Request_for_Information-Pre-Solicitation.docx

Subject: Electronic Grants System Management (EGS) Services primarily to the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP), the United States Army Medical Research and Material Command (USAMRMC), and its subordinate Commands

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS (RFP) OR A REQUEST FOR QUOTATIONS (RFQ); IT IS STRICTLY A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI). NEITHER UNSOLICITATED PROPOSALS NOR ANY OTHER KINDS OF OFFERS WILL BE CONSIDERED IN RESPONSE TO THIS RFI. NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED PURSUANT TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT.

1.0 DISCLAIMER: This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. Neither unsolicited proposals nor any other kind of offers will be considered in response to this RFI. Responses to this notice are not offers and will not be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding accordingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. At this time, questions concerning the composition and requirements for a future RFP will not be entertained.

2.0 SUBJECT: The United States Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) is conducting market research to locate sources capable of providing business operations support. In line with the above goal, USAMRAA wishes to obtain information from sources that possess the capability to provide the above mentioned support services for current and future research programs. The anticipated contractor support duties are attached (Attachment 1).

3.0 BACKGROUND: The United States Congress directed the Department of Defense (DOD) to manage appropriations totaling over $9 Billion since fiscal year 1992 (FY92) and for intramural and extramural programs directed toward targeted medical research initiatives. The United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) is responsible for administering these targeted research program appropriations. The Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) is the lead office for all execution management for the USAMRMC.

The USAMRMC is a major subordinate Command of the United States Army Medical Command. The Commanding General (CG), USAMRMC, directs the management of a number of medical research, development and acquisition programs. Research includes breast, prostate, ovarian and lung cancer, defense health, neurofibromatosis, tuberous sclerosis complex, autism, psychological health/traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury research, bone marrow failure, multiple sclerosis medical imaging, medical informatics, behavioral health, medical simulators, mobile health applications, medical robotics, deployed health, and other medical research programs. The USAMRMC is responsible for planning, coordinating, integrating, programming, budgeting and executing these programs.

EGS is a government-owned, contractor-operated mission-support business system designed to address core functions of biomedical research portfolio and awards management needs for CDMRP and other USAMRMC organizations. It stores biomedical research proposal and award data and files including contracting, regulatory, administrative, and other relevant information. EGS has many functional components designed to automate administrative processes including proposal management, grants management, program management, and program evaluation. A number of system-to-system interfaces facilitate interactions and data transfers with other systems owned and operated by contractors and other agencies. It supports a number of electronic workflows, including progress report reviews, award negotiations, regulatory review and approval, product management, and website data management. EGS currently supports 423 users and contains 138,000 proposal records and 15,179 award records. On an annual basis, an average of 3,500 new proposals are created, 2,700 active awards are managed, and 600 new awards are initiated.

EGS is a web-based application supported by a database back-end. The primary technologies utilized by EGS are VMWare ESC, Linus OS, Java-JDK + Oracle RDBMS, and Apache Tomcat-outputing HTML, XML, CSV, XLS, and static files.

The anticipated level of support is dependent upon annual program funding but it is estimated that over the entire period of performance, roughly 7-15 support personnel could be required depending on the current needs and expansion potential.

For more information on the office of the CDMRP, go to http://cdmrp.army.mil and review materials provided on the website.

4.0 RESPONSE INSTRUCTIONS: Respondents should address the following in their submission:

Name and address of company

Any small business designation as certified by the Small Business Administration

Demonstrate experience in managing support requirements of this nature and magnitude to include all tasks included in Attachment 1, specifically:

a. Contractor must demonstrate the ability to propose a team of highly capable system developers, engineers, administrators and project management personnel to carryout day to day operations of EGS, ongoing system development and enhancements. Vendor must also be able to staff project with ad hoc support as needed to meet rapid short term requirements. Vendor will be responsible for understanding and meeting all Government requirements for system development efforts.

b. Demonstrate the ability to propose personnel who are United States citizens and have the ability to obtain a favorable National Agency Clearance with Inquiries. This is necessary for those staff members requiring access to Army installations, facilities, or controlled access areas and/or requiring access to a government information system. In addition, for any contract employee requiring system administrator level access to perform duties listed in the PWS, the contractor must be able to propose employees who meet IAT Level 1 requirements. In order to meet IAT Level I requirements, the proposed individuals must have a valid IA Baseline Certification which consists of COMPTIA A+, COMPTIA Network + certification, or (ISC)2 SSCP certification (any of these will suffice). Individuals proposed must also enroll in the continuing education program for those commercial certifications required in the IA Baseline Certification. Proposed individuals are also required to have a Computing Environment (CE) commercial certification (list of certifications that fulfill this requirement is extensive but most commercial certifications suffice). Note that the same IA Baseline Certification cannot fulfill the CE certification requirement. The baseline certification as stipulated in DoD 8570.01-M must be completed upon contract award.

