USDA, 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)

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