USDA, Food and Consumer Service, Contract Management Branch, 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 914, Alexandria, VA 22302

D -- REQUEST FOR INFORMATION AND COMMENT ON A COTS REPLACEMENT SYSTEM TO THE EXISTING PROCESSED COMMODITY INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DUE 091500 POC Leonard Green (703) 305-2257 WEB: click here to access a Project and System Overview, http://www.fns.usda.gov/fdd/MENU/fd200/fd2000.htm. E-MAIL: click here to contact the contracting officer via, leonard_green@fns.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 commercial off the shelf (COTS) replacement system for the Processed Commodities Inventory Management System. USDA is in the process of formulating the acquisition and project strategy for the COTS PCIMS replacement system. 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 Food Distribution Division 2000 BPR web site at: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fdd/MENU/fd2000/fd2000.htm COTS: The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) and the Farm Service Agency (FSA) intend to modernize the existing Processed Commodity Inventory Management System (PCIMS) that currently supports the three Agencies missions. AMS, FNS and FSA are soliciting Vendors with integration expertise (E-Business -- web enabled, real-time transaction processing) in Enterprise to Enterprise (E2E), Business to Business (B2B), Business to Commercial (B2C), Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Analysis Planning Systems (APS) to answer this request with a high level concept paper on how you would approach and solve our business problem along with a Rough Order of Magnitude (cost and time). Collaboration of Vendors to provide the most complete solution is appropriate. Business Requirements: The three agencies (AMS, FNS and FSA) are seeking a web enabled solution that can handle up to 2.5 million registered users comprised of 90,000 schools in 27,000 school districts and upwards of 2 million farmers with 4000 other users (warehouses, processors, etc.). The System needs at a minimum to handle Ordering (90,000 schools), Warehouses, Transportation, Shipping, Financial Accounting (conform to FAR), Bid Analysis, Contracts, Commodity Export, Inventory control, Freight Payables, Procurement, Scheduling, Supply, Historical Analysis and Forecasting. Public Law, Section 508 requires that individuals with disabilities who are members of the public seeking information or services from a Federal department or agency, have access to and use of information comparable to that of non-disabled individuals. Architecture: The solution shall be a clustered processor architecture (may include the mainframe IBM 9000) in which the three On Line Transaction Processing tiers are distributed across multiple computing platforms with more than one computer providing services for a tier. Background: PCIMS is a data management system built around the integrated business and accounting requirements of three USDA agencies AMS, FSA, and FNS for the acquisition, tracking, and distribution of processed commodities for both domestic food and export relief programs. Domestic programs include school districts, Indian reservations, and special households. USDA provides approximately 20% of school districts' food needs nationwide through PCIMS. Using an allotment system, USDA takes orders and distributes the food products to the recipients. This mixed use program delivery, financial and inventory management system is the critical backbone and network support for the missions, and business and accounting requirements of the agencies. It supports acquisition, tracking, and distribution of approximately $1.0 billion of USDA domestic and $0.6 billion of export commodities annually. Sources interested in responding to this Request for Information shall submit a capability statement that clearly and convincingly identifies their capabilities. In addition, respondents must substantiate their capability with the following supplemental information: methodology, technical data, design, brochures, product names, price list, catalog pricing, terms and conditions, delivery schedule, etc. If these items are available under a GSA schedule, please provide the contract schedule and information. All responses must be received no later than 3:00 P.M. EST within 30 calendar days of this CBD publication. Interested firms must submit their completed response (6 printed copies), not to exceed 30 single sided pages and one soft copy (Microsoft Word and Power Point 7.0b, Adobe pdfs), plus supplemental information, to the attention of the contracting officer. Responses should be mailed to the above address. Posted 08/11/00 (W-SN485000). (0224)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0024 20000815\D-0008.SOL)

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