The Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Office of the Chief Information Officer has a requirement for production management operations and maintenance services.

FEMA leads and supports the nation in a risk-based, comprehensive emergency management system of preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation. FEMA has developed a suite of information systems to meet this mission and provides users a responsive array of information services. The suite of information systems, services, and applications are provided in Appendix A. FEMA’s enterprise information technology (IT) systems shall be operated and maintained at the highest level of performance and reliability twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week.

The CIO’s vision is to modernize FEMA OCIO to “deliver world-class secure Information Technology guidance, products, and services to meet the needs of FEMA’s emergency managers and stakeholders nationwide.” The OCIO’s objective of the short, middle and long-term modernization efforts is to transform IT services into a best-of-class, enterprise-focused, efficient and well-managed environment. This environment shall be implemented with the flexibility required to support the evolving mission of FEMA and to support the surge requirements necessary to support emergency situations as they occur.

The current FEMA IT operations and maintenance (O&M) environment, performed by FEMA OCIO Service Operations Division, is a combination of new and old technologies, architectures, platforms, and tools that includes a wide variety of PC-based, client server, web-based, and service-oriented components. These systems have been implemented by FEMA using a variety of service providers under a vast array of oversight and governance conditions. These systems represent a broad spectrum of effectiveness to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), 160 FEMA, and OCIO mission. The services are supported by hundreds of physical and virtual servers in several data centers.

FEMA infrastructure includes voice and video services, and regional data networks. The video and voice connectivity is a mixture of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Private Branch Exchange (PBX) technologies. The regional network equipment is aging and requires modernization. FEMA is also replacing the heterogeneous voice and video network with a unified communications platform.

FEMA’s OCIO modernization is evolving. This will be achieved by utilizing a comprehensive approach and strategy; supporting FEMA strategic plan; developing a common operating framework; supporting a secure implementation of enterprise applications and services that support the mission. The modernization effort shall provide enterprise-level solutions that will support business needs necessary for the immediate requirements in support of FEMA mission. FEMA O&M policies and procedures follow the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Service Operation.

• The Contractor shall assist the Operations Portfolio in maintaining and maturing the current operations to keep FEMA’s information systems infrastructure available and operational.
• The Contractor must support hybrid on-premises and cloud operations and maintenance activities and be able to support these activities during periods of Continuity of Operations activities.
• The scope of work will involve the execution of task orders. Specific categories of tasks that fall within this scope of work and the necessary Contractor capabilities are outlined in the following sections. Staff qualification minimum requirements are also addressed.
• The Contractor shall ensure that it maintains a sufficient technical infrastructure, processing power, data storage and retention abilities including Continuity of Operation Planning (COOP) in all aspects of this work. Since workloads may fluctuate considerably due to crisis or disaster periods, the Contractor’s staffing processes must be flexible and capable of adequately responding to variations in service.
  • The contractors shall provide a reliable, stable, and secure operating environment that is aligned with FEMA enterprise infrastructure.
  • The Contractor shall support the primary FEMA operations locations.
  • The scope of this contract also includes contractor support to FEMA’s technical staff for operations, maintenance, and proactive monitoring using FEMA’s tools of FEMA’s networks, systems and applications. The contractor will support FEMA systems and technical environment. Seven functions are part of the OS&EM Support Framework to be addressed by the contractor are as follows:
    • Program Management across the contract and all contract task orders, up to and including contractual deliverables and financial controls.
    • Information Technology System Operations, Sustainment and Enhancement is responsible for the maintenance, system sustainment, and update of FEMA infrastructure, to include hardware and software, and for controlling and managing the lifecycle of all changes with minimum disruption to FEMA’s end users.
    • Mobility Services Operations, Sustainment and Enhancement responsible for operations support, systems engineering and lifecycle management, and identifying evolving and emerging technologies ensuring that FEMA mobile systems (devices) are operational on all platforms (voice, data, mobile, satellite).
    • Data Network Services is responsible for providing comprehensive Network Operating Services for approximately fifty (50) fixed FEMA sites supported day to day and an additional one (1) to fifty (50) Disaster FEMA sites that are supported while activated.
    • Enterprise Software Support provides end user and engineering technical support for current and future cloud Software-as-a-Service collaboration capabilities and products.
    • Endpoint Engineering Services provides deskside technician support, LAN services and technical assistance, mobile device management, and teleconference hardware support to personnel assigned to designated FEMA facilities.
    • Operations Engineering Services focuses on the design, implementation, and maintenance of IT systems and services to ensure the availability, performance, security, and reliability of IT infrastructure and applications.