INTENT TO AWARD SOLE SOURCE - SAS

The South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC) has issued a sole source procurement solicitation (number 5400019990) for SAS Institute, Inc. software licenses and support services. The procurement focuses on maintaining critical software systems that generate information reports across multiple platforms, including financial, personnel, inmate systems, and jail management databases. SCDC requires comprehensive software that will support hundreds of existing production reports on mainframe, AIX, and Windows platforms, with specific compatibility requirements for the SCDC and State CIO mainframe environment. The solicitation was posted on June 18, 2020, with responses due by July 13, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. Vendors must submit responses via email to purchasing@doc.sc.gov with "SOLE SOURCE" in the subject line or by mail to the SC Department of Corrections Purchasing Branch at 4420 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29210. No bidders conference or site visit is required, and the award will become effective after the opening date if no responses are received. Any responding vendor must be fully authorized to perform and supply all products and services for SCDC, including support for existing clients and servers within the SCDC Education Division.

The procurement appears to be unrestricted in terms of set-aside designations, with no specific mention of disadvantaged enterprise requirements. Vendors wishing to protest the intended award must submit a notice of intent to protest within five business days of the notice posting date and the actual protest within fifteen days, addressed to the Chief Procurement Officer at the Materials Management Office. The solicitation will be posted in the South Carolina Business Opportunities (SCBO) for at least ten business days as mandated by SC Code 11-35-1560. While no specific award value or budget range is explicitly stated, the procurement is critical to maintaining the existing reporting infrastructure of the South Carolina Department of Corrections. The current infrastructure relies on SAS software, and without these licenses and support services, hundreds of production reports would cease functioning and require extensive rewriting in alternative languages and statistical packages. The procurement officer for this solicitation is Myrtle DeWerdt, who can be contacted at 803-896-8582 or dewerdt.myrtle@doc.state.sc.us for any additional information or clarifications.