SOLICITATION NOTICE
70 -- 3M AIT PASSPORT READERS (GSA SCHEDULE)
- Notice Date
- 12/1/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- Sa-6 Room 200, Washington, DC 20522
- ZIP Code
- 20522
- Solicitation Number
- 1045-747041
- Response Due
- 12/6/2006
- Archive Date
- 6/4/2007
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, in conjunction with FAR 13.5, and as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation number is 1045-747041 and is issued as a request for quotation (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular FAC 05-09. The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 334119 with a small business size standard of 1,000 employees. This requirement is unrestricted and only qualified offerors may submit a quote. The solicitation pricing on www.FedBid.com will start on the date this solicitation is posted and will end on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 15:00:00 Eastern Time or as otherwise displayed at www.FedBid.com. FOB Destination shall be STERLING, VA 20166 The Department of State requires the following items, EXACT MATCH ONLY, to the following: LI 001, 3M-AIT- PAX OCR PASSPORT READER #: PV20-15-01-00, 200, EA; LI 002, SHIPPING FEE, 1, LOT; For this solicitation, Department of State intends to conduct an online competitive reverse auction to be facilitated by the third-party reverse auction provider, FedBid, Inc. FedBid has developed an online, anonymous, browser based application to conduct the reverse auction. An Offeror may submit a series of pricing quotes, which descend in price during the specified period of time for the aforementioned reverse auction. Department of State is taking this action in a an effort to improve vendor access and awareness of requests while expediting its ability to gather multiple, completed, real-time offers. All responsible Offerors that respond to this solicitation MUST submit the pricing portion of their offer using the online exchange located at www.FedBid.com. There is no cost to register, review procurement data or make an offer on www.FedBid.com. Offerors that are not currently registered to use www.FedBid.com should proceed to www.FedBid.com to complete their free registration. Offerors that require special considerations or assistance may contact the FedBid Helpdesk at 877-9FEDBID (877-933-3243) or via email at clientservices@fedbid.com. Offerors may not artificially manipulate the price of a transaction on www.FedBid.com by any means. It is unacceptable to place bad faith offers, to use decoys in the www.FedBid.com process or to collude with the intent or effect of hampering the competitive www.FedBid.com process. Should offerors require additional clarification, contact Laberta Smallwood at smallwoodl@state.gov or FedBid.com at 877-9FEDBID (877-933-3243) or clientservices@fedbid.com. Use of FedBid: Buyers and Sellers agree to conduct this transaction through FedBid in compliance with the FedBid Terms of Use. Buyers and Sellers understand that FedBid ranks all bids by price; however, pursuant to applicable acquisition regulations and/or departmental guidelines, Buyers may use criteria other than price to evaluate offers. Accordingly, please note that, unless otherwise specified herein below, to the extent required by applicable regulations and/or guidelines, award will be made to the responsible Seller whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Buyer on the basis of price, technical capability, delivery, and past performance. The selected Offeror must comply with the following commercial item terms and conditions. FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors - Commercial, applies to this acquisition. The selected Offeror must submit a completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications - Commercial Items. FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. The following FAR clauses in paragraph (b) of FAR clause 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required To Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items, will apply: 52.222-21, 52.222-26, 52.222-35, 52.222-36, 52.222-37, 52.225-13, 52.232-34. The full text of a FAR clause may be accessed electronically at http://www.acqnet.gov/far. Delivery shall be made within 30 days or less after receipt of order (ARO). CCR Requirement - Company must be registered on Central Contractor Registration (CCR) before an award could be made to them. If company is not registered in CCR, they may do so by going to CCR web site at http://www.ccr.gov. This Justification and Approval (J&A) on a brand name only basis is for the use of the 3M-AIT Passport Reader. The use of a brand name description is essential to the Government?s requirements, for Department of State infrastructure connectivity requirements, thereby precluding consideration of the products of another company.CA/CST requires the 3M-AIT Passport Readers to support Consular posts overseas. 3M-AIT Passport Readers have been deployed in all Consular Systems Modernization installations since the inception of the program. Additional units are primarily required at this time to replace any existing AIT PAX readers in need of maintenance, thus extending the life of the VISA Quality Assurance procedure. The reader was initially selected because the travel document production systems with which it is used required an accurate, reliable instrument to perform quality assurance checks on the OCR zones of visas and passports, thereby validating their machine readability. The reader enables Consulates to generate travel documents that will be accepted and accurately interpreted at any port of entry employing mechanized processing systems. This is of great importance since it eliminates or minimizes incidences of false interpretations of bearer identification data. Such ?mis-reads? can result in the refusal of entry or passage to qualified bearers, impede the processing flows at ports of entry, and otherwise embarrass the U.S. Government. The AIT reader was selected following a very lengthy market survey and evaluation process. It was found to be the only device of its type able to meet the Bureau?s specifications. Features of the unit evaluated are as follows: -Reads International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and non-ICAO compliant documents -Performs quality assurance analysis -Multi-function magnetic stripe reader and OCR -Two RS-232 serial ports and one universal serial bus (USB) port -Remotely upgradeable software -Rugged, no-moving parts design Due to these factors, the QA modules of travel document production systems were designed around the AIT readers. The selection of any other type or make of reader may put the functionality of overseas visa, passport, and border crossing card systems at risk. Such measures will necessitate the re-engineering of all U.S. travel document issuance systems and will significantly increase the Government?s costs. In summation, CA/CST believes that it is in the best interests of the Government to acquire the requested 3M-AIT Passport Readers without delay. The 41 USC 253(c)(1), and FAR 6.302-1 are cited at the statutory authority. As this is a brand name only justification, no one contractor?s unique qualifications are cited as the basis for this justification. Rather, the products identified by brand name herein have been determined to be the only items that meet the Department?s requirements as a key component of the Department?s networking system. CA/CST has selected the 3M-AIT Passport Readers because results obtain by the Bureau?s System Engineering Task Team in tests and reviews of other manufacturers? scanners indicated that this scanner most closely met the DoS?s processing, redundancy, and management requirements. The 3M-AIT Passport Reader has been evaluated and approved by the Bureau of Consular Affairs? Configuration Control Board and has been added to the Consular HW Baseline. The server has undergone test and assessment and received final approval from the Department of State IT Configuration Control Board. Since this equipment is required to meet operational requirements by replenishing depleted inventory, CA/CST/CS must take physical possession of the readers soon as possible. Even if another manufacturer?s equipment similar to the 3M-AIT Passport Readers in terms of specifications and functionality were to become available at this juncture, they could not be evaluated and baselined in time to ensure that they would be requisitioned, competed, obtained, and otherwise readied for use by September of this year.
- Web Link
-
www.fedbid.com (b-35545_01, n-4711)
(http://www.fedbid.com)
- Place of Performance
- Address: STERLING, VA 20166
- Zip Code: 20166
- Country: US
- Zip Code: 20166
- Record
- SN01189298-W 20061203/061201220442 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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