SC5000188520 - Combined Synopsis/Solicitation: Captiva Intelligent Capture Software Licenses, Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Support

IMPORTANT, consult attached document "SC 5000188520 RFQ Intelligent Capture" 

8/1 Amendments: RFQ attachment updated and should now be accessible; and "Intelligent Capture Server Volume (100k PPY) (10) (per year)" was updated to read "Intelligent Capture Server Volume (100k PPY) (100) (per year)"

8/2 RFQ is hereby amended to include updated quantities. 

Description

This is a Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.205-2) combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial products or commercial services prepared in accordance with the format in subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The requirement is for brand name Captiva Intelligent Capture software licenses, now known as OpenText Intelligent Capture. This solicitation is issued as a Request for Quotation (RFQ). This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Circular 2024-05, effective 5/22/2024. Contractor is required to be actively registered in the System for Award Management (SAM). This requirement is set-aside for Total Small Business in accordance with FAR Subpart 19.502-2, and only qualified offerors may submit a quote. Vendor quote may be considered non-compliant and rejected if the Contracting Officer is unable to verify registration and certification status. The government expects this announcement to result in a Firm-Fixed Price Single-Award contract. This is a RFQ only and in no way obligates the Government to award or to reimburse offeror(s) for any costs incurred in preparing their quote.

The provision at 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Products and Commercial Services, applies to this acquisition and additional instructions are provided herein.

The clause at 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Products and Commercial Services is not applicable.

The clause at 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Products and Commercial Services, applies to this acquisition and additional clauses are included herein.

The clause at 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required To Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Products and Commercial Services, applies to this acquisition and is included in full text herein.

Introduction

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) anticipates the award of a Firm Fixed Price Order for Captiva Intelligent Capture software licenses, now known as OpenText Intelligent Capture; as well as the associated operation and maintenance (O&M) support to provide tax form digitalization across all business operational divisions (BODS).

Instruction

The IRS requests quotations from vendors to provide the supplies and services delineated in Section I Schedule of Supply and Services and Section II Statement of Work. Please submit your quote to Contract Specialist Patrick Floyd via email Patrick.a.floyd@irs.gov no later than Monday August 12, 2024, by 10:00 AM Eastern Time.

•          You must be an authorized representative of the items being procured.
•         Offerors who bid are to comply with all provisions-in the solicitation.
•         The specified requirements contained in the Government’s requirement are final and substitutions are not permissible.
•          Provide pricing for all line items within the line-item table on page 3.  
•          The following must be completed and returned with your quote in order for your quote to be considered for award:

52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Products and Commercial Services

52.204-24, Representation Regarding Certain Telecommunications and Video Surveillance Services or Equipment

52.229-11, Tax on Certain Foreign Procurements—Notice and Representation

IR1052.209-9002 Notice and Consent to Disclose and Use of Taxpayer Return Information

IR1052.232-9001 Electronic Invoicing and Payment Requirements for the Invoice Processing Platform (IP).

Basis of Award

Quotes will be evaluated in accordance with the lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) source selection process as defined in FAR 15.101-2. The lowest priced quote will be evaluated for technical acceptability. An overall rating of acceptable or unacceptable will be assigned. If acceptable, award will be made to the lowest priced quote.

Rating Methodology

See attached document "SC 5000188520 RFQ Intelligent Capture"

Technical Acceptable/Unacceptable Rating

See attached document "SC 5000188520 RFQ Intelligent Capture"

SECTION II STATEMENT OF WORK

INTRODUCTION

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) relies on data from tax returns and other forms to differentiate compliant and non-compliant returns. This is accomplished through scoring models that require data in electronic form. Modernized e-File (MeF) captures 100% of data from electronically filed tax returns. However, the schedule for implementation of MeF makes it necessary to consider supplemental Captiva digitalization software and approaches for acquiring the key data from paper filed returns, eFaxed returns and MeF PDF Attachments. Even after full implementation of MeF, there will be residual paper documents containing data of interest to IRS.

The Large Business and International (LB&I) business unit implemented the LB&I Imaging Network (LIN) which scans paper returns and delivers images to field personnel (auditors). While this process involves only imaging, not Optical Character Recognition (OCR), the LIN system creates an opportunity to capture data from tax returns electronically for use in scoring models and by the field.

The impact of not using Captiva OpenText intelligent capture system would not immediately affect this tax year filing season. However, because this data is used for auditing models to identify filer outliers, the agency would experience significant backlogs and auditing, decreased timeliness in processing and a potential loss in revenue.

OBJECTIVE

The purchase of these Captiva software licenses will help the IRS to provide tax form digitalization across all business operational divisions (BODS) for the legislative mandates surrounding Clean Energy.

SCOPE

The purchase of Captiva Intelligent Capture software licenses, now known as OpenText Intelligent Capture; as well as the associated operation and maintenance (O&M) support to provide tax form digitalization across all business operational divisions (BODS).

