SOLICITATION NOTICE
D -- XML TO ADOBE PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT
- Notice Date
- 7/31/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541512
— Computer Systems Design Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Procurement and Property Management, 2 Massachusetts Avenue, NE, Room 1830, Washington, DC, 20212
- ZIP Code
- 20212
- Solicitation Number
- BLS-06-34
- Response Due
- 8/16/2006
- Archive Date
- 8/31/2006
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS REQUEST FOR QUOTATION BLS-06-34 DATE: 07-28-06 TO: Potential Offerors FROM: Michelle Govan, Acquisition Specialist PURPOSE The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the Office of Technology and Survey Processing (OTSP) is seeking to award a Purchase Order for completing a system that will take XML statistical data sets and convert them into PDF format. We are hereby comparing price offerings from responsible contractors to perform services identified in the attached Statement of Work (SOW). This notice constitutes a request for your firm?s price offering inclusive of any and all discounts. The resultant Purchase Order will be a fixed-price contract with a base period of performance and two options. The total estimated contract value will not exceed the Simplified Acquisition Threshold. To supplement the XML-to-PDF system described in the Statement of Work, BLS reserves the right to include options that will allow for additional functionality or enhancements to the system, if needed. These enhancements are expected to take the form of additional formatting specifications or modifications to the source XML. Offerors are requested to provide hourly rates for such work. This procurement action will be carried out in accordance with the FAR Part 13 ? Simplified Acquisition Procedures - and incorporates all applicable provisions and clauses. This solicitation is set-aside for a small business. Corresponding NAICS code for this action is 541511. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in the FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation and as such requests quotations. EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD BLS will award a Purchase Order to the Offeror whose offer represents the best value to the Government based on: 1. Technical Merit, as defined by Contractor?s understanding of requirement, and; Robustness and flexibility of proposed technical approach. 2. Past Performance, as defined by: Experience performing comparable work; Quality and timeliness of previous work; Customer satisfaction with previous work. 3. Experience of proposed personnel. 4. Price. INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS When responding to this RFQ provide the following: 1. Contractor?s DUNS number. 2. Socio-economic status of small business. 3. Technical proposal providing detailed approach and proposed timeframe for completing tasks and deliverables. Proposals should not exceed 10 pages. Resumes are excluded from the 10 page limit. 4. Price proposal consisting of the fixed-price portion for performing the base task and rate per hour to provide additional functionality and enhancement to the system, if required. If the Contractor chooses to receive interim payments as identified in Section 10 of the attached Statement of Work, proposed delivery milestones tied to interim payments. 5. Two references with points-of-contact for similar work, both in scope and design, which have been completed by the contractor within the last two years. 6. Resumes of proposed personnel. Prices quoted in the Offeror?s response for all labor and materials shall remain in effect for a period of at least ninety (90) business days from the issuance date of the Offeror?s response. Price quotations shall include the furnishing of all materials, equipment, software, maintenance and training manuals, tools, custom templates or software as needed, the provision of all labor and services necessary or proper for the completion of the work, except as may be otherwise expressly provided in the Contract Documents. BLS will not be liable for any costs beyond those proposed herein and awarded. In the event multiple Offerors submit a joint response to this RFQ, a single Vendor shall be identified as the Prime Vendor. Prime Vendor responsibilities shall include performing overall project administration and serving as a focal point for the BLS to coordinate and monitor plans and schedules, maintain project budget and status information, administer changes required, preside over other vendors participating or present at the BLS meetings, and oversee preparation of reports and presentations. Prime Vendor shall also prepare and present a consolidated invoice for work performed. The BLS shall issue only one (1) check for each consolidated invoice. Prime Vendor shall remain responsible for performing tasks associated with implementation of Prime Vendor?s portion of the contract. BLS is not liable for any cost incurred by the respondents in preparing responses to this RFQ or negotiations associated with award of a contract. Questions and clarifications regarding this RFQ shall be submitted via E-mail to