This is NOT a request for quotations or proposals. THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. Treasury's HR Connect Program Office (HRCPO) is the enterprise owner of CareerConnector, its automated recruitment system. CareerConnector is part of HRConnect, which is part of the suite of PeopleSoft Human Resources Management System. Treasury's HR Connect Program Office is seeking an automated recruitment system that can be part of the suite of services. CareerConnector is an enterprise-wide automated recruiting system managed by the Department of the Treasury. CareerConnector delivers automated hiring for Treasury, its bureaus and its customers. The department is seeking a system that can produce vacancy announcements that can seamlessly integrate with non-Treasury services (e.g. USAJOBS) and other sites, allows applicants to apply online, use a variety of applicant assessment tools, rate and rank applicants, schedule applicants for a variety of activities, send electronic notifications to applicants, HR Users and hiring managers and be compatible with back end databases such as Oracle. The system must be able to generate a wide variety of reports to meet OPM regulatory reporting requirements and provide dashboard type functionality for tracking metrics on recruitment activities. The contractor would be required to provide services to manage and optimize the recruitment system and the support alternatives to provide business and operations continuity that will provide backup and disaster recovery capabilities for reconstituting CareerConnector. The system must also satisfy the requirements including those related to the number of total users, number of concurrent users, scalability, portability, security, system availability, response time, secure web access and maintenance. The system must be able to handle an unlimited number of applicants and a minimum of 250 HR User accounts, accommodate the diverse user population with a wide variety of computer systems, firewalls, and Internet connections, be web based; must have a comprehensive and easy to use on-line help to minimize user training; must have single sign-on capability at a secure host web environment; and must comply with Treasury requirements for managing the Sensitive but Unclassified (SBU) data, meet Federal Security Information Management Act requirements, and OMB-E-gov architecture requirements. As part of an enterprise solution, Treasury will own all of the data in the recruitment system. The system must provide management and system administrators with a monitoring capability that will provide detailed and cumulative activity by user, group, and role. The system must provide an audit capability that will detail what data was accessed, who accessed that data, and when the data was accessed. Furthermore, the system must be available for use 24 hours per day, 7 days per week (24X7). Unscheduled outages or unapproved maintenance downtime must not exceed 98%. The contractor shall provide the following recruitment system support as it relates to Production Support and Technical Architecture: Support Services: Production Call Support End-User Support (Help Desk Tier) Performance Measures/Metrics Reporting Applicant/Announcement Analytics Technical Architecture: Engineering Infrastructure Operations (Hosting) Telecommunications Database Administration Production Control Disaster Recovery THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a Request for Proposals (RFP). Responders are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI are the sole responsibility of the responding party. All information received by the Government in response to this RFI that is marked PROPRIETARY will be handled accordingly. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. The Government will not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Small Businesses, 8a companies, Hub-Zone Small Businesses, Small Disadvantaged Businesses, Woman-Owned Small Businesses, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses are encouraged to submit a response to this RFI in order to assist the IRS in determining the levels of competition available in the marketplace. Also, vendors should indicate if their products/services are available through any existing government contract vehicles (e.g. GSA Schedule, GWACS). Vendors should provide estimates of all costs associtated with their solutions (e.g.,software licenses; subscription fees; consulting rates; and hosting fees, etc.). The acquisition strategy for this requirement will be determined based on the responses received to this RFI. In accordance with FAR 15.201-9(e), responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. When the solicitation is released, if required, it will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website and will be the responsibility of the interested parties to monitor this site for additional information pertaining to the resulting RFP. SUBMISSION OF CAPABILITY STATEMENTS/AREAS OF INTEREST/INDUSTRY COMMENTS: The capability statements are not to exceed 20 pages and may submitted via e-mail no later than October 18, 2007 to judy.s.harrison@irs.gov. The Capability Statements shall include the vendor's point(s) of contact name, address, telephone number, and email address; the company's business size, including applicable NAICS code(s). The Capabilities Statement shall include a description of similar work performed within the past 5 years including the name and number of the contract, the contract scope, type of contract, period of performance, contract deliverables, dollar thresholds and limitations, the issuing Government agency, and the name and telephone number of the Contracting Officer. Information received in response to this RFI will be used to determine the acquisition strategy for any resultant RFP. Therefore, any small business concern with the capability to perform the required services is encouraged to submit a response to the RFI. The release of this RFI affords industry the opportunity to comment on any perceived issues with regard to the initiative and to allow the Government to receive the benefit of industry comments. The Government's purpose in providing an opportunity for industry comment is to identify potential problem areas and provide alternative recommendations in order to enhance the success of the initiative. The Government believes industry feedback is important. The Government is receptive to any and all ideas from industry which would result in limiting unnecessarily constraining requirements, realizing cost savings, or highlighting potential technical or contractual problem areas associated with the initiative. What new capabilities within the past five years have provided the biggest ROI, are industry standards, and describe what you see as the industry trend over the next five years. What has been your experience in performance-based delivery methods and techniques? Describe your experience with performance-based and/or incentives-based contracts. SERVICE LEVEL/PERFORMANCE METRICS. The Government is interested in Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and Performance Metrics used by industry to measure the efficiency and effectiveness of hardware and software maintenance support. The Government is interested in operational metrics (those used to monitor day-to-day activities) and management metrics (those used by management to gauge key indicators of success, executive dashboard, etc.). Additionally, the Government is interested in how industry balances using leading (forecasting) and lagging (static) metrics. Since the Government is exploring the use of a performance-based contracting approach, it would be helpful to understand the service levels/performance metrics used to manage the operations, and those metrics used as a basis for payment. Questions to the Government may be included under separate cover for all submissions. Point of Contact Email your questions to Contract Specialist at judy.s.harrison@irs.gov
