MODIFICATION NOTICE:Bids are being solicited under solicitation number 7292013. 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. 512875_02. 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 must not bid more than their applicable contract ceiling price, excluding the FedBid Fee, for contract-specific items. If FedBid receives notice that, due to inclusion of the FedBid Fee, the Selected Bid's line item pricing is higher than the Selected Seller's applicable published government contract pricing, the FedBid Fee will be reduced to ensure the Selected Bid's line item pricing does not exceed the Selected Seller's applicable contract pricing. 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 a [ Small Business ] set-aside 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 2013-08-12 14:00:00.0 Eastern Time or as otherwise displayed at www.FedBid.com.FOB Destination shall be in the Place of Performance. The DOI Interior Business Center requires the following items, Exact Match Only, to the following: Base Period of Performance: 08/20/2013 - 08/19/2014 LI 001: Base Year - Maintenance and Technical Support of select Dell servers, 1, EA; Option 1 Period of Performance: 08/20/2014 - 08/19/2015 LI 001: Option Year 1 - Maintenance and Technical Support of select Dell servers, 1, EA; Option 2 Period of Performance: 08/20/2015 - 08/19/2016 LI 001: Option Year 2 - Maintenance and Technical Support of select Dell servers, 1, EA; Option 3 Period of Performance: 08/20/2016 - 08/19/2017 LI 001: Option Year 3 - Maintenance and Technical Support of select Dell servers, 1, EA; Option 4 Period of Performance: 08/20/2017 - 08/19/2018 LI 001: Option Year 4 - Maintenance and Technical Support of select Dell servers, 1, EA; Solicitation and Buy Attachments ***Question Submission: Interested offerors must submit any questions concerning the solicitation at the earliest time possible to enable the Buyer to respond. Questions must be submitted by using the 'Submit a Question' feature at www.fedbid.com. Questions not received within a reasonable time prior to close of the solicitation may not be considered.*** For this solicitation, DOI Interior Business Center 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. DOI Interior Business Center 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
[email protected]. 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
[email protected]. Use of FedBid: Buyers and Sellers agree to conduct this transaction through FedBid in compliance with the FedBid Terms of Use. Failure to comply with the below terms and conditions may result in offer being determined as non-responsive. Payment requests must be submitted electronically through the U. S. Department of the Treasury's Internet Payment Platform System (IPP). "Payment request" means any request for contract financing payment or invoice payment by the Contractor. To constitute a proper invoice, the payment request must comply with the requirements identified in the applicable Prompt Payment clause included in the contract, or the clause 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions ? Commercial Items included in commercial item contracts. The IPP website address is: https://www.ipp.gov. Under this contract, the following documents are required to be submitted as an attachment to the IPP invoice: All applicable invoices: The Contractor must use the IPP website to register, access and use IPP for submitting requests for payment. The Contractor Government Business Point of Contact (as listed in CCR) will receive enrollment instructions via email from the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (FRBB) within 3 ? 5 business days of the contract award date. Contractor assistance with enrollment can be obtained by contacting the IPP Production Helpdesk via email
[email protected] or phone (866) 973-3131. If the Contractor is unable to comply with the requirement to use IPP for submitting invoices for payment, the Contractor must submit a waiver request in writing to the contracting officer with its proposal or quotation. (a) Definitions. For the purposes of this provision and the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552), the following terms shall have the meaning set forth below: (1) "Trade Secret" means an unpatented, secret, commercially valuable plan, appliance, formula, or process, which is used for making, preparing, compounding, treating or processing articles or materials which are trade commodities. (2) "Confidential commercial or financial information" means any business information (other than trade secrets) which is exempt from the mandatory disclosure requirement of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552. Exemptions from mandatory disclosure which may be applicable to business information contained in proposals include exemption (4), which covers "commercial and financial information obtained from a person and privileged or confidential," and exemption (9), which covers "geological and geophysical information, including maps, concerning wells." (b) If the offeror, or its subcontractor(s), believes that the proposal contains trade secrets or confidential commercial or financial information exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, (5 U.S.C. 552), the cover page of each copy of the proposal shall be marked with the following legend: "The information specifically identified on pages ______ of this proposal constitutes trade secrets or confidential commercial and financial information which the offeror believes to be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. The offeror requests that this information not be disclosed to the public, except as may be required by law. The offeror also requests that this information not be used in whole or part by the government for any purpose other than to evaluate the proposal, except that if a contract is awarded to the offeror as a result of or in connection with the submission of the proposal, the Government shall have the right to use the information to the extent provided in the contract." (c) The offeror shall also