REQUEST FOR INFORMATION # HSICE-10012020

Agile Software Development Contracting Strategies

October 1, 2020

1.0 Purpose of Request for Information

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) to identify sources that can provide Agile
Software Development services and to receive feedback from industry on best financial
management, and accounting workflow/processing strategies. This RFI is issued solely for
information and planning purposes – it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a
promise to issue an RFP in the future. This request for information does not commit the
Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, ICE will not accept
unsolicited proposals. Interested parties are advised that the Government will not pay for any
information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI; all costs associated with
responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this
RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. If an RFP is released, it
will be posted on beta.SAM.gov. It is the responsibility of the interested parties to monitor these
sites for additional information pertaining to this requirement. All submissions become
Government property and will not be returned.

2.0 Description of Requirements

ICE is exploring building a financial management add-on to an existing open-source CI-CD

pipeline application. The existing application currently leverages AWS (ICE Cloud), Spring
Boot, Docker, Java, Angular, as well as other supporting open-source tools. (This application is
not related to or replacing FMS)

All financial activities leverage a ledger, currently utilizing several instances of QuickBooks,
which eventually are consolidated manually. Each transaction requires some level of manual
processing, from tracking workflows, emails, ink signatures (wet signatures), scanning/copying,
and eventually filing (paper storage).

The desired financial management add-on is to digitize all existing functions/activities, add a
centralized accounting system that will contain general ledgers and accounts to multiple
businesses, and potentially replace these QuickBook instances. The solution will
automate/streamline the day to day activities and processes/workflows of financial transactions.
Leveraging existing open-source tools and new tool requirements with Agile software
development, in a complex high-paced environment that requires close integration with existing
Business Owner and law enforcement mission.

ICE seeks to better understand industry best-practices for managing financials (debits/credits) via
automated workflows, as it relates to streamlining transactions, with quality gates and digital
signature approvals. To allow for faster processing, consistent accountability, and ability to
measure accuracy and performance on an enterprise (HQ) level. Below are example scenarios
that would require being addressed (via digitized, automated, and otherwise).

CREATING ACCOUNTS
 Set up a bank account. The account is a domestic account, opened at Bank (name),
account name is “Unique Identifier”, and the last four digits of the account number are
#4832.
 Create an income account for obligating document number.
 Create new funding source for appropriated funding received.

FUNDING
 Record appropriated funding received from Headquarters in the amount of $150,000.
 Establish an expenditure budget for the appropriated funding by unique funding strings
identified in the disbursement instructions received from Headquarters. Post the amounts
allocated to the respective object class codes approved to spend.
 Received proceeds/earning from 3rd party.

RECORD TRANSACTIONS
 Record $25 of earned interest in the respective bank account.
 Post a loss of $17.00 for a currency exchange rate.
 Record local and long-distance telephone service from service provider. Charges for local
telephone service are in the amount of $60.00 and long-distance telephone service in the
amount of $140.00. Total invoice is $200.00.
 Record domestic travel expense for respective employee A in the amount of $2,145.00.
 Respective employee A purchased two cellular telephones from Vendor B in the amount
of $200.00 each. Vendor B informed that they would mail two $100.00 rebate cards for
the cellular telephones just purchased. Record the two rebate cards received by Vendor B.
Record a purchase at Store C for office supplies in the amount of $115.00 using the rebate
cards.
 Respective employee purchased office supplies from Store C for the office. Later,
discovered that an external hard drive was purchased for $100.00 along with office
supplies. Post the adjusted entry to accurately classify for the external hard drive.

RECORD TRANSACTIONS FROM OTHER SOURCES

 Record Office level funded phone; and register expenses for cellular telephone service.
Total costs for cellular telephone service with Vendor D are $250.00.

RECORD ADVANCES
 Record travel advance for respective employee E in the amount of $700.

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DIGITAL CURRENCY
 Respective employee A transferred 0.03790587 BTC of held digital currency from
hardware wallet F to an software wallet G. The fair market value was an exchange rate
of $8,531.08. The transfer incurred a mining fee of 0.00021801 BTC.
 Respective employee A purchased 0.01487506 BTC through Digital Currency Exchange
E (exchange rate $6,521.65) with a Coinbase fee of $2.99. Respective employee A
transferred the total amount purchased from the Digital Currency Exchange E wallet to a
hardware wallet F. Incurred mining fee 0.00001409 BTC.
 Expense of 0.0191111 BTC paid from wallet. Incurred a mining fee of 0.00043663.
Exchange rate on the date of purchase was $13,211.39. Remainder transferred back to
software wallet G, which received 0.01777286 BTC. Incurred a mining fee of
0.00036727.

ACQUIRE FUNDS
 On this date, Respective employee A acquired $150,000.00. The Respective employee A
deposited the funds in the bank account for accurate count. Post the deposit of acquired
funds and the payment to Headquarters.

3.0 Process

This RFI is being conducted as a two-step process. The first step is for interested parties to
provide the information requested in Section 4.0 White Paper Submission.

After reviewing White Paper Submissions, ICE may contact interested parties to participate in
One-on-One sessions. One-on-One Sessions will be conducted as outlined in Section 5.0
Industry One-On-One Sessions.

