Fire & Aviation Management Operations, Maintenance, and Support

Request for Information (RFI) Pursuant to FAR 15.201(e) U.S. Forest Service IT Services Acquisition The United States Forest Service, Washington Office, Acquisition Management, Information Technology (IT) Support Branch is requesting information from interested offerors who have the capabilities to provide Fire and Aviation Application Maintenance and Support for the USDA Forest Service National Information Systems Team (NIST). The intent is to obtain support services for the operation and maintenance of Fire and Aviation applications and components including web page interfaces, administration and technical support and programmatic support. The IT Support Branch is conducting market research to gain an understanding of the capabilities and qualifications that exist in the marketplace as well as finalize a performance-based acquisition strategy. Please refer to the draft - Statement of Objectives (SOO, incorporated by reference as Attachment A. After review of the SOO, please complete the following Market Research Questionnaire. Your response should be limited to 20 single-spaced pages, including all attachments but excluding a cover page and table of contents, using 1 margins and a font size greater than or equal to Times New Roman 12. Market Research Questionnaire Interested organizations should complete the information below and respond to the questions that follow. This information supplied will help to insure the SOO has been adequately prepared to provide meaningful incentives/disincentives, and better finalize the acquisition strategy plan for a possible resultant procurement. Company Name: _________________________________ Contact Name: ___________________________________ Position: ________________________________________ Telephone: ______________________________________ E-mail: _________________________________________ Company URL: __________________________________ Business Classification and Socio-Economic Status: Please check all that apply. - Large - Small - 8(a) - Women Owned - Hub-Zone - SDB - Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Contract Vehicles you currently hold: Please check all that apply and list all contracts. - GSA IT Schedule 70 - Contract No. ______________________________________________ - GWACs/MACs Contract No. _______________________________________________________ - Other CONTRACTS:________________________________________________________________ QUESTIONS: 1) The Forest Service requires a wide range of skills to complement the work done by Forest Service employees in delivering IT services to the agency. Many of these deliverables have issues of synergy that may result in inefficiencies, delivery problems, and increased cost if done in a fragmented way or by multiple vendors: a) Describe your experience in delivering the full range of functions described by the SOW. b) Describe how you have dealt with coordination issues with subcontractors when the services/skills provided are not within the key areas of expertise within your organization. 2) Has your organization performed past projects comparable to those described in the SOW? If so, provide details of each engagement (project nature, size, dollar value, customer contact name, e-mail address, phone number). Also identify risks identified with each past project and the solution your firm utilized to offset the risk(s) for each past project. 3) Has your organization entered into contracts where you did not have complete control over the project - such as a partner in a consortium, part of a teaming arrangement, or similar arrangements? If so, provide details of how you dealt with issues regarding project management, accountability, and risk mitigation. 4) Were any of these contracts issued as performance-based contracts, i.e. were there incentives for meeting or exceeding performance goals and disincentives for failing to achieve performance goals? If so, provide details and examples of performance metrics and the associated incentive/disincentive structures. Disclaimer This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Respondents are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. Responses to this RFI will not be returned. Respondents will not be notified of the result of the review. All documentation received from offerors shall be kept confidential and shall not be disclosed to anyone outside of official Government channels. Based on the written results of this RFI, if funding is available and U.S. Forest Service deems that sources are available to provide contractual support for the IT Services Acquisition, the government will develop and finalize an acquisition strategy and may potentially submit a follow-on announcement requesting quotes. Submissions Completed technical response(s), questions, suggestions to this RFI shall be submitted electronically, but no later than 2 PM MST on June 16, 2008, to Ms. Ramona Romo-Garza at rromogarza@fs.fed.us. Vendors are cautioned not to contact any other U.S. Forest Service employees concerning this RFI. Violation of this request may deem a vendor ineligible to respond to any resultant Request for Quote. Point of Contact Ramona C. Romo-Garza Contract Specialist U.S. Forest Service Phone: 505-842-3409 Email: rromogarza@fs.fed.us