Microfilm and Records Improvement
Under the authority of FAR 10, the Department of the Treasury, Fiscal Service, Division of Procurement, is conducting market research on qualified vendors and technologies capable providing solutions for the requirement outlined below.
Information being sought under this endeavor is solely for market research and acquisition planning purposes. No pricing information is being requested.
The objective of this Pre-Solicitation Notice is to outline the Scope of Work, Objective, and Operating Constraints involved in the FSA requirement for Microfilm and Records Improvement in an effort to receive feedback from industry on methods and technologies available in the commercial marketplace and interest in participation in an industry day.
1. Overview/Background
The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is part of the U.S. Department of Treasury. Its mission is to promote the financial integrity and operational efficiency of the federal government through exceptional accounting, financing, collections, payments, and shared services. Operationally, the bureau provides government-wide accounting and reporting services; operates the federal government's collections and deposit systems; provides central payment services to federal program agencies; borrows the funds needed to operate the federal government and services and accounts for the resulting debt; provides reimbursable support services to federal agencies; and manages the collection of delinquent debt through collaboration with federal, state, and local governments.
Retail Securities Services (RSS) is housed within Fiscal Service and issues, services, and redeems United States Savings Bonds in both electronic and paper form, as well as marketable Treasury securities sold in electronic form directly to retail investors. Fiscal Service's current Strategic Plan includes improving the customer experience, refining and streamlining manual business processes, and identifying and promoting emerging technologies with the potential to modernize the current state of our savings bonds records. One of the priorities for Treasury is how to do more to help owners cash matured, unredeemed bonds or confirm there are open bonds associated with their social security number (SSN).
2. Scope of Work:
RSS would like to identify and understand what innovative technological solutions have emerged in the private sector over the past 10 years for capturing data elements from existing images, indexing, and searching paper records using various data points. Our current focus is on savings bonds issued since 1973 and making it possible to easily search those records more quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively. Indexing and improved searchability will also serve as a key action for providing owners, heirs or other potential platforms access to Matured Unredeemed Debt (MUD) savings bond records. Treasury may entertain the possibility of expanding this to older records (pre-1973) at some point in the future. The 1973 date reflects the last year in which Treasury did not require SSNs as identifiers for bond owners. Additionally, we seek to capture those records in a form that is proprietary with restricted-purpose use.
• The number of bonds issued post-1973 that are still outstanding is approximately 47 million, valued at nearly $18 billion.
• Treasury acknowledges multiple solutions may be necessary to achieve our goals of indexing, searching, and sharing data. We welcome responses from vendors who can provide solutions for any or all of those goals.
• Treasury will host an industry day to learn about potential solutions and provide further details and any clarification that may be needed.
3. Objectives:
RSS's objective is to obtain a better understanding of what technology is available to improve the capture of data elements of existing images (standard JPG-XR compression file), indexing, and searchability of data from records. Ultimately, this may result in a multi-million-dollar contract being awarded to conduct this project. This technology may incorporate improved Optical Character Recognition (OCR) or may be a new and emerging technology.
The resulting data will be accessed through our online search tool, which may include different end-user systems with varying capabilities. Additionally, the solutions should provide the ability for our digitized material and metadata to be reused on other platforms, which have not yet been determined.
4. Operating Constraints:
It is important to note that one significant constraint is the condition of records. Some bond images are of poor quality, which can make it difficult to interpret all data points for verification. There are a variety of savings instruments with different styles of inscriptions and information on the front of bonds and issue stubs. Some bonds offered Tax Identification Numbers (TINs), including SSNs and Employer Identification Numbers (EINs). Others merely show an address and a name.
Any solutions will need to meet Personal Identifiable Information (PII) requirements as a system of record that would have software and archiving implications regarding sharing the information.
Most bond images in the scope of this project are in a standard JPG-XR compression format that offers only rudimentary search capabilities. The original documents are still maintained on microfilm. Records across the full 80 years of savings bonds exist in paper, microfilm, and the digital format of standard JPG-XR compression.
Examples of data records for bonds by year:
• Records for bonds issued after 1973 are stored and indexed by TINs.
• Manual searching is required to obtain the names and addresses of bond owners on bonds issued prior to 1993.
• Many recorded TINs belong to individuals who purchased the bonds for others, not to the actual owners themselves.
The following information is requested:
1. Are you capable of providing the products/services described above?
2. Please provide a summary of your understanding of this requirement and how you would approach it. Please specify any unique items/products/processes that you believe may meet the Government's needs.
3. Would you be interested in participating in the industry day to be held in the month of December 2019? An RSVP notice will be posted at a later date as well as sent directly to interested parties.
4. Do you have an additional questions you would like Treasury to be prepared to answer at the industry day?
5. Capability Statements are also welcome.
In addition to the technical information outlined above, respondents shall also provide the following:
1) The name and location of your company, contact information, and identify the company as one or more of the followings: a) small business; b) 8(a) business; c) HUBZone small business; d) small disadvantaged business; e) woman-owned small business; f) veteran-owned small business; g) service-disabled veteran-owned small business, or h) large business.
2) Provide examples of engagements that have the same or similar requirements to those stated above. In addition to the examples, please provide a customer technical contact and current contact information who could answer questions regarding the engagement.
3) Whether your company has a current vehicle (e.g., GSA schedule, GWAC) that may be used to obtain the products/services you describe in responses to item number 2 above.
4) The DUNs number shall be provided.
The Offeror assumes full responsibility for ensuring all electronic materials and attachments submitted are formatted in accordance with the Bureau of the Fiscal Service Security Requirements. The following file extensions are not allowable and application materials/data submitted with these extensions cannot be considered:
.bat, .cmd, .com, .exe, .pif, .rar, .scr, .vbs, .hta, .cpl, html, mhtml, and .zip files
The Government does not allow 3rd party messaging systems/secure mail, other than when authorized by the Government. In those cases, the Government's 3rd party message system will be used when requested.
Microsoft Office non-macro enabled compatible documents and .PDF documents are acceptable. If the Offeror determines that other formats are necessary, it is the Offeror's responsibility to verify with Fiscal Service that those formats are acceptable. Proposal materials with unacceptable or unreadable formats may be found non-responsive.
In addition to the items specified in the solicitation provision above, the following information is necessary to enable proper evaluation.
Responses to this Pre-Solicitation Notice shall be sent to purchasing@fiscal.treasury.gov no later than 11:00 AM EST 11/21/2019 and shall include "RFI-FSA-20-023: "JS/BB" in the subject line.
These activities do not imply an obligation on the part of the Government to purchase products and/or services, nor to proceed to any request for proposal/quote (solicitation) for such products and/or services. Further, the activities do not obligate the Government to ultimately employ any particular acquisition strategy. The Government will not be liable for any costs incurred by participants in submitting information and/or attending any subsequent in-person sessions. Submissions of information and/or participation in the sessions confer no rights upon vendors/participants.
NO SOLICITATION IS AVAILABLE. A request for more information, or a copy of the solicitation, will not be considered an affirmative response to this Notice. Telephone responses to, or inquiries about, this Notice will NOT be accepted.
Contracting Officer, Email purchasing@fiscal.treasury.gov
