Inactive

The purpose of this amendment is to provide a response to the following question: Question: Can you please provide the name of the group interested along with the number of end users? Answer: 3 users ... The purpose of this amendment is to provide a response to the following question: Question: Can you please provide the name of the group interested along with the number of end users? Answer: 3 users for the market data & commentary CLIN and enterprise wide access for the pricing/reference & covenant data CLIN. The purpose of this amendment is to extend the question response date to 11:00am ET, September 1, 2020 and the quotation due date to 1:00pm ET, September 4, 2020. The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), 100 F Street, NE, Washington, DC 20549, intends to procure access to a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) data subscription for leveraged loan data. NOTE: The SEC will only accept responses from companies that currently have a COTS product that meets all requirements in Attachment 1 – Requirements List. The SEC is NOT seeking sources for development of a new solution or customization of a product to acquire/add the required capabilities. Clearly state in in your response that your solution is a COTS product. Additionally, all offerors must have an active registration in the System for Award Management (www.sam.gov) by the submission deadline of this RFQ. (i) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor this site for the release of amendments (if any). (ii) The Request for Quote (RFQ) number is 50310220Q0106 and shall be referenced on any quote submitted. (iii) This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) 2020-07, effective August 3, 2020. Provisions and clauses incorporated by reference have the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. (iv) The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 519130 and the small business size standard is 1000 employees. This RFQ is being solicited on an unrestricted basis. (v) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) intends to award a firm fixed price contract in accordance with FAR Subpart 13.5 in conjunction with FAR Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Items. See Attachment 2 – Pricing for details. (vi) Description of requirements: Access to a commercially available data subscription for leveraged loan data in accordance with the attached Requirements List (Attachment 1). CLINs 00001, 10001, 20001, 30001, 40001 - Leveraged Loan Data - Market Data, Aggregate Statistics & Commentary CLINs 00002, 10002, 20002, 30002, 40002 -Leverage Loan Data - Pricing, Reference & Covenant Data (vii) Period of performance: Base Period of twelve (12) months and four (4) twelve (12) month Option Periods. Place of Delivery: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 100 F Street, NE, Washington DC, 20549. (viii) The provisions at FAR 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Items (June 2020), applies to this acquisition. The following addenda to FAR provision 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors –Commercial (June 2020) applies to this acquisition: The SEC reserves the right to not make award resulting from this solicitation and the SEC will not pay any contractor quote/bid costs for this solicitation. The SEC reserves the right to make multiple awards resulting from this solicitation. Offerors may respond to one or both of the CLINs outlined in the Requirements List. Quotation Requirements: A written technical quote and a separate written price quote are required for this solicitation. Your quote must be based on the terms of this RFQ. Any exceptions, deviations or conditional assumptions to the requirements of the solicitation must be clearly stated and explained within the first two pages of both the technical and price quote. Exceptions, Deviations, and conditional assumptions may render your company’s offer non-compliant and ineligible for award. Quotation Submission and Due Dates: Offerors shall submit quotes electronically to turnerc@sec.gov with a copy to garrettj@sec.gov no later than 1:00PM ET, September 4, 2020. All questions shall be submitted to turnerc@sec.gov with a copy to garrettj@sec.gov no later than 11:00AM ET, September 4, 2020. Oral questions (telephone) will not be addressed or entertained. Offerors shall follow the guidelines below in preparing its response. All documents should be submitted electronically in MS Word/Excel or compatible format using Times New Roman Font, Font Size 11, with 1.00 inch page margins. Offerors quote shall clearly indicate which CLINs they are responding to in this solicitation. Technical Quotation: Offerors shall submit product offering brochure/information that demonstrates their technical ability to meet all of the requirements outlined in the Requirements List. It is anticipated that the Contractor’s existing data documentation will meet the needs of the SEC. However, in the case that the documentation is insufficient, the Contractor must provide additional information to demonstrate how the product offering meets the requirements in the Requirements List. Statements such as, “the offeror understands,” or “the offeror will comply” are not adequate. Similarly, merely restating or reformulating the requirements may render your quote non-compliant and ineligible for award. Your company’s technical quote must provide specific details on how your company’s COTS solution will fully meet the SEC’s technical requirements. There is a 10 page limitation, excluding cover page for the written technical quote. The technical quote shall not refer to any pricing