HEAL On-Line Loan Processing System (HOPS)

Request for Information Purpose The U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid is seeking an operations and maintenance support services vendor for the Health Education Assistance Loan (HEAL) On-Line Loan Processing System (HOPS). This is a Request for Information (RFI) as defined in FAR 15.201(e) for planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. The Government is requesting information regarding the availability and feasibility of attracting potentially new service providers to meet our Operations & Maintenance needs for the Department of Education's HOPS. For this RFI, ED is seeking Small Business providers that are capable of providing the services described. Background The U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid (FSA), through the use of the web?based HOPS, tracks the disbursement of these HEAL loans and the government's obligation under the terms of its agreement with the lenders. This system is used to record each individual loan insured, to receive monthly updates from HEAL Servicers on outstanding balances and loan statuses, the system will track delinquent loans, approve claim payments, maintain claim documentation, produce letters to lenders, produce a variety of management reports, and analyze trends in pertinent areas of activity. The HOPS system uses a web browser as the user interface, Internet Information Server and an Oracle v 11.2.04 database running on Windows 2008 R2 servers as the database back end. High Level Requirements: The successful vendor will be required to perform the duties outlined below; 1. Provide customer service to FSA and lender/servicers to resolve reporting issues 2. Run the day to day operations of the HOPS system including file loads and response files, as well as responding and coordination regarding technical support issues and websites 3. System changes and enhancements in .NET Framework and Database Administration 4. Provide expert resources to support a Data Center Transition to implement system changes to ensure the system is complaint with the requirements of the new Data Center 5. Comply with all Federal Statutes, Standards and Guidelines for Security such as: Federal Information Security Act (FISMA) (2002), Computer Security Act (1987), Privacy Act (1974), FIPS Pub 199, FIPS Pub 200, FIPS Pub 140-2, NIST SP 800-34, NIST SP 800-18, NIST SP 800-30, NIST SP 800-37, NIST Pub 800-47, NIST SP 800-50, NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-88, NIST SP 800-137, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, OMB Circular A-123 and Department of Education and FSA policies 6. Provide Project Management resources. Contractor must following FSA's Lifecycle Management Methodology (LMM) processes 7. Support Claim Processing by allowing for uploading, storage and access to the claim documents from lenders and lender servicers for federal loans 8. Provide online access for eligible participants 9. Provide resources with expansive experience and abilities to create and update Crystal Reports 10. Integration and Implementation of Two-Factor Authentication following FSA's guidelines including user tokens 11. Coordinate day to day operation and management of the application portion of the system with HHS data center and FSA's hosted environment contractor (Virtual Data Center). Patch critical vulnerabilities, following strict policies and practices for privileged users, implementation of Personal Identify Verification (PIV) cards for network users Responses shall not exceed ten (10), single-spaced pages and shall identify the capabilities. NO MARKETING MATERIALS ARE ALLOWED AS PART OF THIS RFI. The government will not review any other information or attachments included, that are in excess of the 10 page limit. Responses shall be submitted electronically to Bob Jones at Robert.E.Jones@ed.gov and Ms. Karen Gibson at Karen.Gibson@ed.gov not later than September 14, 2016 at 1:00 pm EST in either MS Word (or be compatible with) or pdf file formats.