During the base period, the primary support will be to purchase the 16 licenses associated with the Data Capture System (DCS) Scanning Operation and 10 million additional pages for scanning are required for Clean Energy Legislation.  After the base year, there is a need for operation and maintenance (O&M) support associated with the application. The requested license is as follows:

• License: Intelligent Capture Attended Client (16) (one-time buy)

SKU/Part #: 1000005710

• Pages: Intelligent Capture Server Volume (100k PPY) (100) (per year)

SKU/Part #: 1000005718

During the option years, the primary support shall be for the Contractor to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) which includes:

• Technical support 
• Providing patches, hotfixes and software updates for the Captiva product
• Supporting any issues with deploying patches, hotfixes, software updates or use of   the Captiva products 

IRS requires O&M support on the Captiva product to maintain these processes that extract data from tax returns and related documents.  The Captiva product currently handles the following:

• Optical Character Recognition (OCRs) 300 x 300 Dots per Inch (dpi) Tagged Image File (TIF) images. 
  • The created image files are utilized by Captiva for complex structured and unstructured documents to extract data from up to 7,000 Forms 1120 with an average of 200 pages per return (including all attachments)

• Approximately 25,000 Forms 1120S with an average of 60 pages per return (including all attachments)

• 100,000 Forms 8886 with an average of 4 pages (including cover documents),

• Approximately 600,000 Forms 1040NR/NR-EZ with an average of 8 pages per return (including all attachments) and several miscellaneous workflows.
   

The total volume for data extraction is licensed currently at 20 million pages annually. 

Employing this software, the IRS extracts data from approximately 14,850 unique fields. The software uses scripts to enhance images thereby allowing extraction and validation of identified unique fields. Extracted data is exported to a database developed, maintained and controlled by the IRS. Initial validation of the data is done through data field comparison, analysis and manipulation which is defined and programmed by rules developed by the IRS. The extraction software identifies instances when data cannot be confidently exported.  In these instances, human verification is required so data is sent to IRS employees to validate, approve, or correct entries prior to export.

Captiva O&M includes all software, hot fixes, patches and support necessary to enable to the system to provide intelligent data extraction and data capture, from identified IRS documents and returns. 

REQUIREMENT DESCRIPTION, & O&M Technical Support

The Contractor shall provide O&M support for the following tasks as required:

• Assist with installation and maintenance issues for the software that extracts data from the OCR files including processes in the software that verify accuracy of extracted data, export data, and manage workflows within the system.
• Assisting in any software issues for the conversion of extracting and validating the data elements for which routines have already been developed.
• It is intended that Captiva software remain fully functional on the IRS Production servers with the assistance of the vendor on technical issues that may occur and with keeping the software current with hot fixes, patches and software updates.
• Support for the Captiva Server Vol+AdvRecg+100K PPY Perp 10 million pages – per year.
• Operations and maintenance support for software that OCRs images to capture data from 300 DPI TIF images or PDF files which also provides ability to re-process OCR files and extract additional data without repeating the OCR process or having to reevaluate previously extracted fields. Reprocessing a form for additional data shall not count against the annual page count total.
• Operations and maintenance support for software capable of extracting specified data elements from each form type and exporting them in a standard database format (e.g., SQL, XML) that adheres to IRS standards and manages the flow of work between various stages (OCR, identification, extraction, validation, export).
• Licensing Captiva Server Vol+AdvRecg+100K PPY Perpetual for 10 million pages which will include associated Enhanced Software Support.

Technical Support

During the option years, the primary support shall be for the Contractor to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) which includes:

• Technical support 
• Providing patches, hotfixes and software updates for the Captiva product
• Supporting any issues with deploying patches, hotfixes, software updates or use of the Captiva products 

Technical Support Points of Contact

See attached document "SC 5000188520 RFQ Intelligent Capture"

Contract Type

The Government anticipates that this task will result in a Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) multiple year award, including a Base with Option Years.

Anticipated Period of Performance

Base Year:                 FY2024           from 08/16/2024 – 08/15/2025

Option Year 01:           FY2025           from 08/16/2025 – 08/15/2026

Option Year 02:           FY2026           from 08/16/2026 – 08/15/2027

Option Year 03:           FY2027           from 08/16/2027 – 08/15/2028

Option Year 04:           FY2028           from 08/16/2028 – 08/15/2029

Inspection and Acceptance:

Installation and setup latest version, upgrades, and patches. The Contractor shall provide the licenses and a URL where IRS staff can access or download the COTS software product for download and installation.

Vendor shall provide 24x7 phone and on-line support as needed.

Delivery of software will be downloaded from the vendor software portal; therefore, please send download information, in accordance with this order’s Delivery Schedule to:

Shipping

The vendor shall make use of commercial best practices in the packing and shipment of packages, unless otherwise stated in this order.

Acceptance Criteria

Certification by the Government of satisfactory goods or services provided is contingent upon the vendor performing in accordance with the terms and conditions of the referenced agreement, this order, and all amendments.

Invoice Review

The Technical COR may reject or require correction of any deficiencies found in the invoice or receiving report. In the event of a rejected invoice or receiving report, the Contractor must be notified in writing by the Delivery POC of the specific reasons for rejection.

Other Special Considerations

This procurement is required to have an item column placed into the (IGCE) that will match the same item number as the Purchase Request (PR) number on the Purchase Order (PO). This action is critical in controlling the status and simplifying the effort to account for our items and has proven to be beneficial to all stakeholders.

Special Instructions to Vendors & Shippers: See example below for shipping requirement when preparing shipment cargo.

Example:

See attached document "SC 5000188520 RFQ Intelligent Capture"

Contract Specialist.

Name: Patrick Floyd

Phone: 228-213-5040

Email: Patrick.A.Floyd@irs.gov

Government Points of Contact: Contracting Officer.

Name: JW Terry

Phone: See attached document "SC 5000188520 RFQ Intelligent Capture"

Email: See attached document "SC 5000188520 RFQ Intelligent Capture"