Michelle Govan at the e-mail address provided in the RFQ. Responses to all questions received in proper time frames will be made available to all Offerors who request to be kept updated. It is Offerors? responsibility to provide Ms. Govan with their contact E-mail information prior to submitting their proposals in order to be included on the question and clarification distribution list. Any changes to the RFQ will be made by way of issuing an Amendment through FedBizOpps. It is Offerors? responsibility to check FedBizOpps for changes to solicitation. Responses shall be clearly marked ?RFQ # BLS-06-34? and must be received no later than August 16th, 2006 1 p.m. ET. All information shall be submitted via e-mail, followed up by the hard copy, which can be delivered via USPS, express delivery, or personally. It is the sole responsibility of the respondents to ensure that their responses arrive in a timely manner. The point of contact for this initiative is: Michelle Govan Phone Number: 202-691-6010 Fax Number: 202-691-6026 E-mail: Govan.Michelle@bls.gov The Bureau of Labor Statistics 2 Massachusetts Ave, NE Room #1830 Washington, DC 20212 ATTACHMENTS Statement of Work Statement of Work 1. Objective Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), intends to acquire a complete system that will take XML statistical data sets as input and output print ready copy in the form of Adobe Postscript Files (PDF). This system will be as automated as practical, will reside in BLS offices in the Postal Square Building, and be operated and administered by BLS personnel. 2. Background BLS is the principal fact-finding agency for the Federal Government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics. BLS is an independent national statistical agency that collects, processes, analyzes, and disseminates essential statistical data to the American public, the U.S. Congress, other Federal agencies, State and local governments, business, and labor. BLS provides its data in a variety of formats including digital formats such as web pages on the Internet (examples here: http://stats.bls.gov ), and printed ink and paper formats for items like news releases (an example can be seen here: http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cpi.pdf ). One of the primary methods for representation of BLS data, either in print or electronic form, is through the use of statistical tables. Representation of tables in a print environment is more complex than it is in a web environment due to the more restrictive size of a standard printed page verses the virtually unlimited size of a web page. Currently BLS requires substantial manual manipulation of the layout for printed output to ensure that tables, and to a lesser degree, text and graphics are displayed in a sensible and readable fashion. BLS extracts the data to be formatted for dissemination from a central database in the form of an XML dataset, which is transformed into HTTP formatted pages for display on the Bureau?s web site. 3. Scope of Work 3.1. Tasks 3.1.1. Analyze the formatted examples, as identified in Section 7 of the Statement of Work, and develop a system that will convert the XML data sets, also provided in Section 7 below, to the same layout and format as the examples provided, and in a file format that is suitable for copy ready printing (e.g. PDF), and meets all requirements as listed in this document. 3.1.2. Develop reusable templates that will allow the conversion of future XML data sets that require similar formatting, to a copy ready file format. 3.2. Deliverables 3.2.1. A software system which converts XML data sets to camera ready PDF files for printed distribution and meets the requirements in this document. 3.2.2. Source code for all executable software developed in response for this project. 3.2.3. Reusable templates for the conversion of XML to PDF. 3.2.4. Documentation of the system that is built including all licensing information for any COTS software used in this solution. 3.3. Requirements 3.3.1. The source XML has been defined by BLS. The solution shall use this XML. 3.3.2. The solution shall provide a default presentation layout for any XML table, which can be manually adjusted by a BLS designer for individual tables. 3.3.3. Once a table presentation layout has been defined, the conversion of XML to PDF shall be fully automated and will require no manual intervention at run time. 3.3.4. The solution shall be implemented in Java and run on a Sun/Solaris platform in order to be compatible with the existing production environment. 3.3.5. The camera ready copy (PDF) shall be in black and white and contain statistical tables of varying length, text, graphics, header and footer information, footnotes, and may contain multiple fonts. 3.3.6. The layout of the statistical tables shall support multiple levels of nested column headings, spanned across columns, and multiple levels of nested row headings, indicated through indentation. 3.3.7. Statistical tables will vary in length and some will extend over multiple pages. Long tables shall be broken across page boundaries at appropriate places, with the position of page breaks to be automatically determined by the software (allowing for a manual override where necessary.) 