SPECIAL NOTICE - INAMI Biometric Software Licenses Renewal and Support

The Department of State Regional Procurement Support Office in Fort Lauderdale, on behalf of the International Narcotics and Law Enforcements Affairs Section (INL) of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, intends to procure, on a noncompetitive basis, software license renewals and maintenance support from Creative Information Technology Inc. (CITI). The required software license renewals and maintenance support are described in Attachment 1. The license renewals and maintenance support will be procured for a base period of one (1) year and may include additional option years.

Previous INL and Government of Mexico (GOM) biometrics implementation projects at the Mexican National Migration Institute (INM/INAMI) have provided the GOM the capacity to verify trusted travelers at limited points of entry as well as the identification of irregular migrants throughout the country. The systems provided by these biometric projects have been in use since 2011. The software components of the systems and their licensing was integrated and customized by Creative Information Technology, Inc. (CITI). The licenses cover main biometric processing servers and clients (kiosks) currently in use by the GOM and form part of an integrated biometric platform. The platform offers robust biometric enrollment and verification systems to accurately identify travelers which may pose a threat to the security of Mexico and the United States. The biometric platform was built around the CITI software currently in use. Renewal of the current software licensing is required to ensure compatibility with INAMI's migratory use-cases, databases, biometric platform, and biometric kiosks. Even though the biometric platform utilizes some third party licenses, the bulk of the system was created by CITI. CITI is the only viable alternative to provide licensing and support to the customized software currently in use by INAMI.

Based on the foregoing information, the Department does not expect a company other than CITI being able to meet INL requirements. The Department solicited quotations for this requirement in fiscal year 2014 under solicitation number SWHARC14Q0063. Only one quotation was received. Given our previous experience, and due to the compatibility issues described above, the Department does not expect to be able to obtain competition for the current software renewals.

This notice is not a request for quotations and a solicitation will not be available. This acquisition will be conducted under the authority of FAR 13.501(a). All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, which shall be considered by the Department. However, a determination not to compete this requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government.

To be considered, responses to this notice must be received by the Department no later than 9:00 am local (Miami, FL) time on November 3, 2015. Responses and questions, if any, must be submitted via email to FernandezJM@state.gov. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted nor acknowledged.

Any information submitted in response to this notice is strictly voluntary. The Government will not pay for costs incurred in responding to this notice.