HHS ACF RFI: Apple Device as a Service

Notice ID: 75ACF124AppleDAAS

The government is seeking information related to the considered acquisition of an information technology contractor to provide full lifecycle management of Apple devices (Macs, iPads, iPhones). This includes device acquisition, provisioning, management, logistics (shipping/tracking), refresh and secure decommissioning.

Assumptions of the Apple Device as a Service Offering

• Devices will be available to ship every business day, will be overnighted to customers for break/fix matters (or equivalent resolution of issues will be addressed through other means), and will be fully inventory managed by the vendor. The government may retain a small amount of devices (e.g., a service pool) for immediate servicing at walk-up service centers, but the majority of interactions will occur virtually, via parcel service, or other novel mechanisms not requiring government intervention or support.
• Vendor will provide support, including AppleCare OS Support.
• The vendor will lower costs through one or more of the following mechanisms:
  • Apple Financial Services (or its equivalents) – Utilize mechanisms to turn purchases of devices into low monthly costs over the deployment period, and guaranteed Buy Backs for refreshes.
  • Planned Future Value – The contractor will lower costs by planning to securely wipe the device and reselling/doing guaranteed Buy Back, as appropriate. If there is specific date or lifecycle band that balances and optimes overall monthly cost …
• The vendor will provide services in the following manner:
  • The vendor will have a one-time firm fixed price CLIN for initial service stand-up, including configuration of the MDM, integration with existing services (Microsoft 365, PIV authentication, etc.), and all other matters related to standup and issuance of the first Apple device.
  • The vendor will have a firm fixed price CLIN to support the base operations of these services for an ongoing basis, including standard reporting, continuous service optimization, road-mapping, and other program management-type services. This will likely include maintenance of the catalog for ordering/break/fix management.
• The vendor will address loss/damage through innovative mechanisms, and corresponding pricing. In an effort to provide low monthly costs, the vendor should distinguish whether or not the monthly cost includes loss/damage, and whether there is a “buy out” for an irreparable/lost device. The vendor could also utilize other services/capabilities (e.g., AppleCare for Enterprise) to provide an assumed loss/damage rate into the cost of the per month device cost. The vendor, through its MDM, will provide the capability to immediately disable the device, and ensure the safety of government data on the device.
• The vendor should also provide tracking mechanisms for possible recovery of the device. Any MDM running in the cloud has to be able to achieve FedRAMP certification • The vendor will seek advanced ways to provide a national support network for devices. This could include the utilization of AppleCare for Enterprise services, and the ability for government users to have issues addressed through onsite hardware service. This could also include strong servicing through parcel services.
• The federal government will rely exclusively on the vendor to provide end to end asset management of these devices. At any time, the vendor will be able to produce a report of all devices upon request from the federal government. In addition, the device inventory should be readily available through automated means to allow for device locking of services and whitelisting in support of Zero Trust …

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