information. Offerors shall provide a gratuitous product demonstration to provide a demonstration of your product’s ability to meet each CLIN that your company responds for this solicitation. The product demonstration will be done via WebEx and is tentatively scheduled for the days following the quote due date. The product demonstration shall be no longer than 60 minutes with the last 15 minutes reserved for questions and answers. Price Quotation: The SEC requests a fixed price quote that provides a separate price for the Base Period and each Option Period CLIN using Attachment 2 - Pricing. The price quote shall include a breakdown that shows the price of each pricing element if there are separate price elements. The price for each CLIN shall be inclusive of all fees. The SEC requests all available price discounts. There is no page limitation for the price quote. The price quote must provide the offeror’s Dun and Bradstreet number (DUNs) and must confirm that the offeror has active registration in the System Award Management (www.sam.gov). Offeror shall submit a completed Attachment 3 - FAR Provision 52.209-7, Information Regarding Responsibility Matters. License Agreement: The offeror shall submit any applicable license agreements with their quote submission. IMPORTANT NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS: All prospective awardees are required to have an active SAM registration at time of quote submission and are required to maintain an active registration during the life of the contract. SAM can be accessed at https://www.sam.gov. (ix) The provision at FAR 52.212-2, Evaluation – Commercial Items (Oct 2014) applies to this acquisition. (a) The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. Below is a description of the evaluation procedures that the SEC will use to evaluate quotes received for this solicitation: In accordance with FAR 13.106-2, the SEC has broad discretion in fashioning suitable evaluation procedures. The SEC intends to use comparative evaluation of quotes to determine the best response. The SEC will use comparative evaluation for both price and technical capability: The SEC will compare quotes, including a WebEx demo, with each other in a uniform and fair manner. It is an assessment of which response is “best” as a whole. The SEC reserves the right to select a response that provides benefit to the SEC that exceeds the minimum but is not required to do so. Responses may exceed the minimum requirements but the SEC is not requesting or accepting alternate quotations. Once the SEC determines the offeror that is best-suited (i.e., the apparent successful offeror), the SEC reserves the right to communicate with only that offeror to address any remaining issues, if necessary, and finalize a purchase order with that offeror. These issues may include technical and price. If the parties cannot successfully address any remaining issues, as determined pertinent at the sole discretion of the government, the government reserves the right to communicate with the next best-suited offeror based on the original analysis and address any remaining issues. Once the SEC has begun communications with the next best-suited offeror, no further communications with the previous offeror will be entertained until after the purchase order has been awarded. This process shall continue until an agreement is successfully reached and a purchase order is awarded. (b) Options. The Government will evaluate offers for award purposes by adding the total price for all options to the total price for the basic requirement. The Government may determine that an offer is unacceptable if the option prices are significantly unbalanced. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise the option(s). (c) A written notice of award or acceptance of an offer, mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful offeror within the time for acceptance specified in the offer, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the offer’s specified expiration time, the Government may accept an offer (or part of an offer), whether or not there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award. (x) The offeror shall include a completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certification –Commercial Items (June 2020), with its offer. An offeror shall complete only paragraphs (b) of this provision if the offeror has completed the annual representations and certifications electronically via http://www.acquisition.gov . If an offeror has not completed the annual representations and certifications electronically at the System for Award Management (SAM) website, the offeror shall complete only paragraphs (c) through (o) of this provision. (xi) FAR clause 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions –Commercial Items (Oct 2018), applies to this acquisition. (xii) FAR clause 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders –Commercial Items (July 2020) applies to this acquisition. In Section b, the following clauses apply: 52.203-6, Restrictions on Subcontractor Sales to the Government (Jun 2020), with Alternate I (Oct 1995) 52.204-10, Reporting Executive compensation and First-Tier Subcontract Awards (Jun 2020) 52.209-6, Protecting the Government’s Interest When Subcontracting with Contractors Debarred, Suspended, or Proposed for Debarment (Jun 2020) 52.209-9, Updates of Publicly Available Information Regarding Responsibility Matters (Oct 2018) 52.219-8, Utilization of Small Business Concerns (Oct 2018) 52.219-9, Small Business Subcontracting Plan (Jun 2020) 52.219-16 Liquidated Damages-Subcontracting Plan (Jan 1999) 52.219-28, Post Award Small Business