RRB11Q041- Logical Access Control - Cover Letter.docx

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

RAILROAD RETIREMENT BOARD

844 NORTH RUSH STREET

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60611-2092

August 11, 2011

OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATION

Acquisition Management - Procurement

RE: Solicitation No. RRB11Q041 – Logical Access Control

Dear Prospective Offeror:

Accompanying this letter is a Request for Quotations (RFQ) seeking a contractor to provide a Logical Access Control System (LACS) turn-key solution which utilizes the agency’s existing Personal Identity Verification (PIV) Cards. The contractor’s solution shall include but not be limited to furnishing, installing, configuring, and testing a LACS that uses Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credentials in accordance to Federal Information Processing Standard 201 (FIPS 201) at the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board headquarters building at 844 N. Rush Street, Chicago, IL 60611 by means of a competitively negotiated fixed price contract. Each prospective offeror must provide evidence that their product is FIPS 201 approved at the time of submission of the proposal. Offerors are cautioned that RRB will not consider a LACS solution unless it is on FIPS 201, APL.

Offeror’s must also submit a Notice of Intent to Propose by 12:00 Noon Central time on August 18, 2011 including their Commitment to provide an on-site Proof of Product Test (POPT) at the RRB during the POPT testing period from August 29 through September 7, 2011. This notice must indicate the business hours required to conduct the POPT, the RRB resources required, and any information the Contractor requires of RRB IT staff in order to accomplish the test. Interested Offerors may schedule their POPT by contacting Mr. Mike Dwyer at Michael.dwyer@rrb.gov on or before August 25, 2011.

Attachment 1 provides information on the RRB’s IT Infrastructure which contain sensitive but unclassified information or Privacy Act Data. For security reasons, this exhibit shall be provided to you upon request. Your request must be on your company’s letterhead addressed to me.

If you are interested in providing these services beginning September 28, 2011 or sooner, you must submit an offer to the RRB in accordance with the enclosed solicitation. In order to be considered for award your offer must be received by this office no later than 11:00 a.m. local time on September 7, 2011.

RRB shall evaluate offers and award a contract without discussions with offerors. Therefore, it is imperative that the offeror’s initial proposal contains the offeror’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint. Your offer must include the following documents:

-2-

* - A Business Proposal, as instructed in Section V.B.5 including pricing tables and order information as set forth in Section II – as set forth in A and B

* - Offeror Representations and Certifications – Section II.C.

Please note that included in the analysis will be a review of the past performance of the offeror. Offeror’s prior contract information will be submitted as a part of the technical proposal. The RRB evaluation panel will obtain past performance data from these and other sources.

Questions pertaining to technical aspects of this procurement must be submitted in writing and received by this office in sufficient time to allow the RRB to timely respond transmitted written answers to offerors by solicitation amendment. To ensure timeliness, RRB will only answer written questions received in this office no later than August 18, 2011 by 10:00am local.

This solicitation does not commit the Government to pay for any costs incurred in the preparation and submission of offers nor does it commit the Government to award a contract. It is also brought to your attention that the Contracting Officer is the only individual who can legally obligate the Government to the expenditure of public funds in connection with this procurement. Please note that the terms “Government”, “Board”, “RRB”, and “U.S. Railroad Retirement Board” which appear throughout the solicitation documents are synonymous and interchangeable.

RRB will not furnish technical information over the phone or in person.

Sincerely,