6515--Auditory Implants Industry Day Announcement

This is in follow up to our RFI 36C79125Q0025 posted on July 15, 2025. Thank you for agreeing to participate in an important initiative to assist the Department of Veteran Affairs in performing market research related to Auditory Implant Systems. Your company has been asked to participate because of your reputation and past performance record as one of the leaders and top performers in the federal marketplace in providing Cochlear Implants and Audio Osseointegrated Implants. I would like to personally thank you for agreeing to take part in this effort. A central tenet of acquisition reform is to significantly improve the quality of market research. One of the main benefits of solid market research is to materially improve the government s understanding of the current state of the marketplace, including commercial/government best practices, industry capabilities, innovative delivery approaches, commercial market service levels, and performance strategies and measures. For upcoming recompete for Department of Veteran Affairs, Auditory Implant Program, a special emphasis of the market research is being placed on market/industry infrastructure, practices and product availability. We are also interested in identifying new and upcoming implant systems and their individual performance criteria that differentiate between and among high-quality firms in this field, to include advances in programming and IT related software security advancements. We believe this information will dramatically improve the quality of the forthcoming acquisition, including the solicitation and resulting contract. Please prepare a presentation no longer to hours with the following areas to address: When and what is your next release of systems and their supporting devices and provide company outlook on advancement of these systems. If possible, provide estimated timelines for the release of these systems. Are there any upcoming industry advances that the government should be aware of? Any industry partnerships we need to be aware of? Outline your standard commercial practice in the ordering of items for patient surgeries for both AOI and CI. Provide example form. Warranty: What are you able to offer and can it be standardized for government benefit. Please discuss the difference between CI and AOI. Can industry support more than one training a year? About device programming, are there any plans for industry to go towards universal programming vs. proprietary programmers? - What is the industry doing to align with NOAH in both CI as Hearing Aid industry uses NOAH? What can the industry do to consider this alignment to help government partners? Vendors will be required to align to Federal Standards on software and drivers for programming software. It is imperative that your company follow either DISA STIGs (https://www.cyber.mil/stigs/) and NIST (https://www.nist.gov/) standards in order for the software to work in the federal IT space. Please explain how will future programming software requirements meet the Federal IT standards of FIPs 140-3, IPv6 and NIST requirements for software security metrics? Vendors will be required to meet Windows 11 signed drivers. When will your company meet signed drivers with Windows 11? What is industry doing to meet these standards? Are there any issues the government should be aware of? Vendors will be required to utilize ANSI X.12 EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) transaction sets for exchange of purchase orders/amendments and invoices with VA due to modernization requirements on the government side. See Attachment D-10 Electronic Data Interchange Guidelines. Please describe your existing or planned capabilities for use of the X.12 EDI standard. How does the company meet Quality Assurance and Quality Control by meeting Software Programming Packages for Federal space? Government Support Services: enhancing customer support in the areas of IT, Finance and Clinical support. Provide how you are going to address issues or concerns that can arise. A joint meeting, with representatives from Department of Veteran Affairs, The Department of Defense and your company has been scheduled on October 20 21, 2025 at the Denver Logistic Center. All Contractors will be required to be present on the first day, October 20, 2025. VA intends to hold one on one Individual meetings with your company after main presentation on Monday, October 20 and Tuesday October 21. Each company will be allotted two hours to present their business information and products. Given the focus of the market research conducted, we request that your team be comprised primarily of clinical/research and business development, information technology specialists or software technical expert and operations personnel. Of course, sales personnel are welcome at your discretion. However, we do request that most of the team attending have operational expertise with the federal government. We encourage you to bring some samples or examples of the best practices and performance metrics and measurements that you feel would be pertinent to this requirement. To assist you in preparing for this market research session, I am attaching a draft performance work statement of the upcoming requirement. We respectfully request that you provide the RSVP by September 30, 2025, noon Mountain. You are required to acknowledge the receipt of this invitation and provide the full name, main contact information, phone number and names of personnel attending in your party, to contact@example.gov with Subject 36C79125Q0026 Industry Day RSVP RSVP. A representative from Team A will then schedule a two-hour block meeting for the individual one on one. I do want to emphasize that these market research sessions are not competitions. The information obtained from the sessions will be used to improve the government s knowledge of private industry s capabilities. No evaluation of participating contractors will occur and your participation in the sessions is not a promise of future business with Veteran Affairs. No contract will be awarded from these meetings. It is our intent that formal competitive packages will be developed using information gathered from these market research sessions. The government will evaluate proposals and award any contractual documents in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation processes and procedures. Again, I appreciate your cooperation and look forward to a meaningful and very productive session. If you have any questions regarding the meeting, please contact contact@example.gov Sincerely, Star Yeo, Supervisory Contract Specialist, Division Chief, NAC-CSAS-Team A Attachments Draft Performance Work Statement Draft Attachment D-10 Electronic Data Interchange Guidelines Draft Agenda Building Directions