7D20--Abacus Visual Playbook Builder and Automation Orchestrator (VA-26-00041469)

See attached Questions and Answers

The purpose of this amendment is to advise interested parties that the RFI Responses Due Date has been extended.

Responses are now due no later than 3:00pm est, April 15, 2026

Request for Information

Title: Abacus Visual Playbook Builder and Automation Orchestrator

VA-26-00041469

Introduction

This Request for Information (RFI) is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered an Invitation for Bid, Request for Task Execution Plan, Request for Quotation or a Request for Proposal. Additionally, there is no obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services described in this RFI. Your response to this RFI will be treated only as information for the Government to consider. You will not be entitled to payment for direct or indirect costs that you incur in responding to this RFI. This request does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated or received for this effort. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government does not intend to pay for the information submitted in response to this RFI.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for this requirement is 541512 with a size standard of $34.0 million.

2. Submittal Information:

All responsible sources may submit a response in accordance with the below information.

There is a page limitation for this RFI of 15 pages. The Government will not review any other information or attachments included, that are in excess of the (15) page limit. NO MARKETING MATERIALS ARE ALLOWED AS PART OF THIS RFI. Generic capability statements will not be accepted or reviewed. Your response must address capabilities specific to the services required in the attached PWS and must include the following:

Interested Vendors shall at a minimum, provide the following information in the initial paragraph of the submission:

Name of Company

Address

Point of Contact

Phone Number

Fax Number

Email address

Company Business Size and Status

For VOSB and SDVOSBs, proof of SBA certification. SDVOSB/VOSB vendors that have not been certified by SBA should not respond to this notice.

NAICS code(s)

Socioeconomic data

Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) Number

Existing Contractual Vehicles (GWAC, FSS, or MAC)

Provide a summary of your capability to meet the requirements contained within the attached Draft Statement of Objectives for the following areas:

Describe your organization s experience and capabilities as they relate to the following. Include specific project references, case studies, or contract examples where available:

Contractor developed web application and delivery for federal agencies, with emphasis on VA Medical Device Virtual Local Area Network (Vlan) healthcare environments with emphasis on Visn 23 Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) usability.

Systems integration involving Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, Red Hat OpenShift, and enterprise infrastructure components under a single Prime contractor accountability model.

Coordination of multi-vendor professional services engagements (e.g., Red Hat Professional Services, HCI vendor professional services) as subcontractors or directed partners. Address how you would manage the infrastructure dependency chain where application deployment cannot begin until platform installation is complete, and how you would handle accountability when integration issues span vendor boundaries.

Development and deployment of containerized applications in air-gapped (dark-site) environments, including release bundle assembly, offline container registry management, and air-gapped CI/CD pipelines.

Building user interfaces for non-technical user populations who lack scripting, command-line, or automation background.

Experience with Ansible module or collection development, particularly for Windows targets using WinRM.

Provide a narrative describing your proposed technical approach to the following areas. The Government is particularly interested in responses that demonstrate understanding of the system s novel integration challenges rather than generic capability statements.

Dark-Site Delivery and Sustainment Strategy. Describe your approach to delivering and maintaining containerized applications in an air-gapped environment. Address how release bundles will be assembled, how container images will be mirrored to internal registries, how offline vulnerability databases will be maintained for CI/CD scanning, how Ansible collection updates will be distributed through Private Automation Hub, and how future updates (including UBI base image security patches) will be packaged and delivered. Identify the specific tooling you would use. (This contract is scoped just for VISN 23 Healthcare Technology Management (HTM) and does not need to accommodate enterprise-wide compatibility for VHA.)

Technology Stack and Container Strategy. Identify the development frameworks, languages, and runtimes you would propose for each contractor developed component (Abacus Application frontend and backend, Asset Ingress Service, abacus.retrieve Ansible collection, playbook generation logic). Explain how your selections align with Red Hat UBI requirements, OpenShift-native deployment patterns, and long-term maintainability. Address how the Government would maintain the system independently post-delivery.

User Experience for Non-Technical Users. The primary users of this system are clinical site administrators who are operationally busy, have limited or no automation experience, and have no scripting or command-line proficiency. Describe your approach to building a complex web application (with concepts such as project/role/card hierarchies, editable and stable environments, and a content storefront with provenance tracking) that is navigable and productive for this population.

Cybersecurity and Software Supply Chain. Briefly describe how you would maintain cybersecurity best practices across the software supply chain in a dark-site deployment. Address container vulnerability scanning in disconnected environments, Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) delivery and maintenance, and your approach to security patching when base image updates must be transferred physically.

Provide a rough order of magnitude (ROM) for the following. The Government understands these are preliminary estimates subject to refinement during a formal solicitation. ROM estimates will not be binding.

Contractor will propose all remaining technologies and include all applicable licenses and rough order of magnitude of annual cost or one time cost where applicable

Estimated timeline for MVP delivery (the Performance Work Statement anticipates 12 months)

Estimated level of effort (labor categories and approximate hours or FTEs)

Estimated cost range for the full 12-month period of performance for MVP and separate cost schedule for the 4 option year Service Level Agreement (SLAs)

Whether your organization would self-perform all software development or use subcontractors, and if so, for which components.

Corporate experience or expertise in performing these services and specific examples or references. Specific examples or references provided must include the agency, point of contact, dollar value, and contract number.

For SDVOSB/VOSB vendors: Your company s intent and ability to meet the set aside requirement in accordance with VAAR 852.219-73 (JAN 2023) (DEVIATION) VA Notice of Total Set-Aside For Certified SDVOSBs and 13 CFR §125.6, which states the contractor will not pay more than 50% of the amount paid by the government to the prime for contract performance to firms that are not certified SDVOSBs listed in the SBA certification database (excluding direct costs to the extent they are not the principal purpose of the acquisition and the SDVOSB/VOSB does not provide the service, such as airline travel, cloud computing services, or mass media purchases). When a contract includes both services and supplies, the 50 percent limitation shall apply only to the service portion of the contract.

Your response shall include information as to available personnel and financial resources; full names of proposed team members and the PWS requirements planned to be subcontracted to them, which must include the prime planned percentage or the names of the potential team members that may be used to fulfill the set aside requirement.

Has the draft PWS provided sufficient detail to describe the technical requirements that encompass the software development and production operations support services to be performed under this effort.

____YES or NO_______ (if No, answer question f)

If NO , please provide your technical comments/recommendations on elements of the draft PWS that may contribute to a more accurate proposal submission and efficient, cost effective effort.

Responses are due no later than 4:00pm est, April 8, 2026 via email to Robert Robinson, Contract Specialist at Robert.Robinson7081@VA.Gov and Christopher Minetti, Contracting Officer at Christopher.Minetti@VA.Gov. Please note Abacus Visual Playbook Builder in the subject line of your response. Mark your response as Proprietary Information if the information is considered business sensitive. The email file size shall not exceed 5 MB.