GIS Software & Support Services
Sources Sought:
United States Census Bureau (USCB)
GIS Software & Support Services
PROCUREMENT SENSITIVE
I. DESCRIPTION
This Sources Sought is being issued as a part of market research to determine if there are commercial vendors with expert level experience in the support of Environmental Systems Research Institute's (Esri) Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Geographic Information System (GIS) software products that also have existing, proven capabilities to include: (1) FedRAMP Moderate certified Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud hosting for ArcGIS Enterprise (ArcGIS for Server, Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Data Store, ArcGIS Web Adapater); (2) access to and integral knowledge and understanding of the proprietary Esri source code; (3) expert level and direct experience designing, implementing, and managing extremely large enterprise GIS systems on premise and in the cloud, with HA configurations capable to scale against variable user and network loads; (4) expert level experience in the design of server architecture for hosted content to include but not limited to vector tile services, vector tile packages (VTPK) and imagery tile packages (TPK).
II. Background
The United States Census Bureau (Census Bureau) is developing new computer applications to support development of a variety of products and services based on data and other applications from its Master Address File/Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) System. Applications are based on a suite of Esri ArcGIS software
These applications support functions such as processing and editing files submitted to the Census Bureau by tribal, state, and local governments to update the MAF/TIGER System, delineating geographic areas in both fully automated and interactive modes for use in many operations supporting the 2020 Decennial Census, and a variety of mapping applications.
The Census Bureau has also developed numerous web-based applications and tools that are hosted on the Esri platform. One example is the Census Business Builder (CBB), which is designed to help business owners and regional planners use Census business and demographic data to make informed decisions to open or expand a business or to promote business growth in their areas. This tool:
• Allows users to select and search the location they want to reach for nearly all types of businesses covered by the NAICS classification system
• Allows users to create their own region (based on counties or cities/town) to better understand their communities
• Uses plain language so users can easily understand and consume Census Bureau data without having to understand Census and other government jargon.
III. CAPABILITY STATEMENTS
Interested, qualified vendors shall demonstrate the following capabilities:
• The contractor shall offer FedRAMP Moderate certified ArcGIS Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud hosting environment for ArcGIS Enterprise (ArcGIS for Server, Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Data Store, ArcGIS Web Adapter) capable of dynamic scaling and achieving 99.9% uptime.
• The contractor shall provide expert knowledge of ArcGIS Enterprise (ArcGIS for Server, Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Data Store and ArcGIS Web Adapter) to include the implementation of advanced security protocol in conjunction with NIST 800-53 network security compliant configurations.
• The contractor shall have expert level and direct experience designing, implementing, and managing extremely large enterprise Esri-based GIS systems on premise and in FedRAMP moderate certified cloud, with HA configurations capable to scale against variable user and network loads.
• The contractor shall have expert level experience in the design and implementation of scalable GIS server architecture for hosting vector tile packages (VTKP) and imagery tile packages (TKP).
• The contractor shall provide solutions for Vector Tile package consumption directly from disconnected mobile devices.
• The contractor shall have experience in usability/accessibility, performance, load and security testing of applications built on the Esri platform.
• The contractor shall modify/build on existing Esri software and provide all maintenance and updates to the Census Building Blocks (CBB) and other Census web-based application.
• The contractor shall have expertise building interactive mapping applications (built on the Esri ArcGIS platform) that allow users to filter and display data via a map.
• The contractor shall have technical and cartographic expertise to design and create mapping applications that include base maps which present key data (including road and hydro features, geographic names, and other reference information) needed by CBB users.
• The contractor shall have experience providing other non-government data (including Consumer Spending data) identified as useful to CBB data users.
• The contractor shall have experience in report-generation, including the ability to print and download dynamic/interactive reports.
• The contractor shall provide the ability to download functionality of not only the data displayed on the map but the corresponding geographic information as well.
• The contractor shall ensure that CBB and other Census functionality is compliant and consistent with (when possible) other Census Bureau tools that display government data.
• The contractor shall be experienced in the management and consumption of Application Programming Interface (API's) (including the Census Bureau's DataWeb data API) to dynamically present the data displayed in CBB and other Census applications.
• The contractor shall have expertise in imagery data management with particular focus on Esri platforms.
• The contractor shall have expertise with managing Esri workflow manager and developing and implementing custom workflows for myriad application and functional uses.
• The contractor shall support large-scale Oracle geodatabases utilizing Oracle Spatial and ST Geometry.
• The contractor shall be able to support file geodatabases and other standard vector file formats.
• The contractor shall have expertise with all forms of Esri integrated python languages to include arcpy, ArcGIS API for Python.
• The contractor shall offer solution architecture aligned with and using the latest or upcoming Esri software ecosystems.
IV. Questions
1. Describe your experience in meeting the above capabilities for federal agencies, providing specific examples.
2. Describe your current Esri pr equal FedRAMP moderate certified SaaS cloud hosting capabilities.
3. Please describe any agreements that your company may have in place that would allow software licenses from this Esri ELA to be leveraged in your Esri FedRAMP (moderate certified) SaaS environment.
4. Describe your process for establishing applications and data in your Esri FedRAMP (moderate certified) cloud environment, including testing and user acceptance.
5. What are your top five risks for providing this product to the Census Bureau?
6. What assumptions did you have to make in responding to this RFI because the Government did not include in the needed information in Section II.
Respondents are required to limit their responses to 10 pages and should refrain from providing materials that are not relevant to this request.
HOW TO RESPOND:
Interested vendors that are capable of providing the services must submit their capability statements and responses to the provided questions to paul.w.boesch@census.gov and matthew.s.gore@census.gov no later than 12:00pm (EST), December 18, 2017. All submitted responses must include your company DUNS number, business size, and information about any available Federal contracts/schedules, GWACs, Interagency Agreements, etc. that may be used to acquire your products or services. Vendor responses must be submitted as a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF-compatible attachment and shall not exceed ten (10) pages (8.5" x 11", 12-pitch font size).
All submissions should include a statement of capabilities that include experience in using imputation, variance estimation, and quantifying imputation uncertainty; knowledge of Census data; use of administrative records; use of truth decks; and ability to hypothesize new methods, conduct research, formulate recommendations, and to clearly present results in a technical report.
V. DISCLAIMER AND IMPORTANT NOTES
Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organizations qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. The Government may contact individual respondents for additional follow-up exchanges or to request additional information. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published.
VI. CONFIDENTIALITY
No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).
Matthew Gore, Contract Specilaist , Email Matthew.S.Gore@census.gov - Paul W Boesch, Email paul.w.boesch@census.gov
