Are You Ready for the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) IEP 2.0 Bid?

Facts At-a-Glance

TopicDescription
NameIntegrated Enterprise Portals (IEP 2.0)
AgencyInternal Revenue Service (IRS)
Period of performance8 years
Industry dayJune 13, 2023
Request for Proposal (RFP)November 2023 (estimate)
Value$1.7B per the Industry Day
Contract typeBlanket Purchase Agreement (BPA)
NAICS541512 Computer Systems Design Services
Competition typePer the Industry Day Q&A, IRS indicated it was still in the market research phase; therefore, the requirement does not yet contain a small business (SB) set aside. However, based on its current market research, IRS expects to include SB subcontracting goals.
Competition vehicleGSA Schedule IT-70
Number of winnersSingle award
Award dateApril 2024
IncumbentsTIRNO17D00004, Accenture Federal Services
List of interested vendorsPublished in the Industry Day Q&A document

IEP 2.0 Overview

The IEP is the front door to the IRS Enterprise systems/applications for users and plays a mission-critical role in serving taxpayers, tax preparers, and employees. IRS awarded the current IEP contract in 2017 as an 8-year contract with a $1.017B ceiling. The current IEP contractor provides a range of application development, hosting, security, and operations services for 90+ IRS business applications. Some of the IEP-hosted applications are mission-critical to the IRS and essential for delivering a successful filing season.

For IEP 2.0, the IRS seeks a qualified Managed Service Provider (MSP) to deliver, operate, and manage the IEP services. The IRS also requires the contractor to evolve IEP services, as IRS needs change. To accomplish these goals, the new IEP MSP contract must provide secure application hosting services and deliver the services using fully scalable, virtualized environments and cloud services that are dedicated to the IRS.

IEP resides on a virtualized hybrid cloud platform that is scalable, managed privately, and dedicated to the IRS for internal and external users. The platform supports a variety of performance and availability requirements with more than 99.99% availability and sub-second responses, even in the event of an unexpected disaster during peak tax season.

Table 1 summarizes the breadth of IEP 2.0 requirements.

Table 1: IEP 2.0 Performance Work Statement (PWS) from Modification #1 Dated June 12, 2023

Draft RFP ReferenceDescription
C.3.1IEP Service and Program Integration Services
C.3.1.1Program Management
C.3.1.2Service Delivery
C.3.1.3Service Integration Work Request Support
C.3.1.4Support for IRS Enhanced Activities
C.3.2IEP Infrastructure Services
C.3.2.1Foundation
C.3.2.2Reliability
C.3.2.3Operation
C.3.2.4Performance
C.3.2.5Infrastructure Work Request Support
C.3.3IEP Application Hosting Services
C.3.3.1Application Hosting Support
C.3.3.2Capacity Management
C.3.3.3Incident Management
C.3.3.4Problem Management
C.3.3.5Monitoring
C.3.3.6Application Infrastructure Integration Services (AIIS)
C.3.3.7Configuration and Change Management
C.3.3.8Service Catalog
C.3.3.9Service Desk
C.3.3.10Hosting Work Request Support
C.3.4IEP Security Services
C.3.4.1Security Risk Management Framework
C.3.4.2Patch and Vulnerability Management
C.3.4.3Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M)
C.3.4.4Security Continuous Monitoring
C.3.4.5Security Configuration and Change Management
C.3.4.6Security Audit
C.3.4.7Incident Handling
C.3.4.8Business Continuity
C.3.4.9Security Control Assessment and Contractor Security Assessment
C.3.4.10Defensive Cyber Operations
C.3.4.11Portal Applications Security
C.3.4.12Security Policy
C.3.4.13Security Work Request Support
C.3.5IEP Application Services
C.3.5.1Application Engineering Support Services
C.3.5.2Web User Analysis Data Collection and Analytics
C.3.5.3Application Infrastructure Services
C.3.5.4Application Work Request Support
C.3.6Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) Cloud Services
C.3.7IEP Transition Services
C.3.7.1IEP 2.0 Operational Transition
C.3.7.2Transition from IEP 2.0 Operations
C.3.7.3Transition Work Request Support

Timeline

Table 2 contains the estimated timeline for the RFP release and award.

