Radio Frequency Identification Pilot

Market Research Announcement & Request for Information Radio Frequency Identification Pilot The following Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for Market Research and planning purposes. It does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue a Request for Solution (RFS) by the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau is not accepting offers at this time nor will the information provided be evaluated or considered as an offer. This RFI does not commit the Census Bureau to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. The Census Bureau will not pay for any information or administrative cost incurred by a contractor in response to this RFI. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION PURPOSE: The U.S. Census Bureau is developing requirements for a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) or similar technology pilot program. The Census Bureau is currently in the Market Research/Industry Engagement stage of this effort, in which we are engaging industry to more fully understand the scope of current and practical technologies, processes, and approaches for RFID implementation. This stage will also allow potential bidders to obtain an understanding of the campaign's possible requirements and objectives. The principal objectives of this RFI is for the Census Bureau to receive information from industry that would assist to: 1. Define the requirements and direct acquisition approach for this effort. 2. Develop small business contracting goals. 3. Identify the role of small, small disadvantaged, women-owned and veteran-owned businesses could be engaged in within this effort. Should the Census Bureau decide to solicit proposals for this project, a draft RFP would be posted for comment on this website. Due to the early stages of this process, no bidder list is currently being created nor maintained on the website at this time. BACKGROUND The US Census Bureau is currently looking to enhance its ability to accurately track various accountable and non-accountable assets, and plans to track location and movement of assets through a system using RFID tags or similar technology. The infrastructure must track assets from inception through disposition, identify the location of assets throughout the occupied buildings and warehouse and reduce the time required to do asset inventory SCOPE: The scope of this effort includes the US Census Headquarters in Suitland, MD and the Bowie Computer Center (BCC). Additional implementations will be included in future phases. The current inventory requiring tagging/tracking is approximately 80,000 assets, but must be scalable to over 150, 000 assets during Decennial Census. Current asset inventory is barcode base with integration property management system. This method will continue to be used in conjunction with the RFID system. The RFID system must use current infrastructure for read points. Headquarters building will have approximately 8 read points and BCC will have approximately 3 read points. Wireless access points are available at Headquarters only. RFID ready handheld scanners must also be integrated into solution. Information Requested: The following information should be provided in response to this RFI: ? Name and Address of the Organization; ? Point of contact with name, title, phone, fax and email; ? Brief description of the organization, business size, ownership, services provided, language capabilities, principal markets, and geographical areas serviced. Please answer the following question based on your experiences: 1. Describe you background, capability and experience providing your company's technical, engineering, operation, analytical, planning, acquisition, security and management functions experience/capabilities/credentials. 2. Describe successful contract(s) in the field of asset management using RFID or similar technology that you have done, similar to the scope that is described in this RFI. If the work on the contract was performed for a government agency, please elaborate on your response. 3. Describe your experience implementing asset management solutions using RFID or similar technology and its capabilities. 4. Please list and explain any known challenges with establishing a RFID soluton for a governmental agency which mandates compliance with NIST SP 800-98 for the deployed RFID solution. 5. Describe experience implementing asset tracking solution in multiple sites. 6. Describe scalability of implemented solutions. 7. Provide your insight on how the RFID or similar technology has evolved in the past five years and any projections for the next five years. Please address new strategies being used. 8. Provide any suggestions on acquisition strategies that the Acquisition Team should consider for this project. Include any comments on the source selection process, performance matrix, evaluation criteria, incentives or other methods of risk allocation that you would deem appropriate for awarding a project of this magnitude. 9. In your opinion, describe the best way to measure performance under a project of this magnitude.