SOURCES SOUGHT
70 -- Robust Advanced Function Presentation Toolset.
- Notice Date
- 6/15/2007
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 334119
— Other Computer Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), National Office Procurement (OS:A:P), 6009 Oxon Hill Road, Suite 500, Oxon Hill, MD, 20745, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-RFI-33589
- Response Due
- 7/2/2007
- Archive Date
- 7/17/2007
- Description
- The Internal Revenue Service is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) for a robust Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) toolset that meets U.S. Government Section 508 compliance standards (Visually Impaired/Blind Accessibility). This product needs to be fully Section 508 compliant or detailed information must be provided specifying all aspects of non-compliance and targeted scheduled for compliance. The IRS requires that all interested vendors address how their product meets or will meet the appropriate technical standards listed under Section 508 Standards, under 508 Law found at www.Section508.gov. Technical Requirements: The Internal Revenue Service has begun a multi-year effort to migrate taxpayer notice composition and certain pre-print processes to a UNIX platform. To accommodate the need for developers on the new environment to manipulate AFP output and compare AFP output to legacy AFP output, we are evaluating products to meet our technical needs and also meet accessibility needs within our employee community. The following list provides a high-level list and explanation of processing requirements we are looking to meet through commercial off the shelf (COTS) solutions. We are looking for a single source, fully integrated solution. 1. Batch mode high speed binary print comparison 2. Batch mode AFP file sorts and merges 3. Batch mode transforms to PDF 4. Page and document level manipulation (splitting, resequencing, rotation, deletions, etc.) 5. AFP Indexing (TLE creation and manipulation) 6. AFP Viewing 1. Batch mode high speed binary print comparison, Below is a detailed explanation of each requirement: a. Run on Sun Solaris version 9.x or later. b. Provide masking capabilities at the individual field, page, and document level to allow comparison of files with the ability for the user to exclude reporting on known differences. For example, reference and test files being compared could be composed using different fonts (Arial versus Helvetica), different font types (outline versus raster), different font sizes (12 point versus 8 point), or the reference file could contain a graphic image on the first page of each notice, while the test file does not contain the graphic image. We require the ability to exclude known differences from the reporting. c. Provide a method of synchronizing files, so that if the reference file and the test file contain differing numbers of records, they can be compared with an indication of which records occurred only on one file. d. Compare files with differing internal structures (MO:DCA print streams). This could be due to different structured fields or different MO:DCA triplets within a structured field. For example, the reference file contains a page segment referred to in an Include Page Segment (IPS) structured field. In addition, for the reference file, the page segment is also mapped with a Map Page Segment (MPS) structured field in the active environment group for that page. The test file contains the same page segment referred to in an Include Page Segment (IPS) structured field, but in the test file, the page segment is not mapped with an MPS structured field. The printed output looks identical. We need to know that the rendered output is identical. (See requirement six below for non-printable fields). Please see the IBM document number SG31-6802-07 Data Streams and Object Architecture Mixed Object Document Content Architecture Reference for information on MO:DCA. e. Compare print files with different encoding schemes (ASCII, EBCDIC, UNICODE UTF-8 and UTF-16, big-endian and little-endian byte ordering) performing the appropriate translations so files produced on different platforms can be accurately compared. For example a reference file is created on z/OS with EBCDIC encoding with big-endian byte ordering, and the test file is created on a Sun Solaris 64-bit system with UTF-16LE. f. If Tag Logical Elements (TLEs) are present in the print files being compared, identify and report differences. g. Compare AFP files generated with the same or different composition tools on the same or different hosts (z/OS and/or Solaris). The table below summarizes possible combinations. Benchmark AFP File created on: Newly Composed AFP File created on: z/OS z/OS Solaris Solaris z/OS Solaris Solaris z/OS 2. Batch mode AFP file sorts and merges Below is a detailed explanation of each requirement: a. Run on Sun Solaris version 9.x or later. b. Maintain font, graphics, TLE and white space integrity. c. Provide high performance single and multi-element sorts and/or merges. d. Provide capability for multi-file input and multi-file output, based upon selection criteria. e. Comply with open scalable architecture (J2EE, JAVA) 3. Batch mode transforms to PDF Below is a detailed explanation of each requirement: a. Run on Sun Solaris version 9.x or later. b. Maintain font, graphics, and white space integrity. c. Accurately produce PDF output files from AFP input files. d. Provide capability to convert select AFP pages or documents based on highly configurable criteria to PDF output. e. Provide support for Double-Byte Character Set (DBCS). 