SOURCES SOUGHT
70 -- Handheld Devices
- Notice Date
- 12/16/2005
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 334119
— Other Computer Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- General Services Administration, Federal Technology Service (FTS), Acquisition Services Division (6TS-A), 1500 Bannister Road, Kansas City, MO, 64131
- ZIP Code
- 64131
- Solicitation Number
- K06RJ001H00
- Response Due
- 1/18/2006
- Description
- This Request for Information (RFI) is being released by the General Services Administration (GSA) on behalf of the Department of Defense (DoD), Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC), and Access Card Office (ACO), collectively, the ?Requestor?. This RFI is being issued for planning purposes and shall not be construed as a Request for Proposal (RFP) or as an obligation on the part of the Requestor to acquire any products or services. If an RFP is issued, it will be officially issued by the appropriate government contracting office. The Requestor does not intend to pay for the information requested. All information provided is for government planning use only. If proprietary information is provided, please mark as ?Proprietary for Government Use Only?. Purpose The purpose of this RFI is to request comments from handheld computing manufacturers and designers about existing products, planned products, or feasible designs for a portable rugged Windows CE handheld that can meet the needs of various DoD, federal, state, and local government programs. Although it would be preferable to find vendors who have existing products that meet all the requirements, it is understood that vendors will need to customize their devices or design completely new devices to fully meet the specification. It is thus equally important that product roadmaps are submitted along with the vendor?s products? technical specifications, which will be used to identify vendors that have plans consistent with the Requestor?s requirements. Qualified sources may be asked to present their product and/or roadmap with key government planners and decision makers. This process is designed to assist the government in determining how to best draft any possible future RFP. Background The proposed device is targeted at several government programs, including but not limited to DMDC?s Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS), DMDC?s Noncombatant Evacuation Operation Tracking System (NTS), Department of Homeland Security?s (DHS?s) National Capital Region First Responders Program, and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These devices are to be deployed in harsh environments typical of military and first responder field use. The primary driver for this RFI is the pending issuance of a standardized Federal Government Identity Credential as per Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 (HSPD-12) and Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS-201). Several existing programs which are managed by the Requestor are in the process of being modified to support this new Identity Credential. The primary feature in the new devices is the ability to read the new FIPS-201 Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Identity Credential. In addition, the Requestor would like to enhance certain features within its programs and add new programs which can utilize a handheld computing device. And finally, during the requirements gathering process, it was found that there exist several other complementary applications for the Requestor and its affiliates. These complimentary applications have hardware requirements which overlap substantially with the government programs listed above. Examples of the complimentary applications include physical security, incident command, victim management, hazardous sample management and resource tracking. These applications share a common hardware feature set and therefore are included in the RFI requirements specification. Requirements Specification The attached Handheld Requirements (Microsoft Excel spreadsheet) have been generated by compiling the requirements from several government agencies with active programs utilizing handheld computing devices. Requirements that are shared across all agencies have been separated into their own tab in the spreadsheet, labeled ?Common Requirements?. Each group?s specific requirements are listed in separate tabs of the spreadsheet, labeled ?Group 1?, ?Group 2?, etc. Additionally, each requirement has a ?Yes/No? attribute indicating whether it is a mandatory requirement. The Requestor would like to receive the following information from prospective manufacturers or product distributors: 1) Minimum acceptable response from vendor: Information regarding the characteristics/technical specifications of their handheld products 2) Preferred response from vendor: Add a column for each product and mark features as either ?Yes, No, Available with Customization (AWC), or Future? in all tabs of the attached Requirements Specification spreadsheet (Note: If answer is ?Future? or ?AWC?, please indicate expected time to deliver feature). 3) Expected changes that are anticipated in next generation products and/or product roadmaps out as far as developed 4) The month and year the products are expected to be available 5) The estimated product production and End Of Life timeframes planned 6) Number of years the supplier has been in business 7) Please indicate if you would be willing to travel to the Washington, DC area to present your response to this RFI within a month or two of the RFI Response Date. The Requestor would like the following information from prospective designers: 1) Description of design work (i.e., specify what type of design such as PCB, case, etc.; specify if any off-the-shelf components will be utilized) 2) Estimate of development time 3) Mark features that will be fulfilled in the attached Requirements Specification spreadsheet 4) Number of years company has been in business 5) Please indicate if you would be willing to travel to the Washington, DC area to present your response to this RFI. Note that the Requestor presents this plan to promote competition and provide fair access to all handheld vendors. However, the government reserves the right to adjust this plan based upon programmatic and operational need. All products in the vendor?s response must be compliant with Trade Act Agreement (TAA) requirements in order to meet DoD procurement regulations. The Government may request meetings with the candidates to provide more in depth technical briefings as necessary to complete the survey. Questions regarding this RFI should be addressed via e-mail to Matt.Sanders@gsa.gov no later than 5 January 2006. Interested parties shall submit their response via e-mail to Matt.Sanders@gsa.gov no later than 18 January 2006. Responses should be sent in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and/or .pdf file formats. ALL inquiries and responses must be submitted by email - Telephone inquiries will not be accepted.
- Place of Performance
- Address: Arlington, VA
- Zip Code: 22201
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 22201
- Record
- SN00953954-W 20051218/051216212552 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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