R608--new requirement - tele-interpreter services

To whom it may concern,

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This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE for market research purposes only to determine the availability of potential businesses with capabilities to provide the service described in the PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS). Potential offerors are invited to provide information via e-mail to crystal.volmar@va.gov. All responses will be used to determine the appropriate acquisition strategy for a potential future acquisition according to SOW.

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Potential contractors shall provide, at a minimum, the following information to crystal.volmar@va.gov:

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1) Name, address, point of contact name, phone number, and e-mail address.

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2) Brief capability statement with enough information to determine if the company can meet the requirement. The Capabilities Statement for this sources sought is not expected to be a Request for Quote nor does restrict the Government to an ultimate acquisition approach, but rather short statement regarding the company's ability to provide the Veterans Affairs Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC) Customer Service Contact Center with (Tele-Interpretation Services) call-in service to assist employees with translating foreign languages into English language during inbound and outbound telephone calls with customers. Any commercial brochures or currently existing marketing material may also be submitted with the capabilities statement.

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The capabilities will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining to Set-Aside for small or large business Community. The Government must ensure there is an adequate competition among the potential pool of available contractors using Sam.gov website.

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This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. This synopsis is not a solicitation announcement for Request for Quote. No formal solicitation document exists at this time, and no contract will be awarded from this announcement. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Due to the urgency of this requirement, interested contractors should notify this office via email by 12:00 PM (MST) on May 30, 2025.

Performance Work Statement

Tele-Interpretation Services Contract

Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) Veteran Health Administration (VHA)

Office of Integrated Veteran Care (IVC)

1. GENERAL

Interpretation services to translate all commonly spoken foreign languages into the English language.

1.1 SCOPE:

The VA IVC Customer Service Contact Center (to include Family Member and Community Care Contact Centers) requires a call-in service to assist employees with translating foreign languages into the English language during inbound and outbound telephone calls with customers.

1.2 LOCATION: Support shall be provided to call center telephone locations within VA IVC nationwide. It is anticipated that work will be performed remotely at the contractor s location. Contractors location shall be in the United States. All contractor and subcontractor employees performing work under this contract, to include translators, shall reside in the United States.

1.3 PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE:

Base year with four (4) one-year options.

1.4 SERVICE REQUIREMENTS

The contractor shall be compliant with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and VA privacy standards.

No records shall be exchanged in the course of this contract. Live real time telephone transcription is being captured on VA systems through Avaya or any telephone system that VA migrates to in the future.

The contractor shall provide this service 6:00AM to 9:00PM Mountain Time, Monday through Friday. Excluding the following federal holidays, unless emergency services are required for national disaster: New Year s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. Dates are provided at the following link: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/ Service hours are subject to change with 30 days written notice to contractor.

The contractor shall provide this telephone interpreter service for a minimum of 700 users within IVC.

The contractor shall provide a toll-free telephone number line for the above stated users to access the tele-interpreter services.

The final output of this work shall be a service that will facilitate Customer Service (CS) Contact Representatives (CR) and other front-line staff with the ability to communicate with callers through telephonic language support representatives to resolve customer issues.

The contractor shall provide foreign language translation services into the English language for successful facilitation and communication of translated language from the IVC employee to the caller and from the caller to the IVC employee, effectively translating both IVC employee and their caller s questions/answers.

The contractor shall not begin charging for per minute usage of services until the call has connected to the requested language translator.

Translation services for a call center shall be charged at the same rate for all languages.

The contractor shall not stipulate a minimum charge amount requirement.

1.5 The contractor shall provide foreign language translation services into English, during live telephone calls, for the following languages: Afrikaans, Akan, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Ashante, Assyrian, Azerbaijani, Azeri, Bajuni, Bambara, Basque, Behdini, Belorussian, Bengali, Berber, Bosnian, Bravanese, Bulgarian, Burmese, Cakchiquel, Cambodian, Cantonese, Catalan, Chaldean, Chamorro, Chao-chow, Chavacano ,Chin, Chuukese, Cree, Croatian, Czech, Dakota, Danish, Dari, Dinka, Diula, Dutch, Estonian, Ewe, Farsi, Fijian, Hindi, Finnish, Flemish, French, French, Canadian, Fukienese, Fula, Fulani, Fuzhou, Ga, Gaddang, Gaelic, Gaelic Irish, Gaelic Scottish, Georgian, German, Gorani, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hakka, Hakka Chinese, Hassaniyya, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Ibanag, Ibo, Icelandic, Igbo, locano, Indonesian, Inuktitut, Italian, Jakartanese, Japanese, Javanese, Kanjobal, Karen, Kashmiri, Kikuyu, Kinyarwanda, Kirundi, Korean, Kosovan, Kotokoli, Kpelle, Krio, Kurdish, Kurmanji, Lakota, Laotian, Latvian, Lingala, Lithuanian, Luganda, Luo, Lusoga, Luxembourgeois, Maay, Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Malinke, Mandarin, Mandingo, Mandinka, Marathi, Marshallese, Mien, Mina, Mirpuri, Mixteco, Moldavan, Mongolian, Montenegrin, Navajo, Neapolitan, Nepali, Nigerian Pidgin, English, Norwegian, Nuer, Oromo, Pahari, Pampangan, Pashto, Patois, Pidgin English, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese, Creole, Pothwari, Pulaar, Punjabi, Putian, Quichua, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Sango, Serbian, Shanghainese, Shona, Sichuan, Sicilian, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Soninke, Sorani, Spanish, Sudanese Arabic, Sundanese, Susu, Swahili, Swedish, Sylhetti, Tagalog, Taiwanese, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tigre, Tigrinya, Toishanese, Tongan, Toucouleur, Tshiluba, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Visayan, Wenzhou, Wolof, Yiddish, Yoruba and Yupik.

1.6 DELIVERY SCHEDULE

Task

Deliverable

Quantity

Delivery Date

1.6 a

Kickoff Meeting Agenda and Presentation

1 EA

Two (2) business days before scheduled kickoff meeting

1.6 b

Meeting Minutes

1 EA

Three (3) business days after kickoff meeting

1.6.c

Monthly Status Report

12 EA

NLT five (5) business days after the beginning of each month

1.6.d

Monthly Invoice Tracker

12 EA

NLT ten (10) business days after the end of monthly billing cycle

1.6.e

Monthly Invoice PDF

12 EA

NLT ten (10) business days after the end of monthly billing cycle