Pre-Solicitation Announcement: National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS)

Added: Feb 05, 2014 11:27 am Modified: Feb 06, 2014 2:41 pmTrack Changes The US Department of Education (ED), Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA), anticipates issuing a solicitation for the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) of the current National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) in February 2014.  The anticipated contract will be for the O&M of the existing system for a base year and 4 one-year option periods.  The procurement will be conducted in two Phases in accordance with the Department of Education Acquisition Regulation at 3415.302-70. 

The Phase 1 solicitation will require offerors to provide evidence through existing documentation (e.g. contract documents, contract deliverables, client endorsements, etc.) to demonstrate their capabilities to meet the solicitation requirements and to address evaluation factors.  The Contracting Officer anticipates that nearly all proposals content will be made up of material the offeror has readily available on hand.  Consequently, the period offerors will have to respond to the solicitation will be brief - perhaps only 2-weeks.  This notice is issued in order to allow interested parties time to begin assembling existing documentation in advance of the solicitation. 

At a high level, the evaluation factors will address the following (factors are subject to change prior to solicitation posting):

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• Factor 1: Socioeconomic Status
  

          Offerors must meet the small business standards under NAICS 541511.
          This procurement will be a small business set-aside.

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• Factor 2: Corporate Capacity
  
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  • Subfactor: System Processing Volume: Demonstrate ability to manage required volumes
    
  • Subfactor: Technical Expertise: Demonstrate technical expertise 
    
  • Subfactor: Platform/Environment: Demonstrate experience using similar platform
    
  
  
  

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• Factor 3: System Security Experience
  
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  • Subfactor: Authority to Operate: Demonstrate receipt of an ATO for a Federal System or equivalent
    
  • Subfactor: Maintain NIST & FIPS Standards: Demonstrate experience maintaining specified NIST & FIPS standards 
    
  • Subfactor: System Management of PII: Demonstrate experience managing PII of a specified volume
    
  
  
  

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• Factor 4: Past Performance
  
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  • Subfactor: Relevancy: Provide past performance that demonstrates relevancy to the requirements
    
  • Subfactor: Quality: Provide past performance that demonstrates quality performance and client satisfaction
    
  
  
  

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• Factor 5: Cost
  

Provide annual cost estimates for requirement.

Please hold any questions regarding the evaluation factors until the solicitation has been posted. Detailed information will be provided through the solicitation. You may find additional information about NSLDS in the FBO Sources Sought Notice, FSA-SS-NSLDS-2013.

The Department also anticipates the issuance of several future solicitations to support the planned re-engineering of the NSLDS which is contemplated for full deployment over the next 3-4 years.  These solicitations will be set-aside for small business to the maximum extent possible.  Further, information about this effort will be made available under separate notices.

This notice is for informational purposes only and no proposals will be accepted in response to this notice.