Legislative Subscription for the DFC Office of External Affairs – Draft SOW and RFI

A. Introduction

This special notice provides a draft statement of work (SOW) and request for information (RFI). The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) seeks industry input for an upcoming solicitation for a legislative subscription for the DFC Office of External Affairs (OEA).

B. Background

As the U.S. Government's development finance agency, DFC mobilizes U.S. private capital to help solve critical development challenges while advancing U.S. foreign policy interests. DFC works with the U.S. private sector to help gain footholds in emerging markets, catalyzing revenues, jobs, and growth opportunities at home and abroad. DFC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, loan guarantees, political risk insurance, support for private equity investment funds, and direct equity investments.

DFC’s OEA is DFC's lead communicator to all external audiences, including media, Congress, stakeholders, and the American public. OEA is tasked with raising the profile of DFC to the various audiences and to meet DFC's obligations to its committees of jurisdiction in the United States Congress.

DFC’s OEA has a requirement for access to a subscription database to provide congressional news, legislative tracking, information on Members of Congress, and stakeholder management. DFC’s need is for a base service level of 12 individual user accounts, with an option for up to an additional eight individual user accounts.

Within the next two weeks, DFC anticipates issuing a combined synopsis/solicitation to SAM.gov following the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 12.6 and Part 13.

A two-phase competition is planned. Phase One would require vendors to submit existing product literature for their proposed subscription database, which would be evaluated based on the ability of the proposed subscription database to meet the functionality requirements in the statement of work. Based on this evaluation, DFC contemplates conducting a down-select to only the most highly qualified vendors.

In Phase Two, vendors remaining in the competition will be required to provide (a) a product demonstration of their proposed subscription database, (b) a limited duration trial account to DFC, and (c) a price quote.

Following Phase Two, DFC contemplates the award of a single, firm-fixed-price purchase order with a 12-month base year and four, 12-month options. The base year period of performance is expected to begin on January 16, 2024.

C. Draft Statement of Work

Attached is the draft statement of work for this requirement. DFC welcomes industry questions and feedback on this document.

D. Request for Information

In addition to questions and feedback on the draft statement of work, the following information is requested from prospective vendors:

1. A rough estimate of your price to provide the number of user accounts/licenses described in this notice. Please note that any pricing estimate submitted will not be binding on the vendor in any future solicitation, impact the vendor’s ability to participate in a future solicitation, or impact DFC’s evaluation of a vendor’s quote submitted in response to a future solicitation.
2. Any additional data or technical specifications, if any, you would need beyond what is currently provided in the draft statement of work to submit a quote.
3. Any comments or feedback on the proposed solicitation process described in this notice.

F. Submitting information to DFC

Information provided in response to this notice must be submitted electronically to Joshua Houston, Contract Specialist, at Joshua.Houston@dfc.gov. Please reference “Legislative Subscription for the DFC Office of External Affairs” in your e-mail.

Information may be submitted in the body of an e-mail or in documents attached to an e-mail. For questions or feedback to the draft statement of work, respondents are encouraged to submit a copy of the draft statement of work with “red-lined” edits and comments using the Microsoft Word track changes tool. An editable Microsoft Word copy of the draft statement of work is attached to this notice.

Respondents need not address all aspects of this notice in their submission.

Submission of information to DFC is requested no later than Wednesday, November 15, 2023, at 4:30pm Eastern time. Questions and feedback received after this date and time may not be considered.

No phone calls or meetings will be accepted in response to this notice.

G. Disclaimer

This notice does not constitute a solicitation or a promise of a solicitation in the future. This notice is being provided for planning purposes only and does not commit the Government to any contractual agreements. No entitlement or payment of direct or indirect costs or charges will arise as a result of submission of responses to this notice.

DFC will not accept proposals in response to this notice. No awards will be made in response to this notice.

Responses to this notice are voluntary and will not affect any vendor's ability to submit a proposal or quote if or when a formal solicitation is released. Proprietary information shall not be submitted in response to this notice. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for any improperly identified proprietary information.