DHS Headquarters Information Technology Services (HITS)
Request for Information (RFI)
Headquarters Information Technology Services (HITS)
Department of Homeland Security, HQ
SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE & MARKET RESEARCH REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI). THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is for planning purposes only and shall not be construed as an obligation on the part of the Government. This is NOT a Request for Quotations or Proposals. This document is for market research purposes. We are asking that interested firms share industry best practices related to the subject scope. No solicitation document exists, and a formal solicitation may or may not be issued by the Government as a result of the responses received to this RFI.
The Government will not pay for any response or demonstration expenses. All costs incurred responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party's expense. Failure to respond to this RFI will not preclude participation in any future solicitation. Any information received will become the property of the Government and will not be returned to the submitter. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or sensitive information.
Responses to this RFI may be reviewed by Government technical experts drawn from staff within DHS and other Federal agencies. The Government may use selected support contractor personnel to assist in the review of the RFI responses. These support contractors will be bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements to protect proprietary information.
Overview:
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a vital mission: to secure the nation from the many threats we face. The DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) developed and maintains a single, DHS Wide Area Network infrastructure environment that is reliable, scalable, flexible, maintainable, accessible, and secure, ensuring operational excellence from the Local Area Network to the data center, internet, and cloud mission applications.
Within the DHS OCIO, the IT Service Operations (ITSO), Headquarter Service Division (HSD) is responsible for all HQ unclassified infrastructure operations supporting approximately 10,500 users with 12,500 assets consisting of desktops, laptops, thin clients, printers (personal), large copiers / multi-function devices, servers, and unclassified video-teleconference (VTC) units. The current operating environment consists of Win10 secure host baseline (SHB) on a standard image. The users connect to the office productivity suite and mission applications through a local area network, wireless LAN, a virtual private network (VPN), or through a VPN Trusted Internet Connection. User's data is stored locally, in a data center or in the cloud, based on the specific use case. Operations are supported by a Continuity of Operations program consisting of a Disaster Recovery, Devaluation, and Reconstitution plan.
The DHS OCIO is contemplating the feasibility of a managed service approach to continue the Information Technology and Desk-side End-User Support Services (described in this RFI).
Vision and Goals:
• Consolidate and optimize A-LAN Information Technology Support Services
• Reduce Contract Overhead through the reduction of multiple support contracts
• Provide a single flexible contract vehicle which capability for service desk, end-user technical support, engineering, asset management, and operational project support
• Transition to an As-a-Service (aaS) managed structured contract
• Increase operational efficiency by removing bottlenecks via the reduction of contract seams
• Utilize state of the art tools, processes, and procedures that will enhance customer services leveraging technology in order to reduce the number of needed service technicians
• Generate innovative service delivery techniques that will increase cost savings
• Implement real-time service performance metrics, leveraging Artificial Intelligence capability, to identify areas of service improvement and reduce user downtime
• Implementation of a program that incorporates the full management of hardware and software for procurement, tracking, distribution, accountability, and disposal leveraging existing tools
• Ability to provide desktop engineering and image configuration management that has little to no impact on the customer
• Implementation of an integrated Service Desk, Video and Operations Center (VOC) that manages all aspects of the environment
• Enhanced real-time reporting to the customers and OCIO leadership leveraging technology capabilities
• Enhance coordination capabilities with the enterprise and cloud providers for services such as Office365, SharePoint, and AirWatch
• Enhance data storage capabilities (on premise and cloud), for move, backup, retention, recovery, archive, and restoral
• Provide real-time ability to know "What is" and "Who is" on the network at all times
Scope:
The increasing mission demands and growth of the Department of Homeland Security is driving the need for IT services to be more robust, reliable and efficient. The current support service operations are centrally focused on users within the National Capital Region (NCR). DHS HQ users are now more widely dispersed causing a change to this support model to support users across the Continental United States (CONUS), and as well as possibly Outside Continental United States (OCONUS).
DHS's current support model is a Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated (GOCO) environment of end-user devices and is seeking to transition to a Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated (COCO) environment that includes scheduled technology refresh and modernization of end-user equipment.
By transitioning to a new support model, DHS expects contractors to provide continuous innovation that reduces operating costs, improves security, increases customer service, and provides an improved end user experience. Also, it is expected that solutions may leverage such techniques as virtualization, thin client, mobile computing, and others.
Questions to Industry:
DHS HQ Service Division is seeking information to transition from the current Deskside Support Services (DSS) BPA to a new HQ IT Services (HITS) contract. A managed service approach or "Seats Management" concept is being contemplated as a potential strategy.
