Posted: March 12, 2018, 10:21 a.m. EDT
RFI Update 12 MAR 2018
The Government would like to thank everyone who has participated in the DCGS-A Capability Drop 2 (CD2) market research to date. The feedback we received has been very informative and will have an impact on the CD2 program moving forward.
As previously stated within this RFI, "Responses to this RFI may be used by the Government to determine invitees for a market research product demonstration based on criteria such as: number and quality of the responses, magnitude of CD-2 requirements a solution can currently meet, additional capabilities of interest to the Government, overall technical risk, and availability of resources."
Due to the number of responses, the Government does not have the capacity and resources necessary to accommodate a Market Research Product Demonstration from every company. While not every company could be selected for a Product Demonstration, the Test Harness and Demonstration Plans will nevertheless be made available to anyone who requests it. Please contact Shaun Cronen (shaun.m.cronen.civ@mail.mil) and Chris Laird (christopher.m.laird2.civ@mail.mil) with your Company's CAGE Code to obtain access.
The Government reiterates that the purpose of the Market Research Product Demonstrations are to understand the marketplace for the Government's CD2 requirements. The Product Demonstrations are not for companies to present additional capabilities, nor will the Government provide any feedback about the products being demonstrated. In addition, the Government will not respond to whitepapers, conduct debriefs, select awardees, or enter into any contracts based upon the Market Research. If a CD2 solicitation issues in the future, then vendors will be invited to submit proposals and to compete for a contract award subject to the terms and conditions of the solicitation.
Moving forward, the Government is planning a future Industry Day tentatively scheduled for 3QFY18 which may include One-on-One sessions with the Government. Please continue to monitor FedBizOpps for a separate notice once the Industry Day is finalized.
RFI Update 02 MAR 2018
The Army is currently conducting a second phase of market research to validate the CD2 requirements through product demonstrations. Invitations have been sent out to those companies who have been asked to participate. The Government is also planning to make the Product Demonstration Plan and DCGS-A Test harness available to all interested parties. If you would like a copy please send your request, including CAGE Code to the POC's on this RFI (Chris Laird and Shaun Cronen).
Thank you for your continued interest in DCGS-A CD2.
RFI Update - 16 FEB 2018
Due to the large volume of questions asked by Industry, and to allow interested parties to review the answers provided, the Government has elected to extend the RFI response date by (2) two Business Days to 1600 EST on 22 FEB 2018.
End of Update
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1.0 Introduction
Request for Information. This a Request for Information Only (RFI).
Army Contracting Command - Aberdeen Proving Ground (ACC-APG) in support of the Program Executive Office Intelligence, Electronic Warfare, and Sensors (PEO IEW&S), Project Manager Distributed Common Ground System-Army (PM DCGS-A), is conducting market research to identify commercial items to satisfy current DCGS-A requirements pertaining to United States (U.S.) Army's DCGS-A Fixed Site facilities. The Government invites all business and academic organizations to respond to this RFI notice.
This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes - it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. Government may revise its draft requirements at any time, or may elect not to proceed with a procurement. Solicitations are not available at this time. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. This notice does not constitute a commitment by the United States Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. This RFI is not an authorization to begin work, and the Government will not pay any costs that contractors may incur in response to this RFI.
Contractors are not required to respond to this announcement, but may do so at their own cost. The United States Government will not pay for information requested nor will it compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the United States Government.
Additionally, the Government intends to conduct a market research product demonstration in accordance with this RFI. The Government will not pay any costs resulting from attendance or participation at the market research product demonstration.
Only contractors that respond to this RFI are eligible to participate in the market research product demonstration, which is for market research purposes only. The Government won't award any contracts as a result of the market research product demonstration.
Failure to respond to this RFI, or failure to participate in a market research product demonstration, will not preclude contractor participation in any RFP or procurement, if any is issued.
2.0 Background
AN/FSQ-209(V)1, commonly referred to as the Distributed Common Ground System-Army (DCGS-A) Intelligence Processing Center Version 1 (IPC-v1), is the battlefield intelligence system that hosts DCGS-A software at US Army Fixed Site facilities. It provides fully integrated and timely intelligence on the battlefield. The DCGS-A IPC-v1 is the core framework for a worldwide distributed, network centric, system-of-systems architecture that conducts collaborative intelligence operations and production. The system is housed in the DCGS-A Fixed Site facilities and consists of privately hosted servers and storage arrays.
This RFI is focused on identifying commercial items to upgrade/replace the DCGS-A IPC-v1 enterprise data warehouse component, also known as the "Brain", as well as introduce several additional analytics and system management functions. Specifically, Capability Drop (CD) 2 focuses on the modernization and enhancement of the DCGS-A data warehousing capabilities resident at Military Intelligence (MI) Operations Battalions supporting Army Service Component Commands (ASCCs) by providing a scalable solution that provides an adaptable Data Management Architecture (DMA), automated analytics, and common core services.
Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Capability Manager - Foundation (TCM-F) has developed, in conjunction with the Intelligence Center of Excellence (ICoE), a draft Capability Drop requirements document outlining the operationally relevant requirements for DCGS-A's enterprise data warehouse and analytics capability.
