U.S. General Accounting Office, Acquisition Management, 441 G. Street N.W., Room 6851, Washington, DC 20548

99 -- PRINTING PLANT SOL OAM-2000-N-0028 DUE 051900 POC Darion A. Powell (202) 512-3725 E-MAIL: Printing Plant, powelld.gsc@gao.gov. DESCRIPTION: This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This is a Request for Proposals (RFP) OAM-2000-N-0028. This combined synopsis/solicitation is organized in five parts: 1, General Requirements; 2, Specific Requirements; 3, Applicability of FAR Provisions; 4, Format of Proposals; 5, Cost Proposals; 6, Evaluation Criteria; 7, Procurement Schedule, and 8, Point of Contact. 1. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS: The purpose of this acquisition is to acquire digital printing with in-line processing and finishing of documents. A digital printing configuration includes all components and software required to transfer digital images, load paper, finish the printed output as saddle stitched, side-stitched, and perfect bound documents, and print color covers. Teaming arrangements to satisfy this overall requirement are acceptable, with the stipulation that GAO will accept proposals only from offerors who take full responsibility for integrating the entire system and meeting GAO's quality and production requirements. GAO understands that many components will originate from various companies and that these components must be integrated into a complete system. Due to this complexity, GAO will not manage the relationships of the offeror's partners. 2. SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS. 2.1 WORKLOAD: The digital system is required to produce a high volume of documents within a 6-hour work time, 5 workdays per week, 252 workdays per year. On occasion, there will be a need for an extended day and weekend. It would be expected to produce annually 700 new report titles and 2,000 or more non-audit documents. The combined number of pages/images annually for all these documents will be about 43 million pages. The vendor's system configuration must meet this volume requirement. Daily, the production volume may average around 171,000 pages, but could peak to 389,000 pages. In addition, high priority requests would have to be turned around in a matter of minutes with the balance completed within a few days. Given this requirement, GAO estimates that the systems must be in printing mode at least 75% of its operating hours and lost production time due to operator setup, maintenance, diagnostics, and repairs cannot exceed 25% of the available operating hours. 2.2 OUTPUT: GAO publishes the results of its audit work, approximately 1300-1400 jobs per year. These documents are primarily 8 1/2" X 11", printed on both sides of the page (i.e. duplex), and are primarily saddle stitched. About 5 percent of the documents are 92-400 page perfect-bound documents; however, on rare occasions, a document may be significantly larger. GAO may consider breaking very large reports into multiple volumes. The current paper stock for the text is 60lb white offset. The initial GAO report printing of about 500 copies has a solid blue reverse-text cover. This cover is currently lithographically printed on 50-pound white vellum stock. Demand reprints of GAO products are self-cover documents printed with black ink. The proposal must address both saddle stitch and perfect bound solutions. GAO's non-audit documents would also be printed on the system; non-audit documents are ones used for a wide variety of needs. These documents are also printed on both sides of the page and are primarily 8 1/2" X 1 l" saddle stitched and perfect bound. However, many of these documents are side stitched or "tape bound". Thus, the system is required to deliver 8 1/2" X l l" cut sheets; some jobs with or without side stitching. The workload for non-audit work is about 2,000 jobs annually with quantities ranging from a few hundred copies to several thousand copies. The majority of special publications measure 6" X 9", 5 1/2" X 8 1/2", 5" X 8", and 3 1/2" X 8 1/2" and require a coated 60lb cover stock. Other available standard system features such as hole punching for loose-leaf documents are useful if they are provided at no additional cost. Offerors are to express in their proposals the total throughput of the system, as pages per minute. Throughput is the length of time to produce finished publications, so throughput includes more than just printing; it includes finishing operations. Throughput will be based on the system's ability to print the work as 11x17" duplex sheets, 4-page signature publications. 