Program Rerepresentation (Mar 2020) 52.222-3, Convict Labor (June 2003) 52.222-21, Prohibition of Segregated Facilities (Apr 2015) 52.222-26, Equal Opportunity (Sep 2016) 52.222-35, Equal Opportunity for Veterans (Jun 2020) 52.222-36, Equal Opportunity for Workers with Disabilities (Jun 2020) 52.222-37, Employment Reports on Veterans (Jun 2020) 52.222-40, Notification of Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act (Dec 2010) 52.222-50, Combating Trafficking in Persons (Jan 2019) 52.223-18, Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging while Driving (Jun 2020) 52.225-13, Restrictions on Certain Foreign Purchases (Jun 2008) 52.232-33, Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer— System for Award Management (Oct 2018) (xiii)The following additional terms and conditions are applicable to this acquisition: FAR Clauses Incorporated By Reference: FAR 52.204-18 - Commercial and Government Entity Code Maintenance (Aug 2020) FAR 52.232-40 - Providing Accelerated Payments to Small Business Subcontractors (Dec 2013) FAR 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services (NOV 1999) The Government may require continued performance of any services within the limits and at the rates specified in the contract. These rates may be adjusted only as a result of revisions to prevailing labor rates provided by the Secretary of Labor. The option provision may be exercised more than once, but the total extension of performance hereunder shall not exceed 6 months. The Contracting Officer may exercise the option by written notice to the Contractor within 15 days of contract expiration. FAR 52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract (MAR 2000) (a) The Government may extend the term of this contract by written notice to the Contractor at any time within the period of performance provided that the Government gives the Contractor a preliminary written notice of its intent to extend 15 days before the contract expires. The preliminary notice does not commit the Government to an extension. (b) If the Government exercises this option, the extended contract shall be considered to include this option clause. (c) The total duration of this contract, including the exercise of any options under this clause, shall not exceed five (5) years. FAR 52.252-2 Clauses Incorporated by Reference (Feb 1998) This contract incorporates one or more clauses by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. Also, the full text of a clause may be accessed electronically at this/these address(es): https://www.acquisition.gov/?q=browsefar Applicable SEC instructions: 5003.05 Submission of Invoices – DELPHI eInvoicing System (June 2020) The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will only accept electronic invoices submitted through the Delphi eInvoicing system on an annual basis. Payment system registration. All persons accessing the Delphi eInvoicing web-portal will be required to have their own unique user Delphi eInvoicing ID and password and be credentialed through login.gov. Electronic authentication. See www.login.gov for instructions. Click on the following link for instructions on establishing a login.gov account: https://login.gov/help/creating-an-account/how-do-i-create-an-account-with-logingov/. To create a login.gov account, the user will need a valid email address and a working phone number. The user will create a password and then login.gov will reply with an email confirming the email address. In order to make changes to vendor users who will have access to the eInvoicing web-portal for invoice submission and payment tracking purposes, notify iSupplier@sec.gov and include the full name, valid email address, and current phone number of any new vendor users. Vendor users will be notified via e-mail when the account is created. The vendor user will be provided detailed instructions for logging into their Delphi eInvoicing account. Training on Delphi. To facilitate use of DELPHI, comprehensive user information is available at http://einvoice.esc.gov Account Management. Vendors are responsible to contact the Delphi Help Desk when their firm's points of contacts will no longer be submitting invoices so they can be removed from the system. Instructions for contacting the Delphi Help Desk can be found at http://einvoice.esc.gov Contractors are cautioned against submitting an invoice prior to goods and services being received/accepted. Invoices submitted prematurely may be rejected. Software license maintenance and subscriptions may be invoiced at the beginning of the contract period of performance. The SEC's Delphi eInvoicing system is managed by the Enterprise Services Center (ESC). In order to receive payment and in accordance with the Prompt Payment Act, all invoices submitted as attachments in the Delphi eInvoicing web-portal shall contain the following: Company logo or letterhead Company name and payment address Company Point of Contact (POC) for the invoice with phone and e-mail Invoice number and invoice date Billing period SEC Contract number Task/Delivery Order number (if applicable) SEC Contracting Officer's Representative (COR name) Amount billed (by CLIN), current and cumulative Total amount billed this period Cumulative total billed to date Brief Description of Services Performed - General description only If the contract includes allowances for travel, all invoices which include charges pertaining to travel expenses will catalog a breakdown of reimbursable expenses with the appropriate receipts to substantiate the travel expenses. 