Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Procurement & Grants Office, Contracts & Purchases Branch, 255 E. Paces Ferry Road, NE, Room 419, Atlanta, GA 30305

D -- SOFTWARE SERVICES DUE 022698 POC Phillip Green, Contract Specialist, (404) 842-6573 DESC: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) -- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (CDC/ATSDR) is requesting available information to assist in an analysis of alternatives for potential software with the following general criteria. INTRODUCTION: The National Centers for Infectious Disease (NCID) of CDC/ATSDR mission is to prevent illness, disability, and death caused by infectious diseases in the United States and around the world. To accomplish this goal, NCID staff work in partnership with local and state public health officials, other federal agencies, medical and public health professional associations, infectious disease experts from academic and clinical practice, and international and public service organizations. NCID accomplishes its mission by conducting surveillance, epidemic investigations, epidemiologic and laboratory research, training, and public education programs to develop, evaluate, and promote prevention and control strategies for infectious diseases. To support this broad mandate the Scientific Resources Program (SRP) of NCID provides a laboratory catalog and ordering system for biological products which includes but is not limited to the processes for development, production, procurement, and distribution of microbiological and cell culture media, chemical reagents, biological buffers, in vitro diagnostic products, cells and specialized cell products such as hybridomas, reference reagents, and re- distributed commercial products. BACKGROUND: The current system is a program written in ADABAS/Natural and residing on an IBM mainframe computer; it serves approximately 250-300 regular users of biological products. The system consists primarily of two "modules"; the product catalog, and the ordering system. The catalog has facilities for browsing lists of available products, searching for products by name or product number, and displaying product information and master production documents. The ordering component allows users of the system to place orders by stepping them through the specification of product, type and size of container, volume or number of containers required, and any special instructions. It then provides the user with an order number for reference. The orders placed are held in queue on the mainframe until a batch process is run (once per day) which collates and formats the orders and prints them out for subsequent processing. The ordering component also includes minimal facilities to allow users to look up previously submitted orders and resubmit them as new orders. I. SYSTEM SPECIFICS/CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS. Note: for purposes of clarity, a "customer" is defined as a person who uses our products; an "orderer" is the person who places the order for those products. In certain situations they may be different individuals, but in this document, for the most part, the terms are used interchangeably since their requirements are basically the same. A. Ordering System. 1. Easy to use; easy mobility between components; links between catalog and ordering components. 2. Customer submits all relevant information (no redundant data entry by SRP activity staff); includes sufficient space for allowing user to provide additional comments or justifications. 3. Authorization scheme based on Common Accounting Number (CAN), project #, EPI-AID # or whatever is to be used (customer user i.d. is keyed to matching CAN or project #'s; project #'s should have CAN's assigned). 4. Features to provide users with notification of production time parameters ("turnaround times") for given products, and instructions for facilitating emergency orders. 5. Re-order option allowing review of order history and most commonly requested products; ability to copy previous order and resubmit as new order. Feature to permit an order status check by customer, with ability to see ALL data from submitted requisitions. 6. Unique coded requisition identifiers (alpha-numeric and not linked to other business units). 7. Ability of customer to change/cancel requisitions or standing orders, online, before they are reviewed and/or printed. 8. Product release notification, via e-mail, for person who ordered the product (should include pick-up location of product); notification also going to person using the product (if different from orderer). 9. Option for printing of copy by customer at time of order (as with LSS glassware system). 10. Ability to see product cost and packaging information. 11. Ability to notify/track back orders & partial orders. 12. Ability to submit standing orders, each having a new requisition number; auto-generation of standing orders at time interval selected by the user (in accordance with criteria set by business unit). 13. Option for Call-in or Fax-in of orders, if system goes down. B. Catalog. 1. Full search capabilities (browse, or search by product name, formula #, catalog #, etc.). 2. Mechanism for cross-referencing between in-house formulations and their available commercial substitutes; need to create a "forced awareness" of equivalent commercial sources prior to the ordering of an "in-house" preparation. Ordering of in-house formulations for which a commercial substitute was available would require a one-time justification (or facilitate the order routing to the alternative source). 3. Divided by major categories (microbiological media, cell culture media, cell lines, etc.) with links between components; cell line catalog would include production schedule. 4. Includes packaging info. 5. Include component for reference to discontinued products/archived formulations. 6. Ability to establish/maintain/update catalog product lists (e.g, vendors' products, SRP custom products) C. CDC Biological Reference Reagent Inventory (special requirements): 1. CDC Customers: a. Ability to generate product usage report (screen and hardcopy), by customer, for products the customer orders; should delineate between whom products were "billed to"(who paid for it) and whom they were "shipped to" (who received and used it). b. Ability to see & generate report of products currently under status of "CDC Use Only." c. Ability to bill for products, produced by NCID labs, that are NOT on the current inventory system. 2. Customers Outside CDC: Need packing slip/pick list (large fields, ability to see component parts of a kit listed on packing slip/pick list) II. SERVICE PROVIDERS (SRP ACTIVITY REQUIREMENTS). A. Formulation/Product Database. 