Manufacturing extension partnership program (MEP) online access to industry profile studies

General Information

The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program (MEP), a program of the US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), is a nationwide network that provides services to assist manufacturers in becoming globally competitive. The network consists of manufacturing extension centers serving all 50 states and Puerto Rico.  Each MEP center is an independent, non-profit organization offering products and services that meet the specific needs of the region’s local manufacturers.

The centers have a critical need for access to the most current and comprehensive analysis of different industries. This will assist centers in their work with manufacturing clients, to grow their business to ultimately develop a stronger, agile, and robust manufacturing sector.

Requirements

The Contractor shall provide access via site licenses to access a “library” or “repository” of current manufacturing industry studies with specificity to the 5-digit NAICS, or more detailed if available, and other information on industry trends for the MEP Centers and field offices.  Each MEP Centers shall have the ability to extract information including charts and tables which must include proper attributes of source. The vendor shall regularly update these studies and provide technical support on how to access industry studies during business hours for each Center. In addition, the vendor shall provide two training sessions for each MEP Center on how to access the site and download industry reports and how the user can customize the tool to download specific reports. The vendor shall provide each MEP Center with web alerts or RSS data feeds on industry updates and other tools that may be useful.

The studies must focus on:

• Detailed supply chain information,
• Market trends, revenue data;
• Operating strengths and weaknesses;
• Analysis of external drivers including technologies and regulations;
• The competitive landscape and major players; and
• Industry profit and costs benchmarks.

Contracting Office Address

Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B121, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640

NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 541910, as those domestic sources having $16,500,000.00 in sales. Please include your company’s size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice.

Instructions to Responders:

Interested parties that have the capabilities to meet the Government’s basic requirements are requested to email capabilities statement of no more than 5 pages double sided describing their abilities to robert.singman@nist.gov no later than the response date for this sources sought notice. The report should include relevant information to your capabilities including any requirements that cannot be met or is deemed close to but not meeting an identified requirement. Also, the following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice:

1. Name of company(ies), their addresses, and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, fax number and email address) that provide the services for which specifications are provided.
2. Indication if the company(ies) are small business and social economic category(ies).
3. Indication of whether the services required are currently on one or more GSA Schedule (i.e. Multiple Award Schedules [MAS]) contracts and, if so, the GSA MAS contract number(s).
4. Indication if the company(ies) can provide all, or some, of the services.
5. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in developing its minimum specifications and finalizing its market research.