70 -- SSA INTENDS TO NEGOTIATE SOLELY WITH INFRASTRUCTURES FOR

Notice Date

March 29, 2001

Contracting Office

Social Security Administration, Deputy Commissioner for Finance, Assessment and Management, Office of Acquisition and Grants, 1710 Gwynn Oak Avenue, Baltimore, MD, 21207-5279

ZIP Code

21207-5279

E-Mail Address

Megan Robey (megan.robey@ssa.gov)

Description

This announcement serves as a notice of intent that the Social Security Administration proposes to award to Infrastructures for Information, (i4i) an individual contractor, a sole-source contract for SGML XML MS-Word add-on authoring software along with supporting developer software for an authoring study evaluation. This proposed contract is for commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) software that can be customized to suite the business requirements of the SSA's policy repository authoring environment. The SSA will do all the required development and systems integration work. The Policy Repository authoring system is a web-based application utilizing an Oracle SGML database. This COTS software will be used in evaluating SSA policy authoring using a MS-Word SGML XML add-on. This MS-Word add-on must be transparent to the authors and allow them to seamlessly compose, interact and collaborate on policy documents extracted from the current SGML based Policy Repository. The Policy Repository authoring system is a web-based application utilizing an Oracle SGML database. The COTS SGML XML authoring software provided by the contractor must: -Must support the creation and editing of valid SGML XML. -Must prevent an author from inadvertently removing or damaging the well-formed base structure of the SGML XML policy document and from inadvertently introducing elements into an invalid position. -Must be able to integrate seamlessly with the Agency standard word processing software, MicroSoft(R) Word versions 97 through Word 2000 to ensure author use and acceptance. -Must be able to conceal the SGML XML tags and the details of the structure specified by the SSA supplied Document Type Definition (DTD) from the author. -Must be able to provide within the document instance an interactive author-friendly set of suggestions and options based on the cursor location. This capability can be tailored for each policy document type (DTD) where applicable. -Must support the full range of Microsoft(R) Word functionality as needed to meet SSA's current and projected authoring requirements: -Must support standard spell checking with any Word dictionary. -Must support "Find" and "Find and Replace" on text content (ignoring extraneous information such as tags, attribute names and values). -Must support intelligent paste, i.e. -- the ability to paste from an MS-Word document and programmatically apply SGML XML tags based on MS-Word styles. -Must support paste into SGML XML document from MS-Word or text file source -Must support the inclusion of a variety of graphics file formats including jpeg, gif, tiff, pdf and pcx.. -Must support multiple document types (DTD's), accessible as needed by the author for various policy documents. -Must be capable of applying Word styles based on elements in XML context, tailored to the policy document type. -Must be able to track changes made by different authors, present the change history in MS-Word fashion, and save the history in the XML instance in support of collaborative policy development. -Must be able to preview at any time, from the MS-Word add-on, a document instance in Microsoft(R) Internet Explore (version 5.X or greater) using XSL style sheets and must be modifiable to display underlying SGML in HTML format if applicable. This provides authors with positive immediate feedback on their documents web-based format and display. -Must be able to maintain comments from different authors, present them in MS-Word fashion, and save them in the XML instance in support of collaborative policy development. -Must be able to incorporate the business and document creation editing rules for each policy document type in way that can be applied automatically to ensure validity under all actions. -Given SSA's varied authoring skill levels it must allow the author, analyst or editor to adjust the level of guidance provided: novice users will need detailed suggestions and options presented as they work, experienced users will want to use fly-out menus; and editors may want control-key based actions. -When creating a new policy document instance it must generate a document framework based on user-selected options with appropriate headings or captions, so that the author does not have to create the document in a strict top-down, step-wise fashion. -Must have a document map option under user control for navigation displaying author-friendly labels (not SGML XML tags) and actual content. -Must support ActiveX controls for viewing graphics or other special content in a separate window. -Must support ActiveX controls for viewing special content in-line in the MS-Word document. -The author and analyst must have a document map option under user control for navigation displaying user-friendly labels (not XML tags) and the actual content. -Must be able to utilize email capabilities so that an XML instance and all its supporting files (DTD, entities, & graphic inclusions) can be sent as a single package from an author, and opened ready-to-use by another policy author or analyst with the same application in support of collaborative policy development. -Must support the CALS (Continuous Acquisition and Life-cycle Support) exchange table model specification. -The supporting developer software must have the ability to easily implement the SSA business requirements and capabilities as stated above in its add-on product without requiring the need for a specialized programmer. -The supporting developer software and license will also include vendor provided training. -The application must allow for additional customization (using VBA code level, or by adding COM objects) to enable connections to external processes and or repository databases, and integration with the existing Oracle authoring application and content management system. The above COTS software capabilities are critical to the SSA's need to facilitate policy authoring using SGML XML for policy repository storage, retrieval and content re-purposing. All interested parties must respond within 7 calendar days from the date of this notice. Written responses must provide clear and concise documentation and technical specifications indicating how your product meets the above requirements and SSA business needs. Verbal responses are not acceptable. The Government does not intend to pay for information received. Faxed responses shall not be permitted. When responding to this announcement, respondents should refer to SSA-0944. If after April 5, 2001, no viable responses have been received in response to this announcement, SSA shall initiate negotiations solely with Infrastructures for Information (i4i).

Web Link

Visit this URL for the latest information about this (http://www.eps.gov/cgi-bin/WebObjects/EPS.woa/wa/SPF?A=S&P=R-3355-01-0944&L=2422)

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010402/SPMSC007.HTM (D-088 SN50H6Q3)