USDA, Office of Operations, Procurement Operations Division, Room 1547-South Building, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9850

70 -- CONNECT:DIRECT LICENSE UPGRADE SOL n/a DUE 031599 POC Michael McFarland, Contracting Officer, 202-720-4179 The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) intends to negotiate on a sole-source basis with Sterling Commerce to upgrade the license for Connect:Direct software currently installed at the National Information Technology Center in Kansas City, Missouri, to a Group 100 license for an IBM 9672/R85 CPU. USDA knows of no other source for this proprietary software. Interested parties must provide written information on their capabilities to provide equivalent functionality to Connect:Direct, along with their pricing information. All documentation must be submitted to the contact listed above by March 15, 1999. No solicitation document exists and requests for copies of a solicitation will be not be accepted. No telephone requests will be accepted. Posted 02/23/99 (W-SN301462). (0054)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0399 19990225\70-0009.SOL)