2.3 COMPATIBILITIES: The digital printing system must be capable of full integration with GAO's network environment and electronic document formats. The system must connect to GAO's Ethernet network (Netware 5.x and higher, Windows 95/98/2000), accept digital files from GAO's network storage devices, and integrate fully with GAO's request processing system and mail list management systems and report production data back to GAO's job management system. GAO has an automated data entry system using Oracle that must be integrated. Specifically, the digital printing system must a), be able to recognize the different types of work and be intelligent enough to recognize job tickets, and queue, track, and know the status of jobs; b),be able to pass this data back to GAO's job management system; c) communicate and exchange data with GAO's information systems (Microsoft NT and Novell Netware OS) for the purpose of obtaining file location data (filename and path information) of files that are to be printed; c) communicate and extract files for printing over a Novell network; d) communicate and provide data to GAO's information systems for the purpose of tracking printing status information (printing queue and job ticket information) on printing operations; e) communicate and receive name, address, and postage information from GAO's information systems for addressing and mailing printed materials and managing mailing systems; and f) be able to accept documents stored in PostScript, Adobe Acrobat PDF, TIFF, ASCII, and hard copy formats. The electronic files are located on network servers and optical disk media. The system must be able to access these files and transport any individual file to the print manager queue. 2.4 SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS: The digital printing system proposed by the offeror must a), print in 4-page signatures adding blank pages as necessary and automatically. These blank pages must be put near the end of the file so the last two pages in the file print as the last two pages; b) be capable of handling intermixed file formats. TIF and PostScript files will be intermixed in a stream of PDF files. The system must handle this without operator intervention; c) have the capability to remove the last page of GAO reports and select and replace it with a new last page, without operator intervention. This is necessary because GAO's archive files since 1980 have third-class postal indicia which is not suitable for mailing copies printed just in time with first and fourth class postage. In addition, many of GAO's PDF files have solid black rectangles where the recipient's address is placed. Job tickets will indicate the need for this function; d) produce the entire black and white document in one pass; e) have the capability to scan hard copy input into raster image files, make changes to the document, and view PDF, TIFF, and PostScript files. The capabilities must allow the operator to edit, manipulate, and enhance illustrations, resize and crop photographs, and provide the capability to store the file in GAO's digital archive. This may be a workstation and scanner connected to the system but it must not slow down printing production speed. The scanner must produce high-quality images equal to, or better than, that of the Xerox 620S document scanner; f) the system print manager software must be capable of scheduling and controlling printing equipment in GAO's plant, even though the eventual number and type of printing devices has not been determined. GAO currently intends to include at least one of its two DocuTechs and possibly add network copy machines and digital color printers in the future; g),print manager software must be able to process according to the following production priorities: complete within 2 hours requests from Congress; GAO requests from the Office of Congressional Relations, the Office of Public Affairs, and the Office of General Counsel; and the news media; complete within 24 hours all other GAO requests; group non-audit jobs; route/group jobs for networked copy machines; route/group jobs for networked DocuTechs; h) be fully integrated with "Postal Soft" mail management software, and be able to support mail presorting and printing of postal indicia; i), be able to interrupt presort jobs for priority job requests and allow for manual interrupt at any time to process a rush job or modify the queue; j) enable the creation of standard job tickets for repetitive type documents like GAO reports and have the ability to automatically create the job ticket by importing ASCII data output from GAO's request processing or other systems; and k)in the configuration proposed, the system is to address the printing of black ink on 11x17" covers, color paper, and cut sheets; the offeror is to propose the best way to handle this requirement. 