A02 SOW Gartner Subscriptions_08May2024_FINAL.docx

US Army Engineer Research and Development Center Statement of Work (SOW) Gartner IT Analysis and Research Services 08 May 2024

1.0 Purpose. The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) requires Research Subscription Licenses that will deliver objective research, unbiased recommendations, expert advice and perspectives from peer organizations navigating similar technology challenges.

2.0 Background. ERDC’s Business Intelligence Director and Technical Manager both require continued, licensed access to research, expertise and tools that enable achievement of ERDC’s program goals and initiatives. Both ERDC personnel individually require access that must include dedicated monthly partnership with an executive-level peer advisor. The executive peer advisors must possess significant executive leadership experience holding similar enterprise IT leadership roles in previous positions within public sector agencies or private sector commercial enterprises.

Licensed access to research, tools, analysts and executive-level peer advisors are used by these ERDC executives to advance their critical priorities and technology initiatives. ERDC continues to require subscription licenses that deliver tools, experts and resources to accelerate achievement of the following strategic efforts:

· Embedding real-time digital metrics into internal systems to track and assess organizational health with data-driven processes.

· Developing a strategic IT plan and roadmap to evolve organizational resilience through business continuity management.

· Evolving cybersecurity operations to meet standards set forth by the Department of Defense (DoD) for cybersecurity thresholds.

· Implementing secure controls, reassessing cybersecurity policy and improving data management by leveraging new IT technologies such as AI or machine learning (ML).

· Optimizing enterprise IT investment metrics by establishing sourcing, procurement and contracts management strategies and vendor selection which best aligns with business use cases.

· Fostering a culture of inclusion through diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programming and focusing on change management communications to ensure implementation across workplace.

ERDC currently relies on Gartner research subscription licenses for critical, time and cost savings. To effectively serve the ERDC mission, ERDC must be equipped with the executive-level tools, advisory partnerships and executive-level peer communities required to validate decision-making and advance these mission objectives.

3.0 Scope. ERDC has a requirement for a Firm Fixed-Price contract in support of executive, leadership, and technical personnel for a Gartner Analysis & Research Services subscription. These services provide best practices, research and insight, peer benchmarks, decision and diagnostic tools, executive networking, advisory support, and learning events.

4.0 Requirements/Materials. The contractor shall provide access rights to the following services, Table 1 below and the deliverables in Section 5 during the term of contract. ERDC shall have license to use, reproduce, and distribute the Program’s Materials solely for internal business purposes. Program Materials may consist of publications, surveys, websites, teleconferences, meetings, and other content exclusive business (CEB) materials and services.

Table 1 – Required Analysis & Research Subscription Accounts

All licenses shall be grounded in a completely objective research program that mitigates the risk of strategic leadership decisions becoming influenced by biased recommendations. No research or white papers can be published on a “sponsored” or “commissioned” basis, as those practices increase risk to the government. Research agenda must demonstrate a complete absence of biased guidance favoring specific vendors, solutions or technical approaches.

All subscription license holders shall receive individual access to an unlimited number of inquiry discussions and document review sessions with analysts. Only fulltime employees of the research license provider may participate in directly authoring or contributing to the publication of research and tools available through these licenses.

All licenses shall provide access to significant volume of current technology and business analysis. Licenses must demonstrate a significant volume of new research documents will be accessible each year. Licenses shall equip subscribers with the ability to stay current with a wide variety of industry topics and trends influencing the IT industry and government enterprises. All research published to the online database shall be subjected to formal publication and review processes. Sources such as tweets, social media feeds and any other non-research media that fail to undergo defined review processes are not considered to be acceptable pieces of research. All research must demonstrate quality and objectivity in its analysis.

All licenses must provide access to a market analysis research methodology to assist subscribers with surveying and evaluating specific technology markets. Licenses shall demonstrate market analysis coverage of Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services, Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, Data Integration Tools and Cybersecurity Resilience. The government requires access to this methodology which provides a wide-angle view of the relative positions of the market’s competitors and shows technology vendors’ strengths and weaknesses.

All licenses shall demonstrate published research and tools in IT focus areas. Topic coverage must be provided in the areas of automation, cybersecurity, D&A, enterprise-wide cloud strategies, change management, DEI, digital business and workplace culture, government technology innovation and modernization, I&O, IT asset management, sourcing and procuring strategies and applications rationalization testing for adaptable software engineering.

Licenses must provide specific government research coverage and access to a team of research analysts specifically dedicated to covering and contextualizing the technology marketplace from a U.S. federal/DoD government perspective.