1. Individual formulation records would consist of the following sections: a. Formulation/technical instructions (i.e. actual preparation details), b. Safety considerations, c. Quality specifications, d. Labeling instructions (linked to labeling software), e. D.O.T. shipping instructions, f. Flexibility to modify database for CDC produced custom products or services as new technologies are implemented, g. Potential incorporation of protocols related to individual Specialized Diagnostic Support(SDS) project collaborations, h. Ability to perform real-time recalculation of ingredient quantities needed for batch production. B. Production Document/Master Record. 1. Formula components. 2. Queuing or real-time printing of requisitions (method to be determined later). 3. Quality Control & Assurance documentation. 4. Product documentation and essential preparatory instructions. 5. Allow authorized activity staff to view customer order history, order status, modify or cancel submitted requisitions, with ability to see ALL data from submitted requisitions. 6. Complexity/production factors for normalization/costing/reporting of production resources. 7. Vendor/manufacturer catalog number on requisition. 8. Single product or catalog number per requisition (no mixing of different items on a single requisition). C. Resource Tracking System. 1. Cost accounting capability based on an appropriate costing formula. 2. Real cost database linked to other cost databases/centers (e.g. glassware ordering system of the Technical Services Branch) to facilitate "accurate" costing of products (to extent possible). D. Archival Area. 1. Maintain archive of downloaded requisitions, old master records, and QC&A records, for retrieval/reprint if necessary. 2. Facilities for scanning/storing this data. E. Inventory Maintenance. 1. Inventory database contains complete information for each item, sufficient for receiving, tracking, ordering, and safety. 2. Inventory notifies when items are at/below reorder point. 3. Easy receiving/tracking (possible use of barcode technology). Ability to easily change inventory quantities, product pricing, or other information (under controlled access and password protection). Container-based rather than volume-based (industry standard; also easier to track). 4. Includes facilities for accommodating back orders & partial shipments of either internally or externally acquired products. 5. Ability to review and adjust only those inventory products (reagent chemicals, media, etc.) pertaining to one's functional activity (CCDS, ICA, MMDS, etc.). 6. Ability to do a "product notification/recall" of specific lots of media by lot/batch number and date, including amount and date ordered from vendor. 7. Pricing which corresponds to vendor's unit of issue (tubes, boxes, etc.). F. Other Services. 1. Complete customer database (linked to current CDC staffing directory). 2. E-mail-linked notification system for user product pickup, or for prep/QC- related issues. III. BUSINESS INFORMATION & MANAGEMENT REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. A. Monthly/quarterly/yearly usage reports (i.e. production reports and trend charts). B. Report of customer list and active ordering sites. C. Need to be able to report resource expenditures, costs (i.e. charge back) and/or usage by item, units, CAN/project #/activity #, individual user, branch, division, center, for any time period. D. Complete inventory report. E. Formulation reports: formulation cost, usage of particular chemicals by formula #. F. Customer order history. G. Monthly/quarterly/yearly expense reports (by vendor, type of purchase (VISA/Blanket Purchase Agreement Call Orders(BPA)/CDC Simplified Acquisitions. H. Generationof Product Catalog. I. Staff access to current and previous fiscal year data. J. Report showing expiration date of time sensitive inventory. K. Weekly report showing estimate of inventory needed to complete requisitions up to a specified time point (looks at requisitions due within specified time frame and compares inventory needed to inventory on-hand). REQUESTED INFORMATION: Individuals supplying information in response to this RFI should consider the following guidelines. Responses should provide specific solutions/answers with respect to how the requirement, as stated in the RFI will be satisfied. The response should address the required capabilities of the software system and then address the capabilities required in each of the components: Ordering, catalog, internal order processing, inventory, management reports, and cost/fund tracking" The intended system will be able to operate in a NOVELL Netware/ Windows/ LAN based environment with capabilities for intranet or internet ordering and catalog display. The vendor should be able to verify that the proposed system is certifiably year 2000 compliant. It is intended that the system will be based on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) or government-off-the-shelf (GOTS) hardware and software. However, innovation is encouraged. Consider nontraditional approaches, revolutionary ideas, and new technology where feasible. Respondents may recommend any approach that meets the requirement. Descriptions of hardware, software, and integration efforts should be sufficiently detailed to support the proposed approach. This RFI is not designed to eliminate any candidate, nor will it identify "the best" candidate. Cost and/or schedule information is requested: Estimated development, integration, production, and operations and maintenance costs Include an estimate of the schedule for developing and fielding each of the major components as well as for the complete system if appropriate. Response to this request will not obligate the Government in any manner. The Government will not reimburse the respondent for any costs associated with information submitted and is under no obligation to award a contract associated with this request. Proprietary or restricted information should be marked as such and will be protected and used only for the purposes of this RFI. THIS RFI DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN INVITATION FOR BID (IFB) OR REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP). Any procurement action for the system will be the subject of a separate, future announcement. Responses (original and one copy) to this RFI shall be submitted by February 26, 1998 and addressed to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/PGO, Attn: Phillip R. Green, E-mail: prg1@cdc.gov, 255 East Paces Ferry Rd., NE, Rm 204, MS E01, Atlanta, GA 30305. (0042)

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