Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF MAY 14, 2006 FBO #1630
MODIFICATION

99 -- RFI FOR DATA CONVERSION

Notice Date

5/12/2006
 

Notice Type

Modification
 

NAICS

518210 — Data Processing, Hosting, and Related Services
 

Contracting Office

Library of Congress, Contracts Services, Contracts Section, 101 Independence Ave SE LA-325, Washington, DC, 20540-9411
 

ZIP Code

20540-9411
 

Solicitation Number

RFICRS0001
 

Response Due

5/30/2006
 

Archive Date

6/14/2006
 

Point of Contact

Joann Walker, Contracting Officer, Phone 202-707-0467, Fax 202-707-8611,
 

E-Mail Address

jwalker@loc.gov
 

Description

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Document Conversion Request for Information (RFI) A. Background The Congressional Research Service (CRS), a service unit of the Library of Congress (LOC), works exclusively for the United States Congress, providing research, analysis, and information support to the members and committees of the House of Representatives and Senate. More than 400 analysts author written reports and confidential memoranda, conduct educational seminars and workshops, and provide in-person briefings and telephone consultations. CRS staff members work directly with the Congress on a daily basis to help elected members and their staff identify, analyze, and formulate legislative proposals. CRS experts perform in-depth policy, legal, and procedural analyses; identify and assess policy alternatives and implications; assist in framing legislative proposals; identify and evaluate new research findings, data, and information sources; and deliver testimony before congressional committees. CRS staff also provide the Congress with a wide range of specialized reference and information services. CRS produces Reports to Congress using WordPerfect 12. These reports are published in print, PDF, and HTML using WordPerfect macros that convert the documents from their native WordPerfect format. CRS currently maintains about 6,000 Reports to Congress on its internal website. Many of these reports are updated on a regular basis, sometimes daily, to reflect changes in the status of the legislative issues under consideration. Approximately 850 new reports are issued each year, and approximately 20 reports are updated each day. Reports include text, extensive footnotes, tables, and vector graphic images. B. Current Need CRS currently requires expert advice for planning purposes on how to convert up to 6,000 Reports to Congress from WordPerfect 12 to Microsoft (MS) Word 2003, including an estimate of the cost, time frame, and a suggested approach to the proposed conversion. CRS estimates that the 6,000 reports contain 120,000 total pages. CRS may choose to convert 3,000 products, or all 6,000 reports in its collection. CRS estimates that 3,000 of its reports are updated on a regular basis. CRS must continue to update these reports, even during a conversion process. CRS estimates that 3,000 of its reports are not actively updated; these 3,000 non-updated reports, however, remain available to Congress through the CRS website. C. Disclaimer The purpose of this RFI is to inform CRS of the options and issues to consider should it choose to convert CRS reports from WordPerfect to MS Word. In accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), this notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes. This notice does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP). Responses to this RFI are not offers, and cannot be accepted to form a binding contract. D. Scope For planning purposes, CRS seeks information from the industry to assist in identifying options and considerations involved in converting up to 6,000 CRS Reports to Congress from WordPerfect 12 to MS Word 2003. CRS estimates that 3,000 of its reports are not actively updated. These reports, which may remain in WordPerfect, may fall outside the scope of the project or may be converted by CRS with a conversion tool on an as-needed basis. CRS memoranda and other written material are also not within the scope of the conversion project. CRS reports range from two pages to more than 100 pages in length, with a typical length of 20 pages. As many as 120,000 pages may be part of the conversion effort. The reports make heavy use of footnotes; employ bold and italicized text and other standard editorial features; and feature extensive tables and graphics created in WordPerfect or imported from other programs, such as Excel or Quattro Pro. Paragraphs are not currently tagged elements in the data. Reports authored in WordPerfect use two WordPerfect templates that draw upon a series of WordPerfect styles and macros to output two CRS report formats, a short and long report. The new MS Word system will use a single MS Word template and a combination of Word styles, XML elements, and Smart document technology to create and output a single report format. A list of WordPerfect elements to be mapped to the new MS Word elements will be available before conversion begins. Two examples follow. First, in WordPerfect, five levels of headings may be used in the reports. Each level is identified with a WordPerfect style. In MS Word, four levels of headings may be used in the reports. Each level is identified with a MS Word style. Long reports, over half of the reports, include tables of contents that are automatically generated from the heading level styles. During conversion and the change to a single report format, all reports will include a table of contents. Long reports, which included tables of contents, will retain the tables of contents for display during output to HTML, PDF, and print while those without tables of contents will not do so. Second, in WordPerfect, CRS reports link to external websites and congressional bills, U.S. public laws, House and Senate reports, and other CRS reports using custom WordPerfect styles to identify the material being linked. For publication to HTML, PDF, and print, a post-processor identifies the ?tagged? material and converts it to corresponding HTML anchor (<a href>) tags based on a simple algorithm. MS Word will use Word ML enhanced with a custom XML schema and embedded Smart Tags to identify and link to congressional bills, U.S. public laws, House and Senate reports, and other CRS reports. The following materials will be supplied to respondents upon request: a list of the styles used in WordPerfect; a preliminary list of styles to be used in MS Word; a preliminary mapping of WordPerfect elements to MS Word elements; the preliminary XML schema imported into and then applied to the MS Word template; the preliminary, draft, custom MS Word template (?CRSReport.dot?) file; and sample WordPerfect versions of CRS Reports to Congress in electronic format. Vendors may request this information from the contracting officer listed at the end of this RFI. Information shared with respondents shall be considered confidential; a signed non-disclosure agreement will be required. E. Special