Outreach and Communications Digital Engagement System (OCDES)

CMS is currently utilizing the Software-as-a-Service (Saas) brand name product called govDelivery as our Outreach and Communications Digital Engagement System (OCDES) through a task order awarded under GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) with Carahsoft (a reseller for govDelivery). CMS is seeking to revise the current overall period of performance of the task order in order to negotiate and incorporate two (2) additional twelve (12) month extension periods.

The current OCDES is highly customized with a variety of features and settings on each of the supported websites and has a series of complicated workflows, system-to-system integrations, data transfers functions, and customized message templates that have been designed based on the website it supports. This includes major dependencies and integration points between multiple CMS systems. As part of key objectives for several Agency initiatives and the current open enrollment period, these integrations are currently being updated to improve workflows, data transfer capabilities, and will help to improve customer experience.

CMS also anticipates that the process to restructure or rebuild the current highly customized workflows and features would involve multiple contractors, require multiple system and website changes, and could take an extended amount of time to re-design, build, test and implement and could introduce potential risks to CMS meeting its outreach and communication goals and impact other Agency initiatives.

Rebuilding the reporting dashboards and transferring the data that is stored in these systems to a new system will require CMS Leadership review and approval, since the current system is being used by CMS to enhance our reporting capabilities that track our engagements with beneficiaries and their caregivers as well as our partners and stakeholders. These custom reports and dashboards are currently provided to CMS Leadership to demonstrate the success of the messages sent and the actions that beneficiaries take because of those messages.