1.0    Description & Purpose 

1.1    The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), in support of the Enterprise Innovation Office (EIO) “Prototyping Innovative Solutions” Program, is seeking information on multiparty arrangement such as a standing consortium, team, or joint venture are  to help solve hard intelligence problems by using innovative capabilities from commercial sources. We look primarily for original solutions from Innovative commercial companies and open-source/non-traditional providers. These solutions can directly solve hard intelligence problems or can be adapted with reasonable effort to solve those problems. Solutions that are disruptive to legacy practices are particularly valued for their potential to offer different cost models, provide new capabilities, or both. The end goal is for vendors to prototype their innovative solutions, so NGA can evaluate their utility in solving intelligence problem areas.

1.2    The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gain information on available vendors who can form extensive partnerships/consortiums/networks of Innovative commercial companies and open-source/non-traditional providers. Such an arrangement would enable the parties to complement each other’s unique capabilities and offer the Government the best combination of performance or capability, cost, and schedule.  The Government will review the proposals relationship between parties and the Government as well as the relationship among the parties participating in the arrangement. The products will be prototypes that NGA can test and evaluate for how well it solves those problems.

1.3    THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (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. Responders are advised that the U.S. 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.

2.0    Background 

In support of National Security, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Enterprise Innovation Office (EIO) drives innovative and transformational change into the National System for Geospatial-Intelligence (NSG) and Allied System for Geospatial Intelligence (ASG) environments. The NSG and ASG require innovative solutions to countless hard intelligence problems in an efficient manner to get results as fast as possible. NGA’s EIO is charged with interacting with industry and the open/sharing community to discover innovative potential solutions to those hard problems.

Innovative commercial companies and open-source/non-traditional providers face several challenges when dealing with large Federal Government organizations. It could be especially difficult for small firms that often develop highly innovative solutions but lack the resources to navigate the often complex requirements of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. To encourage participation of all innovative commercial companies and open-source/non-traditional providers, NGA’s EIO wants to partner with a multiparty arrangement vendor, who will provide a consortium/network type of organization, to develop and demonstrate prototypes that can potentially solve hard intelligence problem areas, and to evaluate the utility of such prototypes.

2.1    Scope:

         2.1.1       The government (EIO), in conjunction with the vendor, shall perform a coordinated program to research, develop, demonstrate and use prototype capabilities. These prototypes shall be directly relevant to enhancing the mission effectiveness of military personnel and the supporting platforms, systems, components, or materials to be acquired or developed by the Department of Defense (DoD).

         2.1.2       The program shall serve as a vehicle for attracting new technologies and accelerating the research and development (R&D) cycle of basic and advanced prototypes that support resolution of NSG and ASG hard intelligence problems in support of national security. Specifically, this program shall allow NGA and the vendor to execute and coordinate efforts to plan, research, develop and utilize prototype efforts designed to:

• Facilitate identification of companies with technologies and/or business processes that can potentially help solve hard intelligence problems.
• Facilitate incorporation of those companies into a partnership, consortium, or network of vendors.
• Allows NGA to acquire and/or use those technologies and business processes in the agency for evaluation and demonstration. The goal is to determine the value of each prototype application in solving hard intelligence problems.
• Allows NGA to work with the vendor to make modifications of those prototypes, for further evaluation and demonstration, based on user feedback.
• In order to conduct a demonstration or evaluation, allows for installation and integration of the prototype in test or operational environments, to include the cloud (e.g., Amazon Web Services (AWS), Commercial Cloud Services (C2S), and others as directed by the government).

2.2    Planned Acquisition: NGA and the EIO intends to issue a Broad Agency Announcement for the tasks discussed in the above scope. This will result in an Other Transaction Agreement (OTA) as authorized by 10 U.S.C. 2371.

2.3    Performance:

         2.3.1       Period of performance (POP): We intent to issue an OTA for a 3 to 5 year period after award date.

         2.3.2       Location(s): Most contractors working on this effort will operate primarily in contract spaces and visit NGA’s Springfield, VA location for technical exchange meetings, integration, and evaluation efforts.

2.4    Constraints and Limitations:

         2.4.1       NGA reserves the right, in its sole discretion, without liability, to use any or all of the RFI responses in its planning efforts.  NGA reserves the right to retain all the materials and information, and ideas and suggestions therein, submitted to the RFI.

         2.4.2   This RFI should not be construed in any manner to mandate implementation of any of the actions contemplated herein, nor to serve as the basis for any claim whatsoever for reimbursement of costs for efforts expended in preparing a response to the RFI.

         2.4.3       The submitter of an RFI response is not required to participate in any potential future acquisition for this requirement.

         2.4.4       This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by NGA to form a binding contract.         

Responses must contain UNCLASSIFIED information only and be marked “UNCLASSIFIED” on every page of the response. No classified information may be included anywhere in the response.

Neither classified concepts, nor classified information should be included in the submittal.  Input on the information contained in the responses may be solicited by NGA from non-Government consultants / experts who are bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements.

3.1    ADMINISTRATIVE. Administrative information will include the following as a minimum:

         3.1.1.      Name, mailing address, overnight delivery address (if different from mailing address), phone number, fax number, company website, and e-mail of designated point(s) of contact.

3.2    CAPABILITIES – This is information about the responder’s capabilities to meet the proposed acquisition set forth in section 2 of this RFI.

         3.2.1       Services needed to support the RFI scope

3.2.1.1 Service capabilities that the responder currently possesses. Responses should include the relevant information regarding specific skills and experience that it possesses in performing these services.

3.2.1.2 Detail the service capabilities that the responder currently does not possess to meet section 2 requirements.

         3.2.2       Extent to which the responder has the ability to meet the proposed acquisition.

4.0    Responses

4.1    Interested parties are directed to respond to this RFI with a white paper.

4.2    White paper shall be in Microsoft Word for Office or compatible format and shall not exceed 3 pages. A page is defined as each face of an 8½” x 11” sheet with information contained within a one inch margin on all sides.  Font type shall be Times Roman 12 point.

4.3    Responses containing the white paper are due no later than 5:00 pm ET on 27 July 2016.  Responses shall be limited to and submitted via e-mail only as a message attachment to Ms. Gail Painter, Contract Specialist at email address gail.k.painter@nga.mil, and Richard Unis, Contracting Officer at email address richard.e.unis@nga.mil with message subject line “RFI Response - Prototyping Innovative Solutions

4.3    Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. 

5.0       Meetings and Discussions - The Government representatives may or may not choose to meet with potential RFI service provider. Such meetings and discussions would only be intended to get further clarification of potential capability, especially any development and certification risks.

6.0       Questions - Questions regarding this RFI should be submitted in writing by e-mail no later than close of business 20 July 2016 to gail.k.painter@nga.mil.

7.0       Summary

This RFI is only intended for the Government to identify sources that can provide the needed services to fulfill the Government’s stated scope. The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding to the Government. The Government has not made a commitment to procure any of the RFI requirements discussed, and release of this RFI should not be construed as such a commitment or as authorization to incur cost for which reimbursement would be required or sought. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.