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REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT - DISCOVERY AND AWARENESS TOOLS Purpose: This Request for Information (RFI) is issued as market research to determine industry’s capabilities... REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) SUPPLY CHAIN RISK MANAGEMENT - DISCOVERY AND AWARENESS TOOLS Purpose: This Request for Information (RFI) is issued as market research to determine industry’s capabilities to provide a solution with Supply Chain Risk information discovery and awareness capabilities, and information alerts. The solution must easily integrate proprietary internal Government data. Through access to and analysis of available sources, the information provided by the industry SCRM (Supply Chain Risk Management) tool to the Department of State (DOS) customer will provide DOS with breaking or anticipatory information, regarding specifically identified subject matters, situations, and geographic areas around the world. Disclaimer: The information provided in the RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or reimburse any costs associated with the preparation of responses. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI marked “Proprietary” will be handled accordingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responses to this RFI will assist DOS 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 RFI. Background: The U.S. Department of State is looking to strengthen its supply chain risk management capability to ensure that we adequately vet our complex global supply chain to mitigate risk. The Department’s challenge is to understand the supply chain network of our vendors and be able to quickly discover or even anticipate changes to this network that would cause increased risk. The following non-exhaustive set of use cases provide some examples regarding how DOS expects to use information tools to advance its supply chain risk mitigation capability: DOS closely monitors the global supply chains of Information Technology (IT) equipment, IT software developers, other Internet of Things (IOT) physical items, service companies, and their suppliers, which are components of the various supply chains on which the successful global operations of the DOS depend. DOS works closely with the US intelligence agencies and uses various sources to stay informed about events related to international security, security assistance, military operations, defense strategy and plans, and defense trade and relays this information to agency officials, Congress, and the public. DOS conducts baseline SCRM assessments of our vendors and continuously monitors them. This includes the vendor, their suppliers, and key personnel. Need Statement: As the Department of State, we need to: Maximize the likelihood that DOS can obtain, maintain, and retain total situational awareness of global supply chain related events before, during, and after they unfold. Maximize our ability to quickly verify or validate the credibility of a source, author, and online information. Minimize the time and effort required to discover relevant and impactful information (and filter-out irrelevant information) regarding global supply chains. Maximize the accuracy of machine-translated content originally written in a foreign language and maximize the number of languages translated. Minimize the time to recognize, summarize, and disseminate relevant information to targeted internal audience(s). Maximize our confidence level that our supply chain is free of bad actors. Response Instructions Note: Please answer all response questions. Extraneous materials will not be considered (e.g. marketing materials, brochures). Organizational Information Company information - Include company name, two points of contact and contact information (name, address, phone number, website URL, if available, and email address), Cage Code and DUNS Number. Company business size with socioeconomic classification based on North American Industry Classification (NAICS) Code 541511. Current Facility Security Clearance level(s) held, if any. List GSA schedule and/or GWACs or IDIQs with corresponding schedule number/contract number. Questions for Industry What information sources would you consider to be valuable for DOS and why? How would we most effectively integrate Government proprietary intelligence information with the capabilities of the tool itself and its other sources? What are industry’s current capabilities to measure the validity of an online information source (author, news agency, social media handle, etc.), and to assess the certainty of a forthcoming or a breaking event (e.g. 80% confirmed: “Person N has become the Chief Executive of Organization X, which currently provides software to……”). What are the recommended metrics for measuring Return on Investment (ROI) for SCRM discovery tools/services? What methods of accessing/analyzing/delivering were successful and which proved to be challenging? Please describe? (3 paragraph max) What lessons learned can you share regarding accessing and/or delivering this type of information? (3 paragraph max) How might the government structure a contract/group of contracts in a manner that considers the rate at which technologies and platforms change? Is there any other feedback you would like to share regarding the above service(s)? (1 page max) Need Statement Response (optional) 1. If your organization can address some of the need statements listed above or others not mentioned, please list the need statement numbers and briefly describe how your organization would address them. Submission Instructions: Responses to this RFI should not exceed 5 pages and must be compatible with MS Word 2016. The type to be used is 12 point Times New Roman, with one inch borders on all 4 sides of the page. The Government will not accept responses in PDF format. For clarification, the cover page, cover letter, and table of contents, are not included in the total page count. Please be advised that all submissions become Government property and will not be returned. Please email submissions to: Alexander Bring (BringAG@state.gov) no later than October 23, 2020 at 5:00 PM EDT.