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Ames Consolidated Information Technology Services 

(A-CITS)

Statement of Work

C.1 Mission Functions

C.1.1 IT Systems & Facilities Support

System Administration: The Contractor shall provide products and services in order to 

maintain a stable, efficient, and productive computer system and computing environment. 

These activities include: system software maintenance and updates, ensuring compliance 

with Center IT security requirements, user account management, configuration 

management, system upgrade / improvement, computing operations, maintenance of 

systems documentation and procedures, and contingency planning. 

IT Security: The Contractor shall provide a safe and secure computing and communication 

environment through the protection of IT based systems, components, and information such 

as computers, networks, other computing and communication devices, software 

applications, operating systems, and data. 

Technical areas of focus for IT Security include: risk analysis and assessment; system 

monitoring and intrusion detection; penetration testing; incident response plans and 

capabilities; firewall design, development, monitoring, maintenance, and upgrades; 

development, integration and deployment of advanced encryption and security services; 

public key infrastructure and services; disaster planning and recovery; security education 

and training for security staff and the user community; and security coordination with other 

NASA Centers, NASA HQs, other U.S. Government departments and agencies, and other

relevant organizations.

Facility Support: The Contractor shall provide technical and administrative support to 

specific IT facilities and infrastructure that require environmental controls, regulation, and/or 

conditioning above and beyond what an average professional office complex would provide. 

Hardware / Software Maintenance: The Contractor shall provide for the repair and 

replacement of hardware components and software modules, applications, and systems 

necessary to ensure the operability of all covered computing and communication systems. 

Supporting functions include problem diagnosis, repair or replacement of failing or failed 

components, verifying that components, modules, and applications meet applicable 

standards, system performance testing and verification, data integrity and restoration, and 

an understanding of applicable security considerations regarding sensitive or classified data 

or systems. 

Application Management: The Contractor shall provide products and services to ensure 

that the suite of software applications in use by the ARC user community 

- are compatible within and across covered systems; 

- are purchased, maintained, and upgraded in a cost effective and legal manner; 

and

- allow for effective communication between ARC customers and suppliers.
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The Contractor shall provide products and services to ensure that that custom software is 

maintained and upgraded using documented processes that guarantee proper configuration 

control, traceability, and computing integrity. 

Data Storage Retrieval and Archival: The Contractor shall provide the IT systems and 

related services necessary to store and to have reliable and secure access to large amounts 

of electronic data. Technical areas of focus include: systems engineering, deployment, and 

operations; storage for near-term, long term, and archival requirements; shared access and 

security features; data integrity, disaster plans, and backup systems; user interface / access 

systems; identifying potential sources for required products and services; and assessing new 

relevant technologies and technical approaches. 

Records Management: The Contractor shall provide for the design, development, 

installation, maintenance, operations, upgrades, configuration management, archiving, 

customer support, training; and security of electronic records systems and related 

applications including tracking systems for technical reports and data. 

The Contractor shall provide technical support and coordination to ensure effective and 

efficient Records Management, including but not limited to entering records into the system; 

reviewing policies and procedures; supporting day to day operations; and archiving records.

Customer Support: The Contractor shall provide products and services to assist customers 

with basic use of equipment and applications and also providing prompt response and 

resolution to user problems. Services include establishing and maintaining a call support 

center / help desk, a response plan, a response team, and a continuous improvement plan 

based on customer feedback and benchmarking. 

Technical Planning, Analysis, & Training: The Contractor shall provide technical support 

in the conduct of: IT related technical planning associated with IT resources management; 

planning for new IT systems and IT facilities; definition of near and long range IT 

requirements; and evaluation of new standards, practices, and policies. The Contractor shall 

provide technical resources to support: engineering analysis and evaluation of new IT 

concepts, technologies, architectures, and systems; definition of functional requirements and 

synthesis of IT systems requirements; identification of relevant solutions, systems, and 

products; and development of cost / benefit estimates. 

