IBM Mainframe Z/OS Compatible Software Product

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is currently performing MARKET RESEARCH to determine the availability of an International Business Machines (IBM) Mainframe Z/OS compatible software product to identify Customer Information Control System (CICS) application resources and their interdependencies for the purpose of supporting continuous availability within the CICS environment. The software product must possess the following characteristics: - Ability to run under z/OS 1.10 or later. - Ability to run with CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Version 3.2 or later. - Ability to automatically detect runtime resource relationships in CICS. - Ability to store resource relationships in a database for later retrieval and reporting. - Ability to produce reports detailing the resource relationships in CICS. - Ability to compare applications and resources across CICS regions. - Ability to provide information that will aid in determining how best to split CICS workloads in support of providing continuous availability. - Ability to determine which programs may be candidates for definition as threadsafe. Additionally, any product must be able to answer the following: - Identify what region(s) a particular CICS application runs in. - Identify all of the CICS resources used by a given CICS application. - Identify all of the CICS resources used by a given CICS transaction. - Identify what CICS transactions access a particular file and the type of access. - Identify all the resources used by a specific CICS program. - Identify all affinities for a given CICS transaction. - Identify relationships with Database 2 (DB2) and IBM WebSphere MQ resources. - Identify relationships with Web Service resources. In addition to the information requested above, vendor responses to this notice should: - Be specific as to the product(s) proposed. - Include a description of how the vendor's product is commonly sold in the commercial marketplace (e.g., initial price approaches, user license based, transaction based recurring pricing, price policies for solution maintenance, hourly or engagement based services pricing). - Include information on pricing, such as commercial catalogs or price lists. - Indicate whether their services/products are available on GSA Federal Supply Schedules or any other Government-wide Agency Contract (GWAC), and if applicable provide the relevant contract numbers. - Provide examples of relevant corporate past performance information that demonstrates the vendor's previous success in delivering solutions of similar size, scope, and complexity in the government or commercial marketplace. Any firm that feels they have the capability of providing a product(s) that meets the requirements listed above must respond, in writing, via e-mail to the Contract Specialist by the response due date posted. Vendor submissions of simple marketing materials or brochures, incomplete responses that do not conform to the elements of this request for information, or references to vendor websites will not be considered by the Government. This is not a request for proposal. NO FORMAL SOLICITATION IS BEING ISSUED AT THIS TIME. Requests for copies of a solicitation at this time will not be acknowledged. The Government will not return any information submitted in response to this notice, nor will the Government pay for any information submitted in reply to this notice. Information submitted in response to this notice will be used in SSA's market research efforts and for procurement planning purposes. The Government reserves the right to contact, or not contact, any party responding to this notice in order to obtain further information for market research purposes. All responses must be submitted in an electronic format (compatible with MS Office 2003) via e-mail to the Contract Specialist by the due date specified. Faxed information will not be considered. The file size limitation for e-mail attachments is 5 megabytes. Electronic responses must be received by 5:00PM ET May 22, 2009.