Hydrologic and Hydraulic Software Engineering Modeling

This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE for Market Research ONLY to determine the availability of firms to determine the most appropriate acquisition strategy the project described below. NO AWARD will be made from this Sources Sought. ANY TECHNICAL DOCUMENTS ARE AVAILABLE ON THE GPE; therefore, do NOT request a copy of a solicitation from the Government POCs. Potential offerors having the skill, capabilities and bonding necessary to perform the described project are invited to provide feedback via email to DANIEL CZECH at Daniel.E.Czech@usace.army.mil and SUZIE LENDE (alternate) at Siouzann.Lende@usace.army.mil. All responses will be used to determine the appropriate acquisition strategy for a potential future acquisition. Particularly, the purpose of this NOTICE is to gain knowledge of potential business sources for highly specialized hydrologic and hydraulic software engineering modeling, development, and verification services in support of continuing software development projects for the USACE, Institute for Water Resources, (IWR) Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) in pursuit of a potential Indefinite Delivery Contract or similar contract vehicle to be awarded in FY 2022 or 2023. Their capabilities will be evaluated to determine the most appropriate acquisition strategy. Firms that are able to perform ALL or PART of these services are encouraged to respond to this notice. All size-statuses are encouraged to respond to this notice. The government must ensure there is adequate competition among the potential pool of available contractors. At this time, there is not a scheduled advertisement date. This notice is being published with several NAICS Codes: 511210 (Software Publishers), 541330 (Engineering Services), 541511 (Custom Computer Programming Services), 541512 (Computer Systems Design Services), and 541690 (Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services). The Relevant Product Service Codes (PSCs) are D302 Automatic Data Processing Systems Development, D306 (Automated Information System Design and Integration Services), D308 (Automatic Data Processing Programming Service), and C219 (Other Architect & Engineering Services). However, if you are under a separate NAICS code or PSC that you feel is relevant to this work, please identify it in your response. Under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) guidelines 52.219-14, any small business concern will perform at least 50% of the cost of the contract incurred for personnel, if this action is set aside. PROJECT DESCRIPTION The mission of the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) is to serve as the USACE Center of Expertise (CX) in the technical areas of surface and groundwater hydrology, river hydraulics and sediment transport, hydrologic statistics and risk analysis, reservoir system analysis, planning analysis, real-time water control management and a number of other closely associated technical subjects. HEC's primary goal is to support the nation in its water resources management responsibilities by increasing USACE technical capability in hydrologic engineering and water resources planning and management. In addition to supporting the Continental United States (CONUS) USACE Division and District Offices, HEC provides technical support to the Corps overseas missions to include, but not be limited to, Afghanistan and Iraq. Additionally, HEC provides specialized services to other Federal, State and local agencies, Universities, and international agencies engaged in these technical areas. The primary way HEC accomplishes this mission is by developing state-of-the-art, highly specialized software tools and bringing them to state-of-the-practice that are reliably used by water resources engineers and planners. Since its inception in 1964, HEC has been developing and integrating software tools that support the water resources computing requirements for Corps field offices, headquarters, laboratories, and other Federal, state and international agencies. Over the last 56 years, the software created by HEC has been developed in many software programing languages. Currently, the majority of the coding is done in the Java programming language, but portions also include FORTRAN, C/C++ and Visual Basic.net. The tasks required by HEC to accomplish its mission include software development, testing, documentation, providing maintenance and debugging of existing software, specific assistance in applied research, engineering analysis, program design, and training. Utilizing some 9 million lines of code developed by HEC over time, software programs/models are developed using a variety of productivity tools that enable fielding the products in a multi-platform Corps field office environment. HEC's goal in developing the CX software is multi-user application in a network environment employing state-of-the-art use of Graphical User Interface (GUI), graphic display, database, visualization, map and animation technology, using object-oriented programming concepts. The architecture upon which the various HEC software and models are developed relies principally upon 9 million lines of closed source code owned/maintained by HEC. Using this as the basic framework, HEC creates software which is employed by engineers, planners and decision makers to help inform them of the effects of potential water management actions and potential impacts of planning decisions for water resource projects in the hydrologic sciences of Hydrology and Hydraulics, Water Resources Planning, and Water Management. For example, the application of HEC software (a model) can inform Water Managers of the potential impacts of a given event on dam operations or downstream consequences. Similarly, the models are predictive of flood events on downstream levees, communities, and floodplains. Thus the models will inform users, decision makers, and emergency operators not only of whether or how much water should