The Contractor shall provide technical support and coordination to ensure effective and 

efficient IT training, including defining requirements; identifying potential sources for required 

products and services; designing, developing, and updating relevant training materials; 

scheduling, coordinating, and conducting relevant training classes; assessing new relevant 

technologies and technical approaches to improve training effectiveness.

C.1.2 Network / Communication Systems & Support

The Network / Communication Systems & Support area is focused on operating, 

maintaining, managing and improving the infrastructure necessary to enable and enhance 

communications between human and/or computer customers and clients.

Network Design & Development: The Contractor shall define network requirements; 

identify potential sources for required products and services; maintain proficiency with legacy 

systems; assess new relevant technologies and technical approaches; recommend relevant 

solutions; estimate costs and benefits; and design, develop, deploy, and test hardware 

and/or software systems.

Network Services: The Contractor shall provide for the installation, operation, 

management, monitoring, maintenance, repair, documentation, and upgrade of computer 

networks at the Center including local area networks, wide area networks, private networks, 

and remote access services. The Contractor shall provide coordination with other NASA 
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Centers, Common Carriers, and commercial providers in support of external network links 

and services.

Network / Communications Infrastructure: The Contractor shall provide support for the 

administration, configuration management, maintenance, documentation, and improvement 

of the network / communication infrastructure such as the underground and in-building cable 

plants utilized to provide communication services at ARC. These activities include: 

engineering planning and design; installation and termination; maintenance of inventory and 

documentation; and testing / trouble-shooting/repair. The Contractor shall provide 

coordination with other NASA Centers, Common Carriers, and commercial providers in 

support of external network links and services.

Distributed Systems: The Contractor shall provide for the installation, operation, 

management, monitoring, maintenance, repair, and upgrade of distributed systems, which 

generally consist of clusters of networked computers and other computer and/or 

communication equipment, located at various sites throughout the Center.

Audio, Video, and Voice Communication Systems: The Contractor shall provide for the 

administration, operation, maintenance, repair, and installation of audio, video, and voice 

systems. The Contractor shall provide coordination with other NASA Centers, Common 

Carriers, and commercial providers in support of external network links and services. 

Audio Systems include portable public address systems, auditorium audio systems, 

individual building intercom systems, and paging systems. 

Video Systems include surveillance systems; auditorium video systems; closed-circuit video; 

the Center’s cable access television system; digital video systems coordination and 

integration; Direct Satellite Service; VIDNET; video teleconferencing centers (VITS); desktop 

video conferencing; and the distribution of video signals via the Video Control Center across 

the campus as well as to and from the satellite ground stations. 

Voice Communication Systems include voice only teleconferencing (VOTS); PBX lines, nonswitched phone lines; facsimile machines; digital telephone switching (PBX) systems; 

voicemail services; telephone management systems; secure voice communication systems; 

operator services; message center services; and ARC telephone directory services.

Wireless / Emergency Communication Systems: The Contractor shall provide for the 

technical support, maintenance, and repair of wireless (e.g. RF and optical) communication 

devices such as radios, cell phones, pagers, and other communication devices. The 

Contractor shall provide coordination with other NASA Centers, Common Carriers, and 

commercial providers in support of external network links and services. 

The Contractor shall provide for the operation and technical support of emergency 

communication services and the management of ARC’s use of the RF frequency spectrum 

under the guidance of the ARC RF Spectrum Manager. 

 C.1.3 Business Systems & Support

This area consists of IT systems and support required for the day to day business processes 

and services necessary to operate the Center such as financial services, human resources, 

security, logistics, and business system infrastructure. 

Coordination and integration with current and future business systems at the Center and 

across the Agency is critical to the efficient and effective operations of NASA in general. 

Specific Business Systems may be managed and operated from a single NASA organization 

for the entire Agency, while other systems are managed and operated separately by each 

NASA Center.

