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COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF JANUARY 6,1998 PSA#2005USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Information Tech.
Acquisition Team, 2625 Redwing Road, Ste. 110, Fort Collins, CO D -- USDA ACQUISITION TOOLKIT SOL NRCS-ITAT-98-02 DUE 011698 POC Debra
K. Sanders, Contracting Officer, 970-282-1989. This is a combined
synopsis/solicitation for commercial item acquisition(s) prepared in
accordance with the format in FAR subpart 12.6 and as supplemented with
additional information included in this notice. This acquisition is
being conducted under full and open competition for four (4) phases
described below under solicitation number NRCS-ITAT-98-02. This
announcement constitutes the only solicitation for Phases 1 through 3
of this acquisition. No formal solicitation will be issued in these
three phases and no formal proposal is required. Evaluations will be
conducted as described below in an informal, open, and simplified
acquisition environment. For Phases 1 through 3, the incorporated
provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition
Circular 97-03. For Phase 4, a follow-on Request for Proposal (RFP)
solicitation document with all pertinent commercial items acquisition
provisions, terms, and conditions will be issued. The United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA), Procurement Modernization Team (PMT)
is considering the development and implementation of a new
departmental procurement system. This synopsis/solicitation is issued
as a result of previous sources sought announcements referencing such
a system and issued under the umbrella of the USDA's Procurement System
Modernization Project (PSMP). The PSMP effort has merged into the
USDA's PMT to achieve a further evolution of the PSMP initiatives. It
is anticipated that on or around June 1, 1998, the USDA PMT will have
accomplished product evaluations to make a determination as to whether
to buy or build an entire system, or utilize some combination of the
two in order to implement a complete procurement system. In fulfilling
this objective, the USDA will be utilizing a streamlined, commercial
items, COTS/GOTS acquisition process which may include the posting of
pertinent information on the internet via the USDA Procurement
Homepage. In doing so the USDA seeks the cooperation of the vendor
community in an effort to conduct business fairly, in an atmosphere of
integrity, openness, and fairness. To achieve this end, the following
phases will be utilized in the selection and ultimate "buy/build"
decision process: Phase 1. Publish this notice in the CBD to finalize
the initial information gathering and market research phase and ensure
that all interested vendors have been given the chance to show an
interest in and submit information regarding their system for future
phase evaluation. The USDA has previously requested information on
potential sources through various market research sources. One such
avenue was through a RFI, published in the 11/11/97 CBD. In the
11/11/97 announcement the USDA was seeking potential sources of
partially or completely automated procurement systems. Additionally,
the USDA has gathered information on many systems available via the
internet, telephone solicitations, and other market research sources.
The USDA's functional areas of interest support the full life cycle of
a federal government procurement. Phase 2. All information the
government has regarding systems, including those from Offerors who
have submitted information previously based upon prior contacts, those
responding to the USDA via the 11/11/97 RFI, or those responding as a
result of this announcement will be evaluated. The Government may
conduct limited discussions with Offerors in this phase in order to
ensure adequate information on the evaluation criteria is available to
conduct the evaluation. The Government criteria for this phase will
be: (1) The Offeror's software must run on Oracle 7.0 or higher; (2)
the Offeror's software must run on Windows platform 3.x or higher; and,
(3) the Offeror's software must be year 2000 compliant or demonstrate
the ability to ensure compliance by December 1998. The initial
down-selection during this phase will be based on pass-fail for all
three criteria and will be done to ensure that only those Offerors with
a reasonable likelihood of being awarded any eventual contract
continues through the process should the USDA decide to buy an entire
system or portion (module) of a system. Phase 3. After initial
down-selection during Phase 2, the remaining Offerors' products will be
evaluated against the Government's critical and less critical
functional requirements and procurement process workflow modules (a
grouping of functional requirements into a larger process, e.g.,
requisitioning, solicitation of a requirement, award, etc.). This phase
will be conducted utilizing an open dialogue with the vendors through
discussions and clarifications. Information from the dialogue will be
documented and used in the evaluation of the products against the
evaluation criteria. The Government will post Phase 3 evaluation
requirements and criteria utilizing the USDA Procurement Homepage
within the Procurement Modernization Team Hot Link upon their
completion. An estimated date for posting is on or after February 1,
1998. Potential architectural requirements may include: (1) TCP/IP
Compliancy; (2) POP3 Compliancy; (3) web-enabled or Internet
accessibility; (4) Windows-based supporting Windows 3.x, NT, and 95 and
UNIX platforms; and, (5) Running on Oracle 7 without a Gateway product.