5.0 CONTACT INFORMATION: All information regarding this posting shall be submitted via email to Abigail Strock at abigail.l.strock.civ@mail.mil

6.0: PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES

The CDMRP requests Contractor to provide junior and senior level system developers, administrators, engineers and project management personnel to complete the following tasks which shall be detailed further in the task order performance work statement:

6.1 Objective 1 – Project Management for EGS

6.1.1 Key Task: Provide Project Management Services

The Contractor shall provide project management and administration services for EGS, overseeing its development, enhancement, operations and technical support activities including the following: Develop requirements, project plans and timelines, allocating Contractor resources to perform needed activities. Supervise and track the Contractor’s team to ensure cost, schedule and performance requirements. Oversee day to day operations and program support activities including notifying users and coordinating as necessary with external entities for server maintenance schedules, operating system changes and upgrades. Document system level issues and provide a quarterly report outlining the steps taken and time to resolution. In addition, provide real time tracking of errors/issues and status of resolution. Coordinate all activities including development processes, quality control, testing, and deployments. Ensure software development quality controls based on industry and Government standards, and expectations of the client. Work with Federal Civilian Program Manager (PM) to discuss priorities, requirements, configuration control and risk management plans. Develop system design, process flows and necessary technical architectural documents. Attend regularly-scheduled meetings with the COR or PM, other Contractors and Government organizations as requested by the COR or PM. Document meeting discussions and provide to the COR or PM within 10 business days following the meeting conclusion (deadline extensions must be pre-approved by the COR or PM).

6.1.2 Key Task: Provide Program Support

The Contractor shall provide research program support services to each of the active research programs currently managed in EGS, any new programs and user communities as needed to facilitate data and file transfers, exports and imports to meet program milestones and deliverables from other Contractors and organizations. Establish and modify existing program setup as needed to meet evolving requirements. Develop custom and standardized reports as requested to support individual programs, user communities and groups or ad hoc projects. Support data requests from internal stakeholders as well as respond to rapid request from higher levels (i.e. Congress, USAMRMC, Defense Health Agency, DoD, Army, MEDCOM). Coordinate with CDMRP Data Managers for requests, quality control and consolidation as needed. Provide support for exports of EGS data for import into other systems and in response to data requests from external sources. Support activities related to migration of external user groups from other systems into EGS to include analysis of requirements, planning, and migration of data.

6.2 Objective 2 –Operate and Maintain the EGS

6.2.1 Key Task: Provide Operations and Maintenance Services

The Contractor shall provide all day to day system operations and maintenance support services. Monitor system performance to identify inefficiencies and make recommendations for improvements. Make the necessary changes to the EGS application and/or database to fix system errors, defects and issues. Ensure proper DoD IM/IT security procedures and protocols are followed and report any security concerns to the PM. Communicate and coordinate with System Administrators at DoD hosting facilities as well as with CDMRP IT and IA staff to meet new user operating environment requirements. Monitor and ensure functionality of existing and new system to system interfaces and views, resolve issues and coordinate with stakeholders as needed. Update, install and test as needed DoD approved third party plugins and software.

6.2.2 Key Task: Provide Technical Support

The Contractor shall provide all technical support services. Create and maintain end-user accounts. Track and maintain a consolidated list of user-reported errors/issues and status of resolution, keeping user informed. Provide technical guidance to end users on EGS interfaces and functionality when requested. Assist Government and other Contractor technical staff who are responsible for EGS operating system, servers, software updates and security requirements as well as end user system upgrades that may impact EGS usability.

6.3 Objective 3 – Develop and enhance the EGS

6.3.1 Key Task: Provide System Development Services

The Contractor shall provide all system development support services. Analyze the Government’s requirements for any new system functions and features in order to plan, design, develop and implement such functions. Provide timelines and milestones that describe how new system functions and features shall be developed. Write application code and make the necessary database changes to accommodate new system functions and features. Test, integrate and evaluate new system functions and features in the development and user acceptance environments and deploy to production upon approval by the PM. Monitor the performance of new features; make any necessary changes to adjust for defects, errors and performance issues. Document new system functions and features in a system design document.

6.3.1 Key Task: Provide System Enhancement Services

The Contractor shall provide all system enhancement support services. Analyze the Government’s requirements for system enhancements to existing functionality of EGS in order to plan and implement changes. Develop timelines and milestones that describe how enhancements shall be accomplished. Modify existing application code, configurations and database as necessary to accommodate enhancements. Test and evaluate enhancements in the development and user acceptance environments, and deploy to production upon approval by the PM. Document system enhancements within the system design documents.

7.0 ORGANIZATIONL CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Organizational Conflict of Interest Category Designations: Please see Attachment 1.