4. Page and document level manipulation (splitting, resequencing, rotation, deletions, etc.) Below is a detailed explanation of each requirement: a. Run on Sun Solaris version 9.x or later. b. Allow for high-speed batch operation of these functions. c. Provide page and document level rotation (180) and within-document page resequencing (Z-to-A) for AFP documents and files. d. Provide AFP file splitting at the document level, based on variable criteria. e. Maintain font, graphics, TLE and white space integrity. 5. AFP Indexing (TLE creation and manipulation) Below is an explanation of each requirement: a. Run on Sun Solaris version 9.x or later. b. Allow for high-speed batch operation of these functions. c. Provide configurable creation and manipulation of TLEs. d. Provide configurable creation of TLEs based on AFP page or document content. e. Maintain font, graphics, TLE and white space integrity. 6. AFP Viewing Below is an explanation of each requirement: a. Run on Windows XP or later. b. Provide WYSIWYG viewing for AFP documents with inline or external resources (fonts, images, and indexes), including support for AFP outline fonts, graphics, standard barcode types, and TLEs. c. Provide capabilities to determine which AFP resources are used in a document, to include copy groups, fonts, and graphics. d. Be able to dynamically remap Windows fonts. e. View individual overlays and page segments. f. Search across documents based on text strings, document content or index values. g. Select ranges of pages, ranges of documents or entire files for local printing or for conversion to PDF. h. Provide Section 508 compliance. Statement of Need: The purpose of this RFI is to determine if any vendors offer an integrated, robust Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) toolset that meets the technical requirements listed above and meets U.S. Government Section 508 compliance standards (Visually Impaired/Blind Accessibility). Requested Response: Your response must be limited to 8 pages. As part of the response for each product, the responder should provide the following information for the Government's consideration and review: We require each vendor to explain: 1. Does your product meet or exceed each element in the technical standards listed under Section 508 Standards Law. found at www.Section508.gov If your product is not fully compliant, what aspects are not compliant and when will the product become compliant? If compliance is not possible, why not? Please include section number(s) and paragraph letters being addressed, and respond to section(s) appropriate to the product. This is expected to be section 1194.21, Software applications and operating systems?, paragraphs a through i, or section 1194.22, Web-based intranet and internet information and applications paragraphs a through p. (Note that Section 508 compliance is for developers, business customer's, and field end-users use of the product) 2. Does the product meet each of the technical requirements listed above? 3. Does the product correctly interact with adaptive screen-reading software JAWS by Freedom Scientific (http://www.freedomscientific.com/). All responsible sources who can provide the specified product as stated above shall submit a written response that includes enough technical detail to allow the IRS to conduct a technical evaluation. The response should include POC (name, telephone number and email address); GSA contact number if applicable; Delivery date; Business size and history, and payment terms. All questions must be submitted in writing and may be submitted by e-mail to: david.f.smith@irs.gov. Telephonic inquires will not be accepted. Responses shall be submitted by 3:00p.m., Monday July, 2, 2007 to the following address: Internal Revenue Service, National Office Procurement? 6009 Oxon Hill Road, Suite 500, Oxon Hill, MD 20745, Attn: David F. Smith III, O:S:A:P:I:D:B. Responses may also be submitted by e-mail to the e-mail address above. Any responses to this notice should reference number: RFI-33589.
- Place of Performance
- Address: 1111 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20224
- Zip Code: 20224
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 20224
- Record
- SN01320488-W 20070617/070615224212 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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