The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to (1) provide follow-up information to the Public Announcement and (2) solicit comments, suggestions, best practices, and lessons learned regarding the acquisition of IT Desktop Personal Computer services on a seat management basis, (3) provide interested parties a draft of the Performance Work Statement for their comments, suggestions and other general feedback and (4) solicit input on several other elements of general interest to the FDA in regards to overall scope of this effort. 1. Follow-Up to Public Announcement a. The Study Schedule is currently as follows: OFFICE OF IT SHARED SERVICES STUDY STUDY TASK START FINISH Public Announcement September 15, 2006 Performance Work Statement September 15, 2006 March 9, 2007 Agency Tender Development September 15, 2006 June 5, 2007 Solicitation Period April 2, 2007 June 5, 2007 Source Selection June 18, 2007 December 21,2007 Performance Decision Announced January 14, 2008 Transition Period February 2008 TBD Start of 1st Performance Period TBD b. The current number and location of OITSS FTEs is listed on Attachment 1. c. There are approximately 155 on-site contractors directly supporting the functions listed in the Public Announcement. All of these contract personnel are located in the Metropolitan District of Columbia area. 2. Desktop Hardware Management Services Provided on a Seat Management basis Background: The FDA is in the process of conducting an OMB A-76 competitive sourcing study of the operations, maintenance and management of its IT regulatory network and related support infrastructure. As part of the study, the FDA is interested in the advisability of writing the eventual solicitation with the option of performing selected tasks on a seat management basis. These selected tasks are desktop hardware procurement, receipt, storage, provisioning, delivery, installation, pickup, disposal and refresh. If, based on responses to this RFI and other considerations, seat management is judged to be an option that is in the best interest of the FDA, the competitive sourcing solicitation may ask for a priced option for performing the selected desktop tasks on a seat management basis (Service Provider furnished hardware). Request: All interested parties are requested to provide answers to the following questions plus any comments, suggestions, or other beneficial information that the FDA could use in determining whether to structure the solicitation to include seat management. 1. Have you ever provided the selected scope of desktop management services as mentioned above on a seat management basis? If so, please provide the following information. a. Brief description of the environment including number of seats served, and types of Service Level Agreements, and technologies used. b. Identification of tasks that are provided off-site versus on-site. 2. In your experience, how effective has it been to provide the desktop services contemplated in this solicitation on a seat management in terms of: a. Cost efficiency and control? b. Higher customer satisfaction? c. Increased operational efficiency? 3. Are there any other seat management services you would add to achieve further economies of scale and a commensurately lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) or to improve system performance and/or customer satisfaction at the same TCO? 4. In your experience, what would be the average per seat cost of the selected desktop tasks identified above based on customer and workload information in draft PWS? Discuss factors contributing to cost increases or decreases in this type of a managed services environment? 5. What is the minimum term of a seat management contract for PCs that would allow the new IT service provider to convert to seat management without increasing FDA?s IT expenditures? 6. From your experience, what are the best practices for phasing-in or transitioning to seat management and how would these be effectively addressed in a possible solicitation? 3. Draft Performance Work Statement The attached PWS is an early draft and does not include all workload or performance standards that will be provided. The FDA is releasing this PWS as part of the RFI to encourage interaction between the FDA?s PWS team and the parties interested in the competitive sourcing study. The intent of this interaction is to help shape the eventual solicitation so that it meets FDA?s long term requirements in a manner which is compatible with the best practices of potential offerors. As you review the PWS, bear in mind that it is purposefully written as a performance-based document. Thus, it attempts to describe the service or output required without overly specifying how that service or output is to be accomplished. In some cases, the full description of the desired service is incomplete. Your input is requested in order to identify the salient elements necessary to fully understand the requirement and price it realistically. 4. Request for General Acquisition Information 1. Provide specific comments on the performance standards included in the Performance Requirement Summary of the attached PWS (Technical Exhibits 1-002 and 1-002B). a. Are they in-line with industry best practices? b. Are there any additional or alternative metrics, thresholds, etc. that you would recommend (please provide rationale) c. Are there any price/performance trade-off implications that result in higher costs with diminishing return on performance? 2. Please describe the type(s) of contract vehicles that your company has used to provide these types of services in the manner described in the attached. 3. What are the key cost elements, e.g., geographical location vs hardware specification, which tend to drive a vendor?s cost proposal in response to a solicitation for the services described above? 4. What would you estimate to be the per cent increase in marginal cost of Tier I services (on-site desktop service of reported problems) if that service was expanded to 24/7 for all locations? Please submit no more than 20 total single-sided pages of response. Interested parties should submit their responses to the RFI to the Contracting Officer, Lisa O?Neill, through electronic mail, at
contact@example.gov, no later than December 21, 2006. This RFI is being issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute an Invitation for Bid (IFB), a Request for Proposal (RFP), or a Request for Quote (RFQ) or an indication the Government will contract for any of the items and/or services contained in this notice. All information received in response to this notice that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Responses to this notice will not be returned or published. Questions submitted as part of your response will not be answered. The FDA will respond formally to vendor questions when a solicitation is officially released. In submitting a response, you are solely responsible and accountable for all expenses associated with your response. Attachment 1 City State *OITSS FTE San Juan PR 3 Winchester MA 2 Stoneham MA 3 Parsippany NY 1 Jamaica NY 14 Albany NY 1 Buffalo NY 3 Philadelphia PA 3 College Park MD 5 Rockville MD 126 Baltimore MD 2 Atlanta GA 8 Maitland FL 2 Miami FL 1 Nashville TN 1 Memphis TN 1 Cincinnati OH 4 Indianapolis IN 1 Detroit MI 2 Minneapolis MN 2 Chicago IL 7 St Louis MO 2 Lenexa KS 3 Metairie LA 1 Jefferson AK 1 Dallas TX 6 Houston TX 1 Pharr TX 1 Denver CO 3 San Diego CA 1 Irvine CA 5 Alameda CA 3 Oakland CA 1 Bothell WA 5 Grand Total 225 * Includes authorized vacancies THE PWS can be uploaded separately on FBO.