Financial Services: The Contractor shall provide for the design, development, 

implementation, modification, maintenance, and operation of software tools and applications 
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that support accounting, finance, acquisition and procurement, contracting, and payroll 

functions.

Human Resources, Security, & Logistics: The Contractor shall provide for the design, 

development, implementation, modification, maintenance, and operation of software tools 

and applications that support employee training, employee benefits, other human resource 

services, security management, cardkey / electronic access, and logistics and property 

management.

Business Systems Infrastructure: The Contractor shall provide for the design, 

development, installation, modification, maintenance, operations, upgrades, configuration 

management, and security of business systems databases, application servers, and web 

servers.

C.1.4 Scientific Computing Systems & Support 

Scientific Computing consists of designing, developing, installing, modifying, configuring, 

operating, and maintaining software and computing systems in order to solve 

computationally intensive and/or complex engineering and scientific problems in support of 

ARC missions, programs, and projects. 

General requirements include developing and supporting relevant software tools, their 

computing platforms, and user interfaces; creating models and algorithms and modifying 

them to be compatible with specific tools; analyzing models and computational integrity; data 

acquisition and analysis; computational analysis; tool integration; and maintaining legacy 

software and systems. 

Although specific areas of Scientific Computing are described below, it is not practical or 

desirable to list all of the current or future ARC mission areas, programs, and projects that 

this SOW will support. During the life of this contract, task orders may be written to support 

similar work within the Center (by Programs or Organizations) that also fall within these 

information technology areas. 

Scientific Applications: Areas in which support shall be required include:

The design, development, implementation, modification, integration, maintenance, and 

operation of software algorithms, tools, and applications that address complex and / or 

computationally intensive scientific and engineering problems.

Data Acquisition & Analysis: Areas in which support shall be required include:

Acquiring and analyzing data and other useful information in support of ARC missions, 

programs, and projects. This area includes data acquisition, data exchange and/or 

translation, data reduction, data distribution, and data archival; developing and using data 

analysis and visualization tools and techniques; and other types of computational analysis.

Modeling & Tool Development: Areas in which support shall be required include:

Creating accurate representations in time and/or dimensional space of scientific phenomena, 

aerospace systems, and other physical systems and developing software tools to assist 

human operators in the performance of complex tasks. This area includes algorithm 

development; surface and multi-dimensional modeling; the integration of computational 

software and/or systems with physical systems; real time simulations; user interface design, 

development, implementation, and integration; and tool design, development, 

implementation, and integration.

C.1.5 Outreach / Informational Systems & Support 

This information technology area is dominated by rich content that needs to be distributed 

efficiently and effectively to customers, whether they are internal to ARC, to NASA, or for the 

general public.
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Web Applications: The Contractor shall provide for the design, development, installation, 

maintenance, operations, upgrades, configuration management, archiving, customer 

support, and security for ARC websites and web applications. 

Information-Based Systems: The Contractor shall provide for the design, development, 

installation, maintenance, operations, upgrades, configuration management, archiving, 

customer support, and security for content-rich, IT based data systems. Examples include 

scientific databases and collections, geographical information systems, and digital image 

archive and retrieval systems.

Library Systems: The Contractor shall provide for the design, development, installation, 

maintenance, operations, upgrades, configuration management, archiving, customer 

support, and security of library computer systems and related applications including tracking 

systems for technical reports and data.

Conference / Presentation / Advocacy Support: The Contractor shall provide products 

and services associated with supporting internal and external conferences, presentations, or 

other public events that support, describe, and / or advocate ARC Missions, Programs, and 

Projects such as scientific proceedings or formal programmatic meetings. In support of this 

activity, the Contractor shall develop and/or acquire presentation materials as well as 

coordinate, logistically prepare for, and conduct such events.

Technical Documentation: The Contractor shall provide administrative functions to ensure 

that reports and documentation are prepared in accordance with the requirements defined in 

each task order.

