Request for Information on Application Operations Services Providers

Request for Information

on

Application Operations Services

Providers

April 2, 2013 Version 1.8

Introduction

Historically, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has acquired

applications through a variety of methods. Primarily, applications have been developed through the tasking of contractors to develop specific apps under various contracts. It is widely accepted that while this methodology meets the immediate need, there is an NGA commitment to implement more effective or efficient means to develop or acquire apps and to capitalize on the most innovative technologies and ideas. Under the

direction of the Application Services office of the Online GEOINT Services key component of NGA (OGSA), a team was formed to evaluate various application compensation models. The intent of this team was to identify a business strategy that delivers a consumer driven compensation model for application development with an efficient and effective acquisition strategy to execute it.

NGA has launched the GEOINT App Store (GAS) on three security domains (JWICS, SIPRNet, SBU) to provide a distribution channel for applications that is online, on-demand and provides access to a suite of GEOINT focused apps for web, mobile and desktop use.

The purpose of this request for information (RFI) is to help NGA develop a more commercial-like approach to obtaining applications within the parameters of

Government acquisition regulations. NGA’s approach intends to provide access to wider sources of geospatial application innovation, to include academia, small businesses and independent developers, as well as its traditional cadre of vendors. This consumer driven methodology will reduce costs for acquiring applications and significantly increase NGA’s ability to meet the ever-changing end-user needs effectively and efficiently.

This RFI is being issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute an Invitation for Bids (IFB), a Request for Proposals (RFP), a Request for Quotations (RFQ) or an indication that the Government will contract for any of the items and/or services contained in this notice (FAR 15.201(e)). In accordance with FAR 52.215-3 - Requests for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes (Oct 1997), the Government will not pay for any information/items submitted in response to this RFI. Information provided will not be returned. This RFI does not commit the Government to award a contract. No determination as to the viability of this requirement has been made at this point and there is currently no solicitation for this effort. Any solicitation resulting from this RFI will be announced separately. Based on your response to this RFI, the Government may contact you for follow-up questions and/or a one-on-one session.

Application Operations Services Provider Concept

NGA is examining the option to procure an Application Operations Services Provider (AOS) from one or more vendors. These AOS awardee(s) would provide a range of services from soliciting, functional and compliance testing, provisioning vendor apps, as well as business analytics, to provisioning an AOS hosted development environment. These services would simplify evaluation and provisioning of apps to a Government

hosted environment. The AOS(s) would utilize a rolling solicitation process to allow ongoing competition and product improvements. Compensation for the AOS would be based on one of several models, or a combination of models. For example, a provider might receive a percentage of the cost of applications purchased, a minimal service provider fee, and/or a potential award fee for performance or a combination of these options. Given the nature of the AOS’s role in evaluating and making available

applications, the AOS would not be able to submit applications under their contract area of responsibility.

If an AOS hosted development environment is warranted, the AOS must be prepared to provision appropriately to support changes in the market (e.g., growing developer needs, increasing consumer demand). Use of the development environment would ensure that app vendors have the tools necessary to ensure compliance and functionality within the NSG/NGA operational environment.

AOSP Requirements

The core function of the AOSP is to manage the business and technical aspects for soliciting, screening and acquiring apps to ensure that all applications submitted to the Government will pass minimally acceptable criteria. Some examples include standard license agreements, terms and conditions, security requirements, technical criteria requirements, and a pricing model (i.e., fixed price per download).

Given the intent is to reach non-traditional vendors, it is critical for the AOSP to market NGA’s mission and translate business processes in a way that bridges the technical variety NGA’s mission demands, as well as with federal requirements to which NGA is held. This requires both educating developers and assisting them in providing a finished product that meets either generic statements of need and/or detailed urgent

requirements in a manner that allows for an expedited review, compliance and functional testing and submission for operational use.

Given the financial uncertainty and innovativeness of this effort, the intent is to execute with minimal commitments and risk with the ability to grow as the emerging federal mobile market expands, user demand for mobile and web-based apps grows, and procedures and funding mature.

Compensation Models

There are two primary areas of vendor compensation. The first area is compensation for services provided by the AOSP. These services include vendor recruitment via

application solicitation, application assessment, testing and evaluation, tool

management, business analytics, and provisioning of an AOS hosted development environment.

