Renewal of Chicago-Soft Software Maintenance

The United States Department of Agriculture, Office of Chief Information Officer, Digital Infrastructure Services Center (DISC) intends to award a purchase order on a Sole Source bases to Chicago Soft for the RENEWAL of our current MVS/QuickRef Mainframe Software. The USDA mainframe platform relies on these specific tools and cannot function without their maintenance and support. Chicago Soft, LTD. is the proprietary owner of these software products.

MVS/Quick-Ref is a mainframe product that provides instant online access to message descriptions and programming information on MVS systems. As licensed products, this software is proprietary and has various legal restrictions for use and maintenance. Only the software developer has the rights to the source code. The source code is required to make changes and corrections to the software. No other source is authorized for license, maintenance, and technical support of this proprietary software.

In addition, only the developer has the expertise to provide the maintenance required for the software. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS/QUOTE. Responsible sources may submit a capability statement in response to this requirement. Any response must show clear and convincing evidence that competition would be advantageous to the Government.

In doing so, interested sources must submit technical capabilities, pricing, and other information that demonstrates their ability to meet the Governments Requirement by the posted deadline. A determination by the Government to compete the requirement based on the responses to this Special Notice is solely the discretion of the Government. All information received from this notice shall be used for planning and market research purposes only. The Government will not pay for the preparation of any information submitted or use of such information.