This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE strictly for market research purposes. THIS IS NOT A FORMAL REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ) AND DOES NOT COMMIT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY (NIST) TO AWARD A CONTRACT NOW OR IN THE FUTURE NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS EXIST AT THIS TIME The purpose of this notice is for planning purposes only and to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified business sources. Your response to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method. NIST does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this notice, or otherwise pay for information requested. No entitlement or payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by NIST will arise as a result of submission of responses to this notice and NIST’s use of such information. NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large and small businesses and non-profit and educational organizations that have the capability to provide a customized online standards development platform licensed subscription. The small business size standard for the applicable NAICS code of 513210 (Software Publishers) is $47.0M. REQUIREMENT: Virtual workspace / secure online platform for effectively and efficiently managing the standards document development process and which can provide a means to manage committees, working groups and other fora to collaborate to create and revise these standards-based documents. The online cloud-based platform collaboration tool shall include the following functionality: • Committee participation – able to manage rosters, voting rights and permissions • Discussion thread – capable of tracking and archiving discussions among participants • Balloting/voting – provides a voting mechanism for approving committee led document development; tracks ballot progress and voting trends and records responses; sends reminders and alerts of deadlines • Commenting on documents – ability for participants to comment at a section/paragraph level; participant comments are visible to other authorized committee members • Editing of documents – enables compiling of comments into subsequent revisions and a final version • Archiving – ability to store previous document versions and final documents The Standards Development Platform shall be highly configurable to the unique standards development process being used and shall be accessible 24/7. The customized online standards development platform annual license shall cover up to 500 authorized users, 75 committees/groups, and 275 ballots. Interested parties shall describe the capabilities of their organization as these relate to the requirements described above. In order for a vendor to clearly convey their capability to fulfill the above-identified need, they MUST SUBMIT the following information: 1. Capabilities Statement discussing core competencies. 2. Description of the organization’s capabilities as these relate to the licensing of a highly configurable cloud-based platform for managing standards development processes as described in this notice. 3. A description of the organization’s previous experience providing the licensing of a cloud-based platform for managing standards development processes as described in this notice. 4. Indication of whether the licensed subscription described in this notice is currently offered via the organization’s GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contracts, Governmentwide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs), or other existing Governmentwide contract vehicles; and, if so, the contract number(s) for those vehicles. 5. Any published pricing. 6. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in finalizing its market research. 7. Current socioeconomic status of the organization including applicable North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes. 8. Indication of whether the organization currently has active registration including on-line representations and certifications at the System for Award Management (www.sam.gov) website – to be considered for award under any official solicitation, the entity must be registered and active in SAM at the time of solicitation response. 9. Contractors must have a valid, current registration to be considered for award under any official solicitation. 10. If any element(s) of this Sources Sought Notice is/are considered a hindrance to competition, respondent shall include that information with its response, discussing how their solution differs from the stated requirements defined herein. All information provided will become property of NIST and will not be returned. This Sources Sought Notice is for informational and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. This is not a solicitation for proposals and no contract will be awarded from this announcement. After the results of this market research activity are received and analyzed, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement and any follow-up information requests. Respondents will not be notified of the results of their capability statement assessment but may be contacted for additional information. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this Sources Sought Notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to provide the licenses/web service and perform the training/customization work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. No proprietary, classified, or sensitive information should be included in the response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). All capability statements and information requested above must be submitted via e-mail to
[email protected]. Responses must be submitted not later than the response date for this Sources Sought Notice. Responses shall be limited to fifteen (15) pages, including attachments.