Notice of Intent to Sole Source - Tator AI Management Platform

This is a notice of intent to award a sole source purchase order. The government anticipates a firm-fixed priced contract. The Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of the Chief Information Officer intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), and authorized by FAR 6.302-1 with CVision AI for a media management platform to enable the development of Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools for Electronic Monitoring (EM) programs. Currently titled the Fisheries Electronic Monitoring Library (FEML), to be delivered to Silver Spring, MD. ***The Sole Source Determination is based on NOAA's requirement that CVision AI is the only vendor that manufactures and distributes this service. CVision AI build upon an existing proprietary media management platform to enable the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools for Electronic Monitoring (EM) programs. Currently titled the Fisheries Electronic Monitoring Library (FEML), it will facilitate broader internal and external access to annotated imagery, increase cost-effectiveness of data storage and dissemination, and reduce the person-hours necessary to annotate data and execute data analytics. In support of this project, the vendor will work with NOAA to build upon and provide an AI/ML platform and make sure that platform services are able to communicate properly within the NOAA Google Cloud Platform (GCP) environment. The vendor will also provision services, and perform the initial setup of the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and other required components of the proposed solution (collectively called - Tator). Additional tasks include setting up all the logging and other dashboards needed for long term operations and maintenance (O&M) tasks; documenting the details of the NOAA GCP configuration; working with NOAA IT/OCIO to make sure everything is in compliance with NOAA policies/procedures; setting scaling parameters and establishing all components required for long term O&M tasks; new O&M project development; user onboarding (account creation); platform performance monitoring; platform performance adjustments; security/bug patches; stability monitoring; scheduled bug fixes; user training to understand nominal user workflows; and dashboard creation and use. Period of performance totaling one year with completion of service one year from date of award. ***This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and no solicitation package is available. However, firms that believe they can fully meet the government's requirements may submit substantiating documentation in writing to the identified point of contact within 15 days after publication of this synopsis. Such documentation will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the government not to conduct a competitive procurement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.