W -- W -- PAGERS

Notice Date

November 20, 2000

Contracting Office

Department of Commerce, Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), Office of Procurement, Box 6, Washington, DC, 20231

ZIP Code

20231

Solicitation Number

52PAPT001010

Response Due

November 28, 2000

Point of Contact

Kristal Taylor, Contracting Officer, Phone (703) 305-8017, Fax (703) 308-5484, Email kristal.taylor@uspto.gov -- Zalma Ross, Contracting Officer, Phone (703) 305-8441, Fax (703) 305-8294, Email

E-Mail Address

Kristal Taylor (kristal.taylor@uspto.gov)

Description

The purpose of this amendment is extend the date of the combine cdb/solicitation notice 52PAPT001010 to November 28, 2000, and to provide answers to offerors questions. Accordingly, the following information is provided: 1. Proposals are now due November 28, 2000 @ 2:00 P.M. 2. Listed below are responses to offerors questions: ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FOR SOLICITATION 52PAPT01010 1) There is no description for "Economy", "Standard", and "Premium" pagers. These can be interpreted and defined a few different ways. Should we respond as follows: Economy=Digital; Standard=AlphaNumeric; Premium=Advanced (Advanced can be both SurePage which means guaranteed delivery and also 2way paging that interacts with emails from desk top PC's very easily)? Should we show both levels of Advanced? USPTO has provided a description of its present technical environment and it is our intention for each company to provide a description of what it decides to offer in each category. (Economy, Standard and Premium. 2) How should we account for various levels of service that are mentioned in the solicitation? Local, regional, nationwide coverage. Please see response to question number one (1). 3) Will all pagers have Toll free dispatch, insurance loss protection? Or how should we price these options? These options and pricing will be up to the individual companies. 4) Regarding this being a Government-wide Acquisition Contract, will invoice the end users directly (preferred) or through USPTO? Will there be a "fee for service" paid by end users? All invoices should come through USPTO. There will be a fee for service paid by the end users to the USPTO. 5) Who are your current vendors? Pagenet is the current provider. 6) Please describe the USPTO technical environment to include: current types of pagers in service i.e. numeric, alphanumeric, 1.5 guaranteed receipt messaging, 1.7 guaranteed receipt messaging with reply, 2-way messaging with or without e-mail integration, 2-way applications currently running. The USPTO currently uses alphanumeric pagers only. 7) What type of software is expected to be provided throughout the life cycle, standalone or LAN compatible software for sending messages to alphanumeric units or server based software for advanced messaging units and/or applications or both? The USPTO currently has stand-alone pagers. USPTO expects the offerors to provide whatever software is necessary for their products. 8) Please elaborate on "unlimited dispatch". Does this mean the USPTO anticipates that a live operator (to dispatch a message) will be required for USPTO message origination, or does USTPO mean the capability to send messages through a wide variety of means (either through communications software, through E-mail or the Internet, or through a live operator, or having the actual unit, as in the case of 2-way messaging, transmit the message ?) The USPTO currently has unlimited calls to a live operator. 9) How does USTPO define "pager selections"? Does this mean by pager type, or by selections of features on the unit or both? Please explain. The USPTO defines pager selections by the type and features. 10) Will any extended local coverage or regional coverage be required by any users? All USPTO users should have at a minimum local and regional coverage. 11) By toll-free 800 number dispatch service, does USTPO mean it has a dedicated 800 number linked to a live operator for sending USUSPTO messages, or does this mean that nationwide pagers have an 800 number to retrieve messages and/or an 800 number to dial in to send messages or both? The USPTO currently has a toll free 800-dispatch service linked to a live operator for sending messages. There is no 800 number to retrieve messages. 12) If USPTO has equipment, does this mean that it owns all of its pagers and the vendor are required to provide service on existing units at a particular frequency? Will the vendor be required to swap out old units or provide a trade-in rate or both? The USPTO does not own pagers. Our current requirement is to lease pagers. The vendor will be required to provide all necessary equipment to include all units. 13) What is meant by an economy, standard or premium pager? Our Company, ArchWireless provides numeric, alphanumeric, 1.5/1.7 (guaranteed receipt), and 2-way advanced messaging. How do these types of units equate to economy, standard and premium according to US's definition? Is the vendor expected to have several offerings of each type of pager? Please see response to question number one (1). 14) What does USPTO mean by "readiness training and personnel"? What specific activities are vendors expected to perform? Please elaborate. The USPTO definition for readiness training and personnel is as follows: 1. Readiness training means training for the user and Contracting Officer Technical Representation on the operational functions of the pager. 2. In addition to operational functions USPTO expects offerors to provide disaster recovery plans to USPTO i.e. satellite and system failures. 15) With respect to reports, what critical operational activities is USTPO trying to measure? We would like a better understanding of the requirement for this issue to determine whether vendors can provide the required reports. USPTO desires the following information at a minimum: (A) Quarterly report of funds spent, the number of pagers ordered during the quarter, funds spend during the quarter, number of pagers brought under the loss protection plan, pagers which have been re-circulated, pagers lost, active pagers in circulation with serial numbers. (B) Monthly customized summary billing statement to include (example, but not limited to) cue paging 1800- access, additional text numeric usage, excess operator dispatch calls, excess 800 text, local carrier charge nationwide number, nationwide text/numeric charges etc. (C) Yearly report shall provide information on the most current state-of-the-art pagers on the market. 16) How will USTPO evaluate "high acceptance, use, and success rate in the market? What type of response is USTPO looking for from vendors as a measurement of the above? It is up to each vendor to demonstrate the high acceptance, use and success rate of their products in the marketplace. Vendors can provide, i.e. industry reports, magazine articles etc. These items will not be included in your page limit of the technical page limitation of 10 pages. 17) In regards to required references, are we just to provide USTPO with a listing of references as indicated in the solicitation or query them to customer satisfaction? Vendors are required to provide a list of references as indicated in the solicitation. In accordance with reference provided by the offeror, USPTO will conduct past performance evaluation. 18) Can we expand the format of your section B-supplies & Services columns to include all of our product and service descriptions you are requesting pricing on? (Your columns are to limited for all the items we want to describe.) Offerors are free to incorporate additional features and services in each category (economy, standard and premium). However, offerors must provide a pricing schedule in accordance with Section B of this schedule. If an offeror's product line consolidates two of the three categories listed in Section B, i.e. standard and premium pagers are considered one in the same, the offeror must still provide pricing in all three categories. For evaluation purposes, offerors that do not provide pricing in all three categories will be considered non-responsive. 19) What is your interpretation of CLIN items # 6, # 7 and # 8? (is Economy numeric local, Alphanumeric Local, Standard = Alpha. Statewide? ,etc.) See response to number one (1). 20) Does your 100-mile radius from Crystal City include Winchester and Richmond Virginia? Yes. 21) What information do you require for the status reports you are requesting? ( does the report include pager #'s active, Serial #'s of each active unit on your account, etc.?) . See response to number sixteen (16) 22) How many pagers do you currently have with your present provider? 457 23) What are you including for your request for" hardware and software throughout the life cycle "? ( see pp. 1 of 4 next to unlimited dispatch svc.) Any software and hardware needed for these services should be included throughout the life cycle of the contract.

Web Link

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Record

Loren Data Corp. 20001122/WSOL001.HTM (D-325 SN5070K0)