Loan Guaranty Services (LGY) Veterans Affairs Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI) Request for Information (RFI) Project: Veterans Affairs Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI) Acquisition Current Status: Veterans Affairs (VA) Loan Guaranty (LGY) Program provides home loan benefits to eligible Veterans obtaining mortgage loans through private lenders by guaranteeing a portion of the loan against default. This allows Veterans to obtain mortgage loans at competitive rates with little or no down payment. When a default occurs on these guaranteed loans, Veterans receive help in retaining their homes and minimizing their financial losses through primary servicing performed by their servicer and supplemental servicing performed by VA. VALERI was built to enable Loan Administration to improve services to Veterans, improve oversight capability over loan servicers, and to reduce the cost to the Government for defaulted loans. Background: VALERI helps VA and LGY's mission of helping Veterans and their families retain their homes. VALERI is a web-enabled rules-based servicing application, designed to improve VA's program oversight capability and to reduce the cost to the Government for the servicing and liquidation of VA-guaranteed loans. It provides an interface between VA and the mortgage servicing community, allowing mortgage servicers to report significant event updates to VA focusing on default, loss mitigation, foreclosure, and claim payments. VALERI provides both a web-interface, and an integration component to allow automated loading of updates. The web-interface allows VA's technicians to manage VA loans and evaluate servicer performance, in addition to intervening on the Veteran's behalf, when necessary. This service helps fulfill VA's obligation to Veterans and provides VA with oversight of its investment/guaranty in mortgages. Implementation of VALERI began February 20, 2008. Since November 2008, all servicers and all VA-guaranteed loans have been managed through the VALERI environment. Currently, VALERI assists VA in managing over 1.7 million active and 1.5 million inactive VA loans (inactive loans are defined as 425 calendar days following the termination of a VA loan). By Fiscal Year (FY) 18, VA anticipates managing 2 million active and 10 million inactive loans. In June 2004, VA awarded a competitive Task Order (TO) to develop and implement the VALERI services using the Department of Commerce's Commerce Information Technology Solutions Contract (COMMITS) Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) contracting vehicle. The COMMITS Firm Fixed Price (FFP) TO was awarded to Creative Computing Solutions Inc (CCSi) for a five (5) year performance period, June 2004 - June 2009. Fidelity National Financial (FNF) served as CCSi's subcontractor under the award. In 2006, FNF spun off its financial services division into a separate publicly traded company known as Fidelity National Information Services (FIS). In turn, FIS spun off its mortgage business segment in 2008 into another separate publicly traded company known as Lender Processing Services (LPS). In May of 2009, VA awarded a sole source task order to LPS to perform overall project management and progress reporting as well as all technical requirements of developing, implementing, and training personnel on the VALERI system. LPS owns the VALERI source code. VA owns the loan data within VALERI, and will be available for use under the new Contract. Note: This contract will expire June 30, 2014, by which time any replacement service must be fully designed, developed, tested, and deployed (if applicable). Purpose: The purpose of this acquisition is to provide, customize, test, deploy and maintain a previously fielded and proven Commercial-off-the-Shelf (COTS) mortgage servicing and oversight platform. The new system shall provide capabilities consistent with the existing system (currently known as VALERI) as well as the requirements stated in this Performance Work Statement (PWS). The product shall include, at a minimum, existing integrations with mortgage servicing systems and mortgage servicing bureaus and have the capability to integrate with VA systems. Furthermore, small business participation is highly encouraged. VA is requesting that interested firms indicate their socio-economic status as well as identify whether or not they intend to team or create a joint venture to address this requirement. It is critical that the sole resulting contract accomplishes all tasks of the attached draft Performance Work Statement (PWS), particularly a seamless and uninterrupted transition from the current system to the new system. The PWS has been abbreviated for this RFI to focus on key components as they are known at the current time. The eventual solicitation will include a final PWS and all applicable terms and conditions which may be revised as a result of the responses received from this RFI and additional market research conducted by the Government, which may be related or unrelated to the RFI responses received. Information obtained from this RFI and any subsequent meetings that may take place with the Contractors may be utilized to assist the VA in developing a solicitation. Information Requested: Contractors should provide supportive documentation that describes past projects and current capabilities that are similar in size, scope and complexity. Furnished references from past performance is highly encouraged and should include contract or delivery order number, type of contract (i.e., FFP), the customer's point of contact information (name/phone/e-mail, position), procuring CO's e-mail address, if the RFI responder performed as prime or subcontractor, price/cost of contract. Specific Questions to be Addressed (all questions listed below must be answered completely): 1. Please respond to the following pricing elements: a) Provide the Government with a recommendation on how to structure the pricing categories for the attached PWS. The following is a sample pricing structure: " Task 1: Customization and Testing (design, build, and test) " Task 2: Deployment " Task 3: Maintenance " Task 4: Program/Project Management " Task 5: Training " Task 6: Help Desk Support b) For each pricing category identified in your response, provide key cost drivers and price ranges. (Please provide standard price sheets, if available.) c) Please provide a list of assumptions 2. Similar to Question 1. a), Please provide the number of full-time equivalents (FTE) and labor categories of those FTEs by task, (The Government anticipates that this contract shall require the following support roles: Project Management/Program Support, Call Center Representatives, Analysts, Subject Matter Expert (SME), and Technical Writer/Editor. However, based on the Contractor's assessment of the PWS, the Contractor may propose a different labor mix and level of effort provided the effort can be justified and present a benefit to the Government.) Please also indicate which resources will be fully dedicated. 3. Please describe your familiarity and experience/capabilities with loan servicing platforms, including technical support or other information-based (i.e., non-sales based) customer solutions. 4. Please describe your organization's existing capabilities for designing loan servicing platforms of similar size, scope and complexity. 5. Request submission of additional information that VA should consider including in a solicitation that you regard as adding value and completeness to the design of VALERI. 6. The Government has determined that North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 522390 is most appropriate for this requirement. If the Contractor believes another code would be more appropriate, please list the code and justification. Responses: Responses should be single-spaced, 12 point-font, with numbered pages and should not exceed 20 pages in length, including cover page, appendices, tables and figures. Responses should use the following subject heading: VA Loan Electronic Reporting Interface (VALERI) Acquisition. Electronic submissions shall be in either Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format. Submissions must be properly marked. Dates: Responses should be submitted to the Department of Veterans Affairs, Acquisition Service-Frederick (AS-F), on or before 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on October 9, 2012. Addresses: Please send to: Melissa Maloy (
[email protected]) and copy to Donna Neto (
[email protected]) Note: VA will utilize the information from this RFI to assist with the development of the Agency's solicitation. Contractors shall identify any proprietary information in their RFI responses. Proprietary materials will neither be distributed to nor discussed with any other vendor. The use of information submitted to the Government as a result of this RFI will be at the discretion of the Government. The information obtained from responses to this RFI will remain confidential insofar as permitted by law, including the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts. The Government is not obligated to provide comments to vendor submissions. The Government will not pay for information solicited and will not recognize or reimburse any costs associated with any RFI submission. Therefore, the Government recommends vendors submit electronic versions of, or web-links to previously prepared presentations, documentation, white papers and other relevant information. Disclaimer: Responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by VA to form a binding contract. VA does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or to otherwise pay for information solicited. For purposes of this RFI, the term "Contractor" refers to those members of industry providing a response to this RFI. Any questions should be electronically directed to Melissa Maloy (
[email protected]) and Donna Neto (
[email protected]) by 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on October 1, 2012. Email communication should include company name, address, POC, phone number, and the company's Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number.