authenticator Assurance Level (AAL) appropriate for the solution.

5. Identity proofing for each Identity Assurance Level (IAL) appropriate for the solution.

6. Federation for each Federation Assurance Level (FAL) appropriate for the solution, if applicable.

7. Two-factor authentication (2FA) through an applicable design pattern as outlined in VA Enterprise Design Patterns.

8. A Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) implementation if the solution relies on assertion-based authentication. Additional assertion implementations, besides the required SAML assertion, may be provided as long as they are compliant with NIST SP 800-63-3 guidelines.

9. Authentication/account binding based on trusted Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) headers if the solution relies on Trust based authentication.

10. Role Based Access Control.

11. Auditing and reporting capabilities.

12. Compliance with VIEWS 00155984, PIV Logical Access Policy Clarification https://www.voa.va.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DocumentID=4896.

The required Assurance Levels for this specific effort are Identity Assurance Level 3, Authenticator Assurance Level 3, and Federation Assurance Level 3.

INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 6 (IPV6)

The Contractor solution shall support Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) based upon the memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on November 19, 2020 (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/M-21-07.pdf). IPv6 technology, in accordance with the USGv6 Program (https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/usgv6-program/usgv6-revision-1), NIST Special Publication (SP) 500-267B Revision 1 “USGv6 Profile” (https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.500-267Br1), and NIST SP 800-119 “Guidelines for the Secure Deployment of IPv6” (https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-119), compliance shall be included in all IT infrastructures, application designs, application development, operational systems and sub-systems, and their integration. In addition to the above requirements, all devices shall support native IPv6 and dual stack (IPv6 / IPv4) connectivity without additional memory or other resources being provided by the Government, so that they can function in a mixed environment. All public/external facing servers and services (e.g. web, email, DNS, ISP services, etc.) shall support native IPv6 and dual stack (IPv6 / IPv4) users and all internal infrastructure and applications shall communicate using native IPv6 and dual stack (IPv6 / IPv4) operations.

TRUSTED INTERNET CONNECTION (TIC)

The Contractor solution shall meet the requirements outlined in Office of Management and Budget Memorandum M-19-26, “Update to the Trusted Internet Connections (TIC) Initiative“ (https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/M-19-26.pdf), VA Directive 6513 “Secure External Connections”, and shall comply with the TIC 3.0 Core Guidance Documents, including all Volumes and TIC Use Cases, found at the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) (https://www.cisa.gov/publication/tic-30-core-guidance-documents). Any deviations must be approved by the VA TIC 3.0 Working Group at vaoisesatic30team@va.gov.

STANDARD COMPUTER CONFIGURATION

The Contractor IT end user solution that is developed for use on standard VA computers shall be compatible with and be supported on the standard VA operating system, currently Windows 10 (64bit), Edge (Chromium based), and 365 Apps for enterprise. Applications delivered to VA and intended to be deployed to Windows 10 workstations shall be delivered as a signed .msi package with switches for silent and unattended installation and updates shall be delivered in signed .msp file formats for easy deployment using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager (CM) VA’s current desktop application deployment tool. Signing of the software code shall be through a vendor provided certificate that is trusted by VA using a code signing authority such as Verizon/Cybertrust or Symantec/VeriSign. The Contractor shall also ensure and certify that their solution functions as expected when used from a standard VA computer, with non-admin, standard user rights that have been configured using the United States Government Configuration Baseline (USGCB) and Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Secure Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) specific to the particular client operating system being used.

VETERAN FOCUSED INTEGRATION PROCESS (VIP) AND PRODUCT LINE MANAGEMENT (PLM)

The Contractor shall support VA efforts IAW the updated Veteran Focused Integration Process (VIP) and Product Line Management (PLM). The major focus of the new VIP is on Governance and Reporting and is less prescriptive, with a focus on outcomes and continuous delivery of value. Product Line Management (PLM) is a framework that focuses on delivering functional products that provide the highest priority work to customers while delivering simplified, reliable, and practical solutions to the business, medical staff, and our Veterans. The VIP Guide is a companion guide to the PLM Playbook and can be found at: https://www.voa.va.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DocumentID=4371 and the PLM Playbook can be found at https://www.voa.va.gov/DocumentView.aspx?DocumentID=4946. The PLM Playbook pivots from project-centric to product-centric delivery and contains descriptive practices that focuses on outcomes. The PLM Playbook contains a set of “plays” that implement Development, Security, and Operations (DevSecOps) principles and processes such as automated development, continuous integration/continuous delivery, and release on demand.