Cloud E-Mail and Collaboration Services

Added: Jan 09, 2012 8:11 pm The Department of the Interior, Acquisition Services Directorate (AQD) on behalf of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (DOI/OCIO), is seeking potential offerors in order to award a competitive Firm Fixed Price contract with a base period of one year and six option years. The Request for Proposal (RFP) will be for a Cloud E-Mail and Collaboration Services (CECS) requirement and will be issued by the AQD on or around February 7, 2012.

The North American Industry Classification Code (NAICS) for the upcoming solicitation will be 541519 - "Other Computer Related Services" and will have a business size standard of $25 million.

Description of Requirement:
The Department of Interior is pursuing the acquisition of cloud-based email and collaboration services from a commercial provider in order to transition its current email from disparate, on-premise systems to an integrated, cost-effective, cloud solution. The ideal solution will provide the tools and capabilities needed to increase productivity with the Department's 88,000 e-mail users by modernizing and transforming the way they conduct business. The system should also provide administrators and information technology managers the ability to monitor service performance, quality, and delivery.

Objectives:
• Standardize all 88,000 DOI personnel on a common e-mail and collaboration platform to give all DOI employees improved communication and collaboration tools.
• Benefit from the economies of scale inherent within a DOI enterprise-wide procurement which capitalizes costs for commercially available services previously managed at a bureau level.
• Reduce costs for the Department's current e-mail and collaboration tools
• Empower DOI employees with modern, reliable communication tools in a secure environment
• Provision services in a government community or private cloud solution that includes cloud-based email, calendaring, email archiving, journaling, instant messaging, desktop video conferencing, and support for mobile devices
• Reduce the Department's in-house system maintenance burden and associated spending
• Ensure appropriate security and privacy safeguards

The CECS solution should also:

• Provide features, functionality and capabilities that meet industry performance and interoperability standards and best practices
• Offer the necessary redundancy, resiliency, and contingency capabilities to meet DOI's service availability needs
• Improve user experience and productivity
• Provide a secure computing environment that complies with all required federal regulations and DOI specific security requirements
• Allow for a transition of the Government cloud data by providing full accessibility and data portability (to another cloud or in-house platform) upon contract completion.

This action will be primarily solicited in accordance with FAR Part 12 "Acquisition of Commercial Items" and FAR Part 15, "Contracting by Negotiation."

AQD anticipates soliciting this requirement through the federal Business opportunities web site (www.fbo.gov) on or about February 7, 2012 under RFP number D12PS00041. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring the web site for all procurement related information and must respond to the RFP in order to be considered for award of any resultant contract.

Be advised that it is the offeror's responsibility to assure the Government receives your submission on or before the due date specified within the forthcoming Request for Proposal. Reference the RFP number and project title on all correspondence. The RFP will contain all requirements and instructions so qualified offerors can submit electronic proposals to the Contracting Officer/Branch Chief Gregory Ruderman (Greg.Ruderman@aqd.nbc.gov) and the Contract Specialist, Brian Baker (Brian.Baker@aqd.nbc.gov).