3.3.8. Column header information and footnotes shall be repeated on new pages when tables span multiple pages. 3.3.9. Statistical tables shall have a varying number of columns. The default size of each column must be automatically determined by its contents, with the possibility of design-time overrides of the defaults. 3.3.10. Columns containing Numeric data shall be wide enough to display the data and associated footnotes on one line (subject to the constraints of page width.) 3.3.11. Columns and headers containing text shall be hyphenated as needed to fit within the boundaries of the cell. 3.3.12. Table layouts shall support decimal-point alignment when specified for a particular column. 3.3.13. The solution shall be capable of running in an IPv6 environment, or documented plans shall exist for a timetable for implementation of any necessary enhancements required for proper functionality in an IPv6 environment. 3.4. Constraints 3.4.1. The vendors must provide a statement of how the applicable Federal 508 requirements are addressed. 3.4.2. The source XML datasets specify content and structure. As such they do not, and should not, contain presentation information. Style sheets containing presentation information do not currently exist. 3.5. Acceptance and Quality Control 3.5.1. All software (and hardware if applicable) will be evaluated in a simulated BLS computing environment to determine that the solution meets the functional and system requirements set forth in this document as well as BLS security, networking, and usage guidelines applicable to software and hardware permitted to run in the BLS computing environment. 3.5.2. Acceptance shall be further defined as beneficial use by BLS. Acceptance will be deemed ?in full? upon receipt by the Vendor of a Notice of Acceptance issued by BLS upon beneficial use and full implementation of the Terms and Conditions and Technical Specifications of the Contract. Upon receipt of the Notice of Acceptance, The Vendor shall notify BLS in writing of a release of all liens for all materials and services associated with this project. 4. Contractor Qualifications. 4.1.1. The contractor shall provide a Project Manager who will act as a single point of contact for all activities regarding this project. 4.1.2. The selected contractor shall be fully capable and experienced in the area of XML and XML to copy ready format conversions. To ensure the system has continued support, BLS will contract only with vendors demonstrating a successful history of building XML to copy ready format solutions. During the evaluation process, BLS may, with full cooperation of the vendors, visit the vendors? places of business, observe operations, and inspect records. 4.1.3. BLS may, with full cooperation of the vendors, visit reference clients. Specified visits and discussion shall be arranged through the vendors. 5. Data BLS will own all products outputted from this project except where licensed COTS software is used. In the case of COTS BLS shall receive all rights and benefits of usage for the duration of the licensing period for any licensed COTS software that is included in the solution. 6. Security and Clearance 6.1 The contractor will have access to no BLS facilities, BLS computer systems, or to any confidential information in carrying out this project. 6.2 If BLS chooses to exercise the optional consulting services for FY 2007 or 2008 identified in section 8 (Period of Performance) of this document, and the vendor is required to be on site at the BLS facilities the, following will apply: 6.2.1 The contractor shall comply with agency personal identity verification procedures that implement HSPD-12, OMB guidance M-05-24, and FIPS Pub 201. 6.2.2 The contractor shall insert this clause in all subcontracts when the subcontractor is required to have physical access to a Federal controlled facility or a access to a Federal information system. 7 Government-Furnished Property 7.1 Example documents representing the desired output format and layout. 7.2 XML data sets. 8 Period of Performance Six (6) months from the date of the award with an option for additional consulting in FY 2007 and 2008. 9 Place of Performance Performance of contract services will occur at a place supplied and equipped by the winning vendor. 10 Billing and Payment The contractor can be allowed to submit invoices for interim payments for the fixed price portion of the requirement. In order to do so the contractor shall identify interim payments as milestones that must be achieved in order to request the payment in the submitted proposal. The sum of interim payments can not exceed 50% of the total value of the fixed price task. Remaining 50% can be billed only after all the work has been completed by the Contractor and BLS issues to the Contractor a Notice of Acceptance.
- Place of Performance
- Address: VENDOR'S LOCATION
- Zip Code: 20212
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 20212
- Record
- SN01102016-W 20060802/060731220424 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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