U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Operations, Procurement Operations Division, 14th and Independence Avenue, S.W., Room 1547-S, Washington, D.C. 20250

70 -- UPGRADE OF EXISTING SOFTWARE DUE 011896 POC Donna Lester, Contracting Officer, (202) 720-1540 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) intends to modify the existing contract withSterling Software, Inc., Federal Electronic Commerce Division, for continued support forUSDA's installed Connect:Direct for MVS/SNA and Connect:Direct for Open VMS software,and to upgrade the Connect:Supertracs communications of Gentran Plus to Connect:Mailbox forMVS with the SPC option with continued support. The period of performance is throughSeptember 30, 1999, if all option years are exercised. USDA's use will be measured by MIPScapacity of CPUs on which the Sterling Software, Inc. products are and will be used. Anyalternative sources responding to this announcement may be considered technically unacceptableif they are not MIPS-based software use/support proposals or contain terms limiting USDA'sright to use the software to process data on USDA computers. The Sterling Software, Inc.products are and will be installed on IBM-compatible, large scale, main frame CPUs. TheUSDA's right to use the products allows any authorized end-users to access and use applicationsdesigned, developed, maintained, and operated using the software; allows USDA to operateand/or test the Sterling Software products at contingency cold- and hot-site facilities; and allowsUSDA to use the installed Sterling software or install the Sterling software on its own or publicsector computers to temporarily run benchmarks. The only known source for continued use andtechnical support of the products and for upgrading the Connect:Supertracs communications ofGentran Plus to Connect:Mailbox for MVS with the SPC option is Sterling Software, Inc. Interested parties may provide information on their capabilities to meet these requirements. Inorder to be evaluated, respondents much submit clear and convincing documentation. Thedocumentation must include descriptive literature with sufficient technical information tosubstantiate the respondent's ability to meet the USDA's needs. Those vendors proposingalternate software must offer a MIPS based license and include a cost proposal. The USDA'sevaluation of responses offering alternatives to the currently licensd software above will includecosts for application conversion and training. No solicitation document exists. Requests forcopies of an IFB or RFP will not be acknowledged. See Note 22. All responsible sources maysubmit an offer which will be considered. (0341)

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