Pilot IRS EDCMO SCaaS Draft RFP

Thank you for your interest in the Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Scanning as a Service (SCaaS) Requirement. IRS plans to issue a solicitation during the week of July 12th, with proposals due the week of July 28th.  IRS plans to hold a listening session during the week of July 12th, 2021. We are providing you the draft Request for Proposal today Wednesday June 30, 2021 to guide our discussion during the listening session. This listening session is being held in lieu of the traditional questions and answers.

IRS will hold a listening session on Wednesday, July 13th, 2021 at 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm EST via ZoomGov. To register for the session, please email Douglas.M.Graham@irs.gov with the email subject “ATTN: SCaaS Listening Session” the following: names, email addresses, and phone numbers of up to two (2) individuals from your firm that plan to attend. The IRS will email attendees the Zoom Gov link NLT COB on July 8th, 2021. Registration shall be submitted prior to close of business on July 07, 2021.

Thank you for your interest in the Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Scanning as a Service (SCaaS) Requirement. IRS plans to issue a solicitation during the week of July 12th, with proposals due the week of July 28th.  IRS plans to hold a listening session during the week of July 12th, 2021. We are providing you the draft Request for Proposal today Wednesday June 30, 2021 to guide our discussion during the listening session. This listening session is being held in lieu of the traditional questions and answers.

IRS will hold a listening session on Wednesday, July 13th, 2021 at 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm EST via ZoomGov. To register for the session, please email Douglas.M.Graham@irs.gov with the email subject “ATTN: SCaaS Listening Session” the following: names, email addresses, and phone numbers of up to two (2) individuals from your firm that plan to attend. Upon registration, the IRS will email attendees the Zoom Gov link. Registration shall be submitted prior to close of business on July 07, 2021.

PILOT IRS –Request for Information (RFI)

Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Enterprise Digitalization and Case Management Office

Digitalization Technology Pilot – Scanning

1. High-Level Summary/Future State

This RFI is associated with a Pilot IRS Enterprise Digitalization and Case Management Office (EDCMO) program.  The IRS EDCMO seeks information on service providers and associated solutions capable of digitalizing forms to increase throughput of paper of dissimilar sizes, single- and double-sided, typed and handwritten, including all attachments that can include documents or photographs of various shapes and sizes, such as stick-on tabs, separators, and sticky notes, as well as processing the binder clips, paper clips and staples that go along with a set of attachments. We are primarily interested in solutions that:

1. Receive, prepare, reproduce, sort, validate, store and transfer high resolution digital copies of various sized paper records, pictures, and forms, potentially in very large volumes, with impeccable accuracy, high level of speed, and low levels of manual activity.
2. Meet all IRS Minimum Technical Digitalization Specifications and Minimum Metadata Elements for IRS Records. While not included in this RFI, these standards align with industry best practices.
3. Interface and are compliant with IRS systems, cybersecurity requirements, hardware and software, etc. Interfaces and schemas included in potential solutions would need to be approved for use by the IRS Chief Information Officer.
4. Validate and report on the accuracy of scanned digital copies against the original records (paper etc.). Transfer the digital copies to downstream processes such as data extraction that may be hosted within IRS systems and/or third-party extraction solutions through industry standard interface mechanisms.

1. Background/Current State

The IRS receives a significant volume of paper forms and attachments that create difficulty in quickly preparing, digitalizing, storing and managing them as electronic records. These forms and attachments can range from a single page to hundreds of pages in length.  The documents may be bound with items such as two-prong metal fasteners, spiral bindings, rubber bands, binder clips, or staples. Documents may vary in shape and size and have multiple attachments stapled or connected in some fashion. As much of the information contained on these forms is sensitive, the IRS will use less sensitive, redacted, or publicly available forms/data to confirm the efficacy of a proposed solution before deciding whether to pursue it.       

The IRS is committed to creating an environment where IRS data is available, accessible, and usable in a format that enables data-driven decision-making at all levels of the IRS organization. These efforts will support improvements to taxpayer service, enhance the fairness of our compliance efforts, address federal guidelines (e.g., Office of Management and Budget (OMB) M-19-21, Transition to Electronic Records), and reduce teleworking challenges that have emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The solution needs to be distributed in order to accommodate processing across multiple locations.

1. Specific Areas of Input Requested/Questions

EDCMO respectfully requests input from industry partners and other parties regarding the following inquiries/topics:

1. 1. 1. Provide summary background on any existing solutions that you have deployed in government or industry that address this type of requirement. Include achieved scanning throughput figures.
      2. Identify any known infrastructures/interface issues that will make this effort more difficult (i.e., does restricting the solution to either government cloud or on-premise systems change what is available to the IRS?).
      3. Share architecture details of the solution implementation that future proofs IRS from a rapidly evolving industry and allows for easier plug and play.
      4. Explain how existing solutions address staples/binder clips/paper clips in documents.
      5. Provide recommendations regarding our primary areas of focus and provide recommendations on any improvements / additional areas of focus.
      6. Assume the government provided 10 million pages of documents of varying size with staples/binder clips/dividers/etc. and requested scans at 400 DPI. Provide a rough cost and timeframe to complete scanning. Provide another cost and timeframe estimate assuming the government provided 50 million pages.
      7. Provide an ROI summary that the EDCMO could reasonably expect to attain with the adoption and implementation of solutions in this space, based on comparable efforts with other federal agencies or companies.
      8. Expand to describe existing solutions that move from digitizing paper files to digitalizing paper files and extracting machine-readable data.
      9. Provide business status and existing government contract vehicles.

1. Disclaimer

This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. This notice should not be construed as a commitment by the Government for any purpose other than market research.  This announcement does not commit the Government to any contractual agreement. The Government is not seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement or any follow-up information requests.

Respondents will NOT be notified of the results of the analysis. All data received in response to this Sources Sought synopsis that is marked or designated as corporate or proprietary information will be fully protected from release outside the Government. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified.  Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with all applicable Government regulations.  All documentation shall become the property of the Government and will not be returned.

The deadline for responses to this RFI is 08:00AM EST, June 17, 2021.  Responses should be forwarded via email to both the primary and secondary points of contact below.  Responses shall not exceed 5 pages and shall not contain any brochures, advertising or any other type of extraneous, graphic literature or documents that have not been requested and are not relevant or essential in demonstrating the company’s ability to provide the required services.  Vendors may provide links to relevant websites, as appropriate.

Vendors shall reference “RFI_EDCMO IRS Digitalization Technology Pilot Scanning” in the subject line of their response as well as in the subject line of any other e-mail correspondence referencing this notice.

Please continue to monitor https://beta.sam.gov for updates. The IRS and EDCMO appreciate your interest in our mission and look forward to engaging with you.

** THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT RESPOND TO PHONE CALLS. **

Thank you for your interest.

Contracting Office Address:

IRS, 1111 Constitution Ave. NW

Washington, District of Columbia 20024

Primary Point of Contact:

Marcy Almeida

marcela.a.almeida@irs.gov

202-317-4087

Secondary Point of Contact:

Douglas “Marty” Graham     

douglas.m.graham@irs.gov

202-317-3338