NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD SOLE SOURCE.docx

NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE

The Department of Commerce (DOC), International Trade Administration (ITA), Industry and Analysis (I&A), intends to negotiate and award a sole source Firm-Fixed-Price commercial contract for a performance period of twelve (12) months from date of award and acceptance to IHS Global Inc. (S&P Global Market Intelligence) for enterprise commercial trade intelligence subscriptions, application programming interface (API) access, proprietary datasets, technical support, maintenance, user administration, and associated licensing supporting the Department’s trade analysis and economic security mission.

This notice is published in accordance with RFO 12.102(a) and RFO Part 5 to determine whether responsible commercial sources exist capable of satisfying the Government’s minimum requirements.

This notice is not a solicitation or Request for Quotation (RFQ). No solicitation document is available.

Purpose Industry and Analysis requires uninterrupted access to integrated commercial trade intelligence and maritime datasets used to support:

· Trade enforcement

· Supply chain risk assessments

· Economic security analysis

· Foreign investment reviews

· Transportation and logistics analysis

· Maritime shipping analysis

· Import and export trend analysis

· Industry competitiveness studies

· Strategic policy development The Government requires a commercial solution capable of delivering proprietary trade intelligence through an integrated platform combining enterprise web access, APIs, historical commercial datasets, maritime intelligence, and commercial analytical tools.

Minimum Government Requirements The contractor shall provide commercial access to proprietary datasets and analytical capabilities including, at a minimum:

Trade Intelligence

· Global shipment records

· Import and export transaction data

· Historical trade activity

· Customs transaction records

· Buyer/supplier relationship mapping

· Corporate ownership information

· Facility ownership

· Corporate hierarchy

· Supply chain mapping

· Trade flow analysis

· Economic security analysis

· Foreign investment analysis

· Transportation and logistics analysis

· Industry competitiveness research

Russian Trade Dataset Must provide:

· Russian import/export transactions

· Shipment-level records

· Consignee information

· Shipper information

· Commodity descriptions

· Historical records

· Supply chain relationship data

Maritime Intelligence Dataset Must provide:

· Commercial vessel database

· Vessel ownership

· Ship movements

· Maritime companies

· Builders/operators

· Port information

· Casualties and incidents

· Fleet composition

· Historical vessel movements

· IMO numbers

· Vessel characteristics

Technical Requirements The contractor shall provide:

· Enterprise cloud-hosted platform

· Secure API connectivity

· Bulk dataset delivery

· User account administration

· Enterprise licensing

· Continuous commercial data updates

· Software maintenance

· Technical support

· User onboarding assistance

Proprietary Commercial Products The Government has determined that the required commercial capabilities are currently provided through the following proprietary commercial products owned and licensed exclusively by S&P Global Market Intelligence:

· Panjiva Enterprise

· Panjiva API

· Panjiva Trade Feed

· Bespoke Bill of Lading API

· SeaWeb Ships API

Unique Mission Requirements The Government requires an integrated commercial platform providing:

· Proprietary shipment-level trade intelligence

· Proprietary maritime intelligence

· Proprietary global supply chain mapping

· Historical commercial trade datasets

· Russian Bill of Lading datasets

· Cross-linked corporate ownership information

· Integrated API functionality

· Enterprise analytical tools

· Historical analytical continuity These capabilities support recurring Government analyses that rely upon consistent commercial data and historical trend continuity.

Basis for Sole Source The Government believes S&P Global Market Intelligence is the only responsible source capable of satisfying the Government’s requirements because:

· S&P Global exclusively owns and licenses the required proprietary datasets.

· Panjiva, Bespoke Bill of Lading, and SeaWeb datasets are commercially proprietary.

· The required APIs are integrated with the proprietary datasets.

· Existing Government analytical workflows rely upon these proprietary datasets.

· Historical analytical continuity is required for recurring trade analyses.

· Replacement would require redevelopment of analytical models.

· Replacement would require significant API redevelopment.

· Analysts would require retraining.

· Historical trend continuity would be lost.

· Transition to another commercial platform would result in substantial duplication of cost, unacceptable delays, and interruption of mission-critical analytical support.

Capability Statements Interested vendors believing they can satisfy the Government’s minimum requirements shall submit a capability statement demonstrating the ability to provide all required commercial capabilities.

Capability statements shall specifically address:

· Shipment-level trade intelligence

· Historical trade datasets

· Russian trade datasets

· Maritime intelligence equivalent to SeaWeb

· Commercial vessel ownership data

· Bill of Lading datasets

· Cross-linked ownership information

· Enterprise web platform

· API connectivity

· Bulk dataset delivery

· Historical analytical continuity

· Commercial licensing

· Technical support

· Continuous commercial updates General marketing materials will not be sufficient.

As previously stated, this is NOT a solicitation for quotations, quotation abstracts, a request for competitive quotations; or request for competitive proposals; There is no solicitation package available for review due to the Government’s intention to conduct this requirement as a sole source award. If a company determines that their company can meet all requirements mentioned above, the company shall submit a written response within 15 days from the date of publication of this synopsis for it to be taken into consideration by the Government. Responses must clearly and thoroughly defend any claims or assertions that attempt to refute the Government’s claim. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed action based upon responses to this notice is solely with the discretion of the Government.

Information received will normally be considered for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Information received on this notice must eliminate the Government's concerns and address how the required services can be provided.

If no qualified/affirmative responses are received within 15 days of this notice to determine whether a qualified source is more advantageous to the Government, a contract will be awarded to IHS GLOBAL INC.

Any questions regarding this notice must be submitted in writing via email to Alicia Brister (ABrister@doc.gov). Telephonic questions or requests are strongly discouraged.