DESCRIPTION

THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN FAR SUBPART 12.6-STREAMLINED PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATION AND SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS-AS SUPPLEMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION; QUOTATIONS ARE BEING REQUESTED, AND A SEPARATE WRITTEN SOLICITATION DOCUMENT WILL NOT BE ISSUED.  THE SOLICITATION IS BEING ISSUED USING SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF FAR PARTS 12 AND 13.

This solicitation is a Request for Quotation (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular (FAC) FAC 2024-03 effective February 23, 2024.

The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 811210 – Electronic and Precision Equipment Repair and Maintenance with a small business size standard of $34 million. This acquisition is being issued on a full and open competitive basis. This requirement contains no set-aside restrictions. Both Large- and Small- sized businesses are invited to submit a quotation.

Quoters must possess an ACTIVE registration in the System for Award Management system, www.SAM.gov, when submitting a quotation and shall continue to be registered until time of award, during performance, and through final payment of any contract resulting from this solicitation. The Contracting Officer will confirm that quoters have an “active” registration at the www.sam.gov website upon receipt of the quotation. If the SAM.Gov registration is not active, the quotation will not be considered for award.

The objective of this solicitation is to establish a Firm-Fixed-Price purchase order based on the tasks described in the attached Statement of Work (SOW).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Biosystems and Biomaterials Division of the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) provides the measurement science, standards, technology, and data required to support the nation’s needs in the characterization of cell therapy products for the regenerative medicine field, including the measurement of metabolites in cell culture manufacturing settings. To support this mission, it utilizes a metabolite analysis system (Cedex BIO, Serial Number 36187), for which NIST is seeking maintenance services for.

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 work detailed in the attached Statement of Work (SOW).

SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

Responsible quoters shall provide a quotation for the following Contract Line Items (CLINs), in accordance with the work outlined in the attached SOW:

BASE LINE ITEMS:

• LINE ITEM 0001 – (Quantity 1 YR) Maintenance Services for Cedex Roche Bioanalyzer, in accordance with the SOW.

OPTION LINE ITEMS:

• LINE ITEM 0002 – (Quantity 1 YR) Option Year 1 - Maintenance Services for Cedex Roche Bioanalyzer, in accordance with the SOW.
• LINE ITEM 0003 – (Quantity 1 YR) Option Year 2 - Maintenance Services for Cedex Roche Bioanalyzer, in accordance with the SOW.
• LINE ITEM 0004 – (Quantity 1 YR) Option Year 3 - Maintenance Services for Cedex Roche Bioanalyzer, in accordance with the SOW.
• LINE ITEM 0005 – (Quantity 1 YR) Option Year 4 - Maintenance Services for Cedex Roche Bioanalyzer, in accordance with the SOW.

EVALUATION CRITERIA & BASIS FOR AWARD:

(a) The Government intends to award a purchase order 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. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers: 1) Technical Capability, 2) Past Performance, and 3) Price.

Technical Capability and Past Performance, when combined, shall be more important than price. 

Past Performance and price shall not be evaluated on quotations determined technically unacceptable in accordance with the Technical Capability evaluation factor.

(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.

Technical Capability: 

Evaluation of technical capability shall be based on the information provided in the quotation. NIST will evaluate whether the offeror has demonstrated that its proposed services meet or exceed all minimum requirements. Quotations that do not demonstrate the proposed service meets all requirements will not be considered further for award.  If an offerors technical description and/or product literature does not indicate whether its proposed service meets a certain minimum requirement, NIST will determine that it does not meet the requirements.  

Past Performance: 

The Government will evaluate the Offeror's past performance information  to determine its relevance to the current requirement and the extent to which it demonstrates that the offeror has successfully completed relevant contracts in the past five years.  In assessing the offeror's past performance information, NIST will evaluate, as appropriate, successful performance of contract requirements, quality and timeliness of delivery of goods and services, communications between contracting parties, proactive management and customer satisfaction. Evaluation of this factor will be based on information contained in the past performance portion of the quotation and information provided by references.  The Government will evaluate past performance information by contacting appropriate references, including NIST references, if applicable.  The Government may also consider other available information in evaluating the Offeror’s past performance.  The Government will assign a neutral rating if the offeror has no relevant past performance information.  

