R408--MAIL MANAGEMENT SERVICES

Sources Sought Notice Sources Sought Notice *= Required Field Sources Sought Notice 1.0 INTRODUCTION THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) for Mail Management Services. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only. There is no obligation for the Government to acquire any products or services described in this RFI. In accordance with the Revolutionary FAR Overhaul (RFO) Subpart 15.101(c), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. No funds have been authorized, appropriated, or received for this effort. The information provided may be used by VBA in developing its acquisition strategy and informing, refining, and finalizing a Performance Work Statement (PWS). Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response. Only electronic responses to this RFI will be accepted. The Government will not pay for any time expended or information submitted in response to this RFI. Eligibility in participating in a future acquisition does not depend upon a response to this RFI. 2.0 BACKGROUND Through its three (3) administrations, Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA), National Cemetery Administration (NCA), and Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Veterans Affairs (VA) administers vital services to America's Veterans. VA provides health care services, benefits programs, and access to national cemeteries for former military personnel and their dependents. The fundamental mission of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) is to provide Veterans, service members, and their families the benefits they have earned through their military service to the United States. VBA accomplishes its mission by delivering client-centered, personalized services that help Veterans readjust to civilian life and enhance their well-being. To continuously improve benefits processing efficiency and cycle-time, VBA expanded its mail receipt and processing services to include Centralized Mail (CM) processing. The CM activities require vendors to receive mail directly from Veterans, claimants, Veterans / claimants representatives and third parties providing evidence in support of a claim. Physical materials are received via paper mail (bulk mail, US Postal Service pickup and delivery, other external mail delivery services) and digital formats (CD/DVD, Flash drives, Microfilm, Microfiche, Other alternate media). Non-physical information is received via various digital formats (direct upload service by Veterans, external Veteran Service Organization user or other third party; through an application program interface (API); secure file transfer; email; and fax). The materials and information received by the contractor are converted into digital files in the searchable Portable Document Format (PDFs) and are then made available to VA end users for review within an interactive centralized mail portal; routed for additional processing; or accessed for unattended mail automation operations. Upon completion of mail processing, images, with associated data, are uploaded to VBA s image repository, the Veterans Benefits Management System (VBMS). If the CM materials were received in physical formats (e.g., paper), they are prepared for shipment to a government contracted long-term storage facility, awaiting disposition. This Request for Information (RFI) describes VBAs requirements for contractor support related to mail management services. In addition, the purpose of the RFI is to engage industry vendors with expert knowledge and extensive experience as well as with credibility in addressing and mitigating risks. The Government seeks innovative solutions from industry on mail management services. 3.0 INFORMATION SOUGHT The Government is seeking the following information to be provided by vendors when responding to the RFI: Company Information Capability Statement Answers to Questions Draft Performance Work Statement Comments 3.1 Company Information RFI respondents shall provide the following information: Company Name Company Address Company Point of Contact (name, address, telephone number, email address) Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) NAICS Codes and business size for NAICS code 518210 - Identify if your company has any of the following business concern statuses (include all that apply): Small Business (SB); Certified Small Business Administration (SBA) 8(a) firm; Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB); Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB); Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB); Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB); Woman-Owned Small Business (WOSB); Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HubZone) Small Business; Large Business Existing Multiple Award Contract (MAC) vehicles currently held by your company (examples may include General Service Administrations (GSA) schedules, Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), Indefinite Delivery Contracts (IDCs), Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs)) available for Government use. For each MAC vehicle provide: vehicle name vehicle number date of award expiration date 3.2 Capability Statement RFI respondents shall provide a capability statement with an overview of the company s capabilities to fulfill the requirements of the attached PWS. Overview should include but not be limited to: Details regarding proposed joint ventures, teaming arrangements, strategic alliances, or other business arrangements to satisfy requirements of the entire PWS. Description of the company s resources available and capable of completing the work under the PWS. Explanation of what experience providing services similar in size, scope, and complexity of the PWS the company has. List of specific contracts in the Government or industry where the vendor provided similar services on the same scale and provide Agency / Company name, contract number, contract period of performance and contract dollar value. 