U.S. International Trade Commission, Office of Procurement, 500 E Street, SW, Room 413, Washington, DC 20436

D -- WHITE PAGES DIRECTORY SOL ITC-RFQ-00-0006 DUE 053100 POC Deborah Kearns, Contract Specialist, (202) 205-2736 WEB: Click here to download a copy of the RFQ:, http://info.usitc.gov/usitcsol.nsf. E-MAIL: Click here to contact the Contracting Officer via, dkearns@usitc.gov. 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; quotations are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. PAPER COPIES OF THIS SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE. Solicitation number ITC-RFQ-00-0006 is issued as a Request for Quotations (RFQ). Written documentation will not be issued for this quote. This acquisition is being conducted under Simplified Acquisition Procedures (SAP), FAR Part 12. This solicitation document, incorporated provisions, and clauses are those that are in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 97-16. The Standard Industrial Classification Code (SIC) is 7373, with a size standard of $18M. The RFQ is for the following CONTRACT LINE ITEM NUMBERS (CLINS): CLIN 0001: System development and data conversion CLIN 0002: System maintenance & support, CLIN 0003: (OPTIONAL) Software lease for 6 months, CLIN 0004: (OPTIONAL) System operation & maintenance, and functional enhancements as needed, CLIN 0005: (OPTIONAL) System operation & maintenance, and functional enhancements as needed, and CLIN 0006: (OPTIONAL) System operation & maintenance, and functional enhancements as needed. The Government reserves the right to exercise the above options and may exercise the the options (CLIN 0003 thru CLIN 0006) upon written notification. I -- BACKGROUND: The Directory Forum, an entity of the Enterprise Interoperability and Emerging Information Technology Committee of the US Federal Chief Information Officer's Council, has implemented an electronic directory of Federal employees' basic contact information, to promote communication within the Government and with the public, state and local governments, and business partners. This electronic directory, called The Federal White Pages, is currently available for use at www.directory.gov. It currently operates on an Innosoft directory software platform residing on a Sun workstation located at a Federal facility in Washington, D.C. By July 1, 2000, the Directory Forum requires an operational hardware and software platform to replace the current arrangement. The Directory Forum is interested in a low-cost solution which meets its current White Pages performance goals and provides as much flexibility as possible for future functional development of the system. Reuse of the current hardware, ease and cost of system operation, support for widely implemented standards (e.g., LDAP, HTTP) and performance of update cycles will be considered during proposal evaluation, in addition to acquisition cost. System features beyond the minimum which the Directory Forum believes will have value to the maintenance and operation of the White Pages will be also be considered in evaluation. II -- WHITE PAGES CONCEPT: The White Pages is a publicly accessible (via Web browser and LDAP client software on the Internet) directory of basic contact information on Federal employees: name, organizational location, work e-mail address, work telephone numbers, and job title where available. The goal is to have an increasing number of entries for Federal employees, eventually including data from all Federal agencies, and most other smaller entities (Commissions, Boards, etc.) The current number of employees contained in the directory is about 280,000, which could double or triple during the first option period, i.e., by September, 2001. The White Pages will support LDAPv2 or v3 queries, and will also have a Web browser interface. The Web interface will support navigation (drill-down) through organizations as well as top-level (Government- wide) query on name and organization. The Web interface shall be customizable, and the system shall provide the ability to develop statistics on system usage and performance. A.) PERFORMANCE GOALS FOR THE WHITE PAGES : (1) Information will be updated in the White Pages not later than 72 hours after it is made available by source agencies, (2) The White Pages system shall provide a system for updating directory contents from agency-provided data. The system MUST at a minimum be able to accept currently provided file formats (LDIF and tab-delimited) as complete replacements for an agency's data in the directory. This includes the ability to add, change and delete person entries, and to rebuild the agency's subtree in the directory automatically from the update data file: this required automatic addition and deletion of "OU" entries as needed to contain the provided person entries. It is VERY DESIRABLE that the system provide enhanced functionality in the area of data update processing. It is NOT REQUIRED that this functionality be delivered in the initial period of performance. Two kinds of enhanced capabilities are specifically desired: (i) more flexibility for data-providing agencies; (ii) "join" capability. Examples of flexibility include: ability of the system to initiate updates from files made available by providing agencies, e.g., on their FTP site; ability of the system to update from exposed LDAP or X.500 directories, or to