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Contract Opportunity

The Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), on behalf of the Department of Defense (DoD), is seeking information from industry regarding potential upcoming requirements for the Defense Acquisition University.

THIS IS A COMBINED SOURCES SOUGHT/REQUEST FOR NFORMATION (RFI) NOTICE FOR MARKET RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. THIS DOES NOT COMMIT THE DOD TO CONTRACT FOR ANY SUPPLY OR SERVICE WHATSOEVER. NO SOLICITATION IS AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME.

A. Purpose: This is a Request for Information (RFI). This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) is investigating ways to use/integrate eXtended Reality/Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality into acquisition training and is seeking information on solutions from firms doing business under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 513210 Software Publishers; Industry/Sector: Learning Technology. This request is issued for the purpose of conducting market research to collect capability and cost information about XR/VR/AR/MR solutions available in the commercial market to support objectives described in Section C of this RFI.

B. Background: The Defense Acquisition University (DAU) is a corporate training organization that provides learning and development solutions for requirements and acquisition professionals in the US Department of Defense. DAU trains over 180,000 Defense Acquisition Workforce (DAW) employees through delivery of relevant and effective learning solutions to help its customers solve today's complex acquisition problems. Among others, DAU supports the Contracting, Business, Program Management, Logistics and Engineering functional areas. Currently, DAU’s course design, development, curation, and delivery provides focused and tailorable learning paths for workforce members in their specialty areas. DAU also offers standalone workplace learning tools (Job Support Tools/Communities etc.), as well as online training modules. DAU wishes to complement its learning model to incentivize and recognize continued learning engagement by acquisition workforce members.

C. DAU Capability Objectives supported by this RFI:

1. Accelerate student learning through experiential means that helps learners stay focused and offers high engagement and knowledge retention.

2. Provide a safe learning environment where students can learn from mistakes without risk.

3. Improve the training process by using detailed analytics connected to performance and interaction activities.

4. In cases of presentation and collaboration, provide an ability for shared, large-scale visualization and vivid, walk-through representations of designs and structures.

5. Understand the state-of-the-art regards Code vs No Code (drag and drop) in building engagements and the need for VR headsets (or alternatives) to participate in an. eXtended Reality/Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality engagement.

D. Response Requirements: DAU is interested in receiving capability statements to identify viable solutions (Commercial/Modified Commercial/Custom build using code or no code software solutions). Responses of 10 pages or less are desired, using no smaller than 12-point font. Responses to this RFI should include:

1. Vendor Information:

1.1 Company name, address and phone number

1.2 Contractor and Government Entity (CAGE) code and Unique Entity Identifier number

1.3 Primary Point of Contact name, phone #, and email address

1.4 Company web address

1.5 Describe your company missions and value proposition in one to two sentences.

1.6 Indicate if your company is a large or small business under NAICS code 511210, Software Publishers and if it is registered as a vendor under a socio-economic program, such as 8(a), HubZone, Service-disabled veteran-owned, Small

1.7 l & disadvantaged, Woman-owned, etc.

1.8 Any contract vehicles that would be available to the Government for the procurement of the product and/or service, for example General Service Administration (GSA): OASIS, ALLIANT II, VETS, STARS II, Federal Supply Schedules (FSS) (including applicable SIN(s)), or any other Government Agency contract vehicle that allows for decentralized ordering. (This information is for market research only and does not preclude your company from responding to this notice.)

1.9 Is your company domestically or foreign owned (if foreign, indicate the country of ownership)?

2. XR/VR/AR/and/or MR Solution Information:

2.1 eXtended Reality/Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality Technology

2.1.1 Describe your eXtended Reality/Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Mixed Reality product and its use in the classroom, virtual classroom, collaboration workspace and or job support tools.

2.1.2 Describe the interactive story elements (i.e.: animations) the product provides and student data that informs whether students recorded more practice time when using VR than traditionally practiced and whether the interactive story elements enhance mastery learning and retention.

2.1.3 Provide the names of other federal agencies you currently are working with or have worked with within the past three (3) years.

2.1.4 Which devices are compatible with your product?

2.1.5 Does your solution:

2.1.5.1 Run on a Thin or Thick client

2.1.5.2 Requires Code or No Code e,g.,development of activity requires programmers to develop the appropriate code or is your product a drag and drop construct?

2.1.6 Explain whether the product is required to use interactive VR goggles, or if it can be executed using only a laptop, tablet or mobile device.

2.1.7 How many users can access your product simultaneously?

2.1.8 Is your product Speech to Text/Text to Speech capable?

2.2 Interoperability/ hosting

2.2.1 Is your product compatible with any Learning Management Systems?

2.2.2 Is your company able to host (i.e. in the Cloud) the solution for a period of time?

2.3 Security

2.3.1 What security features, if any, are included or available for the device and any associated software?

2.3.2 Is the product currently being used by other federal agencies?

2.3.3 Is the solution FEDRAMP certified and at what level (Medium or High)?

2.4 Training/Event Design

2.4.1 Is your product primarily designed for soft-skills or technical ‘hard’ skills training?

2.4.2 Please provide examples of how your product is or can be used for single or multiple events such as acquisition training, mission assistance and/or job support tool? For example, the ability to:

2.4.2.1 Create a virtual room for the DoD workforce to attend a Mission Assistance effort,

2.4.2.2 Create a virtual world that emulates a product or process,

2.4.2.3 Conduct office hours for DAU faculty where a student can await their turn,

2.4.2.4 Set up meet and greet sessions where students and faculty can meet,

2.4.2.5 Create a conference venue for events such as All-Hands, TEDx etc.,.

2.4.3 Does your product allow for trainers to virtually advise/coach users during scenarios?

2.4.4 Does your product allow trainers to track analytics and report assessment data on users’ competency during scenarios?

