Estimated Release Date: No anticipated Solicitation date is currently available, however the Contracting Office anticipates re-compete activities to begin no earlier than mid Q2FY2012.
Solicitation #: Pending
Estimated Value: $6 Billion
The Electronic Commodities Store contract provides a mechanism to acquire Information Technology (IT) resources in production at the time of acquisition, for the Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health, and for other Federal agencies. The Contracting Office stated that the acquisition strategy is currently under development. No anticipated Solicitation date is currently available, however the Contracting Office anticipates re-compete activities to begin no earlier than mid Q2FY2012.
ECS-IV SYNOPSIS
Program Name: NIH Electronic Commodities Store IV (ECS-IV)
History: From the RFP for the previous solicitation (ECS-III), the contract was to provide a mechanism to acquire Information Technology (IT) resources in production at the time of acquisition, for the Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health, and for other Federal agencies. It was anticipated that the National Institutes of Health will make multiple awards of Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity type contracts as a result of this solicitation.
The NIH required innovative acquisitions (e.g. broker), acquisitions through flexible financing (e.g. leaser/lessee, lease to own), and traditional acquisition channels (e.g. distributor, independent contractor). Further, the successful Offeror(s) had to be able to offer depth and breadth in product line and manufacture. Offeror(s) that cannot offer depth and breadth (e.g. one manufacturer is proposed) are not eligible for award. Large businesses had to propose a minimum of four (4) lots and other than large businesses had to propose a minimum of two (2) lots.
ECS-III is expected to expire at the end of CY 2011. A recompete is anticipated.
Solicitation Number: This is in the pre-RFP stage. The acquisition strategy is currently under review within the Government, according to the Contracting Officer, in a November 2011 message. No specific solicitation release date has been announced, but it is anticipated that recompete aqctivities will begin no earlier than mid Q2FY2012.
Agency: Health and Human Services (HHS)
Office: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Estimated Value: The previous contract (ECS-III) was valued at $6B. It can be assumed this solicitation will be in that same range.
Description: In ECS-III NIH envisioned an acquisition vehicle that would provide the best execution of delivery orders for IT commodity goods listed below (Lots 1-6). The NIH sought to acquire state-of-the-art commodities including electronics and computing devices capable of executing the latest generation of software under Microsoft Windows XP/.NET, Mac and UNIX (primarily SUN, SGI, and Linux) operating systems.
The Six Lots defined by NIH:
Lot 1: Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) desktop, laptop and handheld computing devices (including peripherals), workstations, software, and networking equipment,
Lot 2: Commercial telecommunications equipment items related to telephony (including, but not limited to network routers, switches, repeaters, and cabling),
Lot 3: Scientific research workstations, and other electronic devices and systems,
Lot 4: Software (including operating systems),
Lot 5: Related warranty and maintenance services, and
Lot 6: Support services ancillary to Lots 1 though 5 above (including, but not limited to installation and integration services, training and consultation).
Contract Type and Other Characteristics: It is anticipated this will be a full and open competition resulting in an IDIQ contract with multiple awards. The primary NAICS Code is expected to be 443120, Computer and Software Stores.
At NIH's Small Business Partners Conference it was stated that it was possible that ECS-IV could be separated into two separate competitions: one for small business and one unrestricted. It is anticipated this determination will be announced near the end of the year (2011).
Goals and Objectives: In ECS-III, the NIH sought to acquire commodities and services within the concept of "best execution", which is regarded as the best net price achievable under the current circumstances. Awardee(s) were required to publish prices in their electronic catalog(s). Successful Awardee(s) will continually demonstrate their ability to broker commercial relationship that provides the Government with all benefits of the commodities nature of the supplies being sought. These benefits included favorable pricing (via quantity discounts, as well as favorable terms and conditions of use of the commodities acquired.
In addition to providing the best execution of a delivery order, the successful Offeror(s) will provide efficiencies of operations (e.g. order aggregation) that will recognize the market value of several delivery orders for any particular agency. Offeror(s) must be able to perform inventory analysis and management functions in order to successfully predict NIH's and other Federal Agency commodities requirements for any particular period in order to provide those efficiencies. The expected benefits of these efficiencies include efficient transactions (e.g. time to deliver) as well as efficient economies (quantity discount through order aggregation).
Areas of Technology: Supplying IT resources, equipment, electronics, and computing devices and software.
Structure of the RFP: This is still in the pre-RFP stage
Proposal Preparation Challenges: This is still in the pre-RFP stage
Resources of OCI can be beneficial:
Based on the requirements to successfully bid for ECS-III, a competitive and compliant ECS-IV proposal will require forward and detailed planning as well as significant effort to secure teaming, subcontracting, and even consortium arrangements with suppliers, pricing, discount structures, quality monitoring, etc.
OCI has the expertise and resources of professional proposal consultants to assist you with:
- Capture Planning
- A Black Hat Review
- Teaming Strategies
- Competitive Analysis
- Proposal Management
- Proposal Writing
- Pricing Analysis
- Proposal Production
- Red Team Review
- Whole Proposal Team