Pre-solicitation Notice:



The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) intends to issue a draft solicitation for IT SUPPORT SERVICES (details below).



To maximize small business participation, teaming arrangements, especially those utilizing SBA’s 8(a) Mentor Protégé Program's Joint Ventures are highly encouraged for functional areas One (1) and Two (2). Mentor Protégé Agreeements must be certified and approved by the Small Business Administration prior to submission of a proposal to be eligible for award.



Functional areas Three (3) and Four (4) is expected to be set-aside for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned businesses.



The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Program Support Center, Information Technology Office (ITO) has a requirement for IT Support Services comprised of 4 functional areas of support. The requirement will be competed using full and open competition procedures, however 2 of the functional areas of support shall be a partial set-aside for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses. The 4 functional areas are:



(1) Infrastructure Support Services, shall be solicited on a Government Owned/Contractor Operated (GOCO) basis and shall include support of network servers, Unix-based systems, Windows-based systems and associated data storage; backup and services supporting systems software (e.g. operating systems, utilities, schedulers); performance monitoring and reporting; backups and restores; DNS management; hardware and software refresh,; server build and management; hardware operating systems management and maintenance; server security operation (including anti-virus); and patch and operating system upgrades. Support also includes HHS’s middleware and platforms; file/print services; e-mail services (for up to 70,000 users); blackberry servers; and other HHS specific infrastructure-related functions (e.g. HHS Identify Access Management).



(2) Seat Management, shall be solicited on a Contractor Owned/Contractor Operated (COCO) basis and shall include acquisition, deployment, management and maintenance of end user devices for approximately 9,000 end users; Tier 0, Tier 1 service desk support on a 24/7/365 to address service requests and resolve user incidents; tech dispatch and end-to-end ticket management for incidents escalated to Tier 2 and Tier 3; desk-side support for all locations including break-fix, installations, and move-add-change; asset configuration, deployment, warranty management, tagging, refresh, and disposal management; software license management and inventory and asset management.



(3) Application Hosting services to be solicited as a partial set-aside for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses requires a facility for hosting HHS mission-related applications and facilities, equipment and remote access for designated systems and employees.



(4) COOP/Disaster Recovery Requirements, Planning, and Implementation services to be solicited as a partial set-aside for service-disabled veteran-owned small business to ensure coordinated and responsive continuity or restoration of operations in the event of a threat or emergency.



On January 23, 2008 a Request for Information (RFI-OITO-001) was posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website to gather information and expert advice from industry to inform its need and direction in preparing a solicitation document with the most current best practices.



The draft solicitation is nearing completion and it is anticipated that it will be released for comment middle to late October 2008 timeframe; comments will be due within 30 days of posting. Prior to the close of the draft solicitation it is the Government’s intent to hold an Industry Awareness Day for interested parties.



After consideration of comments addressing the draft solicitation, a Request for Proposal shall be posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website.



Points of Contact: Chris Atkins, Contracting Officer: pscacquisitions@psc.hhs.gov

Small Business Office: 202.690.7300