Sources Sought
Operational Loads Monitoring System (OLMS)
Department of Agriculture · Forest Service · Sol. RFI468
Due in 10 days
AI summary Beta
The USDA Forest Service (Fire and Aviation Management) is gathering information from industry on commercially available software and support services for its Operational Loads Monitoring System (OLMS), a web application that analyzes load data from firefighting air tankers. This is a Request for Information, not a solicitation or a request for quotes. The draft work statement describes a base year plus up to four option years, with work done at the contractor's site(s) and sites set by the COR; SAM.gov lists Boise, ID.
Watch out for
- Information request only. This is not a solicitation, no money is paid for responses, and the Government has made no decision that the requirement will go forward, so there is nothing to bid on yet.
Further, USDA is not at this time seeking
- Incumbent takes over knowledge transfer. You would have to take over a running system from the current contractor with no drop in availability or security, which is hard for a new small business.
The contractor will support Transition In from the current incumbent for OLMS that ensures
- Federal security and background checks. Every worker needs a Tier 2 background check and a USDA PIV card (LincPass), and each card takes weeks, so staffing cannot start right away.
Allowance of six (6) to eight (8) weeks should be anticipated for
- 24/7 availability and after-hours support. A 99% uptime target applies around the clock and staff may be called in on nights, weekends and holidays for patches and outages.
Support may be needed outside of Standard Business Hours (including nights,
- Hosting and authority-to-operate burden. Your software must meet the Government's Azure ATO and security rules or FedRAMP, and you must integrate with their MFA (FAMAuth), which takes technical and compliance effort.
- Section 508 accessibility documentation. An accessibility conformance report is needed for award consideration and testing by a federal 508 testing center may be required.
considered for award, an ACR must be submitted for each ICT item
- Travel costs mostly unreimbursed. Travel inside a 50-mile radius of the contractor's facilities will not be paid, and all other travel needs advance approval.
Travel may be required in support of this award instrument. Travel within a 50-mile radius
Read from the notice and 2 attachments.
- OLMS_Performance Work Statement.pdf
- OLMS_Request for Information.pdf
Full brief
What they want
- Provide all software licenses (including third-party) needed to run OLMS
- Maintain and support the software: security patches, updates, configuration, user accounts, help desk tickets, and customization
- Keep OLMS available 99% of the time (excluding planned outages), with a help desk first response within 24 hours
- Data work: connect to the government FAMShare file site, convert flight data to engineering units, automate processing, and produce reports and analysis
- Host the software either in the Government's Azure environment or as a FedRAMP certified SaaS, using a government or provider database
- Provide multi-factor authentication, either by integrating the government FAMAuth system or a provider MFA solution
- Take over from the current incumbent (Transition In) and later hand off to a successor (Transition Out)
- Deliver an invoice plan, monthly status reports, a QASP, transition plans, data exports and a service desk plan
- Period of performance
- Draft PWS: base period plus up to four option periods (each period is one year)
- Place of performance
- Boise, ID per SAM.gov; the draft PWS says contractor site(s) and sites identified by the COR, with standard hours 8:00 to 17:00 Mountain Time
- Offers due
- 3:00 pm EST on October 19, 2026 (SAM.gov shows 2026-10-19T15:00:00-04:00). Questions are due 3:00pm EST on October 12, 2026.
- How to submit
- Email responses to Cori Gonzales, corrine.gonzales@usda.gov
What to include when you submit
- Part 1: company information (name, address, URL, year founded, point of contact, contract vehicles, SAM UEI, CAGE code, NAICS codes and size, ownership, socio-economic status, other business names)
- Part 2: say whether you have a COTS solution that can run in a Government hosted environment and describe it
- Part 2: say whether you have a FedRAMP certified SaaS solution and describe it
- Part 2: say whether Section 6 Level of Effort is detailed enough to propose staffing, and what more you would need
- Part 2: point out any missing or unclear technical requirements in Section 3
- Give feedback on the draft PWS and draft performance measures, plus any questions
You must have
- No set-aside is listed; any company may respond to the RFI. The RFI form asks about size and socio-economic status for planning.
- Must have a SAM.gov Unique Entity ID and be registered in SAM at the time of any award
(Offeror must have UEI and be registered in SAM at time of award)
- All contractor staff must pass a Tier 2 background investigation (public trust position)
All contractors on this contract will be required to pass a tier 2
- Staff must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents (green card holders), with at least three years of U.S. residency for permanent residents
must be either U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents
- If you offer SaaS, it must be hosted in a FedRAMP certified environment
must be hosted and supported in a FedRAMP certified environment.
- Section 508 accessibility: an Accessibility Conformance Report (VPAT based) is needed for each ICT item to be considered for award
considered for award, an ACR must be submitted for each ICT item
Current contractor
An incumbent contractor exists but is not named; the draft PWS requires support for Transition In from the current incumbent for OLMS.
Not in the notice text
- Contract type, pricing structure and estimated value (none stated)
- When or whether a solicitation (RFQ) will be issued, and the set-aside status of any future award
- How offers would be evaluated
- Name of the incumbent and current contract amount
- Level of effort or number of staff expected (the PWS asks industry to propose it)
- Exact place of performance (SAM.gov lists Boise, ID, but the PWS says contractor sites)
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Key facts
- Response due
- Oct 19, 2026, 7:00 PM UTC
- Posted
- Oct 5, 2026
- Notice type
- Sources Sought
- Solicitation
- RFI468
- Agency
- Department of Agriculture · Forest Service
- Office
- USDA Forest Service
- NAICS
- 513210
- Business type
- IT, software & telecom
- Place of performance
- Boise, ID
- Contracting contact
- Cori Gonzalescorrine.gonzales@usda.gov
Full notice text from SAM.gov
The FS seeks information regarding commercially available software and system support services for the Operational Loads Monitoring System (OLMS).
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