2/27/2025 - RFI Questions have been posted.

This is a Sources Sought Request notice (hereinafter Notice). This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, request for bids or quotations, nor, a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. The purpose of this Notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform a potential requirement. Responses to this Notice will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method and determining interest and capability of potential vendors for this type of requirement. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Office of Procurement is issuing this notice to identify qualified and responsible businesses within SBA's 8(a) Program that can meet this requirement and identify any barriers to entry. See attached a draft performance work statement (PWS).

This Notice does not obligate the government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. All costs associated with responding to this Notice are solely at the responding party's expense. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this notice or the government use of such information. This notice does not constitute a solicitation for proposals or the authority to enter into negotiations to award a contract. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the government to form a binding contract or agreement. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort. The Government will not be obligated to pursue any acquisition alternative as a result of this notice. Responses to the notice will not be returned.

The government reserves the right to use information provided in response to this notice by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Interested parties are solely responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in developing its acquisition strategy and Statement of Work/Statement of Objectives and performance specifications. The Government may use the responses to this RFI in developing a procurement strategy. The Government will weigh the capability, quality and expected lifecycle of the proposed solutions, technical environment, flexibility and adaptability to future needs, the quality of the implementation plan, time to implement, total cost of ownership of the system, and the level of risk in consideration of the formal procurement strategy. Further, the Government may contact the vendor for additional information regarding the information submitted as part of this market research effort. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work.

Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future solicitation if one is issued.

Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in SAM.gov/GSA eBuy. However, responses to this notice WILL NOT be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

SCOPE

EA requires cloud architecture and design support to enable IT to modernize IRS data, applications, and services across service and deployment models. Maintaining a cloud infrastructure will reduce fixed investment, minimize the risks of aging hardware, and improve scalability and elasticity. The expansion to private and hybrid cloud will support long-term and emergent business requirements for enterprise IT orchestration and service management. IRS systems must accommodate heavy demand during peak times, resulting in the critical need for both infrastructure scalability and flexibility. The overall objective is to enable the modernization of workloads and applications in the cloud as well as provide comprehensive cloud modernization planning services. 

The Contractor support will enable alignment to the 2-year Cloud Transition Strategy, EA’s vision, target state Enterprise architecture, Enterprise Architecture Roadmap (EAR), IRS Modernization Plan and the IRA Strategic Operating Plan, enabling EA to achieve cloud modernization and transformation objectives. 

EA requires Contractor support to develop define, update, and communicate EA strategic plans and initiatives that meet objectives in support of internal and external stak