Additionally, Offerors' products will be evaluated for partial and
complete functionality of the government's functional requirements for
the following modules deemed important for first release of a system
to USDA field offices: (1) Requisition; (2) Analyze Request; (3)
Solicitation; (4) Award; (5) Payment Process; (6) Modify Acquisition;
and, (7) Receiving. Also, Offeror's products will be evaluated for
partial and complete functionality in the following modules deemed
necessary for future releases of a system: (1) Agency Acquisition Plan;
(2) Manage Acquisition; (3) Closeout; (4) Disputes; (5) Termination;
(6) FOIA; and (7) Leasing and Grants and Agreements. Those products
meeting a larger complement of the IT architecture requirements; those
possessing full functionality for one or more independent modules;
and, those products possessing a large partial functionality across
several modules as a complete acquisition process will be given a more
favorable evaluation. More emphasis will be placed upon those products
meeting functionality in the modules deemed important for a first
release of a system. After evaluation, an additional down-selection
will occur where a reasonable mix of those Offerors' products with the
best chance for the likelihood of being awarded any eventual contract
should the USDA decide to buy an entire system or portion (modules) of
a system based on the functional requirements will advance to Phase 4.
Phase 4. Those Offerors remaining under consideration will be given an
opportunity to submit a proposal via a commercial items solicitation
document. The solicitation shall include the requirement that the
Offeror provide the Government with an evaluation test copy of the
Offeror's product. The Offeror will be given the opportunity to either
load their product onto the Government's test machines and provide a
formal demonstration of the product;or, allow the Government to load
the product on the test machine at the Offeror's own risk with product
operating literature and/or telephone instructions and presentation.
The Government will then evaluate the product against an evaluation
plan during an estimated two month Government testing period, to
determine how the product's technical capability meets the Government's
requirements. The Government reserves the right to shorten or lengthen
the testing period at no cost to the Government. Additionally, price,
past performance, and licensing terms will be evaluated during this
phase. After the Government testing period is completed, the Offeror
will be notified and, the Offeror's product will be removed from the
test machine by either the Offeror, or if at the Offeror's request and
assumption of risk, by the Government and returned to the Offeror. The
Government will determine, by best value evaluation criteria, as
specified in the Phase 4 solicitation document, whether it would be in
the best interest ofthe Government to build the system, buy the system
via this acquisition, or a combination of both where the Government
will build a portion and buy a portion (modules) to best fulfill USDA's
total requirements for a phased development and implementation of the
USDA Acquisition Toolkit. Any vendor desiring to provide new or
additional information that was not previously provided in Phase 1
and/or 2 referenced above as a result of this notification should
submit responses by 4:00 p.m., MT, January 16, 1998. All written
responses should be addressed to Ms. Debra Sanders, Contracting
Officer, USDA, NRCS, ITAT, 2625 Redwing Road, Suite 110, Fort Collins,
CO 80526 or hand-delivered by that date and time to Ms. Sanders at
2627 Redwing Road, Suite 200, Fort Collins, Colorado. Any responses
received after 4:00 p.m., MT, January 16, 1998, will not be considered
for evaluation in any of the above phases. The Government does not
intend to pay for the requested information through any phase described
herewith. Additionally, no telephone solicitations or office
visitations for presentations will be accepted at this time unless
specifically requested by the Government under one of the phases
described in this announcement. (0365) Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0004 19980106\D-0001.SOL)
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