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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF SEPTEMBER 19, 2003 FBO #0661
SOLICITATION NOTICE

D -- TELEX AND FACSIMILE MESSAGING SERVICES

Notice Date

9/17/2003
 

Notice Type

Solicitation Notice
 

Contracting Office

Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office, SSMC4 - Room 7601/OFA61 1305 East West Highway, 7th Floor, Silver Spring, MD, 20910
 

ZIP Code

20910
 

Solicitation Number

EC3000-204-02
 

Response Due

9/22/2003
 

Archive Date

10/7/2003
 

Point of Contact

Edith Jones, Contract Specialist, Phone (301) 713-3478 x171, Fax (301) 713-4155, - Linda Shariati, Contracting Officer, Phone 301-713-3478,
 

E-Mail Address

Edith.L.Jones@noaa.gov, Linda.H.Shariati@noaa.gov
 

Description

THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (FAR) SUBPART 13.5 TEST PROGRAM FOR CERTAIN COMMERCIAL ITEMS, AND IS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN FAR SUBPART 12.6 - STREAMLINED PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATION AND SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS - 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. THIS SOLICTATION IS BEING ISSUED USING SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES. The solicitation number is EC3000-204-02 and is issued as a Request for Quotation (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2001-15. The associated North American Industrial Classification system (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 517410 with a small business size standard of $12.5 million. This acquisition is unrestricted and all responsible parties may submit a quote. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) manages the Nation's operational geostationary and polar-orbiting environmental satellites, and manages a large collection of atmospheric, geophysical and oceanographic data. Within NESDIS, the Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution (OSDPD) manages and directs the operation of the central ground facilities which ingest, process, and distribute environmental satellite data and derived products to domestic and foreign users. The Direct Services Division (DSD) of the OSDPD manages and operates the Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) program. The SARSAT program and system are part of the international Cospas-Sarsat System which is an international system designed to provide distress alert and location data to assist search and rescue (SAR) operations, using spacecraft and ground facilities to detect and locate the signals of distress beacons operating on 406 Megahertz (MHz) or 121.5 MHz. The position of the distress and other related information is forwarded by the responsible Cospas-Sarsat Mission Control Center (MCC) to the appropriate SAR authorities. Currently, the Cospas-Sarsat system consists of an MCC in Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taipei, United Kingdom, and the United States. MCCs are being planned in Greece, Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam. Telex and fax messages are sent from the U.S. Mission Control Center (USMCC) to various international SAR Points Of Contact (SPOCs) and U.S. Rescue Coordination Centers (RCCs). The USMCC is located in Suitland, MD. Further information concerning Cospas-Sarsat can be found at http://www.cospas_sarsat.org/ and http://www.sarsat.noaa.gov/. NOAA/NESDIS has a requirement for the acquisition of messaging services that provide the USMCC capabilities to send facsimile message and send and receive telex messages. These services are anticipated to allow the USMCC to continue national and international fax and telex data communications at least until 2010. It should be noted that the data volume among MCCs and the RCCs is low and a data rate of not less than 9.6 kbps nor more than 56 kbps are adequate for the mission. The current average byte volume per fax and telex is as follows: we send about 3500 faxes per month [117 per day]; we send about 160 Telex messages per month [5 per day]; and, we receive about 50 telex messages per month [2 per day]. Sample telex and fax messages appear in Appendix 1. Countries requiring telex and fax are shown in Appendix 2. The USMCC requires near real-time automatic delivery i.e. a delivery time not to exceed 15 minutes from the beginning of a transmission to its receipt. The contractor is required to provide the services and capabilities such that the USMCC can send/receive telex messages, and send fax messages over a X.25 connection or other vendor provided transport or the Internet between the USMCC and the contractor's network. The International Alphabet 5 used for messages to and from the USMCC is a hard requirement. The format and content of all the international messages sent and received by the USMCC are defined in "COSPAS/SARSAT Mission Control Centres Standard Interface Description", C/S A.002. The Government requires the following Specific Capabilities and Characteristics. The contractor will provide communication services as follows: (a) provide circuit status confirmation; (b) allow for addition/removal/ modification of communication sites and or services (telex, or fax) without any changes or modifications to the contract; (c) telex service must have connection to international telex and be as close to universal as possible; (d) at a minimum, handle transmission speeds between the USMCC and the vendors facility at 9.6kbps; messages designated for fax or telex delivery must be delivered in near real-time, which for the purposes of this contract, is defined as no longer than 15 minutes from the start of transmission to start of receipt of message at destination; (e) provide a timely method of receipt verification (not to exceed 15 minutes); (f) the X.25 protocol, if used, must support the CCITT 1980, 1984 and 1988 standards; (g) provide a timely method of delivery failure notification to the USMCC (not to exceed 15 minutes); (h) allow