REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY FOR PLANNING PURPOSES. ALL POTENTIAL OFFERORS SHALL REFER TO THE ATTACHMENT FOR THE DRAFT REQUIREMENTS DOCUMENT. This is a request for information only as defined in FAR 15.201. The Government does not intend to award a contract from this announcement or to otherwise pay for information solicited, but is seeking information on available source, i.e., various GSA schedule providers, including the use of GSA Schedule 70 as the acquisition approach, government service providers and all other industry sources capable of providing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Integrated Mission System (IMS)/ Document Management System (DMS) supplies/services under this RFI. SCOPE. The Commission intends to procure seven Hewlett-Packard (HP) servers and one enterprise disk storage array, as a brand name decision off General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule 70. Understanding that procuring specific brand name items (i.e. HP) requires due diligence by the Government, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is issuing this RFI to assess the availability of the product in the supply market. BACKGROUND. The EEOC's enforces the federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. We perform this function through a geographically dispersed organizational structure: a headquarters (HQ), located in Washington, DC, and 53 field offices located throughout the domestic United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. Of the EEOC's approximate 2,400 employees, approximately 450 are employed in HQ with the remaining employees located in the field offices. Information technology (IT) is centralized within the EEOC, under the HQ Office of Information Technology (OIT). OIT maintains a single data center at the HQ location, which centrally hosts the Commission's core information systems. As a small agency with limited resources, EEOC has standardized our infrastructure on HP-brand equipment. During FY 2011, we acquired approximately 74 new HP servers to refresh our file/print/e-mail servers at Headquarters and all field locations, and 6 new HP application servers; bringing our total inventory to approximately 168 HP servers. EEOC will now be refreshing 15 of our older application servers with 7 newer models and acquiring one enterprise storage disk array to compliment an existing HP Storage Area Network. The brand name decision is being considered so that the equipment is compatible in all aspects (form, fit and function) with the existing infrastructure and backup solutions and so that parts and components are interchangeable and certified for use with the existing components. See attachment for Hardware/Software Requirements and Management Requirements. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Industry is requested to provide their estimated cost involved in providing the required IMS/DMS supplies/services to EEOC. Questions should be submitted in writing to the Contracting Officer on or before the close of business (COB) Thursday, January 12, 2012. Responses to the RFI are due by Friday, January 27, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. local time.

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