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 7-Aug-86 12:07:47-PDT,4916;000000000001
Mail-From: FEINLER created at  7-Aug-86 12:07:43
Date: Thu 7 Aug 86 12:07:43-PDT
From: Jake Feinler <FEINLER@SRI-NIC.ARPA>
Subject: First pass at Risk memo
To: lesnick@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA, jwlee@SRI-STRIPE.ARPA
cc: haley@SRI-NIC.ARPA, knight@SRI-NIC.ARPA, ole@SRI-NIC.ARPA,
    feinler@SRI-NIC.ARPA
Message-ID: <12228964390.23.FEINLER@SRI-NIC.ARPA>





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                          M E M O R A N D U M

To:       Dave Johnson                                   August 15, 1986
Through:  Don Nielson
From:     Jake Feinler
          Howard Lesnick
CC:       Jim Lee
          Barbara Haley
          Bob Knight
          Ole Jacobsen

Subject:  Proposal ECU 86-xxx

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  I. OVERVIEW OF THE WORK

The proposed work is a 12-month fixed-price competitive effort for the
Air Force Logistics Centers (AFLCs) in response to RFP F09603-86-R-1014
listed in the CBD on June 18, 1986 and issued by Warner Robins AFB.  The
work entails sending a team of people to inventory and assess the
systems that the AFLCs desire to bring onto the Defense Data Network
(DDN) MILNET, and then proposing technical strategies and cost estimates
for their interconnection.  We estimate the effort to be approximately $
500K.

 II. POTENTIAL RISKS

A fixed price contract always entails more risk than a CPFF contract,
and the RFP requires a fixed-price contract.  In addition, the schedule
for delivery of work is tight on this contract, so the work will require
careful tracking to make sure it is on target.  We do not believe this
presents an insurmountable problem, and have factored in backup support
in our approach.

III. DISCUSSION

The Network Information and Systems Center (NISC, Org 685) has been
conducting an ongoing survey of vendor products which incorporate the
DoD suite of communication protocols, so we think we are congnizant of
most of the possible products and implementations that might be used for
interconnection of the AFLC systems.  In addition SRI people have
contributed heavily to the design and implementation of the DoD suite of
protocols so that we are very familiar with the technical aspects of the
task.

We intend to use outside subcontractors and consultants to supplement
our own staff for several reasons:

1.  Having several expert opinions, other than our own, should result in
an unbiased, evenly balanced technical solution.  They will "keep us



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honest" and give wider credibility to our recommendations.  We have
gotten preliminary committments from an excellent set of such
contractors.

2.  Many types of computer and operating system are involved.  By using
consultants, we can provide expert opinions on a variety of these.

3.  The consultants can serve as a cushion should we need to pull in
additional manpower which is not readily available at SRI.

4.  The project is short (1 year) so it is not feasible to hire the
expertise needed on a permanent basis.

IV. POTENTIAL FOR FOLLOW-ON

This particular contract may or may  not lead to a direct follow-on
contract involving engineering consulting.  However, we think it will
lead to additional work for Org 685 for the reasons stated below, and is
a very important "pivotal" contract on which to bid.

The NISC now has one major contract with the Defense Communications
Agency (DCA) Defense Data Network Program Management Office (DDN PMO),
consequently we are vulnerable should that contract change drastically
or go away.  The trend within to PMO is to offload more and more of the
administrative and technical decisions with respect to equipment being
added to the DDN out to the military communications commands.  The
communications commands in return are instructing the other military
commands to start making their needs known for subscribing to the DDN
and for user services.

The NISC is familiar with this whole gameplan and the technology
involved.  By getting one or more contracts on the subscriber side of
the DDN, we will be getting our foot in the door for expanding the kind
of work we do to other clients.  At the same time we will be enhancing
our position with our current client by assisting them with technology
transfer and subscriber support.

Bringing the AFLCs onto the DDN is the first phase of a program known as
the Air Force AESOP program.  This program entails designing a system
for tracking software modules and sharing them as a resource on the DDN.
This work is very well tailored to the NISC program area.  Participating
in the contract described herein would put us in an excellent position
to compete for a part of the AESOP program.













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