Licenses must provide access to IT benchmarking metrics that are timely and relevant to government technology leaders. Metrics must have been collected from at least 1,500 sources. Source of benchmarking metrics must provide government-specific metrics and guidance, including IT Resource Distributions, IT Spending per Employee and IT Spending Percent Change annually.

Licenses shall provide access to 15 different editable self-service maturity assessments in areas relevant to a government IT executive, including the CIO office, cybersecurity, business continuity management, data and analytics, I&O, sourcing and vendor management, enterprise applications, strategic cost optimization and other domain areas. License holders can use these maturity assessment tools to consistently evaluate its current capabilities, using the tool’s analysis to prioritize investments and focus on improving specific functions to increase maturity. Each self-service maturity assessment tool shall provide a customized report for each assessment and an enterprise maturity score and ratings for different roles and functions. The survey capability must be accessible for delegation to non-subscription license holders within the organization and may be retaken as often as needed (monthly, quarterly, etc.) Licenses must include the capability to maintain a library of completed assessments in the online research platform.

Licenses shall provide a web-based benchmark budgeting tool that provides visibility into current IT spend to help ERDC manage IT cost and identify cost and value optimization. This IT budget-specific benchmark shall include metrics for comparison like total IT spend and staffing, strategic IT spend, IT spending by technical function, IT spending by asset category, IT staffing by technical function and IT security spending and staffing.

License for the Technical Manager must provide a modular and interactive tool that includes benchmarks for organizational performance against three key categories: Strategic Digital Priorities, Operating Model and Technology Platform.

License for the Business Intelligence Director shall provide access to a web-based tool enabling self-assessment of a CDAO’s effectiveness and their areas for improvement. Tool must provide the Business Intelligence Director with the capability to evaluate their maturity and importance of their activities core to the CDAO role. Tool shall include a survey capability that delivers a personalized report to the subscriber, with results describing their top development opportunities and recommendations for advancing to the next level of maturity. Tool must evaluate the subscriber’s leadership capabilities in D&A culture, enterprise strategic change, navigating evolving stakeholder scenarios, navigating a dynamic data landscape and serving as a trusted advisor and coach.

Licenses shall provide executive peer advisors for the Business Intelligence Director and the Technical Manager. The peer advisors must offer at least 15 years of IT experience and demonstrated C-level or senior leadership experience in either commercial or government enterprises. The executive peer advisor will deliver strategic advice and serve as a sounding board for the IT executive during monthly meetings.

Licenses shall provide access to editable RFP template tools that assist IT executives when building requirements, RFPs or SOWs. Templates shall be available in relevant topic areas to the government’s initiatives, such as Analytics and Business Intelligence, Data Management and Data Integration.

Licenses must allow access to analysts with expertise in hardware/software contract negotiation topics. These analysts shall be used to provide insight into contract pricing, terms and conditions for hardware, software and cloud technology solutions.

Licenses shall provide access to a collaborative workflow tool that creates a structured process designed to streamline vendor evaluations in a centralized workspace. The tool must contain at least 100 templates for purchasing IT products and must be accessible through a self-service application that allows participation by team members, including non-license holders.

License for the Technical Manager must include an invitation to attend an executive-level technology conference event that is a minimum of two full days, held in North America. Offeror shall present a wide array of available sessions at this in-person, executive-focused conference event that align with a government agency’s priorities.

Offerors shall demonstrate a full calendar of role-focused, multi-day conferences hosted in-person in the U.S. Offerors should demonstrate a wide variety of events to ensure maximum relevance for ERDC. To demonstrate both current and historical capability to consistently offer a full calendar of events Offerors should provide a copy of both their current year and previous year events calendars to demonstrate relevance and availability of role-focused IT conference events. At minimum, at least one (1) event will cover topics on Data and Analytics.

Licenses must provide access to an online peer networking platform that includes a minimum of 100,000 active participants from peer organizations. Platform must consist of an interactive online format reserved for research subscribers and subject matter experts to engage in discussion forums and independent connections. No recruiting, selling, or self-promotion is allowed in this forum.

Licenses must provide the ability to collaborate in groups of executive peers which is imperative to improve outcomes and instill proven best practices into government enterprise transformation efforts. Licenses must provide the ability to access to a deep, broad community of executive-level peers in other private and public sector organizations.

