Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF AUGUST 12, 2007 FBO #2085
SOLICITATION NOTICE

70 -- Aware NISTPack

Notice Date

8/10/2007
 

Notice Type

Solicitation Notice
 

Contracting Office

1701 North Fort Myer Dr, Rosslyn, VA 22219
 

ZIP Code

22219
 

Solicitation Number

1045745757
 

Response Due

8/14/2007
 

Archive Date

2/10/2008
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

Bids are being solicited under solicitation number 1045745757. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; bids are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation is issued as an invitation for bids (IFB), unless otherwise indicated herein. If your company can provide the product/services listed on the solicitation and comply with all of the solicitation instructions, please respond to this notice. To view the specifications, please go to www.FedBid.com and reference Buy No. 45880. GSA Schedule Bids Only: Sellers bidding on this opportunity MUST have the items requested on an existing GSA Schedule. The Schedule must either be in the Seller's name or the Seller must be able to document its ability to act as an agent of a partner's Schedule. Sellers may offer Open Market items only in accordance with the approved Terms and Conditions of their respective GSA Schedule AND upon approval from the soliciting Contracting Officer. Information regarding GSA Schedules can be found at www.GSA.gov. This requirement is unrestricted and only qualified sellers may submit bids. The solicitation pricing on www.FedBid.com will start on the date this solicitation is posted and will end on 2007-08-14 16:00:00.0 Eastern Time or as otherwise displayed at www.FedBid.com. FOB Destination shall be Washington, DC 20520 The Department of State requires the following items, Exact Match Only, to the following: LI 001, Aware NISTPack Server licenses, 2, EA; LI 002, Aware NISTPack Server SW- 1 year maintenance agreements, 2, EA; LI 003, Aware NISTPack w/WSQ, Sequence Check, FastCapture SDK Site License for DoS (CA/CST) and contractor developer, 1, EA; For this solicitation, Department of State intends to conduct an online competitive reverse auction to be facilitated by the third-party reverse auction provider, FedBid, Inc. FedBid has developed an online, anonymous, browser based application to conduct the reverse auction. A Seller may submit a series of pricing bids, which descend in price during the specified period of time for the aforementioned reverse auction. Department of State is taking this action in an effort to improve both seller access and awareness of requests and the agency's ability to gather multiple, completed, real-time bids. All responsible Sellers that respond to this solicitation MUST submit the pricing portion of their bid using the online exchange located at www.FedBid.com. There is no cost to register, review procurement data or make a bid on www.FedBid.com. Sellers that are not currently registered to use www.FedBid.com should proceed to www.FedBid.com to complete their free registration. Sellers that require special considerations or assistance may contact the FedBid Helpdesk at 877-9FEDBID (877-933-3243) or via email at clientservices@fedbid.com. Sellers may not artificially manipulate the price of a transaction on www.FedBid.com by any means. It is unacceptable to place bad faith bids, to use decoys in the www.FedBid.com process or to collude with the intent or effect of hampering the competitive www.FedBid.com process. Should Sellers require additional clarification, contact FedBid at 877-9FEDBID (877-933-3243) or clientservices@fedbid.com. Use of FedBid: Buyers and Sellers agree to conduct this transaction through FedBid in compliance with the FedBid Terms of Use. Buyers and Sellers understand that FedBid ranks all bids by price; however, pursuant to applicable acquisition regulations and/or departmental guidelines, Buyers may use criteria other than price to evaluate offers. Accordingly, please note that, unless otherwise specified herein below, to the extent required by applicable regulations and/or guidelines, award will be made to the responsible Seller whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Buyer on the basis of price, technical capability, delivery, and past performance. Agencies may require registration with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR) prior to receipt of order. Information can be found at www.ccr.gov FOB DESTINATION CONUS ALL BOXES AND CONTAINERS MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED WITH THE REQUISITION REFERENCE NUMBER FOUND IN BLOCK 4, OF 347 ORDER FOR SUPPLIERS AND SERVICSE. SHIPPING DOCUMENTS WILL CELARLY LIST EACH ITEM AND THE QUANTITY SHIPPED AS CONTAINED WITHIN BOXES OR CONTAINERS. IF SINGLE LINE ITEMS HAVE BEEN ASSEMBLED INTO MAJOR COMPONENT, SHIPPING DOCUMENTS MUST ACCOUNT FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ITEMS SHIPPED WITHIN THE MAJOR COMPONENT Agencies may require registration with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR) prior to receipt of order. Information can be found at www.ccr.gov New equipment ONLY, NO remanufactured products, and NO "gray market" BIDS MUST BE VALID FOR 30 DAYS. NO EXCEPTIONS OR QUALIFICATIONS. NEW ONLY. NO REFURBISHED. NO RECONDITIONED ITEMS ARE ACCEPTABLE. A) The offeror shall provide the government, with its offer submission, written verification from the GSA schedule holder that an agreement exists that validates the offeror's right to offer the GSA schedule items on behalf of the GSA schedule holder, if other than the offeror; and, B) By proactively complying with this offer