U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

BUREAU OF INFORMATION RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (IRM)

OFFICE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITIONS (ITA)

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE

for

REAL TIME AWARENESS AND ALERTING SOFTWARE

_____________________________________________________________________________

1.0 PURPOSE

This Sources Sought Notice (SSN) is issued as market research to determine industry’s capabilities to provide an open-source information monitoring and alerting tool to support State’s requirements to maintain near real-time situational awareness of global events and emerging trends impacting State missions around the world. The tool shall leverage artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Deep Learning (DL), and/or other leading-edge technologies to process publicly available information and provide relevant insights and near real-time alerts of critical events in support of State’s diplomatic security and global crisis management use cases.

The Government does not commit to award a contract on the basis of this SSN or reimburse any costs associated with the preparation of responses. This SSN is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this SSN that is marked “Proprietary” will be handled accordingly. Responses to the SSN will not be returned. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this SSN are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responses to this SSN will assist the Department of State (“State”) in determining the potential level of interest, competition adequacy, and technical capabilities of commercial vendors to provide the required products and services. The Government does not guarantee any action beyond this SSN.

2.0 BACKGROUND

State’s mission is to advance the interests of the American people, their safety, and economic prosperity by leading America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance. The mission of IRM is to rapidly and securely deliver anytime, anywhere, the knowledge resources and Information Technology (IT) services needed to support the over 300 sites and 275 missions it services worldwide.

IRM is seeking input from industry regarding their capability to provide market-leading solutions capable of meeting the full breadth of functional requirements outlined in this notice. State requires access to a platform that is compliant with current Federal security requirements, is easy to use, flexible, and scalable, with the ability to configure the system to meet specific State requirements as further detailed below.

3.0 SOURCES SOUGHT OVERVIEW

As further detailed in Section 4, the government is seeking to identify capable and interested partners able to provide the products and services to meet State requirements. Viable partners shall have demonstrated experience deploying the solutions and delivering the ongoing support required to maintain, expand, and upgrade the solution over time for an organization of similar size, scope, and complexity as State.

Information requested in this Notice includes the following categories:

• Company Information (Section 1) – Identification of interested vendors, socio-economic status, and potential acquisition vehicles to inform State acquisition strategy
• Capability Assessment Against Functional Requirements (Section 2) – Description of vendor’s proposed technical solution and its ability to fully meet all stated functional requirements

• Past Experience (Section 3) – Past project example(s) demonstrating vendor’s experience implementing their proposed solution to address use cases similar to those of State for an organization of similar size, global scope, and complexity to State

4.0 SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS:

All written responses should be submitted in Microsoft compatible formats (e.g., Word) or PDF. The attached Excel template must be submitted in Excel format.

Responses are limited to a maximum of 10 pages using 12-point font and 1-inch margins, including all text, tables, and graphics. Additional attachments, brochures, or other marketing materials are not requested and will not be considered as part of the response. The accompanying Excel template must be completed and submitted in Excel format and is excluded from the maximum page limits.

Please submit all materials to Ernest Mbandi at MbandiEM@state.gov by Friday, March 8 at 12:00pm/ET.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL ANY RESPONDENT CONTACT ANY STATE PERSONNEL REGARDING THIS NOTICE.

SOURCES SOUGHT REQUESTED INFORMATION

Respondents are asked to provide the information requested below in accordance with the instructions outlined in Section 4.0 above. Submissions not adhering to the instructions may be deemed non-responsive and may receive no further consideration.

1. Section 1 – Company Information

Please provide the following details regarding your organization in the accompanying Excel template, Tab 1:

1. 1. Company name
   2. Company’s point of contact (POC) name
   3. Company’s point of contact (POC) phone number
   4. Company’s point of contact (POC) email address
   5. Company’s URL/web address
   6. Company’s Cage Code
   7. Company’s UEI Number
   8. Company business size in terms of revenue and number of employees
   9. Company Federal socioeconomic classification(s), if any, based on North American Industry Classification (NAICS) Code NAICS 511210, Software Licenses
   10. List GSA schedule and/or GWACs or other Federal IDIQs or contracts the vendor holds that are relevant to this requirement, including corresponding schedule number/contract number

1. Section 2 – Functional Requirements Assessment

State’s functional requirements for the contemplated solution are outlined below. Respondents are asked to complete the attached Excel-based matrix confirming which of the stated requirements their proposed solution is able to fully meet. Then in the respondent’s narrative, please provide sufficient details regarding the solution’s technical capabilities to demonstrate that the solution is capable of satisfying each stated requirement.

Please ensure responses are clearly numbered as to which requirement the information is supporting. Responses that do not clearly map information to the stated requirements below or are otherwise unclear may be deemed non-responsive and may not receive further consideration.

State’s core requirements are enumerated below:

1. Product shall include among its integrated data sources, verified “X Corp (formerly Twitter) Official Data Partner” Program-level access to process 100% of public, including deleted, posts (formerly “tweets”) in near real time to support diplomatic security and crisis management use cases with minimal potential for interruption of X Corp data access.
2. Product shall achieve State objectives via a single, integrated COTS (Commercial- off-the-shelf) product (no custom-built products).

1. Product shall have the ability to effectively notify all users, both domestically and overseas, of relevant alerts through a variety of channels including, but not limited to, a web-based interface, mobile application, and via email. The mobile app shall provide substantially the same features and functionality as the web-based interface.
2. Product shall incorporate and utilize verifiable domestic and foreign information sources, including non-English and local sources, as a means of identifying and validating relevant event content in all geographic locations.

1. Product shall triage source data for relevant events utilizing mature, trained Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and/or Deep Learning tools and methods across multiple mediums (text, audio, images, and video). AI, ML, and/or DL cannot rely solely on the use of key words to identify, categorize, and geolocate relevant events.
2. Vendor shall have demonstrated experience in applying its solution to global risk and emergency/crisis management use cases with near real-time event detection and dissemination of alerts.

1. Vendor shall have one or more data provider-approved use cases supporting diplomatic security and global crisis management.
2. Product shall effectively detect and visualize global breaking events in near real time via an event dashboard.

1. Product shall provide State administrators and users with the ability to directly configure the display/views and dissemination of information/alerts based on specific geographic areas, event types, and urgency levels without significant vendor involvement in such customization/configuration.
2. Product shall provide the ability to visualize the location of events and notify users who may be impacted by those events through alerts.

1. Section 3 – Past Performance

Please provide at least one, and not more than 3, relevant examples within the last 3 years of your company’s successful delivery of a solution that meets all of the stated requirements in Section 2 for a customer of similar size, global scope, and complexity to the State. Please address the following areas for each example provided

• Brief description of the scope of the work your company performed and its relevance and applicability to demonstrating capability to deliver the requirements outlined in Section 2
• Contract and task order number
• Contract type
• Dollar value of contract (across full period of performance)
• Period of performance dates
• State whether your company was a prime or sub-contractor

Disclaimer: This Sources Sought Notice is for information gathering purposes only as a means to identify interested and capable sources that can provide a solution that fully meets all requirements outlined in Section 2. The information provided in this Notice is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. State has not made a commitment to procure any of the items/services discussed, and release of this SSN should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought.

State will not publicly disclose proprietary information obtained as a result of this SSN. To the full extent that it is protected by law and regulations, information identified by a respondent as Proprietary or Confidential will be kept confidential. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

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