for an individual message size of up to 25,000 characters and ensure that message contents shall not be altered; (i) handle text format using International Alphabet #5 (IA5) representation; and (j) all of the above is to be duplicated at our Lanham, MD site. Outages will be subject to a recovery formula as mutually agreed upon after contract award. The Conditions of Services are as follows: (a) Communication Availability and Performance: Communications service shall be provided 24 hours per day on a continuous basis. The service must be reliable and must have an error transmission rate of one in ten million or less. The service shall have an operational availability of 99.5 % or greater calculated for each calendar day. The reliability, maintainability and availability parameters defined in this specification do not include any impact due to Government equipment outages. All preventive maintenance should be transparent to the Government. Any interruption in service will be treated as an outage subject to an outage recovery formula as mutually agreed upon after contract award. (b) Globally accessible. The communications service shall be globally accessible allowing NOAA to easily add communication sites (e .g., Vietnam, Greece, and Nigeria are expected to be added next year.) The service shall also allow NOAA to easily remove or modify communication sites without notice to the vendor. (c) Responsive maintenance: Due to the critical nature of the information to be disseminated, the contractor shall provide a single point of contact for trouble reporting and provide 24-hour trouble support with a response time not to exceed two (2) hours for the commencement of trouble resolution. The USMCC shall be notified at least 48 hours in advance of any unavoidable, scheduled outage. The communications service shall provide circuit status confirmation and provide a timely method of receipt verification. (d) Security: The communications service shall provide the resources to ensure that inbound telex traffic is restricted to authorized call-ins designated by the USMCC. The Contractor shall comply with the following reporting requirements during the installation phase of the work: the Contractor shall attend weekly telecons with the participants and the customer(s); the Contractor shall attend a formal mid-point briefing to be given for NOAA; and the Contractor shall attend a final formal briefing that will be given by NOAA and in which the Contractor shall provide an annotated final report. This is a firm fixed price requirement. The Contractor shall provide a firm fixed price for the following Contract Line Item Numbers (CLINs): CLIN 0001 The Contractor shall provide Telex Services for 12 months in accordance with the requirements stated above; and CLIN 0002 The Contractor shall provide Facsimile Services for 12 months in accordance with the requirements stated above; CLIN 0003 Monthly Recurring Charge for 12 months in accordance with the requirements stated above; and CLIN 0004 Nonrecurring Charge (One-Time Only). The firm fixed price shall include the cost for all aspects of this requirement including the teleconferences and meetings identified above. FOB Destination. FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial, applies to this acquisition. This FAR reference can be retrieved from the Internet at the following URL: www.arnet.gov/far. In accordance with FAR 52.212-1, Offerors must show the solicitation number, the time specified in the solicitation for receipt of offers, the name, address, and telephone number of the offeror, a technical description of the items being offered in sufficient detail to evaluate compliance with the requirements, price, remit to address, if different than mailing address, and a complete copy of the representations and certifications at FAR 52.212-3. If the offer is not submitted on the SF 1449, include a statement specifying the extent of agreement with all terms, conditions, and provisions included in this solicitation. FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Items applies to this acquisition. The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The technical evaluation factors are technical approach and ability. The evaluation factors other than price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price. FAR 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions - Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders - Commercial Items applies to this acquisition with the following numbered items from the clause marked as applicable: (1), (3), (7), (13) through (19), (24), and (30). Offerors shall submit (1) an original and two copies of the information specified by FAR 52.212-1 as restated above (including a technical description of the offeror's technical approach and technical ability that will be used for evaluation purposes); (2) a copy of the offeror's most recent published price list or pricing furnished for similar items to other customers; (3) a completed representation and certification in accordance with FAR 52.212-3. Submissions shall be received by September 22, 2003 at 3:00 pm local time. The submission shall be received at the following location by the date and time specified above: NOAA, NESDIS Acquisition Management Division, Attn: Edith L. Jones, SSMC 3, Room 10100, OFA64, 1315 East West Highway, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910. FAX and EMAIL SUBMISSIONS SHALL NOT BE ACCEPTED. . Potentional vendors should complete the vendor profile at the following website: http://www.ofa.noaa.gov/%7Eamd/vendor_form.html. Question regarding this acquisition should be forwarded to Edith L. Jones tel: 301-713-3478 or e-mailed to Edith.L.Jones@noaa.gov.
 

Place of Performance

Address: 4401 SUITLAND ROAD, SUITLAND, MARYLAND

Zip Code: 20746

Country: USA
 

Record

SN00436254-W 20030919/030917213120 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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