Sources Sought Notice – National Flood Insurance Program – Hosting Direct Servicing Agent at Gov Owned – Gov Operated Facility

Notice Type: Sources Sought Notice

Posted Date: 05-AUG-15

Office Address: Department of Homeland Security; Federal Emergency Management Agency; Recovery Branch; 500 C Street SWPatriots Plaza -- 5th Floor Washington DC 20472

Subject: National Flood Insurance Program - Hosting Direct Servicing Agent at Gov Owned - Gov Operated Facility

Classification Code: 99 - Miscellaneous

Solicitation Number: HSFE60-15-J-0027

Contact: John M Norway, Contracting Officer, Email [email protected] - Marianne Slaby McCallum, Contract Specialist, Email [email protected]

Setaside: N/AN/A

Place of Performance (address): United States of America including CONUS and OCONUS

Place of Performance Country: US

Description: Department of Homeland Security

Federal Emergency Management Agency

Recovery Branch

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION(RFI) HSFE60-15-I-0027 NATIONAL FLOOD INSURANCE PROGRAM HOSTING DIRECT SERVICING AGENT

1.0 DESCRIPTION 1.1 The Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration in support of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) is seeking information on if an interested contractor/vendor could host their vendor software for servicing Direct-side flood insurance policies in a Government-Owned, Government-Operated (GOGO) provider (National Information Technology Center - NITC) and any risks/issues associated with such a solution.

1.2 THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMAITON (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes; it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP in the future. This request for information does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, FEMA is not at this time seeking proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals. Responders are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party's expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities website (FedBizOpps). It is the responsibility of the potential Offerors to monitor this site for additional information pertaining to this requirement.

2.0 BACKGROUND - DIRECT SERVICING AGENT

2.1 The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and a range of programs designed to reduce future losses to homes, businesses, schools, public buildings and critical facilities from floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters.

2.2 FEMA's Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration (FIMA) administers the NFIP, which was created by an Act of Congress in 1968. The NFIP makes flood insurance available to residents and businesses of participating communities that commit to sound flood plain management practices.

2.3 The NFIP sells and administers Standard Flood Insurance Policies in two ways:

(1) Through an arrangement with private Write Your Own (WYO) insurance companies (under authority of 44 CFR Section 62.23); and

(2) Through a contract with an NFIP Direct Servicing Agent (DSA), an entity that directly sells and services NFIP policies. 2.4 Since 1983, the Write Your Own (WYO) Program has become the primary vehicle for delivering and servicing flood insurance with participating insurance companies, who write nearly 80% of the NFIP's policies in their own names. The Government bears the underwriting risk for these policies, as well as for the policies issued by the DSA.

2.5 FEMA requires the DSA to: issue and service flood insurance policies; collect premiums; adjust and settle claims; and disseminate information on NFIP insurance to the public, lenders and agents. The DSA will provide uninterrupted daily servicing of directly written standard flood insurance policies, Severe Repetitive Loss (SRL) policies and Group Flood Insurance policies. The DSA will act as a fiduciary agent for flood insurance premiums and other collections, and meet Federal Government deposit and NFIP accounting requirements. The DSA will also provide information management systems that encompass cash management, policy administration, claims management, performance management reporting and financial and statistical reporting. The DSA will establish and maintain NFIP flood insurance servicing operations that are similar to the NFIP-related operations of a Write Your Own (WYO) insurance company. DSA servicing operations will conform to WYO statistical and financial reporting requirements. Additionally, the DSA shall conform to the NFIP program schedules and changes required of the WYO companies, such as changes to policy forms, coverage, rating and reporting requirements.

2.6 With increased scrutiny on Government IT security, FIMA is considering the solution of moving the Direct Servicing Agent computer system into a Government-Owned, Government-Operated (GOGO) environment. This would fulfill the requirement for FEMA to have a FEDRAMP certified data center, would meet the requirements of the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA), and comply with DHS 4300A latest version mandate, and NIST SP 800-37. The GOGO environment shall receive an Authority to Operate (ATO) for the application and infrastructure.

3.0 HOSTING PROVIDER - NATIONAL INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CENTER

3.1 The National Information Technology Center (NITC) is a federally owned and operated data center hosting and cloud computing service provider. NITC has provided data center services to the USDA and other Federal Government Departments since 1973. As an organizational component of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of the Chief Information Officer, NITC partners with its customers to provide hosting solutions powered by market leading technologies in the most cost effective manner possible. NITC operates as a fee-for-service non-profit business that prioritizes customers' needs to effectively offer and deliver a competitive portfolio of service offerings. The NITC currently has over 150 formal customer agreements that represent approximately $100M worth of annual hosting services.

