The US Department of Labor, Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO), Business Applications Services (BAS) has a requirement for the ERISA Filing Acceptance System II (EFAST2) Operations and Maintenance project.

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) mission is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and provisions of the Internal Revenue Code generally require the administrator of an employee benefit plan to submit an annual report (the Form 5500 series) describing the plan’s financial status and operations. The Form 5500 series is sponsored by multiple federal agencies that work together to enforce ERISA provisions and other statutes designed to protect the retirement benefits of the nation’s workers. Form 5500 filings are the principal source of information for the DOL Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) concerning the operations, funding, and investments of more than 800,000 pension and welfare benefit plans. This information is essential to the three agencies’ enforcement of ERISA and policy formulation programs and is important for other federal agencies such as the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Congress, and the private sector in assessing employee benefit, tax, and economic trends and policies. These plans cover over 140 million private sector workers, retirees, and dependents and hold over $11 trillion in assets. In the late 1990s, DOL/EBSA, the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) and the Pension Benefits Guarantee Corporation (PBGC) were charged with automating the Form 5500 process which resulted in the development of the EFAST program and the first iteration of the EFAST system. The EFAST system was designed primarily to process Form 5500 filings submitted on paper through optical scanning recognition technology. While the EFAST system met the Government’s needs, technology quickly improved. In the early 2000s, the partnering agencies contracted with a private-sector vendor to perform a major overhaul to the EFAST system to incorporate technological advances and to create additional efficiencies in the submission process. The redesigned EFAST system, known as EFAST2, accepts electronic submission of Form 5500 filings through web services and provides a web-based solution with near-instantaneous transparency of Form 5500 filings to both the public and private sector. EFAST2 began pre-processing activities on July 1, 2009. Today, EFAST2 accepts electronic submission of the Form 5500 series as well as Form 5558 and Pooled Plan Provider filings. The private-sector vendor provides ongoing operations and maintenance of the system as well as user support. The current system is designed with a cloud-native approach and resides in a FedRAMP-authorized environment, operating on AWS infrastructure. Many EFAST2 components are licensed and utilized along a consumption model.

Objectives:

• Maintain a comprehensive and secure system for filing Form 5500 series filings and associated forms
• Create and maintain draft and final versions of annual Government forms, schedules, and instructions based on Government specifications
• Provide public filers with the ability to fill out, validate, edit, sign, submit, and amend completed forms
• This ability shall be through free web-based software provided by the contractor (IFILE) and through support of third-party software
• Create and maintain specifications for third-party software products and provide outreach to third- party software providers Support, test, and certify third-party products to ensure compatibility and integration
• Create and maintain the Data Element Requirements (DER) document, PDF and XML versions
• Control production to ensure all filing submissions successfully complete processing
• Provide automated web responses and email acknowledgement messages to filers following receipt of every filing submission
• Process and store data for at least 11 million filings annually in multiple formats based on different forms and form years Deliver and present filtered data and information to filers, Government agencies, and stakeholders
• Provide Contact Center, helpdesk, and tiered support that explain how to file, troubleshoot common filing errors, answer frequently asked questions, and transfer escalated questions/concerns to Government agencies
• Ensure the system is compliant with the DOL Cybersecurity Policy Portfolio (CPP) and NIST 800-53
• Implement system improvements based on policy, management, and e-Government directives and initiatives
• Minimize costs of peak processing times by automating scaling in cloud-based technologies
• Provide the Government with real-time access to monitor operations including quality control, system performance, cost, and contact center data
• Conduct and coordinate testing to minimize impact to mission applications

Scope:

• This work involves (1) collection, processing, and dissemination of Government data, (2) support of stakeholders (filers, third-party software, and Government), and (3) management services.
• The scope of this work is for the Contractor to deliver the EFAST2 system while meeting the preceding objectives.
• The scope of the work includes the following:
• Annual Rollover Baseline Changes to operate the system for each processing year and to “rollover” in preparation for succeeding processing year
• Advanced Search Features on filings
• System Maintenance activities such as system patching, system updates, etc.
• Contact Center Operations to respond to calls, emails and web inquiries. Includes Chatbot support and user satisfaction analysis
• Program ISO and Support to maintain designated level of system security compliance
• Program Management to maintain a stable management presence for all contractor work activities
• Quality Assurance to establish and maintain a software quality program through all phases of the system development life cycle
• Quality Control to provide an independent quality control unit to measure and report on all performance standards defined in the contract
• Software and License Agreements necessary to support the EFAST2 solution
• Travel, as needed, to support training and Third-Party Developer Conference activities
• Internet Filing Acceptance Service (IFAS) to operate and maintain a high-performance, high-availability, and fully automated service for use by Third Party software
• Performance Monitoring of all system components
• Web Content Management to support a workflow for approved content changes
• Change Management using DevSecOps methodologies
• Third Party Developer Conference to plan and communicate EFAST2 changes
• Non-recurring Rollover Changes to support legislative changes