Probe 4 Upgrade

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO) intends to negotiate on behalf of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications (OTIA) to award a sole source purchase order, under the authority of FAR 6.302-1 and 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(1), to V-Soft Communications, LLC of Cedar Falls, IA, to purchase an upgrade to the Government owned Probe V-Soft mapping system version 4. In addition to the software upgrade the Government intends to purchase technical support services. This action is being processed in accordance with FAR 6.302-1, only one responsible source, and solicited in accordance with policies and procedures set forth in the Federal Acquisition Regulation, Part 12 Acquisition of Commercial Items, and Part 13 Simplified Acquisition Procedures. This is not a request for competitive proposals. However, all information received will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete this action based on this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Interested parties who believe they can meet the Agency's requirement are requested to submit in writing an affirmative response demonstrating their technical capabilities. To be considered an affirmative response, all responses must include detailed technical information and other technical literature demonstrating the ability to meet the above requirements. In your response you must provide sufficient detail to permit agency analysis to establish a bona fide capability to meet the requirement based on the below narrative. Failure to submit documentation will result in the agency proceeding as stated above. The estimated value of this proposed procurement is $14,798.86. SOLE SOURCE NARRATIVE: The Office of Telecommunications and Information Applications (OTIA) has yearly grant competitions for its programs, the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) and the Low-Power Television Conversion and Upgrade Programs. Both programs prepare maps showing the coverage of radio and television stations of its applicants. The Probe 4, is a proprietary software mapping system owned and created by V-Soft Communications, LLC. There are no other known manufacturers of this software product. OTIA uses a mapping application to enable the programs to calculate the coverage and population served to over 7,000 radio and television station in the United States. The mapping applications interacts and retrieves data from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The creation of maps is essential to the daily operations of both programs. The mapping system enables the staff to more effectively assess the merits of the proposals. Along with the mapping system, technical support is to be provided: System availability - 90% of the time; Internet Updates ;access to a toll free telephone; FM radio daily downloads available; Television daily downloads available; and access to various databases. The period of performance shall be for one (1) year, with technical support available 90% of the time of the time. The contractor shall provide a response time of less than one minute; and system must be able to process up to 100 applications per day. Currently, the Government has only one (one) license and one (1) workstation in operation to compute propagation studies and maps of broadcast facilities. Both the public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP) And the Low-Power Television and Translator Program (LPTV) utilize these maps in the daily operation of their respective programs. The LPTV program has created over 10,000 maps of the Low-Power television stations in the United States. The V-Soft Probe-2 mapping program was originally purchased to utilize and to perform the PTFP Public Radio Coverage Study. In 2008, the upgrade to Probe-3 was purchased. The upgrade to Probe 4, is needed and requires essential upgrades which were not available with the previous versions. The mapping system operates as a separate workstation and is not permanently connected to the HCHB system. Back-up is manual and copied to discs. The system requires web capability to retrieve updated FCC data from the FCC web site, and is updated as required. The second license will allow for two (2) simultaneous operations as well as complete compatibility and redundancy for the mapping operations should the current workstation fail. The software mapping program is too large for operation on the office computers used by Government staff. The program performs extensive mathematical computations and draws extensive maps. While other mapping programs are available, they are not compatible with maps and documents compiled by the V-Soft program. With data for several thousand maps previously completed it is essential that the current program and method be retained. Having different formats on two (2) work stations would not allow for interchange and would double the complication should a problem arise. The Probe 4 Update will regenerate any data created with previous versions of Probe and would provide complete redundancy and back-up for the original workstation. Submit written responses by July 6, 2009 at 12:00 EST, via email to James.Webb@noaa.gov. Reference Solicitation No. DG1335-09-RQ-128 in the subject line of your email response.