Inactive Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.5)

The Government is seeking Capability Statements on behalf of The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) from Small Business organizations under the North American Industry Classification System (NAIC... The Government is seeking Capability Statements on behalf of The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) from Small Business organizations under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 513210, that are authorized sellers of the JChem Oracle Cartridge and Marvin JS annual license renewal. This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified business sources; (2) the availability of capable Small Businesses; HUBZone Small Businesses; Service-Disabled, Veteran-Owned Small Businesses; 8(a) Small Businesses; Veteran-Owned Small Businesses; Woman-Owned Small Businesses; or Small Disadvantaged Businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. The established NAICS code is 513210, Software Publishers. The U.S. Small Business Administration establishes a size standard for 513210 as $47,000,000 in revenue or less. BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND OBJECTIVE: The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation’s leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability, conducting, supporting and making medical discoveries that improve people’s health and save lives. NIDA has developed a system comprised of a number of proprietary tools, collectively referred to as AIMS (ATDP (Addiction Treatment Drug Program) Information Management System), an application that has been in use since 2015. The NIDA OM IRMB is a part of NIH and is responsible for the management of the AIMS application. The AIMS application is used by NIDA staff to draw, modify, store, import, and export metadata and structure information of proprietary substances received from external entities. The received information often comes in non-industry formats that need to be transformed into a standard industry format. The application is also used to verify that the chemical structure and metadata matches the information received from the submitter. The application is also used to search and compare both proprietary and non-proprietary substances for similarities or uniqueness across all chemical structures stored in the AIMS database. Due to the nature of the proprietary substances, the AIMS system cannot publish the chemical structure and associated metadata for public consumption. This functionality has been implemented using JChem Oracle Cartridge, the chemical knowledge for which comes the Marvin JS library. Without these tools, the system would be unable to properly function and would be unnecessarily burdened by the inherent performance disadvantage of using Oracle’s Java Stored Procedures. NIDA requires license renewals for a One (1) Year Period. Without this contract in place the JChem Oracle Cartridge and Marvin JS Library licenses will lapse, and the AIMS application will lose its core functionality. These software applications are proprietary to Chemaxon, LLC and can only be purchased from this company. PROJECT REQUIREMENTS: Independently and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall furnish all the necessary services, qualified personnel, material, equipment, and facilities, not otherwise provided by the Government as needed to perform the Statement of Work below: Applications Quantity JChem Oracle Cartridge 100 users Marvin JS 100 users The contractor is responsible for ensuring that the software remains operational and performs in accordance with its operational specifications. The contractor shall provide all labor, material, and equipment to ensure the effective use of these licenses. These annual licenses shall include, at minimum, the following: Capability to save and search records against the AIMS proprietary database. Capability to perform computation-intensive functions in an external Java runtime environment capable of runtime byte-code compilation. Capability to transform information from non-industry formats into standard industry format. Capability to verify that the chemical structure and metadata matches information received from a submitter. Capability to search and compare both proprietary and non-proprietary substances for similarities or uniqueness across all chemical structures stored in the AIMS database. Capability to mark records “not for public use” and renew automatically to avoid the need for manual renewal of each compound. The Contractor shall provide technical and system support personnel to help with any technical issues that may arise. The technicians should assist with software and configuration installation and troubleshooting either onsite or remotely. The Contractor shall notify the COR at least one (1) week in advance of any software upgrades or maintenance. The Software upgrades should be provided for at no additional cost. Software upgrades should not impact the regular usage of the system and it should be compatible to all the currently interfaced NIH systems. The Contractor shall notify the COR if there will be downtime that will impact the usage of the systems. For service orders placed via email, phone or contractor website, the Contractor shall ensure a technician is assigned to assist as soon as possible but no later than two (2) hours after the request. Response time on a service order begins when the order, if placed by phone/email or contractor website, is received by the Contractor. Service orders received after normal hours of operation shall begin the following business day at 8:00 am. After the service order is completed, the service technician shall notify the key operator about whether or not service was completed satisfactory. INSTRUCTIONS: Capability statement /information sought. Companies that believe they possess the capabilities to provide the required product/service should submit documentation of their ability to meet each of the project requirements to the Contracting Officer. The capability statement must specifically address each of the project requirements separately. Additionally, the capability statement should include 1) the total number of employees, 2) the professional qualifications of personnel as it relates to the requirements outlined, 3) any contractor GSA Schedule contracts and/or other government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs) by which all of the requirements may be met, if applicable, and 4) any other information considered relevant to this program. Capability statements must also include the Company Name, Unique Entity ID from SAM.gov, Physical Address, and Point of Contact Information. The response must include the respondents’ technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses. Interested companies are required to identify their type of business, applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code, and size standards in accordance with the Small Business Administration. The government requests that no proprietary or confidential business data be submitted in a response to this notice. However, responses that indicate the information therein is proprietary will be properly safeguarded for Government use only. Capability statements must include the name and telephone number of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives. Capability statements in response to this market survey that do not provide sufficient information for evaluation will be considered non-responsive. When submitting this information, please reference the solicitation notice number. The established NAICS code is 513210. Respondents must provide clear and convincing documentation of their capability of providing the products and support services specified in this notice. Also, information must be provided in sufficient details of the respondents’ (a) staff expertise, including their availability, experience, formal and other training; (b) capability to perform the work; (c) prior completed projects of similar nature; (d) compliance with requirements: Vendors must identify and demonstrate specifically how they will meet the requirements listed above. Any other specific and relevant information about this particular area of procurement that would improve our consideration and evaluation of the information presented is desirable. Documentation may include, but not be limited to, contracts both Government and commercial the organization performed, references, i.e., names, titles, telephone numbers and any other information serving to document the organizations capability, e.g., awards, commendations, etc. The information submitted must be in an outline format that addresses each of the elements of the project requirement and in the capability statement paragraphs stated herein. A cover page and an executive summary may be included but is not required. Any business concerns that believe they possess the capability necessary to successfully undertake the work described above must SUBMIT CAPABILITY STATEMENTS ELECTRONICALLY to the Contract Specialist, Rob Bailey at Rob.Bailey@nih.gov, NO LATER THAN 4:00 p.m. EST on April 22, 2024. The Subject line for the submission should include this Sources Sought Number and organization name. NIDA will not accept paper or faxed capability statements. THIS NOTICE IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. This notice is for information and planning purposes only and does not commit the Government to any contractual agreement. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published on SAM.gov. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. CONFIDENTIALITY. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).