The second area is compensation based on application usage. The Government is considering a compensation option that would treat all accepted applications equally for initial compensation and have compensation incentives associated with the volume of downloads and other elements of user feedback. The Government will provide guidance and categories for the application screening that the AOS will consistently apply against all applications.

This effort would be executed as a Performance Based Service Acquisition with a

Performance Work Statement (PWS) and a Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) that will provide both incentives and disincentives to ensure quality performance. Some potential areas for AOS compensation incentive and disincentive consideration include: percentage of evaluation accuracy, delivery of high usage apps, timeliness of review, and ability to identify developers for critical needs. The PWS incentives and percentage of application cost would serve as an additional incentive-based compensation for the AOSP.

Rolling Solicitation

It is the intent of this activity that the AOSP brings to bear applications under general statements of need (categories such as Maritime, Aeronautics, and Disaster Relief) and specific ad hoc requirements. NGA desires the opportunity to evaluate applications that meet mission requirements without the need to clearly dictate application solutions. Moreover, the Agency requires a rapid capability to identify urgent application needs with an established process for seeking developers and evaluating applications for operational use. Each category has a ‘rolling solicitation’ during which application vendors submit their applications. The AOSP tests the apps, in the order submitted, ensuring it functions as claimed and meets environmental requirements. No guarantee would be made for minimum or maximum orders.

The result of the rolling solicitation process is that vendors with commercially available products have the opportunity to submit applications for consideration early in the process while other vendors still in the development phase are able to submit to the hosting environment when ready. As user feedback is provided all vendors will have the opportunity to modify their applications to address user concerns increasing the

costs as it is in the vendor’s interest to refine and improve their product to remain competitive with the ever-changing marketplace.

Application Provisioning

The ability to provision and make available applications from the designated NGA

hosting environment to the end-user’s device is paramount to the success of this activity. As in the commercial market, users need to be able to download an app at will; but in the NGA market, doing so without having to purchase the app. Providing this ability is not without challenges. The App Store will have a fixed budget, which will necessitate the need to control the number of downloads of any and all apps. The costs of the applications are likely to be greater than a typical personal app, requiring prudent purchasing determinations by NGA. And unlike personal use devices, this activity is accountable to federal requirements for management of taxpayer dollars. The AOSP will need to provide weekly metrics and download control on all applications via a metrics tool, and submit monthly invoices based on actual use within the contractual NTE.

Requested Information

Question 1) What recommendations would industry make regarding device

fragmentation (e.g., multiple Android devices and OS versions) and the mobile apps the Government makes available for download? Are there approaches that will allow the Government to reach the largest consumer base without having to accommodate every conceivable device and operating system? What are the tradeoffs?

Question 2) What business strategy would industry recommend the Government follow to develop its geospatial mobile market?

Question 3) In the preceding paragraphs, the new approach to application acquisition compensation was described. What advantages to the Government do you see in this approach? What benefits do you perceive in this approach? What challenges and risks do you see in this approach?

Question 4) What compensation approach would industry recommend that would allow the Government to shift its compensation for apps to a user driven model as demand grows?

Question 5) What marketing strategies would industry follow to generate and maintain interest across a broad range of developers like commercial developers, traditional industry partners, academia, and grass roots developers?

Question 6) What types of metrics would industry recommend using to measure performance in each area?

Question 7) To what standard would industry propose for transaction-related metrics? How would the validity of these metrics be assessed and guaranteed for accuracy?

Question 8) In industry’s opinion, what are the issues with measuring service performance in the following areas?

a) Business (e.g., app registration & tracking, contract administration, license administration)

b) Operations (e.g., metrics collection, online help support)

c) Test and Evaluation (e.g., functional testing of supplied applications) d) Marketing and Outreach (e.g., solicitation of geospatial applications

from industry, academia, non-traditional sources)

e) Metrics collection and analysis (e.g., funnel analysis, social media analysis)

Question 9) Is a standard Government Performance Work Statement (PWS) sufficient for documenting expected performance, or is an industry type Service Level Agreement more appropriate?

Question 10) What contractual approach does industry recommend for the AOS solicitation? Should it be a single award to a single contractor? Should it be a Prime Contractor award with multiple subcontractors? Should it be a multiple award across separate task orders?

Question 11) Included in the AOSP tasking is a requirement to provide a platform as a service (PaaS) capability or Mobile Application Environment (MAE). What are the requirements necessary to establish a virtual, dynamic and elastic computational

environment where applications are developed, tested and evaluated against screening criteria, and deployed in the NGA enterprise?

