U.S. Department of Commerce, Acquisition Services, 14th & Constitution Ave., N.W., Room H-6517, Washington, D.C. 20230

D -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION REGARDING APPROACHES TO PUBLICIZING PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITIES through the Commerce Business Daily (CBD) The U. S. Department of Commerce (DoC) is seeking new methods to improve the way federal contracting opportunities are publicized. Specifically DoC is interested in determining if improvements could be made to : (1) how contracting offices prepare and submit notices to the CBD and (2) how the CBD disseminates these notices to the business community. BACKGROUND: The CBD's publishing system is automated. This was accomplished by encouraging contracting offices to use private electronic mail services to send their contract notices to the CBD. The notices sent via these electronic mail services are received in a standard format that requires no editorial corrections or retyping. Currently, about 90-95% of all contracting offices prepare and transmit their CBD notices through one of eight Email services. There are approximately 4,500 offices that prepare and submit notices to the CBD. Under the current publishing system, it takes about 24 hours to prepare and publish each notice. Dozens of private electronic publishers redistribute the CBD via On-line/Internet/WWW/Disk/Fax and other means. The U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, distributes the CBD in paper form. The CBD is entirely funded through user and subscriber fees, as follows: (1) CBD management and preparation of notices for publication of the CBD is financed through collection of a printing fee (currently $18) per each notice published--approximately 83,000 notices were published in Fiscal Year 95; (2) the complete CBD electronic data file is provided (to value-added sources) for a fee of $50 per day; and (3) GPO finances printing and distribution of the CBD paper edition through subscription fees. It is desired to reduce overall costs through increased use of electronic media. The Department is interested in receiving information which specifically addresses the ability of proposed approaches to: (1) facilitate the fulfillment of legal requirements for publicizing under the Small Business and Office of Federal Procurement Policy Acts, (2) provide an informative and consistent data architecture and content that are useful to vendors, (3) provide convenient and easy access to those who generate procurement opportunities and to those who respond to or otherwise use them, including an effective search capability (4) publish notices on a real-time basis, (5) incur minimal cost to affected parties within and outside the Government, (6) utilize electronic media, e.g., Internet/WWW, (7) be authentic, reliable and consistent, (8) be interactive so that users in the government and private sector can exchange information relating to procurement opportunities via the media, (9) be robust enough to handle the volume while maintaining a high rate of speed (access and information transfer rate), (10) utilize open systems and common COTS software and hardware, (11) easily adapt to evolving technology and user needs, (12) provide linkage, e.g., hypertext, to other web sites, (13) provide an appropriate level of security, (14) provide services to low-tech users, (15) and provide mechanisms for financing the service, including fee for service, billing, rate structure, etc. Respondees are also requested to address: how their recommended approaches might be expected to affect existing CBD value-added service providers and their customers; and how system change decisions might be managed and paid for, including cost/benefit analysis of proposed system changes. Proposed approaches should take into account - the current categories and architecture of notices published in the CBD, per part 5 of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) as well as the diverse nature of notices and the sources from which notices originate, including Bureau of Prisons, federally funded research and development centers, sales of personal and real property, state and local governments, notices of OMB A-76 studies, announcements by Members of Congress regarding meetings or conferences that may concern the public, changes in the standards and certifications systems used by foreign governments which could affect U.S. exporters, etc. Special Requirements: Proposed approach must take into account that 5-10% of notices are received for publication in paper form. At this time, DoC supports the publication of GPO's paper edition, however there are plans to eventually migrate to a completely paperless environment. Title 44 of the United States Code prohibits the government from copyrighting the CBD contents and Title 15 prohibits the government from publishing commercial advertisements in the CBD. This notice is a Request for Information, not a solicitation. Responses and questions regarding this announcement should be addressed to U.S. Department of Commerce, Acquisition Policy and Programs, Attention: Florence Dyson, Room 6420, 14th and Constitution, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20230. Telephone (202) 482-5233, fax (202) 482-1711. Questions regarding the current CBD system may be directed to Norman Meltzer, CBD Manager on (202) 482-0632. Responses should be limited to 15 pages and must be received by May 20, 1996. Sources submitting approaches which are considered potentially viable may be invited to discuss their proposed concepts with the government. (0122)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0036 19960502\D-0001.SOL)