serve data to White Pages users from those systems in place; ability to accept input from standard export formats of one or more common LAN or e-mail systems, making any required transformations on the White Pages end of the transaction. "Join" capability means the ability to accept inputs from two or more separate files, where each file contains a subset of the attributes of a single person entry. For example, if an agency provides one file with name and e-mail address, and another file with name and telephone number, the system could produce a set of person entries with name, e-mail and telephone number (where e-mail and telephone number were provided for a name), (3) The White Pages will average 99 percent availability during "prime time" working hours (Federal work days between 8AM and 6PM EST), (4) An arbitrary query against the full directory on a partial name (e.g., "Anders*") will return results at the White Pages server interface (not necessarily to a remote client on a slow connection to the Internet) within 10 seconds, (5) The White Pages shall support at least 1,000 lookups/queries per hour, with at least 5 simultaneous users, (6) The White Pages shall have the capability of limiting query output to a specified number of entries; it is desirable that it have the ability to limit read access to a list of IP address ranges and the ability to limit read access to specified DNS domains, e.g., .gov and .mil, (7) The White Pages shall include a facility for backup of data, programs and configuration, (8) It is DESIRABLE that the system be extensible to include additional functionality. Such capability will be evaluated in selection of a proposal, but actual delivery of additional functionality is not part of this acquisition. Specific additional functionality that is currently contemplated includes: (i) ability to support schema and other requirements for the White Pages to serve as a repository for public keys compatible with the Federal PKI Bridge system now being developed; (ii) ability to serve as a component of an authentication and/or authorization system for personalized Internet service delivery; (iii) ability to provide for adequately secure distributed administration of the White Pages (so that entries or selected attributes are updateable by the owner of the entry or an authorized administrator). B.) SCOPE OF WORK: The Contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, materials, tools, supervision, and other items and services necessary to provide the following: 1. OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS: The White Pages project is expected to use data files which have been developed by US Departments and Agencies for their own uses, and which are available for submission to the White Pages with some or no reformatting. Typically, the Directory Forum expects agencies to be able to provide a "flat file" of the required information via, for example, FTP, and to be able to provide an updated file at least monthly (depending on their internal data update cycles.) The system as currently implemented offers agencies a choice of LDIF format or a specified tab-delimited flat file format. The contractor shall deliver to the Directory Forum the completely configured and operational White Pages system during the initial period of performance (ending July 1, 2000.) The contractor shall perform maintenance and repair of all system elements during the period of performance. The contractor shall likewise perform updates of the directory from data made available by Departments and Agencies during the period of performance. At time of award, the Directory Forum will provide agency technical working contacts for all participating agencies, and will be responsible for obtaining clearances for release of data. The Forum will also promptly address technical options or policy questions that arise in the course of the project. 2. DELIVERY SCHEDULE: (a) June 1-July 1, 2000: system development and data conversion, (b) June 1-September 30, 2000: system maintenance & support (c) OPTIONAL PERIOD: October 1,2000-September 30, 2001 -- System operation & maintenance and functional enhancements as needed, (d) OPTIONAL PERIOD: October 1, 2001 -- September 30, 2002 -- System operation & maintenance and functional enhancements as needed, (e) OPTIONAL PERIOD: October 1, 2002 -- September 30, 2003 -- System operation & maintenance and functional enhancements as needed. 3. DELIVERABLES: All report-type deliverables (status reports, etc.) below shall be made in electronic form to the Contracting Officer at the address below. Delivery of the physical White Pages system hardware and loaded software and data shall be made at a location in the Washington, DC, area to be mutually agreed upon by contractor and the Government. The Contractor shall provide the following: (1) The major deliverable is an operational White Pages system, as described above, due not later than June 26, 2000, including test data confirming that the system meets performance and summary data showing achievement of directory population and data-currency goals. Contractor must also demonstrate that the directory update cycle is operating correctly (process of bringing in new data from at least 2 agencies and correctly processing it into the directory.) We anticipate that a major component of the cost of this project will be software licenses