Table 2: Timeline

DateActivity
05/18/2023Presolicitation
06/07/2023Draft
06/07/2023Sources Sought/RFI/Market Research
06/12/2023Draft
06/13/2023Industry Day/Site Visit/Conference
06/30/2023Responses
11/2024RFP Release (estimate)
04/2024Award Date (estimate)

Cost and Challenges to Bid

IRS’ draft PWS does not contain instructions. However, the previous IEP RFP required a high level of effort to produce a response. Offerors had to pass the “go/no go” down-select process before they could move onto step 2, which required them to:

  • Have an Earned Value Management System (EVMS)
  • Have a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)-SW Level 3 certification
  • Submit a pledge that all work is performed in the United States
  • Have relevant corporate experience providing managed web portal services

Companies who survived the “go/no go” decision were given the opportunity to write an 8-volume proposal consisting of 250+ pages. These volumes covered the offeror’s technical, management, and transition approaches, their relevant experience and past performance, their small business participation and utilization plans, and their business and price proposals.

Developing the IEP 2.0 proposal will come with challenges. IEP 2.0 challenges the capture managers to acquire the best information to support solution development and pricing. IEP 2.0 challenges solution architects to create a solution that provides all labor, hardware, software, equipment, materials, communications, facilities, and IT infrastructure to deliver a transition that doesn’t interrupt ongoing operations. IEP 2.0 challenges proposal managers to manage the development of a high-scoring proposal using a large team of stakeholders across multiple proposal volumes.

Evaluation Criteria Summary

The IRS has not provided draft evaluation criteria for IEP 2.0 yet. However, on IEP (the current contract), we know IRS evaluated proposals using a two-step process. In step one, IRS eliminated proposals that did not meet its “go/no go” requirements. Those companies surviving step one could submit proposals aligned with the factors and evaluation criteria summarized in Table 3. IRS rated proposals on significant strengths, strengths, weaknesses, significant weaknesses, and deficiencies for each evaluated factor.

Table 3 Summary of Evaluation Factors

FactorEvaluation Criteria Summary
Factor 1 – Technical ApproachA clear understanding of the PWS principal work areasA technical approach to satisfying the capabilities, requirements, constraints, performance objectives, performance measurements, and performance standards detailed in the PWSProposed technological innovationsHow the offeror addressed ownership, usage rights, and documentation transfer to the IRS or a subsequent party
Factor 2 – Management ApproachDemonstrated experience with project management disciplines and ability to optimize IEP’s operationsOrganizational structure and approval processesCommunications, risk, and subcontractor processesQuality Assurance PlanKey Personnel resumes
Factor 3 – Transition ApproachAbility to provide uninterrupted support at acceptable performance levels while assuming responsibilityProposed Transition Plan approach, schedule, organization, personnel, activities, and risks
Factor 4 – Relevant ExperienceExperience with working on projects of similar size, scope, magnitude, and complexity as outlined in the PWS
Factor 5 – Past PerformanceRecency, relevance, and performance of work
Factor 6 – PriceIRS evaluated offerors’ price rates and other direct costs to ensure they were complete, reasonable, and balanced

By Brenda Crist, Vice President at Lohfeld Consulting Group, MPA, CPP APMP Fellow

Lohfeld Consulting Group has proven results specializing in helping companies create winning captures and proposals. As the premier capture and proposal services consulting firm focused exclusively on government markets, we provide expert assistance to government contractors in Capture Planning and Strategy, Proposal Management and Writing, Capture and Proposal Process and Infrastructure, and Training. In the last 3 years, we’ve supported over 550 proposals winning more than $170B for our clients—including the Top 10 government contractors. Lohfeld Consulting Group is your “go-to” capture and proposal source! Start winning by contacting us at www.lohfeldconsulting.com and join us on LinkedInFacebook, and Twitter.

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Brenda Crist