Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF FEBRUARY 17, 2002 FBO #0077
SOURCES SOUGHT

D -- Internet Mail Processing System

Notice Date

2/15/2002
 

Notice Type

Sources Sought
 

Contracting Office

United States Senate, Office of the Sergeant at Arms, Finance Division, United States Senate, Washington, DC, 20510-7207
 

ZIP Code

20510-7207
 

Solicitation Number

Reference-Number-2002-SS-010
 

Response Due

3/1/2002
 

Archive Date

3/2/2002
 

Point of Contact

Kathleen Haddow, Sr. Procurement and Contracting Specialist, Phone 202-224-7135, Fax 202-228-2851, @saa.senate.gov
 

E-Mail Address

acquisitions
 

Description

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY TO PREQUALIFY VENDORS. THERE IS NOT A SOLICITATION AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME. THIS IS NOT A FORMAL REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP). The United States Senate Office of the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) is pre-qualifying sources for an Internet Mail Processing (IMP) System. The SAA invites all qualified sources to respond to this sources sought notice. ALL REQUIREMENTS ARE MANDATORY. QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS: The vendor must be the proprietary developer and implementer of the IMP system. No implementers or resellers of second or third party software will be considered for this prequalification. The IMP system must be the current release. No beta or other prerelease versions will be considered. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS: Administration/Access: The IMP system must allow 100 separate Member offices exclusive access to their data. It must provide for at least five users per office. Each office must be able to administer its own area of the IMP system (e.g., users, filters, responses, auto-notifications). Users and administrators must be able to access and make full use of the IMP system through Microsoft Windows (9x, NT, 2000, XP) platforms via TCP/IP. It must provide SAA operations staff with centralized, but secure, top-level administration. A central IMP system administrator should be able to monitor the flow of e-mail through the IMP system and should be able to administer each office?s configuration in order to analyze and correct problems. Detailed information about e-mail activity, IMP system status, and processing errors should be maintained in IMP system or application log files. The IMP system should be capable of sending notification via e-mail or pager when errors or significant events occur. IMP system software upgrades should be able to be completed without requiring reinstallation of each office?s configuration. Although SAA operations staff must have administrative access to the entire IMP system, at no time should office-level administrators or users have access of any sort to the data and resources of another office, or to the top-level administrative components of the IMP system. The IMP system must be able to function without third-party monitoring or intervention, e.g., of the software provider?s support staff, in order to diagnose/correct problems or perform maintenance. Knowledge of the IMP system must be transferred to Senate staff through training and consultation. After the initial setup and training, Senate staff should be sufficiently prepared to maintain and support the IMP system. Message format: The IMP system must be able to accept messages forwarded in SMTP format from the Senate?s pair of Sun E450 Internet mail servers, which run Sun Internet Mail Servers (SIMS). Alternatively, it may pull SMTP-formatted messages from POP mailboxes located on the SIMS servers. The IMP system must also be able to forward messages in SMTP format to other systems for further processing. Volume: The IMP system must be capable of processing 5 million inbound messages per month and of sending 3 million outbound messages per month. The volume per Senate office varies greatly depending on the population of the state. Keyword-filtering: The IMP system must be able to filter on message headers, i.e., From: field, Subject: field, and text, including the ability to filter messages that do, or do not, contain a specific keyword or phrase. The IMP system must be able to process messages in different ways, depending upon the criteria they have met during the filtration process. Such processing must include, but should not be limited to: sending an e-mail acknowledgment or response, deleting messages, holding messages pending further processing manual intervention, notifying a user that messages are awaiting further action, printing messages, forwarding messages to e-mail accounts outside of the IMP system. Semantic analysis: The IMP system must employ advanced semantic (linguistic) processing techniques to facilitate accurate handling of constituent messages while minimizing the amount of user-processing time required to send out an appropriate response, categorize, or otherwise process an incoming message. Responses: The IMP system must be able to generate responses based upon the results of the filtration and/or linguistic processes. It must allow for the creation of ad-hoc responses. It must