Recovery.gov needs vendor help

The board that oversees the federal Recovery.gov Web site is seeking ideas for improving its design and functionality. Only vendors on the General Services Administration’s Alliant contract are eligible to respond to the presolicitation notice posted June 11 on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site.

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board said it plans to issue a request for proposals for a firm-fixed-price contract for designing, implementing and hosting Recovery.gov. The board expects to issue the RFP in the near future, with proposals due by June 26.

The Recovery.gov site began operation in February to track spending under the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Initially, the Office of Management and Budget ran the site, but it now operates under the board’s authority. The Obama administration and Congress have said they want the highest levels of transparency and accountability in implementing the law.

The oversight board said it is seeking “an innovative, award-winning, Web design and implementation firm with expertise in user-focused, data-driven Web designs to perform complete redesign, implementation and operation of the Recovery.gov Version 2.0 Web site.”

Services include visual design, user interface design, information architecture, design engineering, project management, interactive data visualization and Web application-level functionality.

At some point, the reporting requirements and frequency of updates for the site might be changed or expanded and would therefore require further design and integration, the notice states.

Officials are asking vendors to develop an information technology architecture that not only provides accurate information but also makes the information available to a wide range of people, processes and applications.

The site must also:

• Evaluate data quality to optimize large, highly complex, rapidly changing datasets.
• Automatically replicate data.
  
• Standardize, normalize and cleanse data.
• Respond quickly to requests for data.
• Link to high-value business processes, such as fraud detection.