for the directory. To minimize costs in the FY2000 period of performance, offerors are encouraged to propose lease rather than purchase of software, for a minimum period of 6 months (i.e, through December 31, 2000), with an option to extend the lease or purchase the software. (2) The White Pages system shall include the capability to produce reports on usage of the system, including at a minimum the number of site visits and queries by time period. It shall also be able to record system uptime to support measurement of this performance goal. (3) In addition, the contractor shall provide such status and other reports on progress asmay be required to support interim payments and to provide the Directory Forum and Contracting Officer information on progress at least monthly. Such progress reports should include current status of system functionality and expected progress in the next month, as well as agency-by-agency data status (entries loaded, outstanding issues) and system performance records. Delivery of status reports shall be made in electronic format to the Contracting Office at the address below. (4) Contractor shall provide not later than August 15, 2000, system documentation and written procedures sufficient to allow the Government or another contractor to operate the system, including performing data updates. (5) Contractor shall also provide not later than August 15, 2000, a brief summary (3-5 pages typed double-spaced) of operational and maintenance tasks that would be necessary to be performed for ongoing production operation of the White Pages system. The provisions at FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. The provision at 52.212-2, Evaluation -- Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition with evaluation as to price, technical capability and past performance. For evaluation purposes, price is considered most important, followed by technical capability and past performance. Technical capability of the proposed offered product shall be evaluated to determine if the product offered best meets the specifications set forth in this solicitation. Past performance will be evaluated to ensure satisfactory business practices and timely performance. The Government will award an order that represents the best overall value to the Government. Determination of best value will include price, responsiveness to performance goals and operational requirements, financial terms of the offer, the credibility of the proposed technical approach, and any additional features or benefits offered (e.g., faster system response time, additional system features). Offers shall include the following: (i) A brief assessment of the White Pages project as described, indicating their proposed approach to the major challenges described and any areas where it may not be possible to meet objectives, (ii) proposed price, including a breakdown of major categories of cost. In particular, costs of acquisition or hardware and software licenses should be indicated separately, as it may be possible for the Government to provide these, (iii) all costs for creation and operation of the White Pages through the period of performance broken out by option period, plus other reports and deliverables, should be included. Note: Although a firm fixed-price offer is preferred, offerors may propose other schemes; if interim payments are contemplated, then milestones should be proposed that correspond to payments, and (iv) a very brief description of up to 3 projects previously conducted or currently being conducted that most closely resemble this one, including a customer contact who may be asked to confirm performance. Each quoter shall include a completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications -- Commercial Items, unit and extended price for all requested items, and prompt payment terms with their quotations. The clause at FAR 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions -- Commercial Items applies to this acquisition with no addenda. FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items applies to this solicitation. Specifically, the following cited clauses are applicable to this solicitation: FAR 52.217-9, Option to Extend the Term of the Contract, FAR 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity FAR 52.222-35, Affirmative Action for Special Disabled and Vietnam Era Veterans FAR 52.222-26, Affirmative Action for Handicapped Workers FAR 52.222-37, and Employment Reports on Special Disabled Veterans FAR 52.222-41. The Contracting Officer will furnish full text for the above listed clauses upon request. Offers will be received at U.S. International Trade Commission, Office of Administration, Procurement Services, 500 E Street SW, Room 414-B, Washington DC 20436 until 3:00 P.M. Eastern Standard time, Wednesday, MAY 31, 2000. Interested parties can download this notice and any additional information concerning this solicitation on the Commission's webpage at http://info.usitc.gov/usitcsol.nsf. Facsimile copies of quotations should be sent to (202) 205-2337. For more information regarding this solicitation, call Deborah Kearns, Contract Specialist at (202) 205-2736 or send e-mail at dkearns@usitc.gov. All responsible parties are invited to submit a quote which will be considered. Posted 05/19/00 (W-SN456505). (0140)

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