Added: Jun 02, 2008 2:24 pm
Social Security Administration
Ergonomic Furniture Financial and Installation Tracking Systems Requirements
Request for Information
The Social Security Administration (SSA) seeks information on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions to provide automated computer software that will track all aspects of furniture installation including installation, financial and warranty activity.
BACKGROUND
The Center for Ergonomic Property (CEP) manages the installation of ergonomic systems workstations in more than 1,700 large and small offices nationwide. An installation can range from approximately 30-1700 workstations. There are approximately 30 types of installations . Major installations include:
Initial installation - installation of all new ergonomic systems workstations.
Relocation - dismantling workstations at the current site, transporting the product to the new site and joining original product with new product to use for installation.
Reconfiguration - a change in the layout of the workstations at the current site.
Retrofit - addition of product to previously installed workstations.
Add-on - installation of additional workstations at the current site.
CEP identifies the office and the type of installation with site codes. Larger offices may have several site codes. Coordinating nationwide installations require access to office information such as site code; office address; region name; and contact information for the designer, local coordinator and regional coordinator. CEP currently relies on two custom applications to support the day-to-day operations. These applications contain approximately 5,510 furniture records and 12,610 financial records.
As a part of the furniture installation process, CEP monitors the preparation, revision and final approval of the computer-aid design (CAD) drawings. The approval date and any revision dates of the CAD drawing are tracked and maintained. CEP monitors the dates of site design visits or conference calls, requisitions and task orders, inventory visits, pre-install meetings and installation completion visits or go-backs, rescheduling when needed.
Within each contract, there are required milestones that CEP monitors such as the CAD certification and the generation of the bill of materials (BOM). The CAD certification must occur before the BOM can generate. The BOM is the complete list of all product required to install the ergonomic systems workstations shown on the CAD. Furniture production starts when the contractor receives the BOM. Once the designer generates the BOM, the contractor has 120 calendar days to manufacture and deliver the furniture. Prior to the generation of the BOM, CEP tracks the date of the generated BOM and all additions to the BOM to ensure that the furniture production and delivery takes place in a timely manner.
SSA acquires ergonomic systems furniture from two separate sources utilizing two different contracting methods, an Interagency Agreement (IAA) and a commercial contract. SSA allocates funding via Common Accounting Numbers (CANs). The CAN is a code used in all accounting transactions to identify the appropriation, allotment, allowance, organization, and other pertinent data. Acquisitions typically include design, installation, product specified in a Bill of Materials (BOM) and designer/installer travel expenses. CEP provides estimated travel expenses on orders for design and installation services. When the contractor invoices for the travel expenses, the actual may be less than estimated. In this case, CEP needs to de-obligate the excess funds for use elsewhere. Currently, SSA tracks this information via a spreadsheet that includes:
Order number
Site name and code
Estimated travel cost
Actual travel cost
Amount to be de-obligated
Date of completion and
90 days from date of completion
Additionally, CEP keeps an accounting of all financial figures connected with each installation including:
the cost of product
storage fees
estimated and actual travel expenses for the designer and installer
designer and installation service fees
task and work order numbers
common accounting numbers (CAN)
CEP conducts periodic quality assurance visits and distributes informational materials for offices receiving ergonomic systems workstations. SSA distributes by email informational reports listing pending installations and instructional guidelines for distributing the informational materials.
CEP coordinates all warranty requests for ergonomic systems workstations. This requires the ability to annotate the description of the needed repair, the regional coordinator contact information, the installer contact information, the date of the warranty visit and the completion date of the warranty visit.
SCOPE OF WORK
SSA requirements involve an accurate COTS system to house and integrate systems furniture installation and financial records. SSA is interested in replacing the existing software with COTS software that will allow SSA to take advantage of the latest software developments.
TECHNICAL OBJECTIVE
The objective is to acquire COTS software that has certain basic technical features. The COTS software must:
Be web-enabled with access using Microsoft Internet Explorer
Operate in a multi-user mode
Include user and administrator documentation along with an online step-by-step user s manual and online learning functions or tutorials
Enable users to be able to query the tracking system using any combination of a variety of search criteria to find specific installation and financial information about all systems furniture installations, such as:
o Installation date
o Bill of Materials information
o Warranty issues
o Total installation cost by site code by fund
o Total installation cost by fiscal year
o Site code or action code
o Task or work order number
o Fiscal year
o IAA
o CAN (fund)
Be 508 compliant
Allow users to download reports with cover letters and send electronically via Microsoft Outlook 2003 email
Provide a reporting tool that allows users the flexibility to display report data utilizing user-selected fields, such as:
o Site name
o Site code
o Bill of Materials date
o Pre-installation date
o Number of workstations
o Furniture install date
Allow users the flexibility to display reports using accounting structures with any combination of data, such as:
o Total installation cost by CAN (Fund)
o Total installation cost by fiscal year
o CAN (Fund)
o Fiscal year
o Site or action code
o Task or work order number
o IAA
Be able to be modified if necessary
Provide various levels of access to the financial tracking portion of the system (e.g. read only and add/delete/modify).
Enable users to add, edit, delete, save and print records
Produce reports highlighting timeline constraints which are in jeopardy
Provide error checking such as not allowing duplicate site codes
Migrate existing data
Be Microsoft Windows XP and Vista compliant
Vendor Responses
Interested sources that believe that they have a product that meets the minimum requirements as specified above, should submit their detailed capabilities in writing indicating reference number SSA-RFI-CEP-08-01 Procurement Type: Sources Sought Date Posted:
June 2, 2008 to Valerie Jones, Contract Specialist, via email at Valerie.Jones@SSA.gov. Responses must be received by 3:00 p.m., EST on June 20, 2008.
