70 -- Electronic Folder and Disability System for State DDS Sites

The Social Security Administration intends to negotiate solely with I. Levy & Associates., 645 Maryville Centre Drive, suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63141-5815 under the authority of 41 U.S.C (253)(c)(1) as set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subsection 6.302-1 - Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements for continued development and implementation of the Electronic Folder Interface (EFI)/Document Management Architecture (DMA) software into 30 Levy supported DDSs. The period of performance for this award will begin on 3/22/06 and continue through 9/21/06. Over the last few years, the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the State Disability Determination Services (DDS) have been engaged in major initiatives to improve the administration of the disability programs. These initiatives included enhancements to the disability information systems used within SSA and the DDSs. I. Levy & Associates (ILA) developed and implemented the DDSs Disability Determination Case Processing System which is the legacy system used by each ILA supported state to process disability claims. ILA is the only known source that can provide the support required by each state. ILA has supported 30 DDSs for up to 20 years. ILA has developed all the user interfaces and screen designs. ILA owns the source code and it is assumed that they have total familiarity with the code and data structures for all the DDSs they serve. The Electronic Disability system (eDib) is a comprehensive project for all components in the disability processing enterprise. One of the major objec!ives of eDib is to provide access to and sharing of disability information to all disability processing components through an Electronic Folder. The Electronic Folder is pictured as a data store that contains information that is directly or indirectly important to processing disability cases. To support the next and subsequent releases, modifications will be needed to the EFI/DMA and its supporting processes to enhance additional case processing. Any responding vendor must demonstrate success in writing COBOL and JAVA applications utilizing the AS400 platform, process WebSphere Messaging Queues transactions, interface with IBM Content Manager and interface with SSA mainframe. The software must be 100% compatible with SSA's current infrastructure. The Electronic Folder Interface (EFI) software must have the following conspicuous characteristics: The software must minimize modifications to the Electronic folder interface as well as the DDS legacy system application code when SSA changes the Electronic Folder's data elements/requirements. The software must ensure user interfaces and screen presentations that exist in the DDS systems are preserved to the greatest extent possible when interfacing with eDib. In addition, I. Levy & Associates will be required to provide for continued transition to a new electronic disability process to improve the efficiency, timeliness, accuracy and integrity of our disability determination process for the improved disability decision making. Based on proposed amendments to our administrative review process for Social Security Administration claims based on disability, SSA requires the flexibility to provide for changes necessary. Vendors authorized and capable of continuing SSA's EFI development and implementation must present electronic/written evidence of such capability by SSA's close of business on March 1, 2006 and refer to DDS-ILEVY-EXTENSION. Oral communication is not acceptable. All submissions of information should be made to: Angie Landis, Contract Specialist/SSA, at the email address or mailing address accompanying this notice. The Government does not intend to pay for information received and does not intend to provide evaluation results to the sender. Instead, the knowledge obtained from information submitted will be used to determine whether there appears to be a competitive source in the marketplace.