5004.00 Appointment of Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR) (June 2020) TBD, is hereby designated the Securities and Exchange Commission COR for administration and information relating to this contract. TBD is hereby designated as the Alternate COR for this contract. The COR may not re-delegate his or her authority; only the CO has this authority. The COR will manage the contract in coordination with the CO and within the terms of the contract. The COR’s responsibilities include reviewing invoices and charges by the Contractor, informing the CO of areas where exceptions are taken, and accepting or rejecting invoices in the SEC’s financial system. The COR shall be the primary point of contact responsible for communicating administrative guidance for on-boarding and off-boarding of Contractor Personnel, mandatory trainings, government closures, and other events as necessary. Unless otherwise specified in this contract, inspection and acceptance of supplies and/or services to be furnished under this contract will be performed by the COR. Only the CO has the authority to change the terms and conditions of this contract. The COR may request a contract modification, but the CO will make the final determination. The COR may not agree to or issue a change to the contract terms and conditions. In the event the Contractor effects changes to the contract at the direction of any person other than the CO, the changes will be considered to have been made without any authority and no adjustments will be made to the contract. 6002.00 Type of Contract (June 2020) This is a firm-fixed price type contract/agreement. 6012.02 SEC 508 Requirements (June 2020) Pursuant to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, all Information and Communication Technology (ICT) products and services developed, acquired, maintained, and/or used under this contract/order must comply with the Information and Communication Technology Accessibility Provisions set forth by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (also referred to as the “Access Board”) in FAR 39.203(a). The complete text of Section 508 Final Provisions can be accessed at Section 508 Law. All ICT products must comply with the following requirements. Descriptions of the requirements are viewable at the link Section 508 Standards. Offerors that fail to demonstrate compliance with the above requirements, may be eliminated from further consideration for award. The offeror shall indicate for each line item in the schedule whether each product or service is compliant or non-compliant with the accessibility requirements at 36 CFR 1194 using a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT 2.4). Further, the solicitation response must indicate where full details of compliance can be found (e.g., vendor’s website or other exact location). Offerors to this solicitation must provide any additional detailed information necessary for determining applicable Section 508 standards conformance. If an offeror claims its products and/or services, including ICT deliverables such as electronic documents, web content or electronic reports, meet applicable Section 508 standards, and it is later determined by the Government – i.e., after award of a contract/order, that products and/or services delivered do not conform to the described accessibility, remediation of the products and/or services to the level of conformance specified in the contract will be the responsibility of the offeror at its expense. 6014.00 Use of Contractor Data and/or Materials (Mar 2009) The Contractor acknowledges and agrees to the following: The SEC anticipates using the data and/or materials to conduct analyses for use in reports, studies, memoranda, and presentations. The SEC anticipates the following types of situation where analyses based on underlying data may be made public: by the SEC itself (E.g., SEC rulemaking and/or analysis done as part of an inspection or enforcement action), by SEC staff where the SEC is directing or facilitating the publication (e.g., a staff study in response to a Congressional request), by SEC staff facilitating their own private publication where the Commission has not taken a position regarding the publication of the analysis(e.g., a research report to be submitted by the individual staff to an academic conference or journal), and a former employee of the SEC who has substantially completed the analysis while on staff and is facilitating his/her own private publication( e.g., a research report to be submitted to an academic conference or journal). In all of these situations, only “insubstantial amounts” of the licensed data and/or material would be made public and no raw data would be made public, the authors would agree to abide by all contractual terms and conditions, and as the owner/licensor of the data the Contractor would receive attribution and be cited as the data source. “Insubstantial amounts” means an amount that has no independent commercial value and could not be used as a substitute for the service or product or any part of it. 6018.00 Contractor Performance Evaluation (June 2020) In accordance with FAR 42.1502, the SEC will submit an electronic record of the Contractor’s performance to the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) for processing at least annually and at the time the work under a contract or order is completed. The Contractor’s information for CPARS is pulled from the Contractor’s entry in SAM under the Past Performance Point of Contact for the company. The Contractor’s designated representative will have the ability to review, comment, and state whether or not the Contractor agrees with the evaluation and return the evaluation to the Contracting Officer (CO) per FAR 42.1503. The SEC’s