term, sellers accept that the government will make award to the GSA schedule holder only, as the sole awardee. Further, the sole awardee and only the sole awardee shall submit its invoice to the government and receive payment from the government. (a) The provider of information technology shall certify applications are fully functional and operate correctly as intended on systems using the Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC). This includes Internet Explorer 7 configured to operate on Windows XP and Vista (in Protected Mode on Vista). For the Windows XP settings, see http://csrc.nist.gov/itsec/guidance_WinXP.html and for the Windows Vista settings, see: http://csrc.nist.gov/itsec/guidance_vista.html. (b) The standard installation, operation, maintenance, update, and/or patching of software shall not alter the configuration settings from the approved FDCC configuration. The information technology should also use the Windows Installer Service for installation to the default ?program files? directory and should be able to silently install and uninstall. (c) Applications designed for normal end users shall run in the standard user context without elevated system administration privileges. (d) The Department of State currently intends to use Vista in Protected Mode in the future when all devices at all worldwide locations have sufficient capacity to permit an upgrade from the XP operating system. The Office of Consular Systems and Technology (CA/CST) of the Department?s Bureau of Consular Affairs requires the purchase of the software licenses named in para (1). The licenses are essential elements of the proprietary Consular software application supporting and making possible the Bureau?s worldwide 10 print fingerprint capture initiative, which must be completed by the end of calendar year 2007. The Homeland Security Council decided on June 7, 2005 that the USG standard for biometric screening of foreign nationals coming to the United States should transition from two fingerprints to ten fingerprints. This will enable the two major USG fingerprint systems, the DHS IDENT system and the FBI IAFIS system, to establish interoperability. The transition to ten prints also will enable the Bureau of Consular Affairs to clear visa applicants' fingerprints against the FBI IAFIS system, which in turn will allow consular officers to more effectively screen out applicants who are ineligible due to criminal history records. Consular officers eventually will be relieved of the task of reviewing long lists of non-exact NCIII name results to determine if an applicant may have a criminal history record. DHS/CBP also is moving to ten-print collection at the ports of entry, expecting to deploy by 2008. The 10 print capture initiative will ensure that the Department of State fully complies with Section 303 of The Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002. The legislation specifically states that the Department of State must ?issue to aliens only machine-readable tamper resistant visas and other travel and entry documents that use biometric identifiers?. To capture applicant fingerprints, third party software must be integrated in the Consular software application. This allows for immediate fingerprint quality measurements, finger segmentation and packaging in a submission format compatible with FBI systems. The NISTPack Server application is the third party software used by CA. CA/CST?s Systems Engineering team identified two products that offered what were judged to be acceptable levels of support for this process. These products were developed by Cogent, Inc. and Aware, Inc. The DoS used the COGENT software application to support the single fingerprint (index finger) capture required for the two print bio-visa program. However, in tests of the Cogent and Aware products conducted prior to the initiation of 10 print capture, Aware?s NISTPack software was judged better able to support the program. The Aware product?s fingerprint scoring was more accurate and outputs more frequently conformed to the FBI?s and other Federal agencies? acceptance requirements. It was also noted the fingerprint capture process was approximately 10 seconds faster per applicant when NISTPack was used than it was when the Cogent product was used. A ten 10 second processing time savings per applicant is of particular significance at large volume posts processing 2000 applicants per day as it is equivalent to a full day?s processing time. In summation, CA/CST believes that it is in the best interests of the Government to acquire the Aware NISTPack Server and site licenses without delay so that the Department?s worldwide implementation and use of the 10 print fingerprint capture system modules may be completed by the end of calendar 2007. As this is a brand name only justification, no one contractor?s unique qualifications are cited as the basis for this justification. Rather, the products identified by brand name herein have been determined to be the only items that meet the Department?s requirements. The Aware NISTPack Server software has undergone tests and assessment, evaluation for overseas deployments and received final approval from the Department of State Consular Affairs Configuration Control Board (CCB).
 

Web Link

www.fedbid.com (b-45880, n-7083)
(http://www.fedbid.com)
 

Place of Performance

Address: Washington, DC 20520

Zip Code: 20520

Country: US
 

Record

SN01368814-W 20070812/070810220938 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

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

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