RESPONSE DATE: February 6, 2012 at 12:30 PM EASTERN T HIS IS A REQUEST FOR PRODUCT DEMONSTRATION ONLY. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) and is not a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or award a contract on the basis of this request. Responses to this request will NOT serve as proposals, bids or offers which could be accepted by the Government in the form of a binding contract. Responses will also assist the Government in its market research to determine whether to, in accordance with applicable law, set- aside, restrict competition, or solicit offers from all responsible sources. In order for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to assess set-aside possibilities, interested parties should identify their company as one or more of the following: small business, 8(a), HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, woman-owned business, veteran-owned small business, service disabled veteran-owned small business or large business. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is in the pre-procurement phase for the acquisition of electronic research services for tax law, legal, business, and news information. During this phase and as part of market research, the IRS is seeking interested vendors with electronic research services capabilities to provide a product demonstration during the week of February 13, 2012. To save travel costs, demonstrations are to be conducted via a web-conferencing service such as WebEx, Centra, GotoMeeting, etc. Prior to the demonstration, the vendor should coordinate with the Contracting Officer to ensure Internal Revenue Service attendees are able to access the web-conferencing tool that will be employed for the demonstration. The IRS has a wide range of diverse users with different and unique tax, legal, business and news research requirements. The principal use of electronic research services is to complete a full analysis of a tax return, whether as part of the audit process, collection process, or assistance process. Users of these research materials are primarily: Customer Service Account Management Representatives, Revenue Officers, General Program Revenue Agents, International Agents, Attorneys, Coordinated Examination Agents, Employment Tax Personnel, Appeals Officers, Estate and Gift Tax Attorneys, Employee Plans Specialists, and Exempt Organizations Specialists. In addition to tax law research, IRS employees in other disciplines use the legal, business and news services to research personnel and labor law, conduct statistical and trend analysis, research academic journals and publications related to tax administration, and to identify industry news and trends. These employees include: General Legal Attorneys, Personnel Specialists, Labor Relation Specialists, Statisticians, and Operational Research Specialists. In general, vendors are requested to fully demonstrate how the content and functionality of their product will satisfy the Agency's diverse population of users and research requirements. Interested vendors will have a 60 minute time frame to demonstrate their product(s). There will be an IRS Question & Answer period following each demonstration. All interested parties shall contact Sherry F. Lutz at 202-283-4267 or
[email protected] to schedule an appointment. Please advise if special presentation needs are required so that the appropriate accommodations can be made.