2.5 PRINT AND PAPER QUALITY: GAO produces quality audit documents that meet visual communications standards, the expectations of the Congress, and the information needs of demand customers. It requires the image printing process to provide an offset printing look and feel with sharp print of text, line art, screen images, and photographs. GAO will furnish a disk containing a standard set of electronic files representing GAO production work. All bidders must submit print samples on GAO's paper specifications and furnish 100 print samples of each test file. Offerors are required to furnish 100 print samples of each test file on any alternative papers recommended by vendors. Details on paper specifications may be found below. GAO has specific quality requirements the system must meet such as: a), the print quality ofphotographs, halftones, line art, gray scales/screens must be high quality, sharp, dense dots. Highlight and shadow dot structure must be maintained; failure to do so will result in GAO determining that the system is unable to meet GAO standards for reproduction of halftone images. GAO will compare all bid submissions for the amount of "drop out" of extreme highlights; b), the quality of all halftone images, even marginal originals, must reproduce at an acceptable level of quality for legible reproduction, as determined by GAO standards; c), the saddle stitch fold must be tight; d) the print registration for front and back pages must be within 1/32 of an inch; e) the system must print at a minimum of 600 dots per inch; f) the vendor is to demonstrate how well 60lb white offset, measured at .0047 inches thick, or .1194 mm thick paper, GAO's current standard for the text of all audit documents, will run and print; g) GAO understands that high-speed digital printers require newly developed laser and xerographicpapers to achieve image sharpness and runability. The vendor must demonstrate acceptable print quality and runability on a paper type and brand of their choice, but the paper must be at comparable cost and an acceptable substitute to 60lb white offset (samples available to offerors) paper, in visual, weight, durability, and textural qualities. The paper chosen must be factored into the vendor's bid price to determine the total cost of the system. The vendor must provide the paper specification, brand name, and a list of suppliers; h) The vendor may demonstrate acceptable print quality and runability on a lighter weight paper that it believes would be acceptable to GAO. GAO wants to consider a lighter weight paper as a future system enhancement. The potential future cost savings to GAO by using a lighter weight paper will be considered in determining the best value system. The print image controls must enable the operator to adjust print quality to compensate for marginal quality images. This includes abilityto adjust hue, contrast, background, and more to enhance an image to make it acceptable. GAO must be able to reproduce 20 percent screen images from scanned hard copy. The quality must be adjustable without having to resubmit the job file. The vendor must guarantee that every printed output copy will look just as good or better than it did at the customer's (document originator) workstation; I) the manufacturers must be ISO 9001, 9002 and 9003 certified and Y2K compliant. In addition, the offeror is responsible for identifying all regulatory requirements and reasonable operating needs and is to assure the system's continued operation and adherence to OSHA standards. 2.6 DIGITAL COLOR PRINTING SUBSYSTEM: A) Covers. GAO has a minimum requirement that the digital printing system be capable of producing color covers. Offerors are required to provide a digital color printer solution that produces 600 x 600 dpi printed sheets measuring at least 12" X 20". The proposals should be for 20" wide web-fed technology and must print multi color, including spot color and process color, on both sides of the sheet. GAO report covers are full reverse solid print that bleeds on 4 sides. The image area extends 1/8" beyond the final size of 11" X 17", or whatever size the cover might be due to the need for a spine. GAO will evaluate print quality and system speed. Included in this evaluation will be the visual match to the solid reverse blue GAO report cover, the fold, the absence of undesirable marking, and the ability to print covers with a spine for perfect bound documents. The spine fold must not show any cracks due to the folding or stitching. The GAO report cover color is PMS 285. Proposals must include 100 sample covers, identifying the paper used, in order for GAO to evaluate color match, print quality, durability, and paper cost. Acceptance will be determined for color match to current color covers which are printed on 50lb white vellum cover, using PMS-285; current covers are measured using a X-Rite Reflection Densitometer with a reading range of 105 to 115 using the cyan key. B) Other Color. Offerors should identify all the capabilities of their color system, those that can be delivered now and potentially in the future. GAO will evaluate these capabilities and plans in its selection. At a minimum, GAO expects this system to have variable printing capability and accept GAO input files so as to avoid file format conversion. It would be desirable for the system to have at future date full inline capabilities to print and bind saddle stitched publications, with a separate cover. Regarding color, offerors are free to discuss what is doable today and what might be forthcoming within the next few years. 