be released from a dam, but also, the predictive impacts (environmental, damage, and life loss) on downstream communities, levees, and floodplains. In extreme events, the models may inform users whether prudence would dictate that the lesser destructive event is to intentionally - blow a levee upstream over allowing a town or City to become inundated downstream. Alternatively, in low water years, the models may inform users how to balance the needs of maintaining waterborne commerce and other critical needs such as protection of endangered species, hydropower, or recreation. Attached to this notice is a document entitled - Hydrologic Engineering Center Software Descriptions (Enclosure 1). This document identifies the various programs developed/maintained by the HEC CX. The various software programs are fully integrated and interrelated. Inadvertent deviations or - bugs in one program has the potential to adversely impact the predictive results or conclusions/reliability of other programs. Therefore, in order to develop or refine and/or validate specific software applications, and to maintain quality control over the models consistent with HEC's CX mission it is inherent in the process that engineers/hydrologic modelers have an extensive working appreciation of the totality of HEC's highly specialized operation. Because unpredictable exigencies in the requirement for hydrologic engineering software development, maintenance and debugging of existing software continues to be needed. The resulting Contract Action would require the personnel, equipment, material, tools, supervision, quality control, and other items necessary to provide a combination of hydrologic and hydraulic engineering, and water resources planning and management along with specialized software engineering services to support on-going software development project mission essential requirements for HEC. These services may be a one-time issue, such as a particular enhancement to, or de-bugging of, software that is already being used by HEC and the public, or it may be an ongoing process such as development of new software to add to the family of software HEC currently maintains. Typical services include: a) Enhancing the Corps Water Management System (CWMS) and Real-Time Simulation program (HEC-RTS); CWMS is a USACE Automated Information System (AIS) and, by regulation, must be used by the USACE Water Management community. b) Enhancements to the time series data management system HEC-Data Storage System (DSS) and HEC-DSSVue; c) Development of and enhancements to the next generation hydrologic engineering computer program family. d) Miscellaneous improvements to other required software packages. It is anticipated that individual firm fixed price task orders will be issued to cover HEC specialized service specific needs, as required during the performance period. CAPABILITY STATEMENT The following requests are designed to inform the US Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento District and HEC, of any prospective contractors project execution capabilities. Please provide your response to the following. The submission is limited to 20 pages. The portion or portions of work the Potential Offeror is responding to (please identify the specific work your firm is capable of) Offeror's name, DUNS#, address, point of contact, phone number, and e-mail address. Offeror's interest in proposing on the solicitation when it is issued. Offeror's socioeconomic type and business size. Offeror's Joint Venture or Mentor Prot'g relationships if applicable - existing and potential. Identify all contracts or federal supply schedules this work could be executed under; specifically, can this work be completed under the Multiple Award Schedule Program? If not, why not? Summary of offeror's capability to perform contracts of this complexity. Provide comparable work performed within the past 5 years for each portion of the work you have identified in response to question 1, above. For each project, provide the following: A brief description of the project Customer name and POC Period of performance Total dollar value of the project A description of your self-performed effort Overall customer satisfaction Identification of any work performed by small business (contractor and/or subcontractors). Whether the effort was a Joint Venture, and if it was, each Joint Venture member. Please provide any recommendations you may have to increase competition for this action. The Capabilities Statement for this sources sought is not expected to be a Request for Proposal or Invitation for Bid, nor does it restrict the Government to an ultimate acquisition approach, but rather short statements regarding the company's ability to demonstrate existing-or-developed expertise and experience in relation to the areas specified herein. Any commercial brochures or currently existing marketing material may also be submitted with the Capabilities statement. Please ensure that all information is submitted as one (1) document. Submission of Capabilities statement is not a prerequisite to any potential future offerings, but participation will assist the Corps of Engineers in tailoring requirements to be consistent with industry capabilities. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is neither to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. After completing its analysis and subsequent market research, the Government will determine whether to limit competition among 8(a), Service Disabled Veteran, HubZone, etc., or all Small Business firms or proceed with full and open competition as Other Than Small Business. Offers that do not meet all the stated requirements or submit within the allotted time may not be considered. RESPONSE DATE Please notify this office in writing by email by 2:00 PM Pacific Time on 21 July 2020. Submit response and information through email to: Daniel.E.Czech@usace.army.mil and Siouzann.Lende@usace.army.mil. Please include the Sources Sought No. identified above in the subject line.