Request for Information: National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) Cross-Domain Support Services

Purpose: The Department of Homeland Security is pleased to release this Request for Information (RFI) to determine small business capabilities in supporting the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM). This RFI and the information contained in it is for market research purposes only. This is not a request for quote. Background: Cross-domain information sharing - the sharing of information across mission, jurisdictional, and organization boundaries - was one of the most essential information sharing needs conceived after the events of September 11, 2001. The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) is a program that directly addresses the needs of cross-boundary and shared missions using cross-domain information sharing. NIEM provides a scalable process and framework for architecting the technical, business, and organizational constructs required to define national-scale information sharing standards that can be applied by some of the most critical government missions today. In many cases, information sharing requires the successful collaboration of federal, state, local, tribal, international, and private sector partners. The NIEM framework brings these stakeholders together to work through the multi-faceted challenges of information sharing with the aim of gaining consensus and definition on implementable business process and data standard specifications. For these same purposes, the NIEM framework also organizes its communities around common information sharing needs typically according to a mission or policy focus. These are also referred to as "NIEM domains." Anticipated Scope: The DHS may require support services for the development and implementation of cross-domain information exchanges and contractor assistance in the identification and preparation of the development of NIEM-conformant Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) artifacts for information exchange. The NIEM IEPD specification is a formal collection of technical and business artifacts that are necessary for NIEM stakeholders to develop consensus and to make a NIEM information sharing process operational. In the event of this requirement, the contractor will be expected to coordinate and facilitate meetings with NIEM domain experts, federal, state, and local government personnel, and other stakeholders to assist in the development of information exchanges for cross-domain interoperability. The contractor will be expected to determine business requirements and document business processes related to the information exchange; document data elements and other data requirements for the information exchange; create domain models; perform gap analysis and document extensions to the NIEM model; assist in documenting and presenting the results; and assist in registering the IEPD artifacts as applicable. Response Guidelines: Responses to this RFI are requested from small businesses only. Responses shall be in the form of a capabilities statement, and must affirm the responding small business's capabilities with respect to the following: 1. That they have personnel with appropriate training expertise and experience in NIEM IEPD process, DMM process, NIEM development tools, and NIEM governance. 2. That they have personnel with experience in information exchange processes definition, particularly across the justice, homeland security, intelligence, healthcare, and cross government (federal, state, local, tribal and private sector) domains. 3. That they have personnel with experience in supporting federal, state and local organizations in implementing NIEM from early stages of maturity to include ground-up NIEM implementation; NIEM training and education; and NIEM readiness assessments and project sizing. 4. That they would be fully able to sustain at least one full-time equivalent (FTE) position, and up to 4-6 concurrent FTEs for support to NIEM Cross-Domain Model support services. 5. That the above personnel have a SECRET security clearance. 6. Vendors should have expertise in the NIEM Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD) and Domain Model Management (DMM) processes, tools. Vendors responding to this RFI must also affirm their small business status (i.e., indicate if they are a HUBZone, Veteran-owned, etc., small business). Respondents should also include information as to whether they hold any General Service Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) contracts. Capable small businesses are requested to respond via e-mail to Neil.WhiteIV@dhs.gov.