MIDAS - Business Process Mapping-Lean Six Sigma

THIS NOTICE IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE NOTIFICATION OF THE USE OF FUNDS AUTHORIZED UNDER THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2009 (ARRA) ON THIS CONTRACT. The United States Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency, awarded a contract to TORRES Advanced Enterprise Solutions, LLC on March 25, 2009 for Lean Six Sigma Business Process Mapping services. This contract action is a modification to add Recovery Act funds in the obligated amount of $1,458,112 to the contract. This is only available to the aforementioned contractor under contract AG-645S-P-09-0049. ARRA funds will be assigned to the contract under contract line item number 0004. The projected award date for obligation of ARRA funds to the contract is 05/27/2009. This project will: • Document FSA’s Farm Program “as-is” business processes, manage and gather high level requirements, and provide “to-be” planning and technical analysis • Define and implement business process improvements using Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology • Provide support for enterprise architecture planning MIDAS will replace FSA’s current farm programs information technology structure of nationally distributed systems with a centralized system that modernizes the delivery of Farm programs, improves customer service and satisfaction, achieves federal compliance, and supports USDA and FSA strategic plans. The MIDAS BPM effort will support MIDAS by gather requirements for the eventual system integrator, implementing business process improvements using a LSS methodology and supporting strategic alignment with other initiatives (Financial Management Modernization Initiative, Budget and Performance Management System, Stabilization, and Web Based Supply Chain Management). To reduce risks associated with this effort, an ANSI Standard 748 certified Earned Value Management System will be used to report schedule and cost performance. The MIDAS effort allows FSA to begin developing a customer-centric modernization initiative that will ultimately provide USDA customers with faster, more secure, and more accurate program payments. The award was made non-competitively as authorized by FAR 6-302-5(b)(4) under the 8(a) Program pursuant to 15 U.S.C. 637. A time-and-materials/labor-hour contract was determined to be the only type of contract suitable for this effort. The nature of the work on this contract involves a number of factors that are outside the control of the contractor that could impact the contract performance. Because of this a fixed-price contract would not be suitable for this effort without a significant mark up in price to compensate for risks.