2.4.5 Are the virtual characters nuanced enough to represent information such as cooperation level, mood, expressions, or nonverbal behavior to afford role-players interpersonal communication learning?

2.4.6 Does your product link other software training environments into virtual reality to non-linearly influence scenario development?

2.4.7 Can Subject Matter Experts (SME), such as logisticians, easily and quickly adjust virtual reality scenario parameters and data to increase/decrease challenge difficulty?

2.4.8 How does your product simulate the way by which role-players communicate with and learn from each other when trying to solve a problem in the virtual environment?

2.4.9 Please address your solutions detailing analytics collected covering individual performance

2.5 Additional Information: Please add any additional information about your product that you feel would be important for DAU to know about your organization and/or product(s).

3. Pricing, Licensing, and Acquisition Information

3.1 Can your solution and any related support be purchased via a pre-priced government contract (USA Learn, GSA, NETCENTS, ESI, other)? If so, please provide contract numbers, URL, contracting points of contact, other relevant information.

3.2 While this market research is NOT a request for proposal/quote, to help determine affordability, please describe your licensing/pricing model(s) and include a high-level ROM estimate for the described solution’s recurring and non-recurring costs (e.g. installation /set-up, initial training, sustainment costs, upgrade costs, and other associated / add-on services). For estimating purposes, assume DAU has 180,000 unique students (Federal, DOD, and Industry) and would be interested in an enterprise type of license. Describe your licensing type and terms, number of users, roles, and how “user” is defined if based on user roles. Provide a copy (or URL) of your applicable licensing agreement (if applicable, the agreement that is on the pre-priced contract identified in para 3.1).

3.3 Do you offer specific/different pricing discounts for government agencies and/or educational institutions? If yes, please provide details.

3.4 Would you offer a free trial or ‘try before you buy’ pilot? If yes, please list free trial/pilot duration, number of users permitted, and other restrictions. If no, please provide info on what is customary in the commercial marketplace for a try before you buy pilot.

3.5 Has your company implemented other Department of Defense (DOD), Federal Government or University projects using this software solution? If so, please provide a brief one to two sentence description, organization, estimated number of users, and contact info (name, phone number, and email address) for up to four recent projects.

3.6 Description of typical evaluation criteria which may be used to discriminate between offerors during the source selection process.

3.7 What are typical contract types and contract line item structures?

3.8 Is industry aware of any statutory, legal, regulatory or policy hurdles that need to be altered or reconsidered?

3.9 What are other current and perceived barriers that industry is aware of to acquire this type of service?

3.10 Identification of issues with rights to any data OR the ability to acquire any data required for performance of a contract for this type of service.

3.11 If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements. Indicate whether your firm’s interest would be to function as a prime or subcontractor.

If your firm has interest and believes that you have the capability and are qualified to meet the Department’s requirement, please respond to this notice by submitting a capability package. If at least two qualified small businesses are identified during this market research stage, any competitive procurement that may result may be conducted as a small business set-aside. The preliminary North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 513210, Software Publishers (Small Business Size Standard: $45.1) is being used to define small businesses at this time. Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), 8(a) Certified Small Businesses, Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) Small Businesses, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB), Woman-Owned Small Businesses (WOSB)) are encouraged to submit capabilities narratives.

E. Questions Submission: Interested vendors must submit any questions concerning this RFI via email, with the subject line “XR/VR/AR/and/or MR Solution Information” to yudi.a.carmona.civ@mail.mil no later than 12:00 p.m. (EST), Monday, December 12, 2022. Questions or comments pertaining to this notice shall be submitted via the attached ‘Comment Matrix’, which includes detailed instructions and format for the submission. Any feedback not associated with the capability package shall use the ‘Comment Matrix’ and must be submitted via email to the point of contact listed in this notice no later than the due date shown on this notice.

F. Deadline: The Government requests interested parties submit requested capability statement via email with the subject line “XR/VR/AR/and/or MR Solution Information” to yudi.a.carmona.civ@mail.mil no later than 12:00 p.m. (EST), Friday, December 16, 2022.

G. Disclaimer and Important Notes:

This RFI is for market research purposes only and does not constitute a Request for Proposal/Quotation. All information contained in the notice is preliminary as well as subject to modification and is in no way binding on the Government. It is not considered to be a commitment by the Government to award a contract nor will the Government pay for any information provided; no basis for claim against the Government shall arise as a result of a response to this RFI or Government use of any information provided. Failure to submit information in sufficient detail may result in considering a firm as not a viable source and may influence competition and set-aside decisions. Regardless of the information obtained from this RFI, the Government reserves the right to consider any arrangement as deemed appropriate for this requirement. DAU may wish to demo some of the most promising solutions based upon the capability statements provided. Respondents are advised that the Government shall be under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or to provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response to this RFI. The Government reserves the right to use any information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate, including using in any resulting solicitation, technical information provided by respondents to this RFI. The Government may engage vendors that respond to this RFI by seeking further information about capabilities or may even implement an 8(a) direct award. DoD representatives may choose to meet with potential offerors and hold one-on-one meetings. Such conversations would only be intended to obtain further clarification of potential capability to meet requirements and to obtain further information to better inform the development of a potential solicitation.

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