be capable of sending responses in SMTP format. Auto-notification: The IMP system must allow for creation and use of multiple auto-notification messages that correspond to keyword filters. By auto-notification, we do not mean an auto-response mechanism that uses sophisticated linguistic-processing techniques, although that is an option we might pursue in the future. Attachments: The IMP system must be able to process and store messages while keeping file attachments intact and accessible. It must also permit the deletion of file attachments. Storage: The IMP system must be able to store filtered and analyzed messages, grouping them in accordance with the criteria the messages have met during the processes of key-word filtration and semantic analysis. Processing Multiple Messages at Once: The user interface must allow large groups of messages to be processed through a single action rather than through several repetitive, time-consuming routines. It must give users the ability to group and act upon messages that share certain characteristics (such as, but not limited to: subject, from address, sent date, received date, keywords, results of semantic analysis). Actions must include, but not be limited to, sending a response, deleting, archiving, reassigning to another user, reassigning to a different keyword or semantic category, forwarding, closing, printing. Printing: The IMP system must be able to print messages, both individually, and in bulk, based upon the criteria the messages have met during the key-word filtration and semantic analysis processes. It must enable individual Senate offices to send bulk print jobs to the Senate?s high speed laser printers. The prequalification process will consist of three phases; this FEDBIZOPS announcement is for Phase One. The SAA has already prequalified four vendors for Phase One: Amacis Incorporated, eGain Communications Corporation, Firepond Incorporated, and Kana Incorporated. A Prequalification Evaluation Team will evaluate all responses to this notice to select those vendors who are qualified to participate in Phase Two. Only the most qualified vendors will be invited to participate in Phase Two, an on-site two-hour presentation of their IMP System. The Prequalification Evaluation Team will evaluate all participants in Phase Two to select those vendors who are qualified to participate in Phase Three. Only the most qualified vendors will be invited to participate in Phase Three, which requires an on-site, 21 consecutive calendar day product evaluation of the vendor IMP system, documentation and manuals, at no cost or obligation to the SAA. The Prequalification Evaluation Team will evaluate all vendors participating in Phase Three to select the most qualified vendors. At the completion of Phase Three the SAA reserves the right to issue a solicitation for an Internet Mail Processing system only to the most qualified vendors. All qualified sources should respond to this Sources Sought notice by submitting an information package of no more than twenty-five (25) pages, 8.5 inches by 11 inches, stapled in the left hand corner, no binders, with an original and six copies. All responses to this source sought notice must be received no later than March 1, 2002 at 4:00 p.m. EST at the following address: Attn: Kathleen M. Haddow, Contracts Department, Office of the Sergeant at Arms, United States Senate, 1st and C Street, NE, Washington, DC 20510. NO REQUESTS FOR AN EXTENSION OF THE DATE OR TIME WILL BE GRANTED. Responses must be submitted using either FedEx or UPS delivery services. No fax, email, United States Postal Service, vendor hand deliveries or any other delivery services or methods of delivery shall be used for this response. The FedEx or UPS delivery must be received at the address above by March 1, 2002 at 4:00 p.m. EST. NO LATE SUBMISSIONS WILL BE CONSIDERED. The vendor must fax on company letterhead the following information to Ms. Kathleen M. Haddow at 202-228-2051, 24 hours prior to delivery of their response: Vendor Name and Address, specify method of delivery (either FedEx or UPS), Vendor point of contact, phone number, and fax number within Vendor=s organization responsible for the response delivery. Participation in this effort is strictly voluntary with no cost or obligation to be incurred by the SAA. The SAA shall not be liable for or suffer any consequent damages for any proprietary information not properly identified. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL. THIS NOTICE CONSTITUTES THE ENTIRE SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE. NO OTHER INFORMATION WILL BE PROVIDED FOR THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE. ALL INFORMATION TO RESPOND TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE HAS BEEN PROVIDED HEREIN. NO REQUESTS, TELEPHONE CALLS OR EMAILS FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL BE RESPONDED TO.
 

Place of Performance

Address: United States Senate, Office of the Sergeant at Arms, Washington, DC

Zip Code: 20510

Country: USA
 

Record

SN00027522-W 20020217/020215213304 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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