THIS IS NOT A NOTICE OF SOLICITATION ISSUANCE, BUT RATHER A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) from industry that will allow the Government to identify interested sources capable of meeting the Government's requirement. The information sought herein is for planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a request for quote (RFQ), request for proposal (RFP), invitation for bid (IFB), or as an obligation or commitment on the part of the Government to acquire any product or service. There shall be no basis for claims against the Government as a result of information submitted in response to the RFI. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this RFI, or otherwise pay for any information submitted by respondents to this request. This notice is for market research purposes only and is not indicative of a full requirement. Should a requirement arise, the full requirement will be detailed in the solicitation. The United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), Deputy Chief of Staff - Public Affairs Office (PAO) is seeking sources for a contemplated contract for the services listed below: Description of the supplies/services required: USASOC requires online research and retrieval capabilities for unlimited comprehensive access to the following: • Access via the Internet and/or proprietary software • A 100% web-based solution that requires no USASOC support to implement or maintain. • An unlimited, fixed-price news monitoring service that delivers coverage electronically in near real-time from over 50,000 sources including print, online, blogs, and TV broadcast outlets • The ability to specify a website and have it automatically pull RSS feeds into the news database if it is a source not currently monitored • Organization-wide copyright protection that secures unlimited internal distribution rights of news articles without additional fees. • News monitoring of social media (from the same provider, not through a 3rd party product) with the ability to monitor major social media sites including public comments, groups and discussions on Face book, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, social bookmarking sites, including Digg and Delicious. It should also have an open platform that enables a user to input custom content - any data source with an RSS can be plugged into the system for analysis • Include the monitoring of conversations in forums, discussion groups, and blog comments. Should also have automated sentiment analysis and toning, by applying natural language processing (NLP) including the prominence and impact of social media conversations which allows users to identify trends in interactions and discussions that center on their organization. • Should have the ability to filter out or block content from offensive or irrelevant sites • Influential Tweeter and Influential Blog reports, highlighting influencers by their number of followers, re-tweets, blog comments, and how often they post • Real-time news measurement and analysis tools that provide an executive dashboard highlighting both traditional and social media fully integrated with the media and social media contacts in reporting metrics that can be changed on a per user view • News reporting in the form of customizable online dashboards, electronic news forwards, hard copy clip books, blackberry friendly news forwards, and RSS feeds that can go to an intranet portal • Monitor millions of social media sources, together with traditional sources such as the Wall Street Journal in one fully integrated system with media relations. This should monitor Twitter, Facebook and blogs, get blog comments, mentions, re-tweets. The service should also filter out inauthentic blogs that have advertisements and no significant content that clutter the picture • An automated algorithm based on several factors including relevancy, social influence and volume that enables users to identify the most influential voices on Twitter and in blogs • Word clouds are provided in the form of analytics charts that provide additional insight into the word choice their influencers use in conversations about the user's organization - the result is a snapshot of trends at-a-glance. This should enable us to refine content, use the same words being used about us in order to speak "in our own language" in future communications. • A comprehensive media database with more than 500,000 contacts at the local, regional, national, and international levels, that is updated daily by an in-house research staff • The product must have direct integration with Google, contact schedules of reporters, recent news headlines and activity, and updated news histories from within the media contact record • Access to a public opportunities database that combines editorial calendars, award opportunities, and events information • Detailed journalist profiles that integrate media research, department activity/project histories, and news articles within a single view • Distribution tools that allow personalized press releases to be sent directly from the online system to media lists created and managed from within the application • The ability to automatically track which journalists have opened/read press releases and gauge interest levels based on their "click-through" activity • Custom reporting capabilities that enable ad hoc activity reports to be generated instantly at the agency, project, press release, publication, journalist, and individual-user levels. In addition: the following support is required: • Initial and on-going training • Customized USASOC web user interface • Passwords for users throughout the contract period Interested parties are requested to submit a capabilities statement that clearly demonstrates their corporate capabilities. The capabilities statement should not exceed 15 pages and must provide a summary of relevant experience and knowledge that addresses the entire scope of the stated requirement. The statement should also include substantive current and/or recent (within the last 3 years) past performance references that identify the contract number, customer, contract value, type of contract, period of performance, prime or subcontractor designation, a brief description of the services, and the Contracting Officer/ Contracting Officer's Representative's (COR's) name, email address, and phone number. Documentation provided must address all required elements listed herein; providing only a reference to a website is unacceptable for purposes of this announcement and will not be considered or reviewed. All proprietary or corporate data received shall be clearly identified and shall be protected from release to sources outside the Government. Please do not submit classified material. The anticipated North American Industry Classification Standards (NAICS) is 519130 (Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals) and the small business size standard is 500 employees. Contractors interested in performing these services should be registered in Central Contractor Registration (www.ccr.gov). Contractors responding to this Sources Sought are asked to provide the following information: company's full name and address, DUNS number, business size (whether they are a large, small, small-disadvantaged, 8(a), HUBZone, woman-owned, Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, historically black college or university and/or minority service institute), address, and a point of contact. Please also advise the Government of pending changes in the business size status. In addition, respondents shall provide average annual revenues for the past 3 years and number of employees; affiliate information: parent company, joint venture partners, potential teaming partners; and additional documentation such as company literature and brochures. Responses shall be submitted electronically via email to
[email protected]. All responses shall be submitted by 4:00 PM on 07 September 2011. Failure to respond to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitations that may be issued. Respondents will NOT be notified of the results. The address and telephone number of the Contracting Officer is: Mr. C. Scott Phelps HQ, USASOC E-2929 Desert Storm Drive (Stop A) DCS, Acquisitions and Contracting Fort Bragg, NC 28310-9110 Com: 910-432-6145 Fax: 910-432-9345
[email protected]. Respondents are cautioned that due to file size limitations and e-mail security protocols, there is a risk that not all correspondence will be received by this office. It is the offerors responsibility to ensure receipt of all e-mail correspondence.