D -- WEB-BASED EXAMINATION TOOL

Notice Date

February 14, 2001

Contracting Office

U.S. Postal Service, Headquarters Purchasing, Room 4541, 475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW., Washington, DC 20260-6230

ZIP Code

20260-6230

Response Due

March 2, 2001

Point of Contact

Jim Schank; NO PHONE CALLS; questions via email

E-Mail Address

Contact the Purchasing Officer at (jschank@email.usps.gov)

Description

SUPPLIER(S) SOUGHT FOR A WEB-BASED TOOL TO CONDUCT POSTAL EXAMINATIONS DESCRIPTION: The United States Postal Service (USPS) is conducting a pre-qualification to select the best provider(s) capable of providing a web-based tool to conduct postal examinations online. This web-based tool will be installed on current postal infrastructure, replace some postal examinations currently using test booklets and mark sense forms and/or computer based tests. This web-based tool will accommodate current and future multiple choice examinations designed by the USPS and/or current and future postal performance tests and rated applications. The USPS seeks to pre-qualify a limited number of the providers who offers the best value to the USPS. The USPS will follow USPS procurement regulations and processes to choose the winning provider(s). Mandatory requirements: The USPS is looking for a web test application. The data would feed NTAC's Postal Examination Processing System (PEPS), which is housed at NTAC in Merrifield. The administration of the exam should be controlled from a central site, or from a local exam administrator's workstation, with the ability to change as the need arises and would have to integrate into an Oracle database. 1) The provider is required to ensure the security and confidentiality/privacy of postal examinations and applicant data in the use of its product. All exams should be encrypted between the application web server and the testing machines. Any part of the test that resides on the client machine must be encrypted. 2) The application must be able to import questions and answers from a text document, allow the modification of existing examinations and ensure the ability to add future examinations. 3). The application must allow the display of questions and the selection of answers by applicants. 4) The application must be able to time parts of examinations. 5) The application must allow an applicant to return to questions or skip questions within one part of the examinations. 6) The application must not allow applicants to access other parts of the examination while working in one part. 7) The application must allow the administration of up to ten different types of tests and a minimum of 100 of the same tests at the same time. 8) The application must allow an applicant to go back to his/her place in the examination with the remaining time left following internet failure or hardware problems. 9) The application must provide immediate results to the applicant. 10) The application must record the actual total time of test. 11) The application must be able to lock out unapproved applications. 12) The application must store a record of the data entered by the test taker on the application server. This record must identify the applicant, the test given, the response of the applicant, the date and time of the test, and the amount of time the test took. This record must be in ASCII compliant format. 13) The application must meet or exceed minimum accessibility standards for people with disabilities as specified in Section 508a of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d), as amended by the FY 2001 Appropriation for Military Construction (Public Law 106-246 July 13, 2000). 508 standards can be found at www.access-board.gov 14) The USPS will purchase the tool(s) outright rather than pay by the seat 15) The Testing portion of the application must run on a client computer with Windows 95 as the operating system, 32 Megs of RAM, and a Pentium 166mmx processor and with IE 4.O Sp1 as the client. 16) Supplier(s) are to provide a program management office with problem resolution, warranty and technical support from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Monday to Friday 17) The supplier must have an effective quality assurance plan. Desirable requirements: 1) Test administrator has the ability to select only certain questions in an examination to create individualized tests. 2) Ability to randomize the order of the questions within a part of the examination. 3) Data from tool can be stored in ODBC compliant format. 4) Ability to link items to topic areas and conduct sub-test analyses. 5) Ability to provide detailed test performance feedback within topic areas of the test. 6) Ability to bookmark items for the test taker to revisit. 7) Ability to display a time clock on screen for the test taker to monitor time. 8) The supplier shall list any certification held by the provider about this application. 9) Any enhanced function, feature or capability. Evaluation Factors: (in descending order of importance) 1. Provider/Software Capability Suppliers must meet all mandatory requirements in order for desirable requirements to be evaluated. Provider/Software Capability will be evaluated to determine a provider's ability to perform upon award of a contract. The provider must demonstrate the capability of both the Web-based tool and the Program Management Office. For providers having a teaming arrangement with other suppliers, each party must be deemed capable. 2. Past Performance 3. Financial Capability Submission requirements: 1) Providers shall submit a capability statement that clearly demonstrates that the application meets all the mandatory factors and preferably all of the desirable factors listed, while providing the best value to the USPS. 2) Providers shall provide three client references for USPS verification that demonstrates their experience in meeting all of the evaluation factors. For each of the provider's client references, the provider shall include the name, phone number and email address. Providers are to advise each client reference to expect a USPS phone call or email regarding past performance. 3) Providers must demonstrate financial capability and stability to deploy and support the application for at least three years by providing current financial statements (Balance and Income). These statements are not included in the 12-page limit. 4) Providers shall indicate in their proposal if they are providing the software or program management support directly or through a sub-contractor(s). Subcontractors shall be identified by name(s) and USPS may request more information from the provider concerning its subcontractor(s). 5) The provider must submit a comprehensive quality assurance plan indicating the results of any quality assurance audits and any awards or recognition they have received for their quality assurance process. 6) Total proposal is not to exceed 12 pages (exclusive of financial statements). Any other brochure or marketing data will not be reviewed or evaluated. 5). Providers must submit proposals (or questions) to the USPS Contracting Officer through email or the USPS mail stream. Telephone calls will NOT be accepted. Hard copy proposals are to be submitted with one signed original and two copies and on disk. Pre-qualification submissions are due to Jim Schank, at jschank@email.usps.gov by COB March 2, 2001. Selected providers shall be ready to demonstrate their products in Merrifield, VA on or about the week of March 12, 2001. Not all suppliers who appear to meet the minimum qualifications will be selected to participate in the next phase, which is USPS issuance of a Request for Proposals (RFP). Only the prequalified suppliers that represent the best value to the USPS will be requested to submit a proposal in response to and RFP.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010216/DSOL015.HTM (W-045 SN50D715)