REQUEST FOR INFORMATION AND COMMENT ON USDA NATIONAL FINANCE CENTER PAY ENGINE PROJECT. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION. POC: Michael McFarland, Contracting Officer (ph. 202-720-4179) (fax 202-720-4529) (email michael.mcfarland@usda.gov). The following Request for Information (RFI) is issued for purposes of conducting market research and allowing commercial IT companies to provide comments, suggestions and questions about the proposed Pay Engine Project for the USDA, National Finance Center (NFC). USDA is in the process of formulating the acquisition and project strategy for the NFC Pay Engine. All information submitted in response to this RFI will be used for planning purposes only. FAR Clause 52.215-3 applies. All information will be safeguarded from unauthorized disclosure. Please ensure any sensitive or protected information is clearly marked as such. All information received will be considered as the USDA develops the solicitation. This is not a formal solicitation under FAR Part 15 or a FAR Part 13 simplified acquisition, but a request for interested parties to provide information. No solicitation document exists and requests for a solicitation will be ignored. A Project Overview and System Overview may be accessed at the USDA NFC Pay Engine web site at www.usda.gov/da/payengine/. Interested companies whose core business is information systems development and integration are encouraged to review the documents on the Pay Engine web site and provide suggestions, ideas and comments about current commercial industry practices, and to ask questions that they believe USDA must answer (what potential offerors must know) or consider (what USDA must know) in conducting this acquisition. USDA is particularly interested in the following areas: 1) System development and technical challenges for the envisioned system, objectives and standards; 2) System development process and schedule issues; 3) The use of a revenue stream model for payment: industry experience with this model, concerns this may present to industry and their possible resolutions; 4) Vendor-government relationship and division of responsibilities for achieving the project objectives; 5) Subcontracting opportunities for small and small, disadvantaged business; 6) Industry experience and lessons-learned from efforts or projects of a similar scope and size; 7) Contractual issues such as necessary contract length, termination rights, etc; 8) Intellectual property issues; 9) Acquisition process considerations; 10) Ability of commercially available systems to provide: a) forward and backward version compatibility, b) real-time transaction processing of all customer data, and c) real-time interfacing with legacy systems and other 3rd party application software. The USDA is considering having one or more information gathering sessions with the vendor community as part of the market research for this project and welcomes input on the timing, conduct and vendor expectations of these discussions. Interested parties are encouraged to provide comments and questions on any other areas/issues related to the NFC Pay Engine acquisition in their responses. Responses may be submitted via e-mail to michael.mcfarland@usda.gov or hard copy to the above address. All interested parties are invited to submit their responses to this RFI no later than April 28, 2000. WEB: Visit this URL for information about the USDA NFC Pay, http://www.usda.gov/da/payengine/. E-MAIL: Contracting Officer, michael.mcfarland@usda.gov. Posted 04/07/00 (W-SN442478).

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