Question 12) Does industry have solutions for an effectively provisioned development environment that could be efficiently deployed to lessen the risk and burden for the Government’s approach?

Question 13) What Government furnished equipment (GFE), Government furnished information (GFI), policy information, resources, etc. are required to make the AOSP concept successful?

Question 14) The Government is particularly interested in increasing its access to other than traditional sources for application procurement. What channels to small business, academia, non-traditional commercial sources would you exploit to broaden the

industrial base for NGA? Describe how you would exploit these channels.

Question 15) The Government intends to apply this approach to all three security domains. What challenges and risks do you see in the implementation of the approach for each of the three security domains: TOP SECRET, SECRET, UNCLASSIFIED? Question 16) If the Government were to provide data to developers, both for

development and operations, what does the Government need to consider with regard to access (via a service or otherwise), data formats, uses of the data, and availability?

Question 17) General Information a. What business are you in?

b. Do you have a GSA Vehicle? If yes, provide the contract number. c. Are you interested as a prime or subcontractor? If you answer yes as a

subcontractor, please fill out c.1.

1. If there can be a piece carved-out for small businesses or an opportunity to be a designated Small Business Prime instead of a subcontract, would you be

interested in the designated Prime opportunity?

d. What portion of the work could be set-aside for small businesses? e. Can you perform all the required work?

f. Would you propose on this requirement if released?

g. The Government intends to utilize one of the following NAICS codes for this effort: 541219 Other Accounting Services, 425110 Business to Business Electronic Markets, 518210 Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services. Is there another suggested NAICS code? If yes, please provide.

h. Vendor List: If you would like to be on our vendors list, please provide the name of your company, POC, email and phone number.

Administration

All responses to this RFI must be received by April 22, 2013, no later than 1500 EDT. Responses to this RFI MUST BE received by the due date and time, and via the method for submittal specified below without exception.

Method for Submittal

All responses MUST BE submitted through the Applications Operations Services Providers (AOSP) acquisition website via the Unclassified IC-ARC at:

https://arc.westfields.net/. RFI responses will not be accepted after the cut-off time and date stated above and will not be accepted via e-mail, fax, or other means.

To aid in Government review, the total pages for the entire submission are limited to not more than 40 pages, submitted electronically in Portable Document Format (PDF). Process flow diagrams are highly encouraged and do not count against the 40 page limit. Additional documents can be multiple files but individual file size shall not exceed 5MB. The first page of the submission must state the RFI title and provide the name, e-mail address and telephone number for an individual that can be contacted for

clarification or questions regarding this submission. The first page should also provide a short description of the company to include capabilities, company size and category (e.g., large, small, small disadvantaged). Each 40 page submission shall include responses to the areas of interest outlined in the “Requested Information” section. The response format is 8.5" x 11", 12 pt. Times New Roman font, single spaced, with 1"

Written responses shall not include proprietary information. Any responses that are marked proprietary will not be considered.

Disclaimers

Respondents are hereby notified that more than one Government agency may be provided the responses for review, and the Government may utilize Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC) and/or support contractors to provide technical advice on the responses. Otherwise, information submitted under this RFI will be limited only to NGA and to the support contractors who have signed the requisite non-disclosure agreements.

The Government may use the information provided to develop a comprehensive

procurement strategy and solicitation. Any information used will be on a non-attribution basis.

Questions and Answers (Q&As)

The Government will entertain questions on a case by case basis. Vendors are advised that all questions submitted to the AOSP acquisition website on the Unclassified ARC will be posted for all vendors to view together with the Government’s answer, although the identity of the requesting organization will be withheld. The deadline for submitting questions is 2:00 PM EDT, 12 April 2013. Should you have questions regarding use of the Unclassified IC-ARC, please contact the ACE IT Support Team at 703-230-6300.

Industry Outreach Day

The Government will host an Industry Outreach Day on 30 April 2013. Information related to this session will be posted to the unclassified ARC. Registration for NGA’s upcoming Industry Day can be completed on the unclassified Intelligence Community ARC (https://arc.westfields.net). You will need to create an account to register. Once you log in, please click the “Current IC Efforts” link on the left hand side and proceed to the “Apps Comp Model” website. Actual registration can be completed under the “Registration” tab feature.

Please contact the undersigned at (571) 557-7297 for question of a contractual nature.

//Signed//

Jonathan B. Mostowski Contracting Officer