Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF APRIL 11, 2004 FBO #0867
MODIFICATION

B -- Risk Assessment Products or Services

Notice Date

4/9/2004
 

Notice Type

Modification
 

NAICS

519190 — All Other Information Services
 

Contracting Office

Securities and Exchange Commission, Procurement and Contracts Branch, Operations Center, 6432 General Green Way, MS 0-20, Alexandria, VA, 22312-2413
 

ZIP Code

22312-2413
 

Solicitation Number

SECHQ1-04-Q-0028
 

Response Due

4/5/2004
 

Archive Date

4/20/2004
 

Point of Contact

Debra Chapman, Contract Specialist, Phone (202) 942-4994, Fax (703) 914-9226,
 

E-Mail Address

chapmand@sec.gov
 

Description

Amendment 0004: The purpose of this amendment is to answer additional questions received after issuance of Amendment 0001 Q.- In reviewing the RFP criteria it appears to me to be of more of a machine to machine risk solution that the international due diligence investigative services we provide at (our company )Perhaps we would be better suited to a Task Order Contract relative to our unique investigative services that we provide to assist the investigation and litigation divisions of the SEC. A. - Please review the requirements portion of SECHQ1-04-Q-0028 and respond with the COTS products or services that you determine meet those requirements. Q - I was inquiring about this particular RFP - does it include network security or information assurance capabilities? A - Yes. Would the SEC consider extending the proposal due date? The due date has been extended from April 8, 2004 to April 9, 2004 at 4:00 PM What data sources, other than Edgar, do you access today and where do they reside? A. - The SEC has contracts with vendors to provide the following data on a subscription basis: CRSP, CUSIP, Compustat, I/B/E/S. Usage of this data is subject to the terms and conditions of the contracts. Q. - What is the decision point for ensuring a vendor is competent in their ability to deliver a viable solution? A - Please refer to the Government’s requirements and the evaluation criteria referenced in the Combination Solicitation/ Synopsis Q - Does the SEC believe this is a COTS solution or Application Development support? Is the solution believed to be a combination of COTS and onsite customization? A - This particular Combination Solicitation Synopsis is for COTS solutions, however that does not rule out that the SEC would not solicit at a later date for other COTS products with customizations. Q - If customization is required, has an analysis been conducted by the SEC to identify the magnitude of this endeavor? A. Until the SEC has reviewed the COTS products available, an answer to this question cannot be determined. Q Does the SEC want real-time/dynamic feeds and analytics? A - The SEC is looking for any capability that will provide quality risk assessments. Q - If the capability to provide real-time/dynamic data and reporting is the end result, what data sources will be eliminated in the process? A - The SEC will use and continue to use data sources that provide valuable information regardless of the tools implemented. Q - Will there be a requirement to secure the data and reporting? A - Yes. The SEC operates in a secure environment and all data and data transmissions are subject to our security requirements that are referenced in the SoW. Q - If so, is there a requirement to authenticate with other environments? (Distributed/Mainframe?) A - It is possible that a suitably flexible solution could be integrated with other systems at the SEC, but there is no requirement for this at this time. Q - If the SEC is analyzing data, will there be an additional requirement to provide integrity and availability controls? A - If the SEC provides the raw data and/or uses public databases, then data integrity and availability controls are not critical. If the vendor proposes using propriety data as part of the COTS solution then both data integrity and other data management controls are logical. Q - After successful implementation and customization of the solution, will there be a requirement for sustainment services? A - If the COTS product requires sustainment services, they should be proposed. Q - What Education requirements are needed? A - This requirement is for Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) solutions. Offeror shall propose user training. Q - What will be the system of record for the financials and what is the standard format for the data? What is the relationship of this data source to Edgar? How does the SEC envision the relationships of the data source, Edgar, and the new application for the future? A - These questions are not relevant to this requirement. Q - What is the timing of access to the data? Are there sensitivity issues? Are there security requirements for contractors working on this solution? A. - This requirement is for COTs solutions. The SEC requires access to data before it is 30-days old. Standard nondisclosure/confidentiality requirements may be applicable to this requirement. In addition, if offsite hosting is considered, additional specific SEC and government wide security requirements may be applicable. Q - Where will the solution be hosted and has the SEC considered hosting offsite? A - Both offsite hosting and SEC hosting may be considered. Q - Is the SEC interested in performance based contracting and if so, what metrics should be used? A - This requirement is for COTS product. The contractor should propose any metrics that would be applicable. Q - If this is not a COTS solution, how does the SEC envision evaluating prior to purchasing? A - This requirement is for COTS solutions. Please refer to the solicitation for evaluation criteria. Q - The Statement of Work contemplates a base year of support and 4 optional years of work. Can the government provide their expectation of what specific support (in the form of tasks completed, milestones met, deliverables submitted) is expected in the base year and what support might be included in the optional years? A - The Government anticipates that COTS products will meet this requirement. The support maintenance needed will depend on the products selected. Q Additionally, since there are not specific items identified for the optional years, would the government consider accepting a proposal for the optional years work to be done on a Time and Materials basis? A-The SEC requirement