SOURCES SOUGHT
D -- SOURCES SOUGHT/REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - POINT OF SALE SERVICES
- Notice Date
- 11/5/2004
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 519190
— All Other Information Services
- Contracting Office
- Defense Information Systems Agency, Procurement and Logistics, DITCO-Scott, P.O. Box 25857, Scott AFB, IL, 62225-5406
- ZIP Code
- 62225-5406
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-DECAPOS02
- Response Due
- 11/24/2004
- Archive Date
- 12/9/2004
- Description
- The Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA) is seeking information for Point of Sale (POS) vendors with the expertise necessary to possibly replace the current POS systems at all 273 military supermarkets (commissaries) worldwide. DeCA will look for the ?best value? POS system that supports standard industry grocery operations, adheres to industry and technical standards, is commercially proven, and reflects the current best practices for POS products. The effort contemplated will cover the acquisition of all POS software and hardware, worldwide software and hardware maintenance, interfaces, site preparation, installation, testing, training, continuous-operation/power-conditioning equipment, documentation, technical support, consulting support services, operating supplies, checkstands, warranties, and technology enhancements that include upgrades of all hardware and software at appropriate intervals with the best practices in technology as well as user training in order to maintain parity with the commercial grocery industry. Additional information can be obtained from the "business page" link at http://www.commissaries.com/ to include current store locations, operating hours, and other relevant data. Firms interested in participating in such an effort should provide a 2-15 page white paper that responds to the following queries to assist DeCA in formulating a follow-on Request For Proposal (RFP). 1. Company Profile. Tell us about yourself and the type of POS experience and government procurement experience you possess. Do your customers typically obtain equipment and hardware by purchasing, leasing, leasing with option to purchase, or by other means? What is your experience in providing international solutions? 2. POS Capabilities. What are the typical front end and back office capabilities and related hardware/software that enables those capabilities. Do those capabilities apply to any size store or is there a law of diminishing returns that you would recommend? Is your point of sale application capable of interfacing with a single sign-on solution without modification Does your point of sale application currently use PKI-based authentication of system users? How? What is your standard practice for printing SKU/UPC on receipts? Does your system integrate Electronic Benefit Transfer, food stamps, and WIC at the point of sale? 3. Key Performance Parameters. How do you measure POS effectiveness and suitability ? how do they relate to customer/operator efficiency? 4. Technology trends. What new capabilities within the past five years have provided the biggest ROI, are industry standards, and describe what you see as the industry trend over the next five years for technology incorporation into POS? Do those capabilities apply to any size store or is there a law of diminishing returns that you would recommend? 5. Performance Based Incentives/Service Level Agreements. What has been your experience in performance-based delivery methods and techniques? Describe you experience with performance-based and/or incentives-based contracts. What are the typical service level agreements for maintaining POS hardware and software capabilities and introducing new capabilities? In the performance based area, how is the success of the entire system measured at the same time as a store operation? Example: The system could be 99% operational because large stores are online but the stores in Turkey could be offline. Does your system provide measurements for the system as a whole and each individual store? 6. Interoperability and Customization. Describe your systems architecture in terms of Data, Services (web-based or other), Security, and Data Transport to obtain DoD net-centric and open systems compliance. Have you had to customize your POS system to establish interoperability with corporate business enterprise systems? If so, please explain your POS functions that needed customization. What do you use as operating standards, ARTS, Net Centric, or other ISO standards? Will your POS product support emerging industry standards for use of XML such as those being developed by ARTS or UCCnet? The Department of Defense is advocating the use of extensible markup language (XML) for data exchanges within DoD, so DeCA is interested in the capability of COTS POS applications to support the use of XML. Does your POS product currently support XML data exchanges? If not, do you plan to incorporate the use of XML within the next year? Do you plan to support evolving XML-related functionality such as web services for data transport/exchange? How do you validate your system prior to deployment or modification? DISCLAIMER THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT INTEND TO AWARD A CONTRACT ON THE BASIS OF THIS REQUEST OR TO OTHERWISE PAY FOR INFORMATION RECEIVED IN RESPONSE TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT/RFI. This RFI is issued for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked Proprietary will be handled accordingly. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Whatever information is provided in response to this RFI will be used to assess tradeoffs and alternatives available for determining how to proceed in the acquisition process. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. 5. HOW TO RESPOND TO THIS RFI Prior to submitting RFI responses, Offerors shall register with DITCO via its Contracting Opportunities web site at https://www.ditco.disa.mil/dcop. During the registration process, choose the option for "The solicitation requires vendor registration for eligibility". You will be prompted to enter the RFI reference number. Upon completion of registration, Offerors will receive a user-id and password for use when uploading RFI responses. This process allows DITCO to precisely track when responses are uploaded (or attempted to be uploaded). DITCO personnel will verify registration information, which takes about a day. Once the Offeror's information is verified, you will be able to upload your RFI responses. Vendors should register a minimum of one week prior to uploading an RFI response to ensure the upload is accomplished by the closing date and time. Vendors should also attempt to upload their response as early as possible to ensure no problems arise at the last minute. If a vendor would like to test the upload process, they may do so by typing in this url: https://www.scott.disa.mil/dcop. Under the heading Submit Proposals for:, look for Upload Proposal Test. If you have any problems, please contact Kevin Mehlan at (618)229-9334, email address: mehlank@scott.disa.mil, or the DITCO customer service center at (618) 229-9333.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Various locations CONUS and OCONUS
- Record
- SN00704463-W 20041107/041105211539 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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