Responses to this RFI may be used by the Government to determine invitees for a market research product demonstration based on criteria such as: number and quality of the responses, magnitude of CD-2 requirements a solution can currently meet, additional capabilities of interest to the Government, overall technical risk, and availability of resources. Only companies that respond to this RFI with existing commercial items, to include existing integrated products that currently meets, or has the potential to meet, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101 Definition of a "commercial item," may be invited to a market research product demonstration.
3.0 White Paper and Supporting Documentation
Any interested business or academic organization should provide a response that addresses each section below no later than 20 FEB 18. Vendors that fail to fully respond to a section listed below may not be invited to a market research product demonstration.
The supporting documents for this RFI are marked as For Official Use Only (FOUO). To obtain a copy of the supporting documents (Draft CD2 Requirements Checklist and CD2 RFI3 Software Pricing Template) send an email with your organization name, address, and CAGE Code to Shaun Cronen, shaun.m.cronen.civ@mail.mil and Christopher Laird, christopher.m.laird2.civ@mail.mil. In addition, vendors may ask questions about the CD2 Requirements by emailing the previously mentioned Government points of contact by 14 FEB 18. Responses to submitted questions will be posted as updates to this RFI.
Responses to this RFI are due no later than 1600 EST on 20 FEB 18 and must address the following information requests listed below in a white paper and requested attachments. The white paper shall not exceed 2 pages, not including cover sheet or cover letter, plus the Requirements Checklist and Software Pricing Template.
Section 1: Draft Capability Drop Document Requirements Checklist
Complete the Draft CD2 Requirements Checklist Spreadsheet, attached to this RFI, annotating which requirements the proposed solution meets, as well as a short (100 words or less) description of how the vendor product meets each requirement.
Section 2: System Description
Describe the hardware platform that the proposed solution is hosted on, to include CPU, RAM, and Storage specifications.
Note: The CD2 solution may, at a minimum, need to operate on the equivalent of a Tactical Server Infrastructure (TSI) v2 with the following specifications: 120 CPU Cores, 576 GB RAM, and 43.2 TB Unformatted Storage.
Section 3: Commerciality
Describe how the proposed solution meets, or has the potential to meet, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101 Definition of a "commercial item."
Section 4: Costs
Using the attached CD2 Software Pricing Template provide the following:
(A) Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) of applicable costs for the proposed solution. The ROM should include licensing costs for the following: Term (with durations and price ranges), Perpetual, and/or Annual subscription, as well as Unlimited Enterprise. If the proposed solution does not offer any of these licensing methods, mark the box "N/A". In addition, provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) follow-on maintenance/sustainment support (yearly).
(B) If applicable, provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) of itemized costs for "Minor Modifications" to meet each requirement marked "No" or "Partially" in the Draft CD2 Requirements Checklist completed in Section 1. If "Minor Modifications" are included with the license at no additional cost, mark the box "Included".
(C) Provide a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) to provide a "Minor Modification" to add a new data source to the proposed solution in the following formats: Unstructured, Structured, Binary with Metadata. If these integration costs are included with the license and/or maintenance/sustainment at no additional cost, mark the box "Included".
Again, only companies that respond to this RFI in full will be considered for a market research product demonstration.
This notice is part of Government Market Research, a continuous process for obtaining the latest information on the commercial status of the industry. This RFI is for planning purposes, and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that a procurement action will follow.
The Government will use the information submitted in response to this notice at its discretion and will not provide comments to any submission; however, the Government reserves the right to contact any respondent to this notice for the sole purpose of enhancing understanding of the notice submission. All material provided will be treated as confidential. Company proprietary data will be reviewed by Government employees and authorized representatives only.
Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI, including any market research product demonstrations.
Non-Disclosure Agreement
(1) RFI respondents are informed that employees of the firms identified below may assist the Government with its market research. These individuals will be authorized access to the RFI responses to enable them to perform their respective duties. Such firms may be prohibited from competing on the subject acquisition.
MITRE Corp
Mr. Robert A. Orlosky
The MITRE Corporation CAGE: 7L030
21 W. Lee Street
Baltimore, MD 21201-2455
703-983-7622
rorlosky@mitre.org
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc.
Mr. Ryan Ludwig
Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. CAGE: 17038
8283 Greensboro Drive
McLean, VA 22102-3830
732-936-3539
Ludwig_ryan@bah.com
Millennium
Ms. Susan Han
Millennium Corporation CAGE: 3VQP8
1400 Crystal Drive Suite #400
Arlington, VA 22202-3289
571-527-2233
Susan.Han@millgroupinc.com
Focused Ingenuity, Inc.
Mr. Michael Amabile
Focused Ingenuity, Inc.
205 Wood Street
Burlington, NJ 08016
732-966-7280
mamabile@focusedingenuity.com
(2) In accomplishing their duties related to the market research, the aforementioned firms may require access to proprietary information contained in the vendor's responses. Therefore, pursuant to FAR 9.505-4, these firms must execute an agreement with each RFI respondent that states that they will (1) protect the contractors' information from unauthorized use or disclosure for as long as it remains proprietary and (2) refrain from using the information for any purpose other than that for which it was furnished. Each RFI respondent must contact the above companies to effect execution of such an agreement prior to the submission of its RFI response and shall submit copies of the agreement with their response.