2.7 MAINTENANCE: The system vendor must guarantee a maintenance and repair service contract for the life of the system. This service agreement must guarantee the vendor will respond within 2 hours and will be available during GAO's operating hours. GAO's current operating hours are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The vendor must be flexible to accommodate GAO's changing needs. GAO may need service to be available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Although GAO currently intends to contract for service only during its 16-hour operating hours, GAO expects service personnel, once called, to work continuously until the maintenance or repair is completed. The vendor's service personnel are to be qualified, experienced, and factory trained professionals. In addition, GAO wants the option to have the vendor provide an on-site maintenance person. Although this person's primary function is to perform maintenance, he/she would also instruct GAO operators and operate the system. Offerors should provide the optional cost of this on-site person in their cost proposals. Acceptance Testing and Performance: GAO has developed a multi-phased acceptance and performance measurement test. This detailed test will be provided to all attendees of the solicitation bidder's conference. 3. APPLICABILITY OF FAR PROVISIONS: the following Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) provisions and clauses apply to this solicitation and are incorporated by reference. FAR 52.212-1 -- Instructions to Offerors -- Commercial Items. Offerors must include a completed copy of FAR provision 52.212-3 -- Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items with their offer. FAR 52.212-5 -- Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statues or Executive Orders-Commercial Items. FAR 52-212-4 -- Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items, Conditions. Proposals will be evaluated in accordance with FAR Provisions 52.212-2, Evaluation of Commercial Items, price and other technical factors considered. FAR 52-249-2, Termination for Convenience of the Government (Fixed-Price), any termination of lease/rental, not the result of contractor default, will be accomplished pursuant to the Termination for Convenience provision. 4. FORMAT OF PROPOSALS: offerors must submit proposals no later than 2:00pm, May 19, 2000. Offerors are urged to attend a pre-solicitation conferenceto be held 10:00 a.m., May 2, 2000 at the U.S. General Accounting Office, 441 G St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20548. The purpose of this conference will be to summarize GAO's requirement, provide a walk-through of GAO's existing printing plant, provide offerors an opportunity to view GAO print products and specifications, and disseminate acceptance testing procedures. Offerors interested in attending this conference should contact Darion A. Powell at (202) 512-3725 or via e-mail NLT April 28, 2000 to confirm attendance and to allow GAO to ensure access to the GAO facility with the building security staff. Proposals may be mailed or delivered to the above address faxed to Darion Powell, (202) 512-2658 or e-mailed. Proposals must contain:1) the name, address, and telephone number of the offeror; 2) Representations and Certifications at FAR 52.212-3; 3) technical proposal addressing GAO's technical requirements; 4) cost proposal; 5) any product brochures, descriptions, or informative catalogs detailing the products being proposed; and 6) identification of at least 5 references, preferably references that include other government entities, professional services organizations, and/or commercial enterprises having similar printing volumes, timelines, and configurations, and 7) sample runs of production documents and covers as specified elsewhere in this SOW. Offerors must preface their proposals by an Executive Summary that ties in or correlates their technical proposal with the specific SOW criteria contained within this CBD SOW. The proposal must be signed by an official authorized to bind the offeror. Offerors that fail to furnish required representation and certifications, or reject the terms and conditions of the solicitation, may be excluded from consideration. 5. COST PROPOSALS: The GAO seeks a wide variety of cost approaches to be identified in a straightforward manner. The following line items must be completed and made part of the offeror's cost proposals: 1) Straight purchase price for the entire configuration being proposed, excluding operating labor, but including installation, with annual maintenance costs identified; the offeror also is required to identify cost for all chemicals (toner, developer, fixer) and any other fixed or variable (click) costs and how click charges are calculated; 2) Monthly lease price excluding operating labor, 60 months; 3) Monthly lease to purchase price with zero dollar buyout and all hardware and software reverting to government ownership at the end of t Posted 04/14/00 (W-SN445160). (0105)

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