C.2 Management and Administration

The Contractor shall utilize best practices throughout its management and administrative 

activities in order to provide the best value while meeting the defined requirements. The goal 

is to provide expertise such that best practices will be developed and implemented in a 

useful timeframe. Specifically, the Contractor shall be cognizant of and employ best 

practices when practical in all relevant management areas including personnel management, 

contract management, project management, software management, facility management, 

safety, and security.

C.2.1 Management Structure

A management structure is required that can effectively manage a professional and technical 

work force engaged in a wide range of IT related services and development activities. The 

Contractor shall have organizational structure, procedures, and administrative support 

functions to effectively and efficiently manage the work performed under this contract. The 

management and administrative structure shall provide a single point of contact for interface 

to the Contracting Officer's Technical Representative (COTR) and shall provide procedures 

and management supervision to ensure compliance with applicable Government regulations 

for all material and work performed under this SOW. 

C.2.2 Task Management

Each task shall have a Task Manager (TM) who shall be the single point of contact with the 

Task Requester (TR). The Contractor shall ensure that all task plans clearly identify all 

products and services that the Contractor is responsible for delivering or providing. When 

appropriate, subtasks may be subdivided into work assignments. Subtasks will be labeled 

as follows: 

 task_order_number.work_assignment_number.version_number 

C.2.3 Software Management

Software management includes the design, development, implementation, modification, 

maintenance, and operations of software algorithms, applications, and tools. Customers 
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include individual users, local work groups, ARC-wide functions, and extended work groups 

that have members at other NASA Centers, in other parts of the U.S. Government, in 

Academia, and in Industry. Software management issues include standards, reuse, training, 

upgrades, compatibility, licensing, intellectual property rights, and security.

The Contractor shall be cognizant of and employ best software practices. Before developing 

software, the Contractor shall first determine if there is a more cost effective solution such as 

acquiring reusable software from ARC sources, other NASA or U.S. Government sources, or 

purchasing off-the-shelf commercial software. 

The Contractor shall maintain software libraries. The Contractor shall make use of these 

libraries by utilizing reusable software before any software development occurs and by 

contributing new software to the libraries. 

C.2.4 Other Direct Charges

It is anticipated that substantial quantities of hardware, software and/or subcontracted 

activities shall be purchased by the Contractor and billed under this award as ODCs. Other 

ODCs may include training, travel, and other miscellaneous expenses. ODCs will be labeled 

as follows:

 task_order_number.ODC_unique_number 

C.3 Quality Assurance

In support of CTOs issued, the Contractor shall comply with, and be an integral

part of the Ames Management System. This includes following applicable Ames’

procedures that are subject to audit. The Contractor shall attend relevant training,

provided by the Government, as required for all on-site employees. Specific

procedures will be indicated on each task order response. These procedures

include, but are not limited to, the following AMS documents:

NPD 1280.1 NASA Management Systems

APR 1280.1 Ames Management System (AMS)

NPD 8730.5 NASA Quality Assurance Program Policy

The Ames’ Quality System documents can be found at: http://ams.arc.nasa.gov

C.4 Deliverables

Products and services requirements shall be defined in each task order.

C.5 Phase-In/Phase-Out

Phase-In: The phase-in process shall be accomplished as expeditiously as

possible, with a maximum phase-in period of 30 days. The phase-in process shall

not adversely impact the work being done by the outgoing contractor. It shall be

conducted in a manner consistent with safe operation requirements. The

incoming contractor is responsible for providing a qualified contractor staff by the

end of the phase-in period.

Phase-Out: Upon completion of this contract, the outgoing contractor is

responsible for the orderly transfer of duties and records to the incoming

contractor. This should be accomplished in an expeditious manner, consistent

with any contract phase-in schedule, while minimally impacting ongoing task

orders. The contractor shall submit a phase-out plan no later than 60 days before

the end of the contract for Government review and approval.