3.3 Answers to Questions RFI respondents shall provide answers to the questions provided in Section 5.0 of this RFI. RFI respondents are requested to address each question. Questions that do not apply to RFI respondents or if RFI respondents cannot provide answers shall be addressed by marking these questions with N/A . 3.4 Draft PWS Comments/Questions RFI respondents shall provide comments/questions on the PWS in the following table format: Comment # PWS Page # PWS Section # Comment/Question The comments/questions may include recommended changes, noted errors, inconsistencies, ambiguities, areas requiring further clarifications or higher level of detail, etc. The Department of Veterans Affairs has developed detailed Business Requirements Documents (BRDs) that further describe the technical and operational requirements for Mail Management Services. These BRDs are not included with this RFI. Respondents should base their feedback on the high-level requirements and objectives outlined in this RFI. The Government anticipates providing the full BRDs and other supporting documentation during the subsequent solicitation phase (e.g., Request for Proposal or Request for Quotation). If you require clarification on any requirement or would like to comment on the anticipated level of detail, please indicate this in your response. 4.0 SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Response submissions to this RFI are due no later than July 21, 2026, 3:00 pm Eastern Time and shall be submitted to gregory.stevens@va.gov The email subject line must contain the following: Company Name, Response to RFI 36C10D26Q0139. VBA reserves the right to not reply to any emails, responses, questions, and materials submitted in response to the RFI. Mark your response as Proprietary Information if the information included is considered to be business sensitive and/or includes trade secrets. RFI responses shall not exceed 15 pages total. Responses shall be prepared in Microsoft Word with standard 8.5 x 11-inch page format (charts may be landscaped but must be on 8.5 x 11-inch page format) and shall be in Times New Roman, font size (12), with 1 margins. All page format of the response shall be appropriately numbered and identified with the RFI number. The email file size limitation shall be no more than 40MB. 5.0 LIST OF QUESTIONS 1) Please describe your company s strategy to address the full scope of work, to include risk management, solution management, incident and event management, and education and outreach and communication support services as outlined in the PWS. Please describe any relevant experience within the Government or Industry that demonstrates your capabilities in each service area. How would you address any gaps in your service offerings?   2) Please describe innovations you have employed on other projects and how those innovations differentiate your company from others in regard to the types of services outlined in the PWS. 3) Please outline the experience your company has in scaling, making recommendations, and incorporating continuous improvement principles to enable service delivery and achieving objectives in the PWS. 4) Please describe your company s approach to quality assurance, employing performance metrics, and your success in meeting Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) performance objectives on similar efforts. 5) What is your company s approach for proposing and implementing evolving technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing, robotic processing ( bots ) or full artificial intelligence to drive automation for solutions?  How do you ensure these technologies remain current and effective? Can you provide any examples of successful integrations in similar projects?    6) Please describe your company s experience with protecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and Protected Health Information (PHI) when utilizing large databases and processing transactional activities associated with tracking source materials locally and remotely in a secure environment. How do you stay current with evolving data protection regulations and threats? Include details on your disaster recovery and business continuity plans.  7) Please describe any experiences with electronic business process reengineering and integration based on complex multi-level processing rules. Please describe the pricing structures used (e.g., transaction-based; quantity-based; price-banding based on volume; price-banding based on complexity; etc.).  How do you ensure fairness and transparency in these pricing structures? 8) What recommendations would your company make regarding pricing structures for these types of services?  How do these recommendations align with Government best practices and regulations while allowing flexibility in service delivery? 9) Please provide a rough order of magnitude (ROM) cost estimate for all tasked outlined within the PWS. Each ROM estimate should clearly identify underlying assumptions, methodology, and any dependencies impacting cost. 10) Vendors are requested to identify any innovative solutions, technologies, or approaches not currently included in the draft PWS that may enhance mission effectiveness, improve service delivery, or increase operational efficiency. For each recommendation, please indicate whether the proposed innovation should be incorporated as an addition to the PWS or used to revise or replace existing language. Provide a rationale, anticipated benefits, underlying assumptions, and any dependencies relevant to the proposed enhancement 6.0 ATTACHMENTS