D -- Information Technology Infrastructure and Common Operating Environment Support

This requirement is a competitive procurement under the 8(a) program with the Small Business Administration. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has a requirement for services to support the Office of Information Technology and Support Systems (IT&SS). The IT&SS uses an integrated Enterprise Architecture, Capital Planning, and Security governance process to design, implement, manage, and maintain the agency's information systems in a Common Operating Environment that includes the IT (Information Technology) Infrastructure (Local Area Network, Wide Area Network, and E-Mail System). The FRA IT user community consists of approximately 760 Federal personnel in headquarters and eight regional offices as well as 150 state personnel. The Contractor shall provide the following support services to the FRA as specified in the solicitation's Statement of Work (SOW): Help Desk Management and Support; End-User Desktop Support; Network (LAN/WAN) Management; Server Management; E-mail Management; Database Management; Rapid Response Support; Inventory and Asset Management; Program Management; Configuration Management; IT Security and Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) Documentation; Enterprise Architecture Documentation and DOT Liaison; Capital Planning Documentation; and Transition Planning. The work shall be performed at the FRA headquarters in Washington, DC. Occasional travel to selected FRA COOP, Regional, and Contractor sites may be required. The Contractor shall also provide on-call/extended hours service coverage of the central network servers that provide critical network services, such as electronic mail, file services, Internet-related services, database services, and central network services 24 hours per day, seven days per week, throughout the entire year. The anticipated contract type is Firm Fixed Price (FFP) with a contract period of performance of five years to include one base year, two consecutive one-year options, and four consecutive six-month options. FRA will conduct a preliminary competitive range determination based upon review of the technical approach and price. A full review of the proposal will only be done for those proposals determined to be within the competitive range.To assist all interested offerors, FRA has developed an acquisition plan and set the following tentative milestones: 1) Issuance of solicitation - February 24, 2004; 2) Contractor shall submit all questions regarding the request for proposal (RFP) due- March 12, 2004. 3) Pre-proposal Conference will be held in Washington, DC - March 19, 2004. The time and place of the Pre-proposal Conference will be posted on FEDBIZOPPS; 4) Proposals due- April 5, 2004; 5) Oral presentations, if conducted, during the week of April 26-30; 6) Initiation of negotiations/discussions on or about May 17, 2004; 7) Contract Award on June 30, 2004. It should be noted that these tentative milestones are for planning purposes only and are subject to variations. The solicitation for this proposed contract will be available to interested parties via the Internet at www.FEDBIZOPPS.gov. No paper copies of the solicitation will be available. Potential offerors shall be responsible for monitoring the Internet site for release of the solicitation, amendments, and responses to any questions submitted in accordance with the solicitation provisions.