U.S. Department of Labor, Procurement Services Center, 200 Constitution Ave, NW, Room N-5416, Washington, DC 20210

70 -- DEVELOP AND OPERATE AN OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION SYSTEM SOL RFP L/A 97-06 POC Charles E. Greer, Jr., Contract Negotiator, (202) 219-6445 Phyllis R. McMeekin, Contracting Officer, (202) 219-6445. The U.S. Department of Labor's, Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) has a requirement to develop and operate a turnkey system to process approximately 1 million reports filed by employee benefit plans each year. The system will use scanning, optical character recognition, and intelligent character recognition technology (or alternative technologies) which are capable of processing the reports, conducting edit tests to insure completeness and acuracy and consistency on the face of the reports, and contacting filers when corrections are necessary. The system must be capable of taking the formatted portion of the filing and converting it into computer code. PWBA currently relies on manual key-entry and microfiche modalities which it intends to replace. The proposed system must be capable of verifying the filer's identity and linking the filing to past filings. Filers electing to file electronically (rather than submit paper forms) must be able to file conveniently by on-line transmission, CD-ROM, floppy disk, or tape. The contractor must also undertake an aggressive campaign to increase the use of electronic filing. The information reports which are the subject of this proposed system are Annual Reports (Form 5500, Form 5500-C and Form 5500-R) required by the Employee Retirement Income Security ACt (ERISA). A typical Annual Report contains identification information, financial data, and narrative information regarding the operation of employee retirement or health benefit plans covered by the ERISA provisions. A typical Annual Report is 8 pages but length may be as great as 1,000 pages in complex report. This RFP will be issued as a draft for comments. The official RFP will be issued approximately two weeks after receipt of comments. Vendors who request a copy of the draft RFP will automatically be on the mailing list for the RFP. Vendors who requested a copy of RFI T.N. 96-15 will receive a copy of the Draft RFP and the official RFP and need not submit another request. All request for the Draft RFP should be received in this office within fifteen days of publication of this notice. The fax number is (202) 219-6853. This requirement will not be readvertised before issuing the RFP. (0320)

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