1. Please provide your recommendations on how to transition the current operational support environment to an innovative, self-testing, self-healing "As a Service Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated (COCO)" model that improves customer service, reduces costs, and enhances security.
2. DHS Headquarters currently owns and leases IT Hardware (e.g. servers, desktops, laptops, tablets, thin clients, and smartphones), Digital Multi-functional devices (copiers), and IT Software (e.g., Windows network operations software such as Systems Center Configuration Manager) and multiple use cases of application software. Please describe your best practices for migrating this equipment and software from a Government Owned, Contractor Operated environment (GO/CO model) to a Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated managed service environment (CO/CO) model). In addition, please define your support model and method of maintaining the best of class customer support and technology refresh in a CONUS wide managed service model.
3. Please describe as specifically as possible the transition and day-to-day operations of a past client you transitioned from a GO/CO to CO/CO model of services. Additionally, please list three major challenges you faced with the transition and three major challenges you faced with the day-to-day operations how you mitigated them.
4. DHS Headquarters is continually changing and growing. As building leases expire and organization changes are implemented, there is an ongoing need to support projects consisting of buildouts/decommissions, moving the user moves within and between facilities and across the National Capital Region as well as across CONUS. Please provide a recommended support model that will support this activity.
5. DHS HQ has a responsibility to support users at all locations throughout CONUS and occasionally at international locations. Please describe your method to ensure end-user equipment and operations are highly available in the CO/CO model and to ensure equipment is delivered and returned from the end user located across CONUS and OCONUS.
6. DHS missions are 24x7 with core hours M-F 8 am to 5 pm. The vital missions are backed up with a Continuity of Operations (COOP) plan which includes surge support requirements for Disaster Recovery (DR), devolution, and reconstitution activities. These missions require flexible and timely support. Please provide recommendations on how to support the requirements for 24x7 operations and COOP activity such as DR, devolution, reconstitution. Please provide your recommendation for the needed staffing, the flexibility plan, which support a cost-effective model for the CO/CO environment.
7. DHS Headquarters is moving to incorporate Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) with Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (CoBIT) frameworks within its IT Service Delivery. Please provide best practices for how to use these frameworks in an "As a Service" model for helpdesk, end-user support, and technology refresh supporting customers across CONUS. Additionally, please provide an example of how you have implemented these best practices.
8. DHS Headquarters is considering moving to a consumption-based billing model within the enterprise for their internal customers to understand their costs of services. Please describe best practices for implementing this type of billing process in a CO/CO managed service system, including the creation and management of a federated chargeback model.
9. DHS seeks an environment in which the service provider can identify incidents and issues that will affect multiple users and thereby implementing a fix, work around or specific communication to the effect users of the incident prior to the user needing to call the service desk. Please provide recommended best practices, tools, and services needed to obtain this type of environment.
10. Please provide recommended software tools and best practices necessary to manage the end-user computing environment in a flexible, service automated environment, including managing tickets, service alerts, application monitoring, storage management, incident management, and problem management?
11. Please describe your operating procedures for maintaining cybersecurity compliance of end- user devices/equipment with a managed services platform that is facing ongoing threats in an IT environment that requires data to be highly secured at all times. In addition, please provide recommended reporting structure to ensure OCIO leadership is aware and knowledgeable of threats and vulnerabilities.
12. DHS is considering an overall 7 to 10-year period of performance for the associated procurement. What is your perspective regarding the contract type, contract base period and option periods? How would new and innovative services be added to the procurement structure based on evolving requirements?
Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Electronic files larger than 5 MB shall be broken down into multiple files with no single file exceeding 5 MB. Large files shall be e-mailed as a zip file. Each electronic submission shall include the following:
1. The RFI number in the subject line.
2. The response - please limited responses to 15 pages; (8.5 by 11 inch pages, standard margins, 11 point or larger font; a small number of links to public, online white papers or catalogs is allowed).
3. Company name & size, Company Address, a point of contact (POC), phone number, and email address of the person (in the body of the email) to be contacted regarding any correspondence between the Government and the vendor. The POC shall be capable of addressing questions or issues associated with the submission and content of the RFI.
DHS is under no obligation to provide feedback to the company, or to contact the company for clarification of any information submitted in response to this RFI.
Responses are due no later than 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on March 25, 2019.
Provide responses to: Gregory Ruderman, ITAC Associate Director, Contracting Officer, Gregory.Ruderman@hq.dhs.gov and to Scott Simpson, Contracting Officer, Scott.Simpson@hq.dhs.gov .
Gregory Ruderman, Contracting Officer, Email Gregory.Ruderman@hq.dhs.gov - Scott Simpson, Contract Specialist, Email scott.simpson@dhs.gov
