Census Bureau seeks to improve the technology it uses to design questionnaires
The US Census Bureau wants to improve the system it uses to develop questionnaires and is looking to industry for assistance with technical services, software licenses, and software maintenance to enhance the agency’s system.
Specifically, Census officials want to re-engineer and expand the interactive automation for producing paper forms.
Responses to the request are due Monday, August 9, 2021 by 4 pm EDT
The support services contract will provide the re-engineered enterprise automated forms engine, and paper forms solution interface for use with the repository system. The developed solutions will ensure response field consistency throughout the questionnaire process from questionnaire content creation through processing and tabulation, according to the announcement.
The Census Bureau designed the initial IBEAM (Information Base for Exchange Administration and Management) system to support paper questionnaire development via an interface with a custom enhanced version of the Amgraf, Inc standard software (OFDP, One Form Designer Plus).
Census used a legacy IBEAM/OFDP interface to support the development of many questionnaires for the 2010 Decennial Census program. The IBEAM/OFDP interface enabled resources from multiple organizations to participate in the content development, questionnaire design and questionnaire data capture of the decennial census questionnaires.
The Census Bureau reengineered the IBEAM/OFDP interface for forms designed for use with the implementation of the developed Content Management (COMET) enterprise system. The tight coupling and highly sophisticated intricacies of IBEAM and Amgraf requires ongoing technical support from Amgraf, Inc to ensure stability.
The contractor will work with a team of Census Bureau computer scientists and technical experts in an integrated team environment to accomplish several tasks.
The contractor will collaborate with the Census Bureau’s automated forms engine team to comprehend the need, validate design decisions, reengineer software code, and develop enhanced interface software according to detailed functionality.
To learn more about the project and to submit a proposal, view the Sam.gov posting HERE.
