Added: Oct 21, 2008 5:18 pm
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to award a sole source contract to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) for the Employee User Portal (EUP) and Registered User Portal (RUP) Managed Services. These services include hosting, and operations and maintenance support for the EUP and RUP. This announcement is in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1, only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. The Government believes that there is only one responsible source that can provide the services that satisfy the agency requirements for EUP and RUP Managed Services in the required timeframe, as the IRS is currently engaged in determining the future direction of the portals. The Government intends to award a fixed price and time and materials contract pursuant to FAR Part 15 under NAICS Code 541512.
Since January 2002, the EUP and RUP have served as the only electronic channel for interactions with the IRS and are currently a pivotal information source for over 120 million taxpayers and tax professionals, as well as IRS employees. The EUP supports an intranet portal that allows IRS employees to access business applications and data. The RUP is the IRS internet portal that allows registered individuals, third party users, and other individual taxpayers and their representative to access selected tax processing data, and other sensitive applications. The Operations and Maintenance (O&M); for the EUP and RUP is currently performed by IBM. The sites consist of approximately 515 hosting servers/devices located at three external, load-balanced sites (Martinsburg, West Virginia; Sterling, Virginia; and Chicago, Illinois). At each level of the architecture, redundancy was implemented to meet the high level (100%) of availability required by the IRS. Employee User and Registered User Portals host some 22 applications/utilities.
The IRS is in the process of developing a long range strategy for Portal Managed Services. The current portal hosting infrastructures at the IRS are mission critical systems that cannot be allowed to break or suffer service level degradation. Since its launch in January 2002, the EUP and RUP have provided 100% availability to IRS employees and the taxpaying public. The current O&M; contract will expire in May 2009. It is imperative that these IRS public facing portals continue to be maintained and available 24 hours a day/7 days a week. Some of the challenges prohibiting a competitive acquisition at this time include:
infrastructure ownership implications; software (OS, Tools), Telecommunications, Facilities (Floor, Space, Power, etc.), and Network (each unique component) cannot be transferred timely to another vendor;
knowledge and execution of security complexities in the planned transition to a new service provider; Title III of the E-Government Act, of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) of 2002, Public Law 107-347, OMB Circular A-130-NIST provides guidance consistent with the requirements of OMB Circular A-130, Section 8b(3), Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS), NIST Special Publications 800 series, TD P 85-01, Department of Treasury Security Manual, TD P 84-01, Information System Life Cycle (ISLC),TD P 83-01, Guidelines for Acquiring Federal Information Processing, TD P 71-10, Department of Treasury Security Manual and Internal Revenue Manual (IRM) 10.8 Series;
completion of the portal strategy analysis that will determine the technical direction of the EUP and RUP;
disruption in service would result in both internal and external complications; user applications would not have a platform to operate.
Given the complexity, mission criticality, and transitional requirements of the IRS portals, the IRS estimates the need for a sole-source contract, with the incumbent, consisting of one base year and 3 one year option periods. This will ensure sufficient time to: 1) complete the IRS Portal Strategic Analysis including the submission and acceptance of all of the final deliverables, leading to IRS ability to conduct a competitive acquisition for future portal requirements; 2) develop a procurement strategy that implements the future direction of the portals and promotes competition to the maximum extent practicable; and, 3) successfully complete transition of all existing applications to the new portal infrastructure with no disruption of service during the transition period.
No solicitation document is available, and requests for same will be considered non-responsive. However, any firm that believes that it can meet the requirements above may give written notification to the contracting officer; firms must submit clear and convincing data in writing substantiating an ability to furnish the entire requirement. Responses may not exceed ten pages. Responses to this notice must be received by this office by November 5, 2008. Responses should be sent to: Internal Revenue Service, Office of Procurement, 6009 Oxon Hill Road, Oxon Hill, MD 20745, Attn: Margaret M. Hunt, OS:A:P:I:F:B. Responses will be accepted by facsimile at 202-283-4427. If a response is received that meets the IRS requirements, and analysis of both technical and pricing documentation indicate that a competitive acquisition would be more advantageous to the Government, a formal solicitation may be issued. A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed procurement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Telephonic or e-mail inquiries will not be accepted. The reference number for this announcement is Q9Q63KSIC01000. If no compelling responses are received, award will be made to IBM.