5.0 Deliverables

5.1 Online Web Presence – The Contractor shall provide a 24-hour web presence for all ERDC subscription holders to perform research on the following content.

a. Leadership Development Research and Related Content – Customized professional development content for the development of technology leaders, targeted to Team Members.

b. Data Leaders Research and Related Content – Includes core data, analytics and role-specific research; diagnostic tools, templates, and case studies; weekly picks and news analysis and commentary; and webinars featuring research advisors.

c. Strategic Business Content for Executives – Access to content that aligns to the changing roles of Executives and provides guidance around how Executives can be better business partners to their peers.

d. Best Practice and Decision Support Content – Includes peer benchmarks, best practices, case studies, tools, and templates.

e. Key Metrics Data – Provides performance metrics on trends in organizational spending and staffing, unit costs, and performance measures across critical domains.

f. Research Reports – Up to 12 (twelve) Reports per year, covering contractor-selected topics on areas where business and data intersect. (Schedules are approximations and are dependent on the publication schedule of relevant Research.) Includes associated tools and teleconferences hosted by content authors to discuss their research reports.

g. MP3/Podcasts – Research advisor commentaries on the latest data and analytics topics in a monthly audio program accessed on the website and/or downloaded to an MP3 device.

5.2 IT Peers Networking – The Contractor shall provide the following per Executive Level subscriptions.

a. Peer Directory – Access to searchable directory of senior technology leaders and CEOs.

b. Online Forums – Access to virtual discussions level of common issues among peers on with whom the contractor interacts with, including a private forum exclusive for Service Members and Leaders.

c. Facilitated Networking – Attendance to meetings or conference calls with peers around a specific topic to discuss best practices or areas of expertise.

d. Peer Roundtables – Access to facilitated discussions with peers; participation limited to executives with similar job roles.

5.3. Assigned Service Delivery POC – The Contractor shall provide a point of contact with experience in senior technology executive roles and a team manager to serve as the Executive Level for the Team Leader subscription’s primary points of contact for this Service within 14 calendar days after award. They will help define and develop specific strategies based on the ERDC’s priorities and initiatives. The Executive Level for the Director of Business Intelligence account holder may interact on a monthly basis with the points of contact to ensure ongoing engagement and delivery of value is occurring. Interactions may include: Strategy Meetings, research advisor interactions, and peer networking interactions, or teleconference meetings. Strategy Meetings between the Team Leader subscription holder and appropriate POCs may be held to review and apply research.

5.4 Value Reviews – The Contractor shall provide a minimum of two usage reviews (i.e. team member usage) per year with the Team Leader and/or Service Owner against ERDC’s agenda.

5.5 Access to research advisors – The Contractor shall provide unlimited access to research advisors and consultants who are associated with this Service for all subscriptions. One (1) focused briefing session per Team Leader account holder per contract period with a research advisor, delivered at CIO/G6’s discretion, not to exceed eight (8) hours. The session may include Executive Level subscription members and others from USACE, up to a total of 25 (twenty-five) participants.

6.0 Special Requirements/Constraints. The web subscription service must be accessible using the four major web browsers (Internet Explorer, Edge, Firefox, and Chrome) via the Internet.

7.0 Period of Performance. Period of Performance shall be 1 June 2024 through 31 May 2025.

8.0 Place of Work Performance. The service is primarily a web subscription service accessible via the Internet with possible consultations and presentations potentially at any ERDC location.

9.0 ERDC Point of Contacts. POCs shall inspect all services performed by the Contractor under this PWS through the CORM (Contracting Officer’s Representative Module) report and provide feedback and acknowledgement of acceptance of the deliverables.

Service Owner Director, Business Intelligence Sandra Newell US Army Engineer Research and Development Center sandra.b.newell@usace.army.mil O: 601.634.2517

Contracting Officer Lashanda Areghan

(601) 497-7771 Lashanda.D.Areghan@usace.army.mil

Contract Specialist Anna Crawford

(601) 634-5320 Anna.Crawford@usace.army.mil

10.0 Deliverables Summary

Unlimited for subscription accounts via phone or email.

11.0 Security: If contractor technicians need to visit a USACE facility, all contractor and all associated sub-contractors’ employees shall comply with applicable installation, facility and area commander installation/facility access and local security policies and procedures (provided by government representative). The contractor shall also provide all information required for background checks to meet installation access requirements to be accomplished by installation Provost Marshal Office, Director of Emergency Services or Security Office. Contractor workforce must comply with all personal identity verification requirements as directed by DOD, HQDA and/or local policy. In addition to the changes otherwise authorized by the changes clause of this contract, should the Force Protection Condition (FPCON) at any individual facility or installation change, the Government may require changes in contractor security matters or processes.

12.0 Access to DoD Installation: Contractor and all associated sub-contractors employees shall comply with adjudication standards and procedures using the National Crime Information Center Interstate Identification Index (NCIC-III) and Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) (Army Directive 2014-05 / AR 190-13), applicable installation, facility and area commander installation/facility access and local security policies and procedures (provided by government representative, as NCIC and TSDB are available), or, at OCONUS locations, in accordance with status of forces agreements and other theater regulations.