U.S. Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/OFA/AGFS/AMD -- OFA51, 1305 East West Highway -- Station 7604, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910

70 -- CURRENTOFF-THE-SHELF SOFTWARE PACKAGE WITH A CUSTOMIZED USER INTERFACE FOR USE ON CD-ROMS SOL 52-DKEA-9-90030 DUE 040799 POC Joel Perlroth, Contract Specialist 301-713-0829 x121 Diane C. Husereau, Contracting Officer 301-713-0829 x102 WEB: click here to download a copy of solicitation, http://www.rdc.noaa.gov/~amd/SOLINDEX.HTML. E-MAIL: click here to contact the Contract Specialist, Joel.L.Perlroth@agf.noaa.gov. This is a solicitation for commercial services prepared in accordance with the format in FAR 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This acquisition is being conducted under a 100% set aside for Small Business. The SIC Code is 7372, and size standard is $18M. The complete solicitation along with any questions and answers will be posted on or about March 8, 1999 at the following web site: http://www.rdc.noaa.gov/~amd/SOLINDEX.HTML. A written solicitation will not be issued unless requested of the Contract Specialist listed below. The closing date for Solicitation No. 52-DKEA-9-90030 is April 7, 1999 at 3:00 P.M., Eastern Standard Time. Offerors should access the solicitation web site prior to submission of offers to determine if the solicitation has been amended. Offerors who download solicitations from the Internet page assume responsibility for obtaining any amendments to a solicitation. Your written response to any solicitation must include acknowledgment of receipt of any amendments. Offerors may submit written questions pertaining to the solicitation requirements through March 18, 1999 at 3:00 P.M., Eastern Standard Time to allow the program office adequate time to prepare and issue a response to all offerors prior to the closing date and time for receipt of offers. Questions may be faxed to Joel Perlroth, Contract Specialist at 301/713-0809 or e-mailed to: Joel.L.Perlroth@agf.noaa.gov. The response to questions will be posted on the web-site stated above. Requirement Description: The Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration intends to enter into a requirements contract to provide the U. S. Department of Commerce/ STAT-USA with a current off-the-shelf software (COTS) package with a customized user interface for use on CD-ROMs containing the National Trade Data Bank (NTDB ). Authorized by the 1988 Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act, the NTDB is designed to be a one-stop source of economic and trade-related Government information whichU.S. companies can use in planning their exports of products and services. The requirement is to replace an aging a system that is not year 2000 compliant. STAT-USA intends to replace the current Windows software with a new Windows version, which would be easy for the customers to use and would, at the same time, shorten the monthly disc production cycle. The information distributed via the NTDB CD-ROM originates in over 50 Government agencies and offices. The information is received at STAT-USA in many different formats and is stored in flat files in the STAT-USA data repository (NT 4 server). Additional databases may come from a Lotus Domino server, release 4.6, running under Windows NT 4 or higher. Currently, the NTDB is produced monthly and two discs are needed to contain all of its 130,000+ documents. STAT-USA ships about 1,300 disc sets monthly to about 900 subscribers and single-issue purchasers. Additionally, about 1,100 monthly orders are shipped to the Federal Depository Libraries by the Government Printing Office (GPO). STAT-USA will not consider an offeror that does not have a licensing agreement with the GPO. As such, all offerors shall provide copies of their arrangements (or pending arrangements) with GPO concerning the distribution rights for the software. The Government is interested in a Commercial Acquisition of a COTS package for the "new" NTDB, as generally described above, and including arrangements for staff training and technical support. Although a limited capability for customization of the user interface is specified (for example, to customize icons and titles), the Government wants to purchase an existing COTS package which will provide us with the capability of & authoring and creating CD-ROMs having customized qualities described in this statement of work. As part of the proposal process, we expect the vendors to produce a proof of concept CD-ROM using existing authoring packages. To this end, the Government has provided an ftp site that offerors should use in creating the CD-ROM deliverable to ensure capability. The site holds a representative sample of data files (including keyword files) in various format types and a "readme" file which contains keyword file structure information. The ftp address is ftpserv.esa.doc.gov and the directory is NTDB3. The COTS shall be programmed for the microcomputer environment as opposed to workstations, minicomputers or mainframes. In general, the software shall provide the following capabilities: Run on Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows NT operating systems. Support documents in their native formats, including graphics. Support exporting data in a variety of formats. Be networkable under Windows and Novell. Provide search function which supports full text, structured, and Boolean searching. Provide the capability to mark selected text inside a document, save it, and print it. Provide a printing function which allows both portrait, and landscape printing with choice of font size and the ability to print multiple items from a results list. It is anticipated that the Government will issue a requirements contract for a base period and four option periods, if exercised. All responsible sources are invited to submit proposals in writing, signed by an authorized individual of the company. The Government will not accept electronic, telegraphic, facsimile or telephonic proposals. Award will be made to the responsible, responsive offeror whose offer is deemed technically acceptable and represents the best value to the Government. The Government intends to made one award. The provision at 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial, applies to this acquisition and there is no addenda to this provision. The provision at 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and the evaluation factors are technical capabilities, past performance and cost/price. Each offeror must include a completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items, with its offer. The clause at 52.212-4 ContractTerms ad Conditions-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition and there is no addenda to this provision. The clause at 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders- Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. Additional contract terms and conditions are noted in section B of the solicitation. This acquisition is not rated under the Defense Priorities and Allocations System. Note 1 is applicable Posted 03/05/99 (W-SN305589). (0064)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0392 19990309\70-0010.SOL)