Department of Veterans Affairs, Acquisition Operations Service, 810 Vermont Avenue, NW, Mail Stop 93A, Washington, D.C.

70 -- COMMERCIAL COMPUTER SYSTEMS (DESKTOPS, ADVANCED DESKTOPS, PORTABLES, SOFTWARE, AND PERIPHERALS) SOL 101-60-95 POC Contact Contracting Officers Judith Sterne or Marilyn Martin at (202) 565-8004, or at STEJUD@ix.netcom.com. Department of Veterans Affairs will be releasing a full and open competitive solicitation for the Procurement for Computer Hardware and Software (PCHS), within the next 15 to 20 days. This RFP is being released under the Federal Acquisition Regulations governing the acquisition of commercial items. Department of Veterans Affairs requires commercial computer systems to improve efficiency and productivity. These systems will enter into either a stand-alone or networked environment. Over the next five years the non-networked systems will move to a networked environment. In the future, VA seeks to take advantage of technological advances and new business practices that promise to increase productivity and/or reduce costs (e.g. health care automation, electronic commerce, hardware and software on-line documentation, on-line data services, paperless office, wireless technology, document imaging, voice activated computers, personal digital assistants, ''plug and play'' technology, office automation (OA) software advances. The resulting contract will be for Desktop systems, Advanced Systems, Portable Systems, Software and Peripherals. Two indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts will be awarded from this solicitation for commercial items. The minimum dollar amount for each award will be $1,000,000, with a combined maximum of $1,500,000,000 for both contracts including the option amounts. The technical proposals will be due in 30 days after issuance of the RFP, and the pricing proposal will be due 15 days later. The VA will determine, based on an integrated assessment of each offeror's technical, management, and price proposals, the individual proposals judged to be most advantageous to the Government. The Request for Proposal (RFP) will be available on or about May 30, 1996, on the VA Vendor's Bulletin Board System, and the Internet. No hard copy of this procurement will be available. As this is available electronically only through either the Bulletin Board or the Internet, vendors should NOT submit written request for the RFP, as such requests will not be honored. To access the VA Vendor's Bulletin Board System within the Washington, DC area call (202) 273-5102, outside the Washington DC area the number is 1 (800) SELL-2-VA (1 (800) 735-5282). The command sequence is F (file library), 6 (rfp file area), V (VA Central Office), and D (Download). The file name is PCHS. If there are any problems accessing the BBS, please call Jeremy Cohen at (202) 273-8048 or Joe Maquire at (202) 273-8047. To access the solicitation via the Internet, you must have access to a commercial Internet account and specific WWW software. The Internet address will be http://www.va.gov/oirm/procurement/index.htm (0130)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0273 19960510\70-0003.SOL)