DA10--Project Name: Aptitude, Interest, and Ability Assessments; Station Location: Winston Salem, North Carolina, VARO

This is a Pre-Solicitation Notice synopsizing an upcoming competitive solicitation that satisfies the requirements of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 5.2, more specifically FAR 5.204, FAR 5.201, FAR 5.207, and FAR 5.203, as well as FAR 5.101. A Request for Quotation (RFQ) solicitation will be posted on or about Tuesday, August 20, 2024.

The Winston Salem, North Carolina, Veterans Affairs Regional Office (VARO) in accordance with the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) has a requirement for a Firm-Fixed-Price Purchase Order to provide services through an online portal that accesses the requisite Aptitude, Interest, and Ability Assessments. Said Assessments will measure Veterans aptitudes, interests, and abilities for career pathways as well as educational opportunities to be utilized by the Veteran Readiness and Employment (VR&E) counselors. Contractor shall furnish separate online portals for the Veterans to take the online assessments and for the VR&E counselors to set testing parameters along with obtaining the assessment reports. Online portals shall be accessible for twenty-four (24) hours a day. Furthermore, the online portals shall run on any computer with internet access yet require no software installation. The period of performance for this project will be one (1) year from the date of award.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for this procurement is 518210 [Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services] and the small business size standard is $40 million. The solicitation will be issued as a RFQ under FAR Part 13.

This project will be a total set-aside for Small Businesses in accordance with FAR 19.502-2(a) and FAR 19.203(b).

All small businesses must be verified in the Small Business Administration (SBA) Dynamic Small Business System (DSBS) via https://dsbs.sba.gov/search/dsp_dsbs.cfm at the time of quotation submission, at the time of award, and for the duration of performance of the resultant Purchase Order. Any Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) or Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB) concerns must be verified in the SBA Veteran Small Business Certification (VetCert) via https://veterans.certify.sba.gov/ at the time of quotation submission, at the time of award, and for the duration of performance of the resultant Purchase Order.

All businesses must be registered to confirm eligibility in the System for Award Management (SAM). Each entity must represent the status as a small business concern in SAM.gov. To register in the SAM database, visit https://www.sam.gov.

All relevant solicitation documents, including the Statement of Work, may be accessed and downloaded on the solicitation issuance date by conducting a search for Solicitation Number 36C10D24Q0269 under Contract Opportunities on https://www.sam.gov. Any Amendments to the RFQ solicitation will also be posted under Contract Opportunities on SAM.