Concerns CRS reports are updated on a daily basis; thus CRS authors will need immediate access to their reports for updating in WordPerfect, even during all stages of the conversion process. More than 400 authors write and update the CRS reports. Approximately 20 reports are updated each day. New reports are added to the collection at the rate of approximately 15 new reports per week. Legislative developments and current events determine which reports need to be updated; as a result, it is impossible to determine which reports will need to be updated during any conversion process. CRS commits to updating reports within days or even hours of relevant events. CRS is developing a new report format that will differ from the two existing report formats. CRS currently has a short report format and a long report format. Converted documents will need to fit a new report structure that is currently being developed. The current format for short and long reports is relatively unstructured while the new report format is structured and establishes tags for relevant data elements. (For example, the heading levels established for CRS documents currently are inconsistently used. Some documents may start with a level-two heading, or may have a level-three heading following and nested under a level-one heading. In the new report format, heading levels will need to be used in a consistent order.) CRS plans to make report title and author names consistent with an authoritative database. CRS reports contain the title of the report, the author or authors names, and job title. The current WordPerfect files do not always contain the authoritative data for these elements. CRS maintains a database that contains the authoritative information. That information will need to be merged with and imported into the converted documents. Graphics are often created outside of WordPerfect documents and imported in a variety of ways. Graphics software programs used include: Excel, Quattro Pro, Harvard Graphics, and Adobe Illustrator, among others. Files are frequently cut and pasted into WordPerfect or input as a Windows Metafile. Graphics are also updated ? approximately 1,200 graphic files are imbedded in the total 6,000 reports. Quality assurance is of utmost concern. CRS will output print, PDF, and HTML versions of the Word files and make them directly available to Congress with only minimal in-house quality assurance. CRS documents must convert to print, PDF, and HTML using in-house output tools with a very high accuracy rate. Dropped data, incorrect spacing, incorrect formatting (such as incorrect use of styles, or failure to follow the original indentations within reports), and failure to follow the established style sheet provided for each report format are considered unacceptable. CRS is writing programs that will output the MS Word files into the print, PDF, and HTML formats. CRS seeks greater consistency in the presentation of its tables. Tables in WordPerfect documents are either created directly in WordPerfect or imported from other programs such as Excel. Standards for these tables have been loosely enforced in WordPerfect. The Word environment will require that tables meet specific standards (such as right justification of numbers, left justification of words and phrases). It is expected that much of the work of enforcing the new look for CRS tables will require manual reformatting of tables to meet new specifications. F. Information Responses CRS seeks a project plan, an estimated cost, and an estimated timeline that will allow CRS to assess a possible conversion project. In the project plan, CRS requests that respondents provide the following information: Section 1. Project Plan Briefly describe the options available to CRS to convert the WordPerfect files to Word. Address the following questions in your response. Responses should not be limited to these questions; respondents are free to develop their responses as they see fit. ● What are options for converting documents that are updated regularly and what are notable strengths and weaknesses? ● What quality assurance steps can a contractor provide to ensure that documents do not lose any text, formatting, or other unique features during the conversion? What level of quality assurance should CRS expect of contractors? ● What level of quality assurance may still be required by CRS personnel? What skill set will be required by CRS personnel? ● What strategies are recommended to implement Word? Can CRS launch Word for use by all 400 analysts for updating all documents simultaneously? If so, what efforts may be required by either an outside vendor or CRS personnel to handle documents that are in the process of being converted to Word, or are already converted to Word but are concurrently updated in WordPerfect? ● What other issues should CRS consider? Section 2. Challenges Briefly describe the challenges that CRS may face during the conversion. What steps must CRS complete before attempting a conversion. Section 3. Time and Cost Provide cost estimates for each of the two alternatives CRS is considering: 1) converting 3,000 documents (approximately 60,000 pages); or 2) converting 6,000 documents (approximately 120,000 pages). Discuss how the total cost was generally determined, and what factors the industry generally considers to estimate cost (by page, file, characters, or other factor)? CRS also requests estimated costs for a conversion tool that would allow CRS to convert documents that were not part of the initial conversion effort on as as-needed basis. Provide a time estimate for the project. Address how much time would be required to convert 3,000 documents (approximately 60,000 pages); or convert 6,000 documents (approximately 120,000 pages). After a narrative explanation, include a table that details the time and cost for each of the two alternatives (e.g, X months and Y dollars for 1,500 documents, or other measures, as appropriate). Separately, list the cost to provide CRS a conversion tool for its use. Identify any significant limitations or impediments to making time and cost estimates. G. Administrative Issues All responses to this RFI should be submitted via e-mail attachment (Word or WordPerfect) or in hard copy to Joann Walker, Contracting Officer, Library of Congress, Contracts and Grants Management, 101 Independence Avenue S.E. LA325, Washington, DC 20540 by 10:00 a.m. local time on May 30, 2006. Please be aware that mail to the Library of Congress may be delayed for security screening by up to one week. Questions may be submitted to the Contracting Officer via e-mail at jwalker@loc.gov.
 

Place of Performance

Address: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, CONGRESIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE, 101 INDEPENDENCE AVENUE, WASHINGTON DC

Zip Code: 20540

Country: USA
 

Record

SN01047508-W 20060514/060512221259 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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