Amendment 001 - The purpose of this amendment is to: Respond to questions (see attached document titled: 24-26-A-PMO-OITA-Responses)
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Analysis Solution
Request for Information (RFI)
Introduction
SOURCES SOUGHT– THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) IS RELEASED PURSUANT TO FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) PART 10, MARKET RESEARCH.
This RFI is only issued for information and planning purposes. It shall not be construed as either a solicitation of the obligation on the part of the Government. All information received from this RFI will be used for Market Research purposes only. The Department of Treasury solicits vendor responses to this RFI to obtain knowledge and information for market research purposes only. This RFI will not result in a contract award.
The Government does not intend to award a contract based on responses to this RFI nor otherwise reimburse vendors for the preparation of any information submitted or Government use of such information. There is no guarantee of a solicitation resulting from this RFI.
Acknowledgment of receipt of responses will not be made, nor will respondents be notified regarding the outcome of the information received. All data received in response to this Sources Sought synopsis marked or designated as corporate or proprietary information will be fully protected from release outside the Government.
The Government shall not be liable for or suffer consequential damages for proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with all applicable Government regulations. All documentation shall become the property of the Government and will not be returned.
Project Title/Short Description: Enterprise Operations (EOps) Network Engineering Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Analysis Solution
PCS Code: 7E20
NAICS Code: 541519
Release Date: 10/03/2024
Response Due Date: 10/17/2024
Primary Point of Contact:
Name: Maria Hagedorn
Title: A-PMO Government Facilitator
Email: Maria.c.hagedorn@irs.gov
Secondary Point of Contact:
Name: Nadine Payne
Title: A-PMO Government Facilitator
Email: Nadine.d.payne@irs.gov
- Project Description:
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a bureau of the Department of Treasury. The IRS provides America's taxpayers top quality service by helping them understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all.
The Enterprise Operations (EOps) Network Engineering organization is a Branch of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Information Technology organization. They are charged with managing and ensuring the ability to communicate with internal and external customers across a multitude of business functional areas utilizing data, voice, video, and cloud connections while maintaining the highest level of perimeter security to protect taxpayer data and overall IRS Network.
The IRS Network Management Control Center (NMCC) is a critical support team for the IRS’s Network Engineering. The NMCC is responsible for the Management, Proactive Analysis, Remediation, and Mitigation of issues impacting connectivity for IRS networks. The NMCC provides oversite and coverage of the day-to-day upkeep and performance of the transmission of data, application, voice, video, and wireless services.
The current Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) tool has reached end of life and the NMCC is now at point where a replacement needs to be procured.
With that in mind, to continue to provide seamless connectivity across the network, the NMCC assessed a number of VoIP tools and contractors in the effort to identify the most capable solution with the ability to ensure high availability, new capabilities, optimized performance of the technologies being utilized while implementing innovative safeguards for the security of personnel, end user, and customer data.
2. Requested Information:
Responses to this RFI are requested in three (3) parts as detailed below.
Please provide the following information about your company:
Company Overview
Name of Company
Address
City, State, Zip
Point of Contact Name
Telephone Number
E-mail Address
Number of years your company has been in the management consulting or transformation services industry
Provide an overview of your company
Company size and socioeconomic status (if applicable)
Experience/Similar Project Info as related to this project (e.g., contract #, POP, brief description, agency/company supported)
PART II: Responses to Questions (10-page limit)
- Describe your experience sourcing a vendor tool that provides alerting capabilities such as policies, alert rules, schedules and notifications of all Cisco Unified Call Manager (CUCM) devices with threshold settings, historical and real-time, and capabilities to test for security and compliance violations and voice recording verification.
- Describe your capabilities for sourcing a tool that is PIV, IPv6, and Section 508 compliant with a current Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)?
- Describe the monitoring capabilities of similar tools you have sourced from vendors.
- Describe the level of support vendor intends to provide the IRS if any issues occur while upgrading the software or any other issue occurs with the tools.
- What is your experience integrating with other tools such as ServiceNow?
- Describe your knowledge and understanding of the Federal Zero Trust mandate (M-22-09)?
- Describe your capabilities for providing 24/7 support.
- Describe your Records retention capabilities to include search functions.
- Where is your company based?
PART III: Exhibits and Attachments (2-page limit)
Your response may include attachments. These items must be clearly marked as attachments. Please provide any additional information you believe is pertinent for our consideration.
3. How to submit a response.
RFI Responses to this Notice shall be emailed to the attention of both individual(s) listed in this Notice on page 1.
Page limit and formatting requirements: Responses are to be submitted in either MS Word or PDF format. The company's standard format is acceptable; however, limit of responses shall not exceed 13 pages, excluding any cover page. Responses must use 11 font size and 8 ½ x 11-inch pages.
RFI Responses are to be submitted no later than October 17, 2024, 4:00pm EST.
Questions and comments relevant to this RFI may be provided for consideration. RFI questions must be submitted by October 7, 2024, by 4pm EST. The IRS will consolidate all questions received and provide a response on or before October 10, 2024. All RFI questions shall be emailed to both individual(s) listed on page 1.
*Note: The Government reserves the right to contact some, all or none of the responding vendors for further discussions regarding the RFI responses. The IRS will reach out to the point of contact listed on the response should we choose to contact any vendor(s). This discussion is for clarification or for further information gathering. This exchange should not be misconstrued as the Governments interest to pursue or enter into any contractual agreement or obligation. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. *
Place of Contract Performance: See attached PWS.
Security Requirements: For purposes of this RFI, vendors shall comply with all IRS standard security requirements. If/when a formal solicitation is issued all required security clauses will be provided in the RFQ and shall be adhered to.
4. Terms and Conditions regarding this Notice:
This Notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. All costs associated with responding to this Notice are solely at the responding party's expense. The Government reserve the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s 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. Further, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.
Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract or agreement. The Government will not be obligated to pursue any particular acquisition alternative as a result of this notice. Responses to the notice will not be returned. Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future solicitation, if one is issued.
No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in responses to this Notice, unless otherwise appropriately marked by the Respondent. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information received in response to this Notice in any resultant solicitation(s).
Do Not Submit any Proposals/Offers in response to this Notice.
Phone calls will not be accepted or returned in response to this RFI.
