EDS Subscription and Enhancement

Request for Information for Commercially Available Environmental Data Services (EDS) for the Search and Rescue Optimal Planning System (SAROPS) 70Z044-18-RFI000019 Disclaimer and Important Notes: This posting is a Request for Information (RFI) from interested vendors and is issued solely for informational and planning purposes. This posting is not a Request for Proposals or a Request for Quotations, and it is not considered to be a commitment by the Government to award a contract nor is the Government responsible for any costs incurred in furnishing information provided under this RFI. No basis for claim against the Government shall arise as a result from a response to this RFI or Government use of any information provided. Further, the Coast Guard is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response to this RFI. The Government reserves the right to use any information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate, including using technical information provided by respondents in any resultant solicitation. Responses will assist the Government in determining the availability of potential solutions and commercial products in the market. At this time no solicitation exists; therefore, do Not Request a Copy of the Solicitation. It is the responsibility of the potential offerors to monitor this site for additional information pertaining to this requirement. Requirement: The Department of Homeland Security, Coast Guard's Command, Control and Communications Engineering Center (C3CEN) develops, builds, fields, trains, and supports advanced electronic command, control, and navigation systems. The purpose of Search and Rescue Optimal Planning System (SAROPS) is the creation of Search And Rescue plans in direct support of the core US Coast Guard mission of Search And Rescue (SAR). SAROPS is used 24/7 in every US Coast Guard Sector and District Command Center. The SAROPS application is written as series of extensions to the ArcGIS geographical information system (GIS) from ESRI. SAROPS is deployed on a pool of servers positioned throughout the Coast Guard AOR. Operators access SAROPS by use of the Remote Desktop capability of the Standard Workstation. A commercial EDS subscription will provide SAROPS with web services technology to obtain the current/wind data which is required to optimally run search object drift simulations. The SAR Controller identifies the Area Of Interest (AOI) and the EDS then provides a set of candidate wind/current data products for that AOI. SAROPS then transmits AOI and product parameters to the EDS provider and receives resultant wind and current data sufficient to run the drift simulation. These communications are temporary, initiated by SAROPS and terminated by SAROPS after receipt of requested information. The requirements for the EDS is broken down into two categories, Subscription and Refinements: Subscription Services. The general nature of the work for subscription services under this contract consists of EDS web services including but not limited to data source catalog, data format transformation, status reporting, web services and archiving. The contractor provided data products are COTS subscription commodities that will be provided by the vendor's servers and accessed by SAROPS clients. Enhancements: The general nature of the work for enhancements under this contract consists of developing capabilities which are beyond that which is built within the EDS or available as a web service from EDS. Contractual effort defined by individual orders may include, but are not limited to, the following capabilities: - New data elements (e.g., sea state, sea surface temperature, air temperature, humidity) and or new data products to provide improved data resolution and quality for specific water bodies (e.g., Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds). - Analytics, such as the determination of a data product's skill or incorporate multiple Surface Current Products to SAROPS Simulator for ensemble forecasting. The skill calculations will be driven by observation data (e.g., SLDMB, HF RADAR, NDBC site). - Additional data aggregation and smart Area of Interest processing. - Status monitoring web site for EDS health status information. PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS - USCG C3CEN requires a web service based subscription of data feed from an Environmental Data Service that can provide EDS web services including but not limited to data source catalog, data format transformation, status reporting, web services and archiving. - The Contractor shall ensure that the EDS are available 24/7 and average a yearly uptime must be in excess of 99%. - The Contractor shall ensure Production environment downtime must be less than 24 hours per year for maintenance purposes and that no down time period extends for more than 3 hours. General maintenance will be scheduled not less than 72 hours in advance. Emergency maintenance will be applied as necessary but not prior to C3CEN notification. - The Contractor shall make available a Disaster Recovery site which is fully functional within 30 minutes after first notification that the primary EDS site fails to respond. LOGISTICS SUPPORT The Coast Guard requests information on the support including the following: (1) description of how the company would maintain and sustain the service throughout a 10-year subscription, (2) how the company would respond to Enhancement orders, and (3) product reliability (i.e. Mean Time Between Failure [MTBF]) and maintainability (i.e. Mean Time To Repair [MTTR]). CAPABILITIES BRIEF If your company is interested in this RFI, please provide a capabilities brief including: company name, address, phone, Point of Contact (POC), email, and phone, DUNS #, NAICS code, size of business, and any other pertinent information. The NAICS Codes for this solicitation is 518210, Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services. Contractors doing business with the Government are required to register in the System for Award Management (SAM) database before they can be awarded a contract. A template containing the information for registration can be found at: https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/ ADDITIONAL SUBMISSION OF INFORMATION Interested parties are encouraged to submit a response which supports the company's claim that it presently has the products that provide the technology, performance, functionality and form fit required to satisfy the requirements or submit a response which identifies areas in the system requirements that are technologically unachievable. The Coast Guard's requirement may be refined based on knowledge gained from RFI submissions. Specifically, any interested parties are requested to provide the following information: 1. Positive statement of your interest in this procurement. 2. Description of procedure to fulfill this requirement. What type of services do you offer that might fill this requirement? (Describe system capabilities & performance, and other specifications) 3. Do you offer a commercial produce that meets the requirement as stated? (is this item under a current GSA Schedule or do you currently have a contract for this product/service with any other Federal Agency?) 4. Do you offer a commercial product that could be modified to meet this requirement? 5. Do you offer quantity or other discounts to your customers? 6. Are the items/services available on a commercial price list? If so, please provide the applicable price list(s). 7. What is your average delivery lead time for this type of product? 8. Provide a list of any proprietary data/components or embedded components for this product or data associated with this item. 9. Existing documentation and brochures are welcome as attachments as well as product catalogs and price lists. 10. Provide information on prior Government and commercial purchases of the same type (pricing, performance, and customer satisfaction data). 11. What environmental data can you provide? 12. What is your commercial practice for Technical Support? 13. Solutions/approaches not specifically conforming to the Coast Guard's current requirement may be submitted (i.e. Does your company have a better way of meeting our requirement?). Comments/questions/concerns are encouraged and should be sent in writing to the Contract Specialist, at Heather.M.Linzy@uscg.mil. Upon receiving feedback, the Coast Guard will assess all input and its impact on the development of the final specifications. Responses must be no longer than fifteen pages in length. Technical documentation and brochures, if included, do not count in the fifteen page maximum. Submit your response by 4:00 PM EST on Friday, 27 July 2018 to the Contract Specialist, Heather.M.Linzy@uscg.mil.