SPECIAL NOTICE
76 -- RFI for Computer-Assisted Legal Research (CALR) - USCA13RFI0509 Attachment #1
- Notice Date
- 5/9/2013
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 511199
— All Other Publishers
- Contracting Office
- United States Judiciary, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, Procurement Management Division, One Columbus Circle, NE, Suite 3-250, Washington, District of Columbia, 20544, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20544
- Solicitation Number
- USCA13RFI0509
- Archive Date
- 6/12/2013
- Point of Contact
- Alicia M. Steele,
- E-Mail Address
-
alicia_steele@ao.uscourts.gov
(alicia_steele@ao.uscourts.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- RFI #USCA13RFI0509 for Computer-Assisted Legal Research (CALR) RFI Attachment 1 - CALR Content and Functionality Request for Information for Computer-Assisted Legal Research (CALR) RFI #USCA13RFI0509 This is a Request for Information (RFI) only. This RFI is for informational planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Judiciary for any actual procurement of supplies or services. This notice does not constitute a solicitation or a promise of a solicitation in the future. This RFI does not commit the Judiciary to contract for any supply or service. Respondents are advised that the Judiciary will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI are solely at the responding parties' expense. Responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Judiciary to form a binding contract or agreement. Respondents will not be notified of the results from this RFI and responses will not be returned. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitation, if one is issued. Respondents are solely responsible for properly marking and clearly identifying any proprietary information or trade secrets contained within their response. The Judiciary will not be liable for, or suffer any consequential damages for any proprietary information not properly marked and clearly identified. Proprietary information received in response to this RFI will be safeguarded and handled in accordance with applicable Judiciary regulations. Submissions may be subject to public disclosure as required or permitted by law. BACKGROUND: The Federal Judiciary has approximately 10,000 registered computer-assisted legal research (CALR) users; some of those users use CALR on a infrequent basis. A subset of the total Judiciary users (approximately 6,000 to 8,000 individuals) use one or more CALR services on a more than infrequent basis. The following users are considered mandatory users and include, but are not limited to: • All courts within the regional federal circuits (appellate, district, bankruptcy) • U.S. Court of Federal Claims • Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts • Pretrial services and probation offices throughout the courts • Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation The following non-mandatory users have historically acted as Riders or authorized users and have ordered services against the Judiciary's national CALR contracts. • U.S. Supreme Court • U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit • Court of International Trade • Federal Judicial Center • U.S. Sentencing Commission • U.S. Tax Court • Offices of Independent Counsel • Federal Public Defenders • Community Defenders • Court of Veterans Appeals • Special Masters A significant portion of the Federal Judiciary user community is made up of judges, their law clerks, judicial secretaries and assistants, and unpaid student interns (referred to as "chambers staff"). Turnover is rapid in chambers staff because judicial clerkships are usually temporary appointments of 12 to 24 months duration. In any given year, as much as twenty-five (25) percent of a circuit's CALR users' appointments expire. Within the Federal Judiciary and its agencies, such as the Administrative Office, users may move from one organization or unit to another. CONSTRAINTS: The AOUSC is constrained by the current budget environment; the Judiciary faces a budget crisis that is unprecedented, and one not likely to end in the near-term. It is likely that available funding will be very tight in fiscal year 2014 and beyond. It is anticipated that the sequestration cuts that took effect on March 1, 2013 will have a devastating effect on federal court operations nationwide. The 5.0 percent across-the-board sequestration cut results in a nearly $350 million reduction in Judiciary funding below current levels. As a result, the level of CALR services purchased by the Federal Judiciary may be reduced dramatically from the current and historical levels in the coming years. Additionally, duplicative information/content may need to be eliminated to lower costs. The Judiciary is looking for creative solutions to enable it to provide the broadest range of information/content to its users, at the overall best value to include cost, with the least amount of duplicative information/content. OBJECTIVE: The objective of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) is to acquire CALR services for the Federal Judiciary. The Judiciary requires unrestricted access to full text search and retrieval for the broadest possible range of both primary legal research and secondary legal materials, additional databases (news, public records, dockets, etc.) and additional functionality in a single user interface. The content and functionality should include the databases/content and features as listed below and detailed in Attachment 1. I. Primary Legal Research: A. Databases/Content B. Private Database Functionality C. Citation Checking and Verification Functionality II. Secondary Legal Materials III. Additional Databases and Content: A. News, Business and Journal Services B. People and Public Record Services IV. Search and Retrieval Functionality V. Additional Requirements INSTRUCTIONS: Submissions to this RFI are due no later than May 28, 2013 at 5:00PM (ET). The length of the response to this RFI shall be no longer than 50 pages and standard company brochures are not desired. Responses shall be submitted via email to alicia_steele@ao.uscourts.gov. Based upon vendor responses and the AOUSC's independent market research, the AOUSC may elect to contact some vendors for further information to be exchanged in an in-person meeting. Vendors are asked to provide information in response to the following: 1. Discuss briefly, in a narrative format, your company's capability to provide the CALR databases/content and functionality/services identified in this RFI and/or note those areas in which your offerings are limited or you cannot provide the databases/content or functionality/services identified. The Judiciary is primarily interested in obtaining an overview of whether vendor can provide identified databases/content and functionality and the extent of any limitations on vendor's content/functionality in the areas identified. Vendor need not provide lengthy explanations or lists, nor detail additional databases/content or functionality that is outside the scope of this RFI. 2. Describe your company's capability to provide all specific functionality and services for additional requirements identified in this RFI. The Judiciary is very interested in the following areas as described in Attachment 1, Section V: a. Foldering, Annotations and Highlighting b. Single Sign-on Functionality c. News Clipping Delivery Tool d. Online Password and Reports Management Tool e. Support (24/7/365) f. Training and Documentation g. Secure Software or Online Hyperlinking Function (Section I(C)(3)) 3. Describe your company's pricing models for: a. A flat fee which includes unrestricted, unlimited access to primary, secondary, and additional databases/content (as listed above) b. A flat fee for separate limited access to primary legal research databases/content and functionality; and/or secondary legal materials and/or additional databases/content (as listed above). c. Tier Pricing based on volume of usage (e.g. searches or time). d. Tier Pricing based on number of users. i. For example, pricing based on maximum numbers of users as described below: 1. 13 users (one per US Courts Circuit library) 2. Up to 250 users 3. Up to 2,000 users 4. Identify the "price drivers" that affect your company's pricing models for the next 5-10 years. a. What databases/content are expensive to acquire? b. Can the Judiciary purchase only the databases/content and services it uses most? c. Can the databases/content be separated out and purchased separately? Please elaborate. d. Does limiting access to secondary legal databases/content (with no option to follow embedded links to primary resources cited in those secondary resources) reduce the price? e. Does eliminating or limiting access to public records, non-legal news, dockets, pleadings, or briefs reduce the price? e. Does limiting an award for secondary materials to particular users or types of users reduce the price? f. If there are either set minimum or maximum numbers of users that impact pricing, can you describe those and explain how that drives pricing? 5. What other solutions can you offer that would represent maximum value to the Judiciary and decrease the cost to acquire those CALR services identified as essential? 6. Has your company partnered with other CALR companies to provide comprehensive access to legal databases/content not offered by your company? Is your company willing to partner/team with other CALR companies to provide this type of access? 7. What assurances can your company provide and what provisions does your company make to reduce risk that databases, content, or services offered might not be available for all option years of a contract, particularly as to data, content, or services provided through a third party arrangement with another vendor and/or data, content or services discontinued by vendor.
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