specifically identify trade secret information and confidential commercial and financial information on the pages of the proposal on which it appears and shall mark each such page with the following legend: "This page contains trade secrets or confidential commercial and financial information which the offeror believes to be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act and which is subject to the legend contained on the cover page of this proposal. (d) Information in a proposal identified by an offeror as trade secret information or confidential commercial and financial information shall be used by the Government only for the purpose of evaluating the proposal, except that (i) if a contract is awarded to the offeror as a result of or in connection with submission of the proposal, the Government shall have the right to use the information as provided in the contract, and (ii) if the same information is obtained from another source without restriction it may be used without restriction. (e) If a request under the Freedom of Information Act seeks access to information in a proposal identified as trade secret information or confidential commercial and financial information, full consideration will be given to the offeror's view that the information constitutes trade secrets or confidential commercial or financial information. The offeror will also be promptly notified of the request and given an opportunity to provide additional evidence and argument in support of its position, unless administratively unfeasible to do so. If it is determined that information claimed by the offeror to be trade secret information or confidential commercial or financial information is not exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, the offeror will be notified of this determination prior to disclosure of the information. (f) The Government assumes no liability for the disclosure or use of information contained in a proposal if not marked in accordance with paragraphs (b) and (c) of this provision. If a request under the Freedom of Information Act is made for information in a proposal not marked in accordance with paragraphs (b) and (c) of this provision, the offeror concerned shall be promptly notified of the request and given an opportunity to provide its position to the Government. However, failure of an offeror to mark information contained in a proposal as trade secret information or confidential commercial or financial information will be treated by the Government as evidence that the information is not exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, absent a showing that the failure to mark was due to unusual or extenuating circumstances, such as a showing that the offeror had intended to mark, but that markings were omitted from the offeror's proposal due to clerical error. (a) Any system hardware, software, firmware and/or networked component (voice, video or data) developed, procured, or acquired in support and/or performance of this contract shall be capable of transmitting, receiving, processing, forwarding and storing digital information across system boundaries utilizing system packets that are formatted in accordance with commercial standards of Internet Protocol (IP) version 6 (IPv6) as set forth in the IJSGv6 Profile (KIST Special Publication 500-267) and corresponding declarations of conformance defined in the USGv6 Test Program. In addition, this system shall maintain interoperability with IPv4 systems and provide at least the same level of performance and reliability capabilities of IPv4 products. (b) Specifically, any new IP product or system developed, acquired, or produced must: Intemperate with both IPv6 and IPv4 systems and products, and have available contractor/vendor IPv6 technical support for development and implementation and fielded product management. (c) As IPv6 evolves, the Contractor commits to upgrading or providing an appropriate migration path for each item developed, delivered or utilized at no additional cost to the Government. The Contractor shall retrofit all non-IPv6 capable equipment, as defined above, that is fielded under this contract with IPv6 capable equipment, at no additional cost to the Government. (d) The contractor shall provide technical support for both IPv4 and IPv6. (e) Any system or software must be able to operate on networks supporting IPv4, IPv6 or one that supports both.. (f) Any product whose non-compliance is discovered and made known to the Contractor within one year after acceptance shall be upgraded, modified or replaced to bring it into compliance at no additional cost to the Government. In accordance with AQD Policy NBCM-ACQ- 6900-052, titled Policy for Greening Services Contracts, the following language shall be included in the Requirements Document (SOW, SOO, or PWS) for all AQD mod-zero contracts for services: AQD Services Greening Clause Almost every service requires the use of some sort of product. While providing services pursuant to the Requirements Document in this contract, if your services necessitate the acquisition of any products, the contractor shall use its best efforts to comply with Executive Order 13514, and to acquire the environmentally preferable products that meet the requirements of clauses at FAR 52.223-2, Affirmative Procurement of Biobased Products under Service and Construction Contracts, 52.223-15, Energy Efficiency in Energy Consuming Products, and 52.223-17 Affirmative Procurement of EPA-Designated Items in Service and Construction Contracts. Additionally, the contractor shall use its best efforts to reduce the generation of paper documents through the use of double-sided printing, double-sided copying, and the use and purchase of 30% post consumer content white paper to meet the intent of FAR 52.204-4 Printing/Copying Double-Sided on Recycled Paper. Bid MUST be good for 30 calendar days after close of Buy. Offeror must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database before an award can be made to them. If the offeror is not registered in the SAM, it may do so through the SAM website at http://www.sam.go