4.0 White Paper Submission

Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI with a white paper. Responses must be
submitted in size 12 Times New Roman font with single spacing and 1” margins. The white
paper shall include the following:

4.1 Administrative Information (two (2) page limit)

At a minimum, interested parties shall provide shall include the following:

 Name, mailing address, DUNS number, phone number and e-mail of designated
point of contact.
 Current Information Technology contract vehicles that your company holds such
as EAGLE II, Alliant, Alliant SB, GSA Schedule, etc.
 Business type based upon North American Industry Classification System
(NAICS) code 541512, Computer Systems Design Services (large business, small
business, small disadvantaged business, etc.)
 Identify if your company is interested in participating in a One-on-One session
with the Government.

4.2 Question Responses (Eight (8) page limit)

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 Interested parties shall address all of the questions outlined below.

Development and Engineering Questions:

1. Describe any solutions or products you have deployed that are similar, or would
meet the requirements described above?
a. Describe the solution and implementation approach?
b. Which use cases would be supported?
c. For use cases not supported, why?
2. Describe your federal/non-federal experience with a Law Enforcement financial
management, accounting workflow/processing.
3. Describe some of the challenges your team has faced in implementing a Law
Enforcement financial management, and accounting workflow/processing projects
in the Government and the steps you took to overcome them.
4. Describe any experience you have working with the government to transition
from existing accounting methods to automated workflow/processing?
a. How is federal/non-federal experience different from technical
(process/tools) prospective, if any.
5. How would you suggest streamlining level of accounting/financial efforts,
reducing/maintaining documentation artifacts, and meeting independent
compliance requirements?
a. Examples of prior experiences or successful deployments.
6. For financial management, and accounting workflow/processing, what are the
pros and cons of implementing open source software libraries and development
tools versus COTS products?
a. Open Source tools?
b. COTS products?
7. How does the application or financial tool enforce compliance (policy/legal
obligations), describe the internal controls?
a. How are scores/grades determined?
b. Recommendations to remedy the situation.
8. Describe how you would manage a financial/accounting project with external
dependencies (e.g., external data interfaces, hardware integration, application
infrastructure, etc.)?
9. Describe experience (pain-points) with commingling different currency types;
foreign and digital currency in real-time versus transaction conversions

5.0 Industry One-On-One Sessions

The Government, at its own discretion, may use the white paper responses received as the basis
to identify candidates for the One-on-One sessions. The Government will not conduct One-on-
One sessions with companies that do not submit a white paper in response to this RFI. Due to
limited resources, every interested party that submits a white paper will not be guaranteed a One-
on-One meeting. Therefore, interested parties are asked to provide substantive responses to the
questions on the white paper.

One-on One sessions will be conducted according to the ground rules identified below:

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 1. Both the Government and interested party will communicate with honesty, integrity, and
confidentiality.
2. Government resources to perform this effort are limited, so we are only able to
accommodate one session per company.
3. No marketing efforts. The intent of this effort is to discuss issues and generate ideas
affecting ICE’s agile development procurements, not to discuss company capabilities.
4. Participation in this process is strictly voluntary.
5. Participation in this effort will have no bearing on future awards of contracts for Agile
software development at ICE.
6. One‐on‐One sessions will generally last 1 hour. The content of the One‐on‐One sessions
will be centered around the Industry Partner’s white paper and related matters, and areas,
affecting Agile development in a law enforcement environment, not around specifics of
the company.
7. One‐on‐One sessions may be conducted in person in the Washington DC metro area, or
via teleconference as Government resources allow.
8. One‐on‐One sessions will be scheduled on a first come, first serve basis.
9. There will be a limited number of ten (10) time slots for the One-on-One sessions. We
cannot guarantee that all session requests can be scheduled. Once all spots are filled,
further requests may be accepted at the discretion of the Government.
10. The Government will notify each RFI response whether they have been selected for a
One-on-One session and if selected, the date, time, and location of the session.

6.0 Questions

Questions and requests for additional information must be sent to DHS/ICE via e-mail to:
Amanda.Stought@ice.dhs.gov and Misty.Weinhold@ice.dhs.gov by Monday, October 26,
2020 at 10:00 AM. All submissions shall include in the subject line “Questions for Agile
Software Development – (Company’s Name).” Verbal questions will NOT be accepted.
Questions shall NOT contain proprietary or classified information. The Government does not
guarantee that questions received after the due date deadline will be answered.

7.0 Submission Instructions

Responses shall be received via e-mail as one electronic submission in Adobe PDF format with
the subject line “RFI # HSICE-10012020- ICE Agile Software Development.”

Submissions must be received no later than Monday, November 9, 2020 at 9:00 AM and
submitted only to: Amanda.Stought@ice.dhs.gov with a copy to Misty.Weinhold@ice.dhs.gov.
Early submissions are encouraged. ICE reserves the right to review late submissions but makes
no guarantee to the order of, or possibility for, this review.

All company proprietary information, performance capabilities and/or future modifications must
be clearly identified and marked so segregation of proprietary information is required.