SPECIAL NOTICE
D -- Joint Venture partner to help develop and provide a hosted e-Learning and Knowledge Management servide for high-security federal agencies.
- Notice Date
- 9/4/2002
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Technical Information Service, National Technical Information Service, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA, 22161
- ZIP Code
- 22161
- Solicitation Number
- JointVentureRFI
- Point of Contact
- John Plott, Contract Specialist, Phone (703) 605-6136, Fax (703) 605-6888,
- E-Mail Address
-
jplott@ntis.gov
- Description
- The National Technical Information Service (NTIS), an agency at the Department of Commerce, Technology Administration, is looking for a joint venture partner to help develop and provide a hosted e-Learning and Knowledge Management service for high-security federal agencies. The business opportunities described in this notice are joint ventures, require investments by prospective partners and yield a revenue sharing opportunity. NTIS enters into joint venture partnerships in accordance with the authority granted to NTIS in the National Technical Information Act of 1988 (15 U.S.C. 3704b) and in accordance with the guidelines published in the June 13, 1989 Federal Register. Joint ventures do not involve procurements using government funds. Because the partner is expected to develop an integrated system which meets all the stated technical requirements, NTIS envisions the participation of one or more companies which may all be partners if that is what they agree to do. If the companies are not all to be partners, their relationship to each other must be specified in the proposal. In addition, at least one of the joint venture partners, when selected by NTIS, must currently be in the learning/knowledge management software business. The partner(s) is (are) expected to use its (their) capabilities to provide software (and possibly, related hardware) that will deliver e-Learning and Knowledge Management to federal employees operating in secure IT environments. The software will manage users, students, courses, testing, collaboration, reporting, and its internal security. NTIS envisions partnering with a company or companies to develop an integrated system to deliver and manage on-line and off-line learning and organizational knowledge through a hosted, web-enabled secure environment for federal agencies that require a heightened level of security and the ability to interface to certain government networks. The system will include delivery of learning objects, as well as the acquisition, management and dissemination of organizational knowledge objects within secure IT environments. NTIS expects to contribute personnel, hardware, IT, security and Help Desk support functions and expertise gained through continuous operation of state-of-the-art hosted e-Learning services for government clients behind Federal firewalls. Complete responses may include more than one firm in order to meet all listed requirements of this RFI. Any such arrangement should be described within the response, to delineate points of contact. Presentations may be made at the request of NTIS. Any such presentation must cover all aspects of this RFI, and integrate all functions into a single response. A revenue sharing agreement will be a result of this partnership to provide returns to the successful party. Anticipated revenue streams should be addressed in the response. The solution provided by the partner(s) will enable the partnership to provide a customized integrated solution to NTIS for use by federal agencies, consisting of at least the following features: For e-Learning: 1. Open and component-based architecture using J2EE and Java, JSP, ESB, XML and providing a simplified upgrade path 2. Ability to interface with multiple industry-standard RDBMS 3. Add, update, deactivate and delete multiple versions and modes (web-enabled, resident, hybrid) of courses 4. Create course sections with varying admissions rules 5. Manage student enrollment, progress, training history, prerequisites, equivalents and descendant courses 6. Flexible and comprehensive test engine using TLO and ELO question hierarchy test structures with multiple question types and supporting IMS QTI specification 7. Multilevel document management capabilities 8. Full access to existing Federal identity verification systems 9. Basic reporting capability at multiple functional levels, plus ability to interface with standard COTS datamining and reporting tools to provide more sophisticated statistical information 10. Fully compliant and able to launch SCORM courses starting with version 1.1 through current and future versions. Ability to manage offline learning, including a downloadable course player, ability to download SCORM compliant courseware, full offline functionality and ability to synchronize progress with LMS when online 11. Ability to manage both military and civilian user profiles 12. Design and manage for security, including manage and assign user roles and provide for security between tiers within the LMS. Use cryptography techniques to protect sensitive information, including triple DES and AES technologies For Knowledge Management: 1. Open and component-based architecture using J2EE and Java, JSP, ESB, XML and providing a simplified upgrade path 2. Ability to interface with multiple industry-standard RDBMS 3. Multilevel document management capabilities 4. Access, acquire, categorize and manage common document types, including (but not limited to): .doc, .ppt, .pdf, .xls and email 5. Access, acquire, categorize and manage common graphic file types, including (but not limited to): .gif, .tif, .eps and .jpg 6. Manage knowledge object history 7. Full access to existing Federal identity verification systems 8. Basic reporting capability at multiple functional levels, plus ability to interface with standard COTS datamining and reporting tools to provide more sophisticated statistical information 9. Ability to manage both military and civilian user profiles 10. Design and manage for security, including manage and assign user roles and provide for security between tiers within the KMS. Use cryptography techniques to protect sensitive information, including triple DES and AES technologies NTIS will evaluate responses based on criteria listed above. Prospective partners are required to describe and reference the technical capabilities of their products, describe technical expertise and provide a concise description of their experience and their ability to provide NTIS with necessary technical training in the use of the software. NTIS has for more than fifty years fulfilled its mission of acquiring and disseminating information obtained from both government and private sector sources worldwide in response to the needs of government agencies, and the general public. NTIS is also responsible for implementing new methods or media for disseminating information, including producing and disseminating information products in electronic format. For the past four years, NTIS has provided hosted e-Learning services to a Federal client. As a self-supporting government agency NTIS offers unique security and operating value to Federal agencies. This joint venture would serve Federal agencies that require such value. NTIS operates a clearinghouse for the information it collects, delivering bibliographic databases, and content selected by consumers in paper and electronic format, and also supports the fulfillment needs of users for the delivery of historic or archived materials produced in print-on-demand paper, demand microform or CD-ROM, or via on-line electronic access. If you have any questions about these activities, please send them via e-mail to pgresham@ntis.gov, Fax (703) 605-6888. Offerors should limit their proposal to twenty-five (25) pages, excluding graphic appendices. Offerors must provide three hard copies of their proposal to Janice Long Coe, Associate Director, Office of Business Development at the above address by the response date specified in this announcement.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Department of Commerce,, National Technical Information Service,, 5285 Port Royal Road,, Springfield, VA,
- Zip Code: 22161
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 22161
- Record
- SN00157304-W 20020906/020904213346 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
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