Price:

The price evaluation will determine whether the quoted prices are fair and reasonable in relation to the solicitation requirements.  Quoted prices must be entirely compatible with the technical quotation.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Quotation Preparation Instructions

Each quotation shall consist of four (4) separate electronic files. If the quotation is missing any of the elements listed below, the quotation may be deemed unacceptable and may not be evaluated further:

(1) Technical Quotation

(2) Past Performance

(3) Price Quotation

(4) Completed Provisions and Clauses document  

Technical Quotation: Shall include the following:

1. The offeror shall submit a technical description or product literature for the services it is proposing, which clearly identifies each requirement listed in the Statement of Work. The offeror must demonstrate that its proposed service meets or exceeds each minimum requirement described within the attached Statement of Work by providing a citation to the relevant section of its technical description or product literature.  If applicable, evidence that the offeror is authorized by the original provider to provide the item(s) in the quotation should be included.
2. A description of the Contractor’s ability to provide Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) trained engineers or technicians that are fluent in the operation of the equipment.
3. A description of the Contractor’s ability to meet the required deliverable schedule.

Past Performance:  

The offeror shall provide past performance information regarding relevant contracts over the past five (5) years with Federal, state, or local governments, or commercial customers. If the offeror has no relevant past performance, it may include a statement to that effect in its quotation. The government reserves the right to consider data obtained from sources other than those described by the offeror in its quotation. It is recommended that 3-5 contracts be referenced. 

The description of each contract/order described in this section shall not exceed one half page in length. For each contract/order, the offeror shall provide the following information: 

1. Contract number; 
2. Description and relevance to solicitation requirements including dollar value; 
3. Period of Performance – indicate by month and year the state and completion (or “ongoing”) dates for the contract; 
4. Reference Contact – If a non-Government contract, identify the name and address of the client with current telephone number and email address of a point of contact of the client responsible for the contract; 
5. Contracting Office – If a Government contract (Federal or state), identify the Procuring Contracting Officer (PCO), administrative Contracting Officer (ACO), and Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR), and their names, current telephone numbers and email addresses. 
6. Problems Encountered – include information regarding information regarding any problems encountered on the contracts described above and corrective actions taken to resolve those problems. 

Price Quotation:

All Quoters shall submit a firm fixed price quotation for the base line items and option line items. The quotation must include pricing for each line item and the aggregate price for all line items. The price quotation shall include a cover page with the following information:

1. The solicitation number 1333ND24QNB640210;
2. The name, phone number, and email address of the Quoter’s point of contact;
3. The Unique Entity Identifier (EUI) number for Quoter’s active SAM.gov registration.
4. Any applicable discount terms.
5. A statement that the Contractor agrees to all terms, conditions, and provisions included in the solicitation. If the Contractor objects to any of the terms and conditions contained in this solicitation, the Contractor shall state “The terms and conditions in the solicitation are acceptable to be included in the award document with the exception, deletion, or addition of the following:” [Contractor shall list exception(s) and rationale for the exception(s)].  It is the sole responsibility of the Contractor to identify in their quote any exceptions to the terms and conditions of the solicitation. 
6. A statement that the quotation is valid for a minimum of 90 days from the response deadline of this solicitation.

Completed Solicitation Provisions:

A completed version of all required solicitation provisions (see attached provisions/clauses document – required submissions are highlighted in blue). 

Due Date for Quotations and Questions

All quotations must be submitted, via e-mail, to Sadaf Afkhami, Contracting Officer, at [email protected] must be received no later than 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 14, 2024. FAX quotations will not be accepted.  Quoters must reference the RFQ number in the subject line of the e-mail submission.   Quotes shall not be deemed received by the Government until the quotation has entered the e-mail inbox of the individual(s) set forth above.

Questions: All questions regarding this notice must be submitted via e-mail to Sadaf Afkhami, at [email protected], no later than 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 2, 2024.

Please note that this procurement IS NOT being conducted under the GSA Federal Supply Schedule (FSS) program or another Government-Wide Area Contract (GWAC).  If a contractor submits a quotation based upon an FSS or GWAC contract, the Government will accept the quoted price.  However, the terms and conditions stated herein will be included in any resultant Purchase Order, not the terms and conditions of the contractor’s FSS or GWAC contract.

PROVISIONS AND CLAUSES:

The provisions and clauses applicable to this solicitation are identified in Attachment 2 titled “Applicable Clauses & Provisions”. The full text of a Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision or clause may be accessed electronically at  www.acquisition.gov/far.  The full text of a Department of Commerce Acquisition Regulation (CAR) provision or clause may be accessed electronically at or http://www.osec.doc.gov/oam/acquistion_management/policy/.

ATTACHMENTS:

The following attachments apply to this solicitation:

1. Statement of Work

2. Applicable Clauses & Provisions