is for COTS solutions on a firm-fixed price basis. Q - As the specifics for the optional years have not been stated, will the SEC consider this as a justification for extending the time period for response on this solicitation until greater clarity of desired scope has been provided? A - The option years are to continue to purchase licenses and maintenance support of the COTS solution. Q - What are the platforms and data formats for the source information (e.g. Forms 10-K, 10-Q, and 20-F)?A - It is up to the vendor to determine data sources that are suitable for its COTs product. Q - Has the SEC adopted an industry specific XML standard? A - No. Q - Please provide additional information on the SEC's Enterprise Architecture (e.g. Data Reference Model, Technical Reference Model). A - The SEC has not published a Data Reference Model or a Technical Reference Model. Q - Are there any specific interoperability requirements associated with a) accessing the source information, b) sharing information with other SEC applications, c) presenting information to users, or d) automated workflow interaction with other users and systems? A - At this time there are no particular requirements for interoperability. This synopsis/solicitation is for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.603, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement requests a detailed capabilities statement (technical quote) in addition to a price quote and constitutes the only solicitation; a paper solicitation will not be issued. Request for Quotation number SECHQ1-04-Q-0028 shall be referenced on any capabilities statement (technical quote) and price quote. This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular FAC-20 for full and open competition (this competition is unrestricted). All future information about this acquisition including solicitation amendments will also be distributed solely through this site. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring this site to ensure that they have the most up-to-date information about this acquisition. This contract action may result in multiple awards, or one single award. Contracts shall be Firm Fixed Price commercial item Purchase Orders, and may be awarded as a Base Year plus 4 option years. The Government's requirement is for the following commercially available services: C.1 Background The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is creating and staffing a new Office of Risk Assessment. One responsibility of this office is providing means and mechanisms for early and focused identification of companies engaged in fraudulent, illegal or inappropriate (including misleading, opaque, or incomplete) financial reporting. A companion interest in this objective will be to use risk assessment services or products to identify anomalies in disclosure or financial reporting by public companies subject to the SEC’s disclosure program. For this purpose, the SEC is seeking computer-based products, services, or software. Offerors are requested to provide a detailed Capabilities Statement for a commercial product capable of achieving some or all of these objectives. C.2 Scope Commercial products shall be used to identify companies requiring additional inquiry and investigation. These products shall assist the SEC in identifying changes in financial position or operational results in financial statement presentations not evident in a routine reading of disclosure that may represent material deficiencies in the documents filed by public companies. C.2.1 The initial focus of this analysis will initially be Forms 10-K (annual reports), 10-Q (quarterly reports), and possibly Form 20-F (foreign private issuers). C.2.2 Offerors’ commercial products shall provide features such as historic coverage of data related to accounting and audit reports for publicly traded companies. The commercial products shall have analytical capabilities that signal risk factors. These tools may provide pre-selected criteria for risk analysis and/or allow for customized measures. C.3 Objectives Offerors shall provide commercial products having a flexible user interface and/or reporting capability. An important performance objective is a high ratio of positive signals (problem companies or reports) to false signals (indications of problems that turn out to be incorrect). More details in databases and computational platforms are provided in the next section. C.3.1 Desired characteristics of commercial risk assessment products include the following kinds of evaluations and/or comparisons: 1)Evaluation of a company’s present and past financial data 2)Evaluation of a company’s financial ratios against parameters that may suggest inappropriate financial reporting exists 3)Evaluation of other performance measures that may suggest misleading, opaque or incomplete financial reporting 4)Comparison of a company with peers in an industry group 5)Comparison of a company’s risk evaluation with audit opinions 6)Comparison of a company’s accounting reports with other publicly available SEC information (e.g. litigation releases, accounting and auditing releases, EDGAR filings) C.3.2 Offerors should address the extent to which financial statements conform to accounting standards, generally accepted industry practices, and the requirements of the federal securities laws and regulations. C.4 Background and Current Environment It is anticipated that specific risk assessment requirements and resulting objectives will evolve over time. Consequently, the commercial products will also evolve in sophistication and complexity over time, especially at a point where there are data content tags for the reports filed with the Commission. C.4.1 The commercial products shall initially provide for interoperability with respect to the SEC’s enterprise architecture. The SEC’s current development environment includes 1) reporting tools such as Business Objects, Actuate, Crystal, and Brio; 2) databases such as Sybase ASE and Sybase IQ; 3) the Microsoft suite of tools (Access, Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Project, Visio); 4) development languages such as C, TCL, Java, J2EE, HTML, UML, XML, XSLT, JSP, Struts, and Servlets (used with TomCat as the JSP server for web development); 5) PureEdge to display internet forms; 6) web services technologies such as SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI; 7) Project