D--Intent to Sole Source

GovWorks on behalf of the Center for Army Analysis (CAA) intends on awarding a sole source contract to Virtual Research Associates, Inc (VRA). CAA is acquiring services in the form of access to information provided by VRA for the project entitled "NEAR-TERM FORECITE Monitor". In January 2003, CAA initiated a project called Near-term Forecasts of Crisis and Instability using Text-Based Events (FORECITE). The purpose of the purpose of the study was to develop and demonstrate a capability to monitor and forecast indicators associated with instability in near-real time in nearly every country throughout the world. In October 2003, VRA was awarded a contract to help design the system and to provide the unique, natural language parsing technology to populate the monitoring and forecasting models developed for the system. The purpose of this purchase order will be to obtain VRA's services to provide near-real time data to populate the models throughout FY2005. There is one other know provider of a similar type of technology out of the University of Kansas. Access to the service is free, but use of the service would require CAA to staff a team of twelve full time analysts to generate and analyze the same data whereas access to VRA can provide the same information at a fraction of the price and manpower. The use of VRA in a sole source contract is in accordance with FAR 6.302-1. Intended award date is September 1, 2004 and the total project length is estimated at 12 months. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. Any questions regarding this effort should be directed to Mr. Alan Rumney, Contracting Specialist by email at contact@example.gov or by phone at +1 (555) 000-0000.