evaluation will be available to search in CPARS after 14 calendar days for Government use in evaluating the Contractor’s past performance as part of a source selection action. If the Contractor desires a meeting to discuss the evaluation, it must be requested, in writing to the CO, no later than seven calendar days from the receipt of the evaluation. It shall be the sole responsibility of the Contractor to inform the CO or COR in writing of any changes to the Contractor’s designated representative. Any such changes do not require a modification to the terms and conditions of the contract/order. The following additional FAR provisions are applicable to this acquisition. FAR 52.209-7 Information Regarding Responsibility Matters (Oct 2018) (a) Definitions. As used in this provision— “Administrative proceeding” means a non-judicial process that is adjudicatory in nature in order to make a determination of fault or liability (e.g., Securities and Exchange Commission Administrative Proceedings, Civilian Board of Contract Appeals Proceedings, and Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals Proceedings). This includes administrative proceeding at the Federal and State level but only in connection with performance of a Federal contract or grant. It does not include agency actions such as contract audits, site visits, corrective plans, or inspection of deliverables. “Federal contracts and grants with total value greater than $10,000,000” means— (1) The total value of all current, active contracts and grants, including all priced options; and (2) The total value of all current, active orders including all priced options under indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity, 8(a), or requirements contracts (including task and delivery and multiple-award Schedules). “Principal” means an officer, director, owner, partner, or a person having primary management or supervisory responsibilities within a business entity (e.g., general manager; plant manager; head of a division or business segment; and similar positions). (b) The offeror [_] has [_] does not have current active Federal contracts and grants with total value greater than $10,000,000. (c) If the offeror checked “has” in paragraph (b) of this provision, the offeror represents, by submission of this offer, that the information it has entered in the Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS) is current, accurate, and complete as of the date of submission of this offer with regard to the following information: (1) Whether the offeror, and/or any of its principals, has or has not, within the last five years, in connection with the award to or performance by the offeror of a Federal contract or grant, been the subject of a proceeding, at the Federal or State level that resulted in any of the following dispositions: (i) In a criminal proceeding, a conviction. (ii) In a civil proceeding, a finding of fault and liability that results in the payment of a monetary fine, penalty, reimbursement, restitution, or damages of $5,000 or more. (iii) In an administrative proceeding, a finding of fault and liability that results in— (A) The payment of a monetary fine or penalty of $5,000 or more; or (B) The payment of a reimbursement, restitution, or damages in excess of $100,000. (iv) In a criminal, civil, or administrative proceeding, a disposition of the matter by consent or compromise with an acknowledgment of fault by the Contractor if the proceeding could have led to any of the outcomes specified in paragraphs (c)(1)(i), (c)(1)(ii), or (c)(1)(iii) of this provision. (2) If the offeror has been involved in the last five years in any of the occurrences listed in (c)(1) of this provision, whether the offeror has provided the requested information with regard to each occurrence. (d) The offeror shall post the information in paragraphs (c)(1)(i) through (c)(1)(iv) of this provision in FAPIIS as required through maintaining an active registration in the System for Award Management which can be accessed via https://www.sam.gov (see 52.204-7). FAR 52.252-1 Solicitation Provisions Incorporated by Reference (Feb 1998) This solicitation incorporates one or more solicitation provisions by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. The offeror is cautioned that the listed provisions may include blocks that must be completed by the offeror and submitted with its quotation or offer. In lieu of submitting the full text of those provisions, the offeror may identify the provision by paragraph identifier and provide the appropriate information with its quotation or offer. Also, the full text of a solicitation provision may be accessed electronically at this/these address(es): https://www.acquisition.gov/?q=browsefar FAR Provisions Incorporated By Reference: FAR 52.204-7 - System for Award Management (Oct 2018) FAR 52.204-16 - Commercial and Government Entity Code Reporting (Aug 2020) FAR 52.209-2 - Prohibition On Contracting With Inverted Domestic Corporations--Representation (Nov 2015) FAR 52.225-25 - Prohibition on Contracting with Entities Engaging in Certain Activities or Transactions Relating to Iran—Representation and Certification (June 2020) (xiv) Defense Priorities and Allocations System (DPAS) and assigned rating does not apply. (xv) The date, time and place offers are due: Offerors shall submit quotes electronically to turnerc@sec.gov with a copy to garrettj@sec.gov no later than 1:00PM ET, September 4, 2020. (xvi) The name and email address of the individual to contact for information regarding the solicitation: Christina Turner, turnerc@sec.gov. (xvii) Attachments: 1. Requirements List 2. Pricing 3. FAR 52.209-7