Inactive

The Office of Acquisition and Agreements Management (OAAM), Acquisition Management Division (AMD) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), on behalf of the Material Measurement La... The Office of Acquisition and Agreements Management (OAAM), Acquisition Management Division (AMD) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), on behalf of the Material Measurement Laboratory (MML), intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with Carl Zeiss Microscopy, LLC of Thornwood, NY, for a comprehensive maintenance agreement for NIST-owned equipment manufactured by Carl Zeiss Instruments. The Contractor shall provide comprehensive maintenance agreements for a total of nine pieces of equipment. The types of equipment that will be covered include: -Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) -Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) -Focused Ion Beam SEM -Sigma 300 The Contractor shall provide a service agreement for the service and maintenance of all equipment to ensure uninterrupted performance within manufacturers’ specifications on both a scheduled and as-needed basis. Service and maintenance shall include parts, labor, travel, unlimited on-site emergency service, and one preventive maintenance visit per year. The period of performance shall be for a one year base period and four one-year option periods. Sole source determination is based upon all of the following: -NIST-owned equipment are commercial items that were manufactured by Carl Zeiss. Carl Zeiss has proprietary rights to the existing equipment and is the sole manufacturer and distributor of the equipment. Carl Zeiss has no authorized resellers or service providers, software updates are not available online without appropriate nomenclature, operations manuals are not available on-line, and parts authorized for use by the manufacturer are available solely through Zeiss; -Carl Zeiss manages a staff of trained, certified field technicians/engineers. Zeiss does not train and certify technicians outside of their own company; - Given the investment made by the Government for covered instruments, the least possible amount of down time is required. The Government procures a service agreement for the primary purpose of securing on-site service for emergency repairs within 24 business hours of notifying the Contractor of the issue. This control is most important for repair requests as these are unplanned events. The Contractor must have control over the ability to schedule qualified technicians/engineers for on-site service. Carl Zeiss is the sole entity capable of exerting control over the scheduling of qualified technicians to a customer site; -Carl Zeiss has identified its business practice as giving a lower scheduling priority to any entity that does not have an active service contract with Zeiss. Based on all of the above, only Carl Zeiss can supply the required service, guarantee the required 24 business hour response time, and guarantee that maintenance and parts will be fully compatible with and meet the performance specifications for the equipment required to be serviced. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 811219 and the small business size standard is $22.0 M. No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, responses received by September 8, 2022, will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed acquisition based upon responses to 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. Responses must, at a minimum, clearly explain how the Contractor: (1) Retains all expertise to complete all required repairs and provide all updates; (2) Has control over the ability to schedule qualified technicians/engineers for on-site service and guarantee the required 24 business hour response time; and (3) Guarantee that maintenance and parts will be fully compatible with and meet manufacturer’s specifications for the equipment required to be serviced.