The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking information from sources that may be capable of providing Workforce Data System (WDS) Development. If no alternate sources are identified, the Government intends to issue a Sole Source Award to Boston Consulting Group 200 Pier 4 Blvd, Boston, Ma 02210 under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541512.
The Department of Commerce (DOC) CHIPS Program Office (CPO) has committed roughly $300 million to recipient-companies to ensure they will have the workers they need to meet their production obligations. While workforce funding mitigates the risk that investments will fail for a lack of workers, it introduces a different risk element to the CHIPS program – waste, fraud and mismanagement. To succeed, workforce funds will need to reach into regional training ecosystems. This means many more organizations using federal funds under a wide variety of circumstances. Without the Workforce Data System (WDS) to establish the intended purpose of each disbursement of workforce funds (via the Workforce Solution Funding Order), and then to provide a practical means to collect performance data to verify intended purposes are carried out, it is not possible to responsibly ensure CHIPS workforce funding is meeting recipient-company needs (i.e. money is not being wasted or mismanaged or, worse, is not being used fraudulently).
The WDS is a secure, Salesforce-based cloud application that is necessary for CPO to administer the Annex G workforce awards as advances and minimize fraud risk. This system is needed because CPO Workforce Funding disbursements differ from milestone disbursements: they are paid in advances via Workforce Solution Funding Orders, which establish the intended purpose of each disbursement of CHIPS workforce funds and details the performance data that will be collected to verify the intended purposes are being carried out.
Approximately 88% of the WDS has been completed. With the support of the Secretary’s Office, CPO has obtained the mostly built WDS. BCG developed the majority of WDS. This sole source procurement is to have BCG complete the remaining 12% of the WDS, within 60 days of award. The application’s architecture, source code, and proprietary components are owned and maintained by BCG. Therefore, no other source can complete the development of the WDS other than BCG within the 60-days required for WDS to be completed and delivered.
