The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Eastern Administrative Support Center (EASC), within the U.S. Department of Commerce, seeks to award a performance-based contract to acquire technical support services for the NOAA Coastal Services Center (CSC) in Charleston, South Carolina, a subunit of the National Ocean Service (NOS). This contract will provide the resources needed to continue services currently under contract. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this contract is 541690 (NAICS U.S. Industry Title - Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services). The services will support the Director's Office (DO) and the three CSC service areas: Coastal Information Services (CIS), Coastal Management Services (CMS), and Resource Management Services (RMS). The DO is responsible for general management, administration, strategic and operational planning, partnership building, program evaluation, Integrated Ocean Observing Systems activities, and budget oversight of CSC. CIS houses CSC's data management, data analysis, programming, and geospatial product development capabilities. CMS helps develop the abilities of state and local coastal resource managers and planners to perform their duties. RMS is responsible for the business operations of CSC. RMS ensures that CSC executes its mission in compliance with regulations and is the liaison with the NOS Office of Management and Budget and EASC. For the purpose of this acquisition, NOAA EASC will use a streamlined acquisition process entitled Concept of Operations, or CONOPS (summary information available at www.csc.noaa.gov/conops/ and detailed information available at http://oamweb.osec.doc.gov/conops/tools/). Within the overall framework of the CONOPS process, NOAA will be using the Small Business Cascading Evaluation Preference Process, a streamlining process that has been endorsed by the Small Business Administration and has been used successfully by several federal agencies. The cascading approach permits the government to continue the acquisition process without disruption in the event a sufficient number of qualified small businesses are not achieved in the first or second phase of the acquisition. In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 19.5, any award for technical support services resulting from this solicitation, will be made on a competitive basis to eligible small business concerns, provided that a minimum of two (2) competitive (technical and cost) offers are received from qualified small business concerns that can fulfill the project objective. If a minimum of two (2) offers from qualified small business concerns are not received for the services specified within the solicitation, the award will be made on the basis of a "full and open" competition from among all the responsible businesses submitting offers. This acquisition project will be carried out in two phases. Phase I will include an initial down-selection to determine the availability of sources capable of providing the services required by the CSC. Phase II will include issuance of a Statement of Need (SON) and award. The SON will be developed based on the results of Phase I. Now available on the Internet at http://www.csc.noaa.gov/conops is the Project Agreement that provides the scope of this project, the tentative schedule for the acquisition, and the request for information. In utilizing this acquisition process, the Project Agreement will serve as the solicitation document for this requirement. Interested parties must respond to the Project Agreement in order to be considered for award of a resulting contract. The Government will issue the SON to the down-selected vendors by posting it on the same website as the Project Agreement. Questions shall be directed to the Acquisition Team, Attn: Michelle Morales via e-mail
[email protected]. Answers to questions received will be disseminated utilizing the Internet and posted at http://www.csc.noaa.gov/conops. Requests for a printed copy of the Project Agreement may be obtained by written request to Michelle Morales, Norfolk Federal Bldg., Room 815, 200 Granby Street, Norfolk, VA 23510. Fax number (757) 441-3786.