GSA Proposed Change to Authentication Products and Services on IT Schedule 70 and Schedule 84

The General Services Administration (GSA) is proposing enhancements to the authentication product and service Special Item Numbers (SINs) on Schedule 70 (132-6x series) and Schedule 84 (246 series). The purpose of the changes is to improve (i.e., make it more efficient and clearer) the way GSA offers authentication products and services, and to reflect recent advancements in authentication related government-wide policy and guidance.

This effort will better support government policy and guidance such as Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Policy Memorandum 11-11, OMB Memorandum 06-18, OMB Memorandum 05-24 , OMB memorandum entitled Requirements for Accepting Externally Issued Identity Credentials, Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-19 Sub part 4.13, Federal Acquisition Regulation Case 2005-017, and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-53 R4 security controls such as IA-5(15), IA-8(3), and SA-4(10). In addition, this effort will provide industry partners the opportunity to differentiate their authentication products services from other IT-related products and services.

The proposed benefits of these SIN enhancements are to:
● Realign offerings to reflect the regulatory requirements, market and customer needs
● Consolidate Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12)and Physical Access Control Systems (PACS) products/services solutions for ease of customer discovery and access, to support market research and acquisition planning
● Provide vendors the ability to more easily differentiate SINs products and services

GSA provides a high level-vetting of what technologies and industry partners are available through the HSPD-12 and PACS products and services SINs. To optimize usefulness and applicability of the proposed changes, this Request for Information (RFI) seeks feedback from industry, government agencies and other relevant stakeholders on the proposed changes.

Please use the attached response templates ( Attachment #1- RFI Response Template) to complete and submit your comments. Please do not change the format of the templates and be sure to complete all requested information. 

Your response must be provided no later than 4 PM EST January 2, 2015. Response packages should be sent by email to icam@gsa.gov. Please utilize the template provided to provide your response. Your entire response must be included in a single document. Additional details about filling out the response are included in the template.  

The results of the RFI will be used to inform a GSA decision on the enhancing the authentication product and service SINS on Schedule 70 (132-6x series) and Schedule 84 (246 series). The release of this RFI does not guarantee that the government will, in the end, complete an acquisition or revise the specified SINs. This RFI is for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation for bids, proposals or quote and is not to be construed as a commitment by the government to issue a request for proposal/quote or award of a contract as a result of this request. This announcement is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a Request for Quote (RFQ). The government will not reimburse respondents for any cost associated with information submitted in response to this request.

Any document submitted in response to this RFI that contains confidential information must be marked on the outside as containing confidential information. Each page upon which confidential information appears must be marked as containing confidential information. The confidential information must be clearly identifiable to the reader wherever it appears. All other information will not be treated as confidential.

All information marked confidential in RFI responses is only for the government's planning use. Confidential information may be reviewed by contractors providing advisory services within scope of contract, subject to a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) including but not limited to commercial or financial data obtained from or contained in contractor/vendor submitted documents and proposals. Otherwise, no information marked confidential included in this document or in discussions connected to it may be disclosed to any other party outside of the government.