|
COMMERCE BUSINESS DAILY ISSUE OF AUGUST 24,1995 PSA#1417United States International Trade Commission 500 ''E'' Street, S.W.,
Procurement Division, Room 214 Washington, D.C. 20436 70 -- SOFTWARE FOR QUESTIONNAIRE PROCESSING'' SOL ITC-RQ-95-0023 DUE
090795 POC Eldee Whitehead, Contract Specialist, (202) 205-2737. The
United States International Trade Commission is soliciting sources for
the acquisition of off-the-shelf or custom modified software for
questionnaire processing. Software is required to process questionnaire
data and produce tables depicting such data. The questionnaires contain
detailed information on the operations of firms producing, importing,
and purchasing merchandise subject to trade investigations, including
for example, capacity to produce, production, shipments, inventories,
employment, profit-and-loss experience, imports, and selling or
purchase prices. Except for pricing, this information is normally
collected for the three full years and any partial-year periods to
date; pricing is normally collected on a quarterly basis for at least
the most recent 12 quarters. For the non-price data, a typical producer
questionnaire for an investigation covering one product would contain
approximately 500 entries and typical importer and purchaser
questionnaires for an investigation involving one foreign country would
contain approximately 150 entries. For the price data, typical
producer, importer, and purchaser questionnaires for an investigation
covering one product and one foreign country would contain
approximately 400 entries. Investigations often involve more than one
product and more than one foreign country. The number of questionnaires
used in an investigation varies considerably, ranging from less than 10
to more than 500. Processing time is always of the essence inasmuch as
all investigations are conducted under tight statutory limits. Typical
processing time would not exceed one week. ''Processing'' requirements
are not complex, but flexibility and many data checks are required to
be built into the software. Data are normally totalled, averaged, and
related to one another (for example, capacity and production to
calculate capacity utilization; quantity and value of shipments to
calculated average unit values; one period to another to calculate
percentage changes; and, after calculating consumption from domestic
and import shipments, those data and consumption to calculate market
shares). Flexibility is necessary to aggregate data in various ways,
depending on issues raised in particular investigations (for example,
subsets of data for different combinations of firms and/or products or
exclusions of specific firms from totals). Typical data-check
requirments include ensuring that all calculations are made form
appropriate base numbers (for example, that all responding firms
reported both capacity and production before the capacity utilization
calculation is made) and flagging data that should reconcile but do not
(for example, sales and costs data that should result in profits but do
not). Irrespective of the software used to process the data, tables
must be generated in word processing compatible format so they can be
incorporated into reports. A graphic capability and/or ability to be
exportable to popular spreadsheet, graphic, and other PC packages for
further manipulation and analysis is also extremely desirable. The
agency's computer facility is a Banyan VINES LAN with 10 Compaq
Proliant servers. The ''standard'' workstation is a PC with Intel
486/33 processor, running Windows, and having 8 Megs Ram and a 210 Meg
hard-drive. We also have a HP9000 running HP-UX, VINES ENS, and Oracle
7.0 that is accessible to all PCs. Multiple ongoing investigations,
with multiple users needing simultaneous access will be the standard
operating situation. System administrator should be able to oversee
data security, selectively providing and limiting access and other user
capabilities. Current questionnaire processing is done by manual entry,
using complex SAS programs that can be run only by programmers. We want
to move from this system to one that allows non-programmers to handle
all aspects of the data processing (program development/tailoring, data
entry, processing, and table generation). Any replacement system should
not require a skill set beyond that necessary for basic spreadsheets.
This procurement is being processed under the Federal Acquisition
Streamlining Act, Interim Rule Implementation. Anyone wishing to quote
on this procurement, should request RFQ ITC-RQ-95-0023 before
September 7, 1995. Only written requests will be accepted. Quotations
must be received by September 21, 1995. Hearing impaired individuals
are advised that information on this matter can be obtained by
contacting our TDD terminal at (202) 205-2648. (0234) Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0345 19950823\70-0001.SOL)
70 - General Purpose ADP Equipment Software, Supplies and Support Eq. Index Page
|
|