The purpose of this this sources sought notice is to inform interested parties of an upcoming procurement opportunity to provide technical support for the Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS) Online Portal to the U.S. Department of Education (Department) and to have interested parties submit: (1) comments regarding the attached Performance Work Statement (PWS); (2) a capability statement and is customized to demonstrate the necessary core capabilities and expertise to perform the specific technical services described below; and (3) other specific information as requested under the heading Contents of Response and Submission Due Date. Background and Purpose The LINCS system is the main vehicle used to disseminate information and professional development materials intended to improve the quality of instruction for low-skilled adult learners. LINCS is recognized as a national resource for national, state, and local community level programs in adult education and literacy. The system consists of a number of adult education and literacy related websites, databases, an online community forum, and a learning management system. The LINCS websites were designed to increase access to the highest quality information available for dissemination to adult education teachers, adult education administrators, service providers, adult education students, and the general public. The system provides extensive information and communication services for adult and literacy providers (in the United States and in English speaking nations via the internet.) Currently, the LINCS web services and network equipment are housed at a co-location facility that provides secure environment and Internet access. The system is set up as a - private cloud with separate virtual machines (VMs) for the components. Currently, the LINCS equipment is located in a secure facility in Annapolis, MD. This contract will explore the possibility of moving the LINCS System to cloud services. The LINCS system includes: 1. LINCS: http://lincs.ed.gov 2. LINCS Community of Practice (https://community.lincs.ed.gov/) 3. LINCS Learning Portal (http://lincs.ed.gov/courses) 4. America's Literacy Directory: http://literacydirectory.org/ 5. Assessment Strategies and Reading Profiles: http://lincs.ed.gov/readingprofiles/index.htm 6. English Language and Civics (EL/Civics): http://www.elcivicsonline.org/ 7. Student Achievement in Reading (STAR): http://startoolkit.org/ 8. Adult Education Content Standards: http://www.adultedcontentstandards.ed.gov/ 9. Teaching Excellence for Adult Literacy (TEAL): https://teal.ed.gov/ There are also four (4) internal sections: one (1) development or staging server; two (2) database interfaces for America's Literacy Directory Program Information and an online system to document Resource Collection reviews; and two (2) wikis for system documentation and partner collaboration. The Department anticipates awarding a firm fixed-price contract to a small business to maintain, develop, enhance, and update the LINCS Online Portal system of websites, web-based tools, databases, and database search engines, streaming media, etc. It is anticipated that the contract will be set-aside for small businesses through General Services Administration (GSA) Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) 70, Special Item Number (SIN) 132-51 Information Technology Professional Services. The purpose of this market research is to identify potential offerors, clarify OVAE's requirements, and remove barriers to maximize competition. Capability Statement Interested parties are invited to submit a short capability statement that specifically addresses this requirement. Offerors must demonstrate extensive expertise in federal Information Technology (IT) contracting with particular expertise to monitoring and maintaining websites, databases, communities of practice (COPs), learning management systems, and other online dissemination tools on physical servers as well as experience transitioning such tools to a cloud environment and maintaining the tools in the cloud environment. Interested parties shall describe their recent experience and expertise performing in the following functional areas: 1. 1. Using open source programming for Content Management Systems and Learning Management Systems on a federal government platform. 2. Supporting other federal government web sites, including other web sites and technologies that incorporate 508 compliance and responsive design principles. 3. Transitioning from a physical server environment to a FedRAMP Compliant Cloud Service Providers (CPS). 4. Understanding of the Security Testing and Evaluation (ST&E) process and ability to obtain and maintain an Authority to Operate (ATO) for a low-level IT system. Contents of Response and Submission Due Date Interested parties are requested to respond as follows: 1. submit comments to the draft Performance Work Statement (PWS); 2. identify any barriers to competition; 3. submit a capability statement of no more than 10 double-spaced pages that includes information that clearly demonstrates your company's capability and experience to perform the work specifically related to providing technical support for the LINCS Online Portal as summarized above; 4. Interested parties shall provide an example of Service Level Agreements (SLA) it has used for similar online portals for other federal government agencies. 5. Interested parties shall also provide a brief statement regarding representative key personnel and their experience performing services that would be most relevant to the LINCS Online Portal project; (NOTE: Examples of SLAs and brief descriptions of representative key personnel experience and capabilites are not included in the 10 page limit for the tailored capability statments; however, they shall be limited to 5 additional pages) 6. provide 2 to 3 federal government agency references for work performed by your company during the past 3 to 5 years that is similar in scope to the work described for the LINCS Online Portal in this sources sought notice; 7. provide your company's GSA Schedule 70 contract number and expiration date, if your company is a current holder of a GSA Schedule 70 contract; and 8. provide your company's business size including all certified socio-economic categories (e.g., HUBZone Small Business, SDVOSB, WOSB, 8(a), etc.); and Your response should be submitted no later than 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time, on Friday, February 21, 2014 via e-mail to Elizabeth Price, at elizabeth.price@ed.gov, with "cc" to Stephen Scheffor, at stephen.scheffer@ed.gov. The results of this market research will be used to help establish the source list for the resulting solicitation. INTERESTED PARTIES ARE REMINDED THAT ANY DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE WILL BE USED SOLELY FOR MARKET RESEARCH PURPOSES. IN THE EVENT THAT THE DEPARTMENT DECIDES TO PURSUE THIS PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITY, IT WILL ISSUE A FORMAL SOLICITATION THAT WILL REQUIRE A SEPARATE FORMAL RESPONSE THAT MUST BE RESPONSIVE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THE SOLICITATION. ___________________ http://lincs.ed.gov/ The LINCS Learning Portal uses the National Training and Education Resource's (NTER) open source, web-based learning platform: https://www.nterlearning.org/