Version Control System (PVCS) Tracker and PVCS Version Manager for configuration management of automated information systems; 8) Test Director for independent testing; 9) the search engine Autonomy; and 10) firewall and intrusion detection software. The SEC’s current Technical Infrastructure standards include A. Application Servers such as Enterprise Systems: Sun (Enterprise Servers 4000 series, 4500 series, V880 series, 280 series, E450 series) Operating Environment: Solaris 2.8, Sun 4u Departmental Systems: Sun (Ultra Sparc series, V120 series, 280 series) Operating Environment: Solaris 2.8, Sun 4u Workgroup Systems: Compaq (File Servers - Proliant ML530, Other Compaq Special purpose servers). (Migration): Dell PowerEdge 2550/6450 (Dual Pentium III Processors) Operating Environment: Microsoft NT Server 4.0 (Migration): Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (Active Directory) B. Web Servers such as Dell (Various Models), Sun (Enterprise Servers), Dell PowerEdge Operating Environment: Windows 2000, Solaris 2.8, Sun 4u Software: Netscape Suitespot 3.x, Apache, Microsoft IIS, Tomcat C. File Servers such as Systems: Dell 1650/2550/2650/6450/6650 (Dual Pentium III Processors) (Migration): Compliant Proliant ML360/560/580 Operating Environment: Microsoft NTS 4.0 Server/2000 (Migration): Microsoft Windows 2003 C.4.2 Vendors shall be required to ensure confidentiality with respect to SEC queries of risk assessment services and the nature of the information derived from such queries and services. Vendors shall ensure that no details of SEC usage are disclosed to the public, including possibly a prohibition against their disclosing that the SEC is a user of their product, service, or software. Period of performance shall be for the period of 12 months. Award is anticipated in May 2004. The Government intends to issue one or more commercial item purchase orders for the above items to the responsible vendor whose Capabilities Statement /quotation conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors which are in descending order of importance, shall be used to evaluate quotes: (1) technical acceptability (i.e., reliability and effectiveness of the product being proposed and its compatibility and interoperability with the SEC’s enterprise architecture), (2) user training, (3) past performance for requirements that are similar to the SEC’s Statement of Objectives (offerors shall provide complete client contact information so that reference checks may be conducted), and (4)price. If options are awarded, the Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price of all options to the total price of the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s). This evaluation will be based on information provided by the contractor. The Government is not responsible for locating or securing any information, which is not identified in the Capabilities Statement or quotation, but may do so at its discretion. Only authorized representatives shall submit quotes. Please carefully review the commercial item clauses for information about requirements and instructions for submitting a quotation. Capabilities Statements that do not include prices for all items will not be considered. The following provisions and clauses apply to this procurement: Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision 52.212.1, Instructions to Offeror- Commercial Items (OCT 2000); FAR provision 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Items (JAN 1999) - Award will be made to the responsible offeror whose offer is considered to be most advantageous to the Government, considering technical acceptability, user training, past performance, and price. The Government reserves the right to award without discussions, therefore, it is critical that each quote be fully responsive. However, the SEC also reserves the right to conduct discussions, if later determined to be necessary, with offerors making the competitive range (i.e., the most highly rated proposals, unless the range is further reduced for the purposes of efficiency). Only those offerors determined to be within the competitive range will be invited to present a demonstration of their product to the SEC and will be asked to provide 30 day access to their commercial item product, free of charge, for evaluation purposes. FAR provision 52-212-3, Offeror Representations and Certification-Commercial Items (JAN 1999) - all offerors shall include a completed copy of this provision with their quote; FAR clause 52-212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions- Commercial Items (FEB 2002); FAR clause 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items (APR 2003) - in paragraph (b) the following clauses apply; 52.203-6 Alternate I, 52.222-3, 52.222-19,52.222.21, 52.222-26, 52.222-35, 52.222-36, 52.222-37,52.232-33,52.232-36, 52.239-1, 52.222-41,52.222-43, 52.222-44. 52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract (Mar 2000) also applies. Clauses incorporated by reference may be accessed in full text at www.arnet.gov. All Capabilities Statements (technical quotes)and price quotes from responsible sources will be considered. Questions may be submitted on or before 2:00 PM EST April 1, 2004. The price quote shall be submitted as a completely separate document from the Capabilities Statement (technical quote). Two (2) copies of each Capabilities Statement (technical quote) and two (2) copies of each price quote shall be submitted to Debra E. Chapman, clearly marked RFQ no. SECHQ1-04-Q-0028 either via hand delivery or U.S. Mail to Securities and Exchange Commission, MS-020, 6432 General Green Way, Alexandria VA 22312, or to chapmand@sec.gov, or faxed to (703) 914-9226 no later than 4:00 PM EST, April 9, 2004. No other methods of submission will be accepted. NOTE: THIS NOTICE WAS NOT POSTED TO WWW.FEDBIZOPPS.GOV ON THE DATE INDICATED IN THE NOTICE ITSELF (09-APR-2004); HOWEVER, IT DID APPEAR IN THE FEDBIZOPPS FTP FEED ON THIS DATE. PLEASE CONTACT fbo.support@gsa.gov REGARDING THIS ISSUE.
 

Web Link

Link to FedBizOpps document.
(http://www.eps.gov/spg/SEC/OAPM/PCB/SECHQ1-04-Q-0028/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: 450 5th Street, N.W. Washington, DC

Zip Code: 20549

Country: USA
 

Record

SN00563666-F 20040411/040409215312 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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