Description
The U.S. Census Bureau plans to acquire the services of a Prime Systems Integrator who can develop, implement, and manage the systems (applications, equipment, local area networks, telecommunications) and provide the supporting services (maintenance, training, logistic support, monitoring, etc.) required to conduct data collection operations for the 2010 Decennial Census. This effort involves deployment of over 400 temporary decentralized offices established throughout the 50 states, District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to conduct these data collection operations. The FDCA contract must provide an end-to-end system that works seamlessly in a real time environment. The winning offeror will have responsibility for managing the system design, software development, integration testing, telecommunication, maintenance, deployment, monitoring, and disposal services in support of critical address updating, data collection, administrative, and management applications for regional and local offices. At peak, the staff is in excess of 500,000 census workers. The acquisition strategy will utilize the advisory multi-step process (hereafter called “voluntary down select”) as described in FAR 15.202. “Step One” is the release of a Draft Request For Proposal/Pre-Solicitation Notice that will generally describe the scope and purpose of the FDCA acquisition. The Draft Request For Proposal/Pre-Solicitation Notice is scheduled for release by mid April 2005 and will contain sufficient information to permit a potential offeror to make an informed decision about whether to participate in this acquisition (i.e., they possess demonstrated past experience as a prime successfully managing programs of similar size, scope, and complexity). The notice will request information on past performance, experience, and a technical executive summary. For evaluation purposes, past performance will describe “how well” contractors performed work, and experience will reflect “whether” contractors have performed work similar in scope and magnitude to the FDCA requirements. In the “Step One” process, offerors will be evaluated on a “GO/NO GO” basis. The Census Bureau will evaluate only the Prime System Integrator’s performance and experience (whether or not the prime has already formed subcontracting partnerships for this effort will not be considered or evaluated. However, the prime’s past ability to form and manage highly successful partnerships will be evaluated). Offerors that are evaluated as “NO GO” will receive in writing the general basis for the Census Bureau’s finding that it is unlikely the offeror is a viable competitor. In accordance with FAR 15.202(b), the offeror will also be advised, “Notwithstanding the advice provided by the Government in response to their submissions, they may participate in the resultant acquisition.” After the voluntary down-select process, the Census Bureau will publish on their website the names of the Prime Systems Integrators invited to proceed to step two. Small businesses are encouraged to contact these companies for subcontracting opportunities. Step two of the evaluation process involves the release of the formal RFP by June 2005 to offerors invited to participate in the acquisition and all others who choose to submit a proposal in spite of the Government’s finding that it is unlikely that the offeror is a viable competitor. Based upon the ratings of each proposal against all evaluation criteria, the contracting officer shall establish a competitive range comprised of all the most highly rated proposals, unless the range is further reduced for purposes of efficiency pursuant to FAR 15.306(c)(2). All offerors that are within the competitive range will enter discussions/technical interchange with the government. During the technical interchange, offerors will produce, at their own expense, a “near production ready” prototype for Census Bureau inspection and evaluation in a field test. The design expectations of the prototype will be released in the draft and final Request For Proposal. During the technical interchange period, the Census Bureau will also hold discussions with the offerors followed by the request for final proposal revisions for evaluation. Contract award is scheduled for April 2006. The FDCA Contract Management Office will conduct a symposium and exhibition in the Census Bureau Headquarters’ Conference Center on February 28, 2005 at 9:00 AM. This symposium and exhibition will discuss the aforementioned contractual requirements in the context of the 2010 Decennial field worker operations, office operations, telecommunications, security, logistics, and support management requirements, as well as a complete discussion of the acquisition strategy. Space for this event is limited; therefore Prime Systems Integrators are invited to register on the Census Bureau Acquisition Division website, located at http://www.census.gov/procur/www/fdca, by February 23, 2005. Each company is limited to not more than ten participants. On April 1, 2005, the FDCA Contract Management Office will host a FDCA Small Business Conference in the Census Bureau Headquarters’ Conference Center. This conference will cover similar topics to those presented in the February 28th Prime System Integrator’s Symposium and Exhibition as well as topics of interest to the small business community. Prime Systems Integrators are invited to participate in this Small Business Conference for the purpose of meeting with the small businesses and assessing collaboration opportunities. A registration site with instructions for small businesses and Prime Systems Integrators interested in this conference will be established in late February 2005.