USDA, Rural Development, Procurement Management Division, 1400 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20250-0700

D -- INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES DUE 042199 POC Steven Rubin, Technical Contact-301-504-4159, Elaine Larison, Contracting Officer, 202-692-0244 Sources sought-REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ONLY: The United States Department of Agriculture, Service Center Initiative Team, formed to improve the delivery of customer service and programs at USDA Service Centers. Improving the Service Center operations will clearly have a positive impact on Federal Policy and program priorities in an effort to meet the goals of USDA. The SCIT, dealing with farm and home lending processes has identified numerous areas for improvement and possible reengineering in an effort to facilitate the mission of the three affected agencies, Farm Service Agency (FSA), Rural Development (RD) and Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) in the Service Center Environment. The Agency is interested in three aspects of lending initiatives and loan programs within the commercial sector; marketing, tracking and pre-qualification. Marketing information requested should deal with customer identification and the methods and media used to make customers aware of programs. An example, USDA isinterested in industry's use of KIOSKs for training amd marketing of different programs. The best practices collected will then be evaluated and implemented in USDA Service Center programs where applicable. The Lending reengineering team is also interested in gathering information on the latest tracking systems that might be applied to USDA lending programs in order to streamline the loan application process, while simultaneously being able to provide the customer the status of his/her application, either by coming into, calling or accessing the information electronically. Additionally, the team requests information on software that pre-qualifies individuals, or allows individuals on their own, either in the privacy of their home or at a library or KIOSK to determine if they can qualify for a loan-then apply that capability to USDA housing and farm loans. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited/due to the RFI. If the Government decides to purchase a particular software or best practice, a follow-on solicitation for detailed technical price proposals will be issued. Information pertaining to your firms capability should include, but not limited to goals and objectives, corporate financial data, past performance information, the type of work performed, and any additional information which demonstrates its ability to meet this requirement. Repondents will not be notified of the evaluation process of best practices or software evaluated. Respondents can call Mr. Steven Rubin at (301) 504-4159, or e-mail at Steven.Rubin@po.NRCS.USDA.gov, to ensure their information has been received and to provide USDA a point of contact in the event of questions or follow up is required. No project support or facilitation from contractors is requested. All responses should be received by 21, April, 1999. Posted 03/26/99 (W-SN313321). (0085)

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