3.2 The NITC is a Level IV (DHS rated) and Tier III/IV (Uptime Institute equivalent) Enterprise Data Centers that uses state-of-the-art infrastructure technologies to deliver secure, highly-available, and cost-effective solutions to customers. All production, pre-production, development, test, and certification environments are hosted in the Enterprise Data Center (EDC) in Kansas City, Missouri. All customer disaster recovery environments are hosted within the EDC in St. Louis, Missouri for geographical separation purposes. Both the Kansas City and St. Louis EDCs are supported by dual commercial power feeds, redundant Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), redundant climate control, redundant emergency power generators, and dual-source fire protection. The NITC strives to operate the most efficient and cost effective EDCs as possible and therefore uses Green industry best practices to continually improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

3.3 The NITC provides 24x7 monitoring and expert technical support to ensure customers can focus on their core business without worrying about IT infrastructure. Since NITC is a federally owned and operated Cloud Service Provider (CSP), it must comply with all Federal Regulations and Policies such as FISMA, FMFIA, FMFFI and FIPS 199. As a CSP, NITC General Support Systems are fully accredited and NITC has been granted full Authority to Operate (ATO) based on a FISMA Security Impact classification of 'High,' and the NITC PaaS and IaaS services are FedRAMP certified. Note - The NITC will invoice FEMA for the hosting services and will not enter into a hosting agreement with a private contractor. Services:

3.4 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): NITC's new Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) VDC OpenStack platform expands NITC's cloud computing solutions by providing customers an on-demand, self-service, virtual infrastructure that leverages the benefits of open source technology. The NITC IaaS VDC OpenStack platform provides customers with flexible networking capabilities, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and a robust disaster recovery infrastructure within a Virtual Datacenter (VDC) that is completely self-provisioned and managed by the customer.

3.5 Platform as a Service (PaaS): NITC PaaS offerings build upon IaaS offerings enables customers to select from secure, standardized operating system images that are configured to meet actual processing requirement. Each PaaS offering is fully managed and maintained by NITC. In addition to the supported operating systems, NITC also provides PaaS offerings that include respective software licensing. By utilizing cost-effective platform solutions that are configured and licensed to meet actual application processing requirements, customers need only focus on the development and deployment of their business applications. * Server - Linux, Windows, Solaris, AIX * Mainframe - zOS * Web Server - LAP, LAMP * Web Application & Web Portal Server - WebSphere * Database - MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle * Web Content & Document Management - Drupal Oracle UCM * Web Search - Google * Web Accelerator - Akamai * Virtual Application Desktop - Citrix

3.6 Managed Hosting: NITC will manage customer owned equipment that is located in the NITC enterprise Data Center. Once customers move their equipment to the National Information Technology Center located in Kansas City, MO., NITC will provide systems installation, engineering, administration, and support.

3.7 Collocation: NITC will provide a secure enterprise-class computing facility for the physical hosting of customer owned and managed servers and equipment. NITC will supply the computing facility, the server racks, and the power to the racks, and the customer will move their equipment to the provided racks.

3.8 Professional Services: NITC can provide the professional services required for integrating and administering enterprise-class business applications and databases, project management, and planning for technology advancements and disaster recovery.

3.9 Additional Information: The attached pdf file is a catalog of information from the NITC data center, and the website with more information is: http://www.ocio.usda.gov/about-ocio/data-center-operations-dco

4.0 REQUESTED INFORMATION

4.1 The contractor is being asked to provide the following information: 1. Feasibility of the solution of the software being hosted in a Government-Owned, Government-Operated environment; FIMA recognizes this software is not owned by the Government 2. Risks/issues/concerns of this solution, can these be mitigated

5.0 RESPONSES

5.1 Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI with a white paper. 1. 5.2 White papers in Microsoft Word for Office 2010 compatible format are due no later than August 25th, 2015, 3:00EST. Reponses shall be in 12 point, Times New Roman font, be 1.5 spaced and limited to six single sided pages and submitted via email only to [email protected]. The subject line of all submittals shall start with applicable RFI number, HSFE60-15-I-0027. Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. To aid the Government, please segregate proprietary information. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

5.3 The white paper should include administrative information, at minimum: Name, mailing address, phone number, point of contact, email of designated point of contact and business type (large business, small disadvantaged business, HUBZone small business, etc.).

6.0 INDUSTRY DISCUSSION

6.1 FEMA and NITC representatives may or may not choose to meet with potential Offerors. Such discussions would only be intended to get further clarification of potential capability to meet the requirements, especially any proprietary information concerns.

7.0 QUESTIONS

7.1 Questions regarding this announcement shall be submitted in writing, utilizing the format provided, via e-mail to the Contracting Officer, John Norway at [email protected] by 3:00 PM EST August 12th, 2015. The subject line of all submittals shall start with applicable RFI number, HSFE60-15-I-0027. Verbal questions will NOT be accepted, and the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) will NOT field questions via email or phone. Question will be answered by posting answers to FedBizOpps (www.fbo.gov). Questions shall NOT contain proprietary or classified information.

8.0 SUMMARY THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMAITON (RFI) ONLY to identify the feasibility of hosting the Direct Servicing Agent (DSA) software for servicing Direct flood insurance policies in a GOGO environment. The information provided in the RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. FEMA has not made a commitment to procure any of the items discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as an authorization to incur costs for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

Link/URL: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DHS/FEMA/OAMOPSDA/HSFE60-15-J-0027/listing.html