Request for Information (RFI) Commercial Catalog Standards

Please see the attached Request for Information for response delivery instructions. All responses shall be submitted to FedMall@gsa.gov or they will not be considered by the Government. This Request for Information is subject to the provisions of FAR 52.215-3 and is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be considered as an invitation for bid, request for quotation, request for proposal, or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. Responses to this RFI will be treated as information only. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of a contractor's submission of responses to this announcement; or the Government's use of such information. If a Request for Proposal is issued, it will be synopsized on the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps) website. It is the responsibility of any potential offeror to monitor FedBizOpps for additional information pertaining to this requirement. 1. OVERVIEW The Government is seeking information regarding the availability of services to support standards to describe and maintain commercial items in a Federal Catalog. DoD and GSA are working together to build a common marketplace, and would like to consider commercial catalog data standards in our business and functional requirements. The purpose of using these standards is to ensure - like for like' comparisons of commercial products and to facilitate commercial vendor integration into the Federal marketplace. Examples of these types of standards include, but are not limited to those maintained by: National Aerospace Standard (NAS), American National Standards Institute (ANSI), ASTM (American Society for Testing & Materials), as well as government standards such as Military Specifications, National Stock Numbers and Federal Information Processing Standards. The Government is seeking approaches regarding the technical approach and industry's assessment and opinion of the most efficient and cost effective method of executing this effort. This RFI seeks information papers options and recommendations on approaches that provide a best value to the Government. 2. REQUIREMENTS STATEMENT The contractor shall clearly articulate how it would provide and maintain product standards that can be integrated into a Federal wide marketplace such as GSAAdvantageTM or the DoD eMall. Questions the government has for commercial providers include: a. What catalog data standards exist in the commercial marketplace? b. What are the best practices, templates and methods to publish catalogs to multiple sales channels? c. What sources are available for providing rich and accurate product information, whether it's offered in one solution or in combination through multiple solutions? d. What are the key data fields used to map information/products that are widely used in the MDM and PIM space, as well as other third party catalog data sources (e.g. UPCs, manufacturer names and manufacturer part numbers)? e. What catalog standards are distributors using to support their large ecommerce websites and what are their catalog taxonomies? What is missing or lacking in these taxonomies? f. What catalog standards are manufacturers using to support their large ecommerce websites and what are their catalog taxonomies? What is missing or lacking in these taxonomies? g. How might a solution use APIs to connect to data from existing vendor inventory or catalog management systems? What barriers would we have in accessing multiple sources of catalog data? Are there extant catalog standards which an API must accommodate? h. What types of connections are available to the data sources? i. What are the primary methods for maintaining large catalog revision sets? j. What techniques and/or processes are used to ensure data quality? (i.e. product descriptions, product names, part numbers, etc) k. What tools, if any, are available to cross-reference products into distinct commodity groups? 3. PURPOSE AND LIMITATIONS The Government's intent is to better understand the current, state-of-the-art capabilities and strategies to determine the best solution. Industry feedback is vitally important and the Government is receptive to any and all ideas. Proprietary information is neither solicited nor prohibited. However, if submitted, it should be appropriately marked. 4. REVIEW PROCESS The Government will review information papers to assess the offeror's ability to meet the government's need and the responses will not be scored or ranked. The government intends to conduct an Industry Forum where representatives from Federal agencies can further explain their needs and gain a better understand the types of commercial services that are available. The forum will be held at GSA Headquarters in Washington, DC in July. 5. INFORMATION PAPER REQUIREMENTS Papers shall be no more than 50 pages to include a cover letter. In addition, no more than five attachments consisting of briefing slides, reports, pre-printed commercial brochures or sales literature and all together totaling no more than 50 pages may be included. Total submission shall not exceed 100 pages. Electronic submissions are required. All items must be in Microsoft Office 2003 (or later) format or Adobe PDF format and should be free of all computer viruses. All responses shall be submitted via email to FedMall@gsa.gov no later than July 7, 2014. All material submitted in response to this RFI must be unclassified and properly marked upon receipt. The Government will review information papers in conjunction with any available data provided to support the paper.