Daily News Media Monitoring and Analysis Services

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) PURSUANT TO FAR 15.202(e) INTRODUCTION Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is developing its requirements for full service clipping and media monitoring support services. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to gather information to assist ICE in formulating its requirements, and identify qualified vendors that are able to meet ICE's requirements. ICE is open to alternative ideas. Respondents are encouraged to provide information about alternatives that can help ICE better define its requirements and obtain a contract management solution that meets its needs. DISCLAIMER THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) IS ISSUED SOLELY FOR INFORMATION AND PLANNING PURPOSES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION. IN ACCORDANCE WITH FAR 15.202(E), THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT PRESENTLY INTEND TO AWARD A CONTRACT, BUT WANTS TO OBTAIN PRICE, DELIVERY, AND OTHER MARKET RESEARCH FOR PLANNING PURPOSES. RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE ARE NOT OFFERS AND CANNOT BE ACCEPTED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO FORM A BINDING CONTRACT. RESPONDENTS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL EXPENSES ASSOCIATED WITH RESPONDING TO THIS RFI. RESPONSES TO THIS RFI WILL NOT BE RETURNED. RESPONDENTS WILL NOT BE NOTIFIED OF THE RESULT OF THE REVIEW. BACKGROUND ICE is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the second largest investigative agency in the federal government. Created in 2003 through a merger of the investigative and interior enforcement elements of the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, ICE has more than 20,000 employees in offices in all 50 states and 47 foreign countries. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Office of Public Affairs (OPA) is responsible for the effective dissemination of accurate information to the public concerning ICE programs and its mission. OPA provides primary support to the Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with lead responsibility for the communication of agency goals, objectives and accomplishments. In addition, OPA is responsible for the preparation and distribution of information to state and local officials, agency stakeholders, and the general public. Due to the high profile nature of the ICE mission, ICE related stories remain prominently featured by media outlets. Senior ICE officials and program managers must be kept abreast of news coverage relating directly or indirectly to the mission and operations of ICE as it relates to major important news, legislative activity and operations involving the agency. ICE leadership must remain current of issues and trends that could impact ICE in the future as well as issues raised in current media stories being reported on a daily basis. To meet this need, OPA requires services for clipping and media monitoring support. SCOPE Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to outsource the daily creation of a morning news briefing and media monitoring support. In support of ICE's mission, agency officials must start each day fully informed about important news printed and broadcast nationwide. ICE has determined that this will be best accomplished via preparation of an expert-edited daily briefing that weaves together the important elements of news stories printed and broadcast nationwide rather than full- text articles or computer generated summaries. The items included are culled from thousands of outlets daily and will be based on topics, events, and ICE programs that ICE officials have identified as important. Stories from Radio/Television news that are broadcasted nationally and locally, and that impact ICE and ICE programs must be included. SERVICES REQUIRED Provide a Daily Media- Monitoring and Analysis Service that delivers exceptional quality and value to the agency and, at minimum must include: 1. Daily Media-Monitoring The vendor must include the production of the daily clips and news briefing. The vendor must find and review articles and broadcasts from all major daily newspapers, national and local television, newsweeklies, magazines, journals, and internet sites. ICE's primary mission is to promote homeland security and public safety through the criminal and civil enforcement of federal laws governing border control, customs, trade, and immigration. The agency has an annual budget of more than $5.7 billion, primarily devoted to its two principal operating components - Homeland Security Investigations (HIS) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO). The third ICE directorate is Management and Administration (M&A). HSI investigates immigration crime, human rights violations and human smuggling, smuggling of narcotics, weapons and other types of contrabands, financial crimes, cybercrime and export enforcement issues. ICE special agents conduct investigations aimed at protecting critical infrastructure industries that are vulnerable to sabotage, attack or exploitation. ERO enforces the nation's immigration laws in a fair and effective manner. Agents and officers identify and apprehend removable aliens, detain individuals when necessary, and remove illegal aliens from the U.S. This directorate prioritizes the apprehension, arrest and removal of convicted criminals, those who pose a threat to national security, fugitives and recent border entrants. Daily production of the daily clips and news-briefing summary must include editing of all information that is redundant and/or irrelevant. At a minimum the vendor must include a "Top News" section that is provided in the briefing suitable to the needs of ICE officials who must be kept aware of important developments affecting the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) so they may better interact with their peers within the department and partners in other Federal Agencies.  Provide a top-level view of the day's news specific to ICE's interests, designed to inform staff about key print and broadcast news in local, regional and national media markets. Each article or video broadcast will be summarized in such a way to allow for a full understanding of the content.  Include distribution to ICE officials and employees via a secure, hosted website with searchable archive. Distributions to non-employees are prohibited.  Provide a link to available video clips that stream to the reader's desktop  Briefing materials must include a table of contents organized by subject matter, be available via an IP protected Web site (including a searchable archive) or other secure delivery as dictated to vendor by ICE;  Include daily email notification when the briefings are available;  Include a daily version viewable on a Blackberry or email device deliver employees of ICE;  Include the full text backup document with complete version of the stories referenced in the briefing, including its own table of contents and story sequence matching that of the briefing;  All documents provided must be printable in MS Word and Adobe PDF formats;  A section showing the story headlines from the nation's major daily newspapers and story lineup from the previous evening's national news broadcasts;  Include a Washington DC Schedule section for the important events scheduled that day;  Be available to all employees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, exclusively for ICE's internal use. 2. Analysis Service of ICE Wide Related News: Provide a daily analysis service that delivers exceptional quality and value to the agency, and at minimum must include:  Assigns a dedicated account manager who is expert and is available to OPA 24/7; (ii) permits OPA to communicate with the editors preparing its service 24/7 so that its service can be customized quickly as necessary; and (iii) ensures quality by delivering copies of all written communication are delivered to the ICE Assistant Secretary and to senior ICE officials.  The vendor must have the ability to have its editors score, using human judgment, the sentiment of various topics within stories and then process that data through formulas that include audience size, reputation and other factors to provide a sense for the overall tone of coverage over time. DELIVERABLES The contractor shall provide deliverables on a daily basis at 8:00 am weekdays, except holidays. The vendor will provide a recap of the weekend and/or holiday's events on the next business day. The vendor shall provide the deliverables in electronic format. All documentation developed by the vendor shall become the property of the Government and shall not contain proprietary markings. DISCLAIMER THIS REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) IS ISSUED SOLELY FOR INFORMATION AND PLANNING PURPOSES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A SOLICITATION. IN ACCORDANCE WITH FAR 15.202(E), THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT PRESENTLY INTEND TO AWARD A CONTRACT, BUT WANTS TO OBTAIN PRICE, DELIVERY, AND OTHER MARKET RESEARCH FOR PLANNING PURPOSES. RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE ARE NOT OFFERS AND CANNOT BE ACCEPTED BY THE GOVERNMENT TO FORM A BINDING CONTRACT. RESPONDENTS ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL EXPENSES ASSOCIATED WITH RESPONDING TO THIS RFI. RESPONSES TO THIS RFI WILL NOT BE RETURNED. RESPONDENTS WILL NOT BE NOTIFIED OF THE RESULT OF THE REVIEW. HOW TO RESPOND Please respond by submitting a capability statement in the required format attached in accordance with the requirements under this Request For Information (RFI). Capability Statements shall be submitted via email to Contract Specialist, Carolyn Mosinski at [email protected], by Tuesday, May 10, 2011, by 10:00 A.M. EST. Ms. Mosinski can be reached by phone at 202-732-2630.