The U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey Office (ACSO) is conducting market research to identify potential small business sources (including 8(a), veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUB Zone small business, small disadvantaged business, and women-owned small business concerns) with the capacity and technical capability necessary to perform the requirements described herein. The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit input from the industry regarding their capabilities and past performance in providing address telephone matching services for the American Community Survey Office (ACSO). . The Contractor shall match sample addresses, provided by the Census Bureau, to the Contractor's database of published landline telephone numbers to obtain matches and append these telephone numbers to the original Census Bureau file. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI or reimburse any costs associated with the preparation of responses to this RFI. This is a RFI only and will be used purely to gather further information about the topics covered. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quotation (RFQ). Any proposals, offers, or anything other than the specific or general information requested will not be considered. This notice does not constitute a commitment of any kind by any entity of the United States Government. All the information received in response to this RFI marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. 1.0 Background: The American Community Survey (ACS) collects detailed population and housing data to produce estimates of socioeconomic characteristics. The data provided by the ACS throughout the decade corresponds to the data that the U.S. Census Bureau historically collected once every ten years during the Decennial Census. The ACS uses four modes of data collection-Internet, mail, computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI), and computer assisted personal interviewing (CAPI). All addresses that receive a mailing package can respond to the survey over the internet or return a completed questionnaire during the three-month period after the initial mailing. A CATI interview is conducted with non-respondents to the mail and internet modes when ACSO has an available telephone number. After a month in the CATI operation, a sample of cases for which there is no response is selected for personal visit follow-up using CAPI methods in the third month of the survey cycle. Because of the short interval between the monthly mail out and the start of CATI operation, the Census Bureau does not have time to isolate non-responding addresses and obtain only their corresponding telephone numbers. Rather, it must obtain current telephone numbers for all sample addresses before the monthly mail out. These telephone numbers must be obtained by matching an address with a landline phone number, without the benefit of a resident's surname. 2.0 Objectives: The objective of this requirement is to obtain the highest number possible of telephone numbers matched to ACSO sample address file. Getting a high number of matches that can be used in the CATI operation decreases the number of cases that need to be sent to ACSO CAPI operation and thus lowers the overall cost per interview of the ACS. 3.0 Scope of Work: By the 10th of each month, the Census Bureau will furnish the Contractor with an automated list of approximately 250,000 to 500,000 sample addresses. The usual number of addresses will be between 280,000 and 290,000 but may occasionally be as high as 500,000. The file will be in ASCII format. The Contractor shall match the addresses to their database of published landline telephone numbers to obtain matches and append these telephone numbers to the original Census Bureau file. The Census Bureau requires a match rate of no less than 30 percent. The Contractor shall return the file, in ASCII format, of addresses (including ZIP+4) and matched current telephone numbers to the Census Bureau. The file shall be delivered to the Census Bureau within three business days of receiving the initial file from the Census Bureau. The monthly address telephone matching will start in October 2015. The Contractor shall use the time between date of award and October 2015 to develop and implement an approved security plan (see Section 3.1.5). The Census Bureau reserves the right for indefinite future use of the telephone numbers that have been returned by the Contractor, for surveys, censuses, and studies within the Census Bureau other than the ACS. Title 13 of the United States Code protects the confidentiality of the address and telephone number information provided by the Census Bureau. In order to comply with Title 13, the Contractor and the Census Bureau are required to use a secure file transfer site or process that will enable the Census Bureau and the Contractor to exchange files in a manner that protects the records from any unauthorized viewing. The Contractor must also perform the matching in a secure environment approved the Census Bureau's IT Security Office. 3.1 Specific Tasks 3.1.1 Planning Meetings - The Contractor shall participate in all planning meetings including, but not limited to (1) a project kick off meeting; (2) ad-hoc progress meetings; and (3) a meeting at the end of the project. Meetings will be conducted in person or via telephone/VTC with the Contractor's staff, the Census Bureau's Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), and other interested Census Bureau staff. 3.1.2 Ad-hoc progress meetings - The Census Bureau has the right to request a quarterly progress meeting, if needed, to discuss any issues or special projects regarding this project. Contractor's staff, the Census Bureau's COR, and other interested Census Bureau staff shall be in attendance of this meeting. 3.1.3 Final project meeting This meeting, which will be held one month before the end of the contract, shall address any issues and lessons learned from the project. Contractor's staff, the Census Bureau's COR, other interested Census Bureau staff shall be in attendance of this meeting. This may be in person or via teleconference. No travel will be paid by the Census Bureau for attendance. 3.1.4 Monthly Matching Job 3.1.4.1 Description - Each month, but no later than the 10th of the month, the Census Bureau staff will make the file of sample addresses available to the Contractor. The Contractor shall match the addresses to the Contractor's database. Within three business days, the Contractor shall return the file in ASCII format with the sample addresses and appended published landline telephone numbers. The Census Bureau requires a matching rate of no less than 30 percent. 3.1.4.2 File Transfer Requirement- The Census Bureau will make the file available to the Contractor on a secure file sharing site. Currently the Census Bureau uses the Commerce Secure OCIO File Sharing site, which the Contractor will be invited to join free of charge. The Census Bureau reserves the right to change the site or method of file transfer as needed without approval from the Contractor. The Contractor shall retrieve the file from the secure site, process the file and return it to the Census Bureau via the secure site. The Contractor shall not retain a copy of the Census Bureau file or the information it contains. The Census Bureau will respond within 48 hours after receipt of file, and will instruct the Contractor to destroy any files related to the matching job. The Contractor shall provide an e-mail confirming the destruction of files within one business day of receiving Census instructions. 3.1.4.3 Summary Report - The Contractor shall provide a summary report within 1 business day of finishing the monthly job. This report shall contain at least the following information: total number of records in the original file, total number of records matched with telephone numbers and the total number of records where a telephone number was not found. The report shall be submitted electronically to the COR via e-mail. 3.1.5 Security Plan - Upon contract award, the Contractor shall work with Census Bureau staff to develop a security plan that protects the confidentiality of the addresses supplied by the Census Bureau. This security plan will ensure that the Contractor safeguards the Title 13 information supplied by the Census Bureau, and that upon completion of the matching process; the Contractor deletes all files and addresses supplied by the Census Bureau. The Census Bureau will have the right of final approval for the plan. This security plan shall be reviewed and revised annually as needed. Any Contractor employee performing work under this contract or who otherwise has access to Title 13 data shall be specially sworn as a Census Bureau employee before beginning work. This will require taking a mandatory annual on line Title 13 and Data Stewardship training, which is done on line on a fiscal year basis, and sending the certificates of completion to the COR. The Contractor shall inform the COR of any Contractor employee no longer working on the project or any new employee working on the project. Any data provided to the Contractor by the Census Bureau to perform the work under this contract may not be utilized in any manner except called for by this contract. Any other usage is outside the scope of this contract and subject to the restrictions of United States Code and Title 13. 4.1. RFI Response Instructions Responses to this RFI shall be submitted no later than 4:30 PM ET, June 2, 2015 to Ms. Donna Cornish at
[email protected]. Vendors are encouraged to submit questions in addition to the responses to the RFI. Please send these questions to Ms. Donna Cornish at the email address above no later than the RFI due date. The Census Bureau does not commit to answering these questions, but may consider them when refining the solicitation. Responses should be limited to the company's own capabilities and experiences. The Census Bureau requests that the response be limited in length to 10 pages (excluding questions).