TREAS - Nshield RPA Hardware/Software Support - Market Research

On behalf of the Department of the Treasury, the General Services Administration (GSA) is conducting market research to support the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Program. The RPA Program aims to enhance operational efficiency by automating repetitive digital tasks, thereby allowing IRS employees to concentrate on more critical analytical duties. This initiative is part of a broader effort to incorporate Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) tools and best practices into IRS operations, ultimately improving accuracy and productivity across various business and IT processes.

The IRS RPA Program Office is actively expanding its capabilities to include unattended automation solutions. These solutions are designed to streamline activities such as data manipulation, automated responses, workflow implementation, data mining and analytics, data validation, and automated testing. By integrating these automated processes with other enterprise technologies like optical character recognition (OCR), the program seeks to reduce response times and enhance overall work efficiency within the IRS.

A critical component of this expansion involves ensuring secure management of digital signatures and certificates through nShield Hardware Security Modules (HSMs). These HSMs are vital for protecting certificates issued from the IRS Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), particularly as they relate to unattended automation interfaces with external systems that require credential verification. The nShield HSMs provide encryption for databases that store these certificates, ensuring data security even in case of unauthorized access attempts.

To meet current demands and accommodate future growth in unattended automations of which there are already over 50 requests pending the IRS requires additional hardware resources outlined in this Statement of Work (SOW). This includes a one-year maintenance period for nShield Connect XC HSMs to ensure continued availability and functionality. By procuring these resources, the IRS aims to maintain secure operations while scaling its RPA capabilities effectively.