INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, Midstates Procurement Branch (M:P:R:MS), 4050 Alpha Road, 1800 MSRO, 9th Floor, Dallas, TX 75244-4203

U -- EDUCATION AND TRAINING SERVICES SOL TIRMS98R00010 DUE 030398 POC Contract Specialist, Mary Jo Holloway, 972-308-1962 This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for an IDIQ contract for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6 and Subpart 13.5, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; offers are being requested and A WRITTEN SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE ISSUED. Solicitation number TIRMS-98-R-00010 is a Request For Proposal (RFP) incorporating FAR provisions and clauses in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC)97-03. The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) is 7379; the applicable size standard is $10.0. Evaluation factors for award will include price and price-related factors and technical factors. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) depends on a variety of computer systems, operating systems, and programming languages and tools for its many functions, ranging in size from mainframes to personal computers (PC) and in market maturity from 1970s' technology to that of the current day. All newly purchased PC's will have the Windows NT operating system. Some use stand-alone PC's, but most are connected to Local Area Networks (LAN), and most are connected to a Wide Area Network. Some employees are on Novell LANs and some are on Windows NT LANs. Most but not all of these employees have Intranet access. The purpose of this Statement of Work is to solicit proposals for the leasing of access to libraries of technical computer-based training (CBT) courses for the Information Systems (IS) employees of the IRS. The products sought in this initiative are directed towards those PC users with 486 or faster microprocessors and Windows 95 or NT operating systems. The course topics sought cover several broad ranges of technical topics in diverse computer environments. Additionally, the products sought in this initiative will be diverse in their accessibility, including versions for stand-alone PC's, LAN-connected PC's, and PC's with connections to the IRS intranet where a copy of each course will be stored for either downloading or on-line execution. The annual renewable lease of courses sought in this solicitation is intended to be flexible so that the type and number of courses will better enable the IRS to meet its continually changing educational needs. The contract shall be for one year and four one-year option periods. COURSE TOPICS will be faxed upon request or can be found on IRS Homepage at www.treas.gov. All proposals should state the cost per training unit in accordance with contractors commercial pricing, (unless the proposal offers a license for the unlimited library use for Information Systems employees within the Service, approximately 10,000 employees). Contractor shall state student capability range. Each course shall be accompanied by a list of objectives for the student to be able to accomplish upon course completion. Each course shall be operable from PC's ranging from 486/33 to a 200 megahertz Pentium Pro. Each course shall be provided for access by students in each of the methods listed below. Vendors may have a single product that accommodates more than one of the diverse needs expressed below, but each course shall be available in each of these functional conditions. LAN versions shall be transmitted to client workstations from Novell or Windows NT servers, encapsulated LAN versions shall be accessible at the IRS Intranet site; and interactive versions shall be for execution on Intranet Web Server. The vendor shall provide 200 copies of each LAN-based course individually loaded onto 200 CD-ROM's. The vendor shall provide one copy of each encapsulated LAN version course individually loaded onto CD-ROM (one course per disk). The vendor shall provide one copy of each interactive version course individually loaded onto CD-ROM (one course per disk). All course versions intended for down-loading from the IRS Intranet site will be modular to the extent that segments of the course no larger than three megabytes may be specified for downloading and executable in this modular capacity. Each course will have a pre-test or self-assessment. Each course will provide a test or quiz for each module, a cumulative test covering the topics of the entire course, review of information related to erroneously answered questions, and test-item analysis on the population of completed cumulative tests. The results of all tests will be provided to the student, including questions answered wrong or not answered. Test results will not be associated with any student name. Each course will provide the student with the ability to mark his/her progress in the course when opting to exit the course prior to completion. Each course will provide for the collection of administrative information on the student, including their identification and profile. When the course has been successfully completed, the student identification data will be provided in ASCII for use in another IRS application. Special consideration will be given to proposal providing for the tracking of student registration, testing, and course completion and also for generated reports on student progress; course accesses; test questions asked; answered; answered correctly; and time needed to complete courses by the students. Annually, the IRS may select up to fifty-percent different courses from among courses the contractor has available for lease/purchase. The IRS shall select the courses to be returned to the contractor and select the courses to receive in exchange for those returned. The contractor without additional charge shall provide all plug-in software required for full course operation. Courses shall be constructed to allow the students to take the segments or modules in the order of their choosing. A minimum of twenty percent of courses must use multimedia (both audio and video) for instruction. Courses shall be constructed to provide a help screen accessible from any screen in the course to assist the student with what actions are needed to satisfy the current course prompt(s). Special consideration will be given to proposals accommodating visual impairments, partial visual impairments, and full hearing impairments. These accommodations shall include, but not be limited to: ASCII text for any course content displayed through visual means by those with total sight disabilities; Text magnification or enlargement for those with partial sight disabilities; Text in lieu of audio-presented course material for those with hearing disabilities. Special consideration will be given on Quality Features of the technical evaluation for products/vendors using "Microsoft Active Accessibility" functionality. All courses shall be constructed to operate on both 16 and 32 bit operating systems. The provision at FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items, is incorporated in this solicitation. Addenda to FAR 52.212-1: Offerors are reminded to submit signed and dated proposals. Contract line items shall be shown 0001 base year, 1001, 2001, 3001, 4001. The preferred form for submitting proposals is the Standard Form 1449. If this form is not used, offerors are required to include a statement with their proposals specifying the extent of agreement with all terms, conditions, and provisions included in this solicitation. Offerors shall clearly state delivery terms. The provision at FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation Commercial Items is incorporated. Contractors may be requested to submit several types of products for benchmark evaluation or a demonstration. Technical evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price. Criteria for value judgements will include the following of equal importance: (1) Past performance, (2) Ease of use (including installation and de-installation), (3) Ease of understanding the material presented, (4) Thoroughness of topic coverage, (5) Level of interaction with the student, (6) Total number of courses in the proposed library, (7) Percentage of the asterisked courses available in the proposed library, (8) Delivery times, (9) Quality features of the products. The provision at FAR 52.212-3, Offerors Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items, is incorporated in this solicitation, and OFFERORS SHALL INCLUDE A COMPLETED COPY OF THIS PROVISION WITH THEIR PROPOSAL. FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items, is incorporated in this solicitation. FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes of Executive Orders-Commercial Items, is incorporated in this solicitation (including 52.203-6 [Alternate I]; 52.203-10; 52.219-8; 52.219-9; 52.222-26; 52.222-35; 52.222-36; 52.222-37; 52.2225-19; 52.239-1. The additional FAR clauses applicable to this acquisition are 52.216-18, Ordering, 52.216-22, Indefinite Quantity, 52.216-27, Single or Multiple Awards, 52.217-4, Evaluation of Options, 52.217-9, Option to Extend Term of Contract, 52.216-19, Minimum Order (none) -- Maximum Order $250,000. Original copies of the Proposal must be received at the address indicated by 4:00 p.m.CST on 03/03/98. Submit Proposal, clearly marked as such on the outside of the package, to Internal Revenue Service, Midstates Procurement Branch, Attention: Mary Jo Holloway, Contract Specialist, M/C 1800-MSRO, 4050 Alpha Road, 9th Floor, Dallas, TX 75244. All questions must be in writing and faxed to Mary Jo Holloway at 972/308-1928. 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