ARS Intranet Support

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), intends to award a sole source contract to Iconsoft Inc. to provide expertise to complete the new ARS Intranet including: server farm configurations, development using customized master pages, development leveraging third party tools to incorporate additional workflows, and web parts related programming under tight deadline. Service also includes the generation of documentation for migration to Cloud environment including design and specifications The Agricultural Research Service's new Intranet has been in the analysis and development phase for over a year. Due to hosting issues, the server farm to host the ARS Intranet is now being configured and set up in-house. With the deadline of May 2014 and limited resources, contract resources are required to meet this deadline and provide a successful launch. A very specific technical skill set is required to complete the ARS Intranet first version on time. Iconsoft Inc. can provide this very specific technical skill set in order to reduce the risk of a delay in the deployment of the new ARS Intranet. Through vendor contacts and internet research, no other service provider has been identified that has the skill set and can start immediately to meet the deadlines. Knowledge transfer will be required to the existing ARS staff. OCIO and specifically the Enterprise Application Services Branch continually keep up to date on new service providers in the IT arena. There is always the possibility that another service provider in the future could become available that would best fit our needs. If such a service becomes available OCIO will consider it. The NAICS Code for this requirement is 541512 Computer Systems Design Services Authority for this sole source procurement is under 10 U.S.C.2403 (c) (1) In accordance with FAR 6.302-1 and 41 USC 25(c)(1), the service needed by the USDA/ARS is available from only one responsible source and no other type of service will satisfy the needs of the Agency. This notice is not a request for competitive quotations. No solicitation document is available and telephone requests will not be honored. Any firm that believes it can provide the services listed above may submit substantiating documentation in writing to the identified point of contact. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. A determination not to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely at the discretion of the Government. The Point of Contact for this action is Mr. James Mills and any response must be emailed to James.Mills@ars.usda.gov . Verbal responses are not acceptable and will not be considered. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement no later than March 28, 2014.