Echoview software renewal and support

NFFS71002301829

***NOAA'S ACQUISITION & GRANTS OFFICE, WESTERN ACQUISITION DIVISION-BOULDER, ALASKA FISHERIES SCIENCE CENTER (AFSC), INTENDS TO NEGOTIATE, ON A SOLE SOURCE BASIS, UNDER AUTHORITY OF FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), WITH ECHOVIEW SOFTWARE PTY LTD, OUT OF AUSTRALIA, FOR ECHOVIEW SOFTWARE UPDATES AND ANNUAL SUPPORT. Echoview is the de facto industry standard post-processing application for hydroacoustic data for fisheries research and management. Echoview has a relatively large international user base and they work actively with the NOAA scientists and the larger fisheries acoustics community implementing features that support community developed best practices.

Scientists in the RACE and REFM divisions have extensive experience using Echoview and changing the primary acoustics data analysis application would severely limit productivity and result in additional costs in staff training. Further, Echoview is the standard hydroacoustics analysis software used within NMFS and there is a significant benefit to sharing analysis techniques among NMFS users.

There is only one other similar product that is commercially available, the Large Scale Survey System, or LSSS developed by MAREC and the Institute of Marine Research, Norway. We periodically evaluate the LSSS software to determine if it would meet our data processing requirements and have found that while the total cost of ownership is comparable, it does not provide the flexibility we require and MAREC and IMR are not focused on implementing features we require. There are a few open source applications for processing fisheries acoustics data that are available but they are not nearly robust enough, have no support model, and would be totally unsuitable for our work.

ECHOVIEW HAS NO AUTHORIZED PARTNERS OR RESELLERS IN THE US.

***THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS AND NO SOLICITATION PACKAGE IS AVAILABLE. HOWEVER, FIRMS THAT BELIEVE THEY CAN FULLY MEET THE GOVERNMENT'S REQUIREMENTS MAY SUBMIT SUBSTANTIATING DOCUMENTATION IN WRITING TO THE IDENTIFIED POINT OF CONTACT WITHIN 15 DAYS AFTER PUBLICATION OF THIS SYNOPSIS. SUCH DOCUMENTATION WILL BE EVALUATED SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF DETERMINING WHETHER OR NOT TO CONDUCT THIS PROCUREMENT ON A COMPETITIVE BASIS. A DETERMINATION BY THE GOVERNMENT NOT TO CONDUCT A COMPETITIVE PROCUREMENT, BASED UPON RESPONSES TO THIS NOTICE, IS SOLELY WITHIN THE DISCRETION OF THE GOVERNMENT. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE.