Notice of Proposed Procurement
1.0 Introduction
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (“CATSA”) is a Crown corporation with headquarters at 99 Bank Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1P 6B9. CATSA is responsible for the delivery of consistent, effective and efficient screening of passengers and non-passengers in designated airports. Further information about CATSA can be obtained at www.catsa.gc.ca.
1.1 Estimated Contract Value
$500,000
2.0 Description
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (“CATSA”) has a requirement for the supply, implementation, maintenance and support of a commercial off-the-shelf (“COTS”) enterprise IT Asset Management (“ITAM”) solution for a five year period as further described in this Request for Proposals.
3.0 Procurement Method
This RFP establishes an Open Tendering process to enter into a non-exclusive Contract. It is intended that this procurement will involve negotiations and that the scope of negotiations and the process of negotiations will be determined by CATSA and will be identified in a document provided to the top ranked bidder.
4.0 Term of Resulting Contract(s)
It is anticipated that the term of any resulting Contract will be for a term of five years.
5.0 Address for Submission of Questions and Proposals/Responses; Question Acceptance Deadline and Closing Date
The question acceptance deadline and the closing date are set out in the “Dates” section above. CATSA may extend either or both of such dates.
Questions and proposals/responses must be submitted through the MERX Electronic Bid Submission system at www.MERX.com.
6.0 Mandatory Requirements
M1. The bidder must certify that the bidder’s proposed solution is a commercially available product suitable for the intended application as described in Schedule “A” of this RFP and is currently in use by other organisations for the same purpose.
M2. The minimum system requirements identified as “M” in Schedule “C-1” (Technical Requirements Template) are considered Mandatory requirements.
7.0 Rated Requirements
The RFP contains details of the rated requirements.
8.0 Contractor Selection
All proposals will be examined in accordance with the following process:
Step 1: Confirmation of Compliance to the Mandatory Requirements
Technical Offers will be reviewed for compliance with the Mandatory Requirements described in Schedule “C” (Technical Offer Requirements and Evaluation) and Schedule “C-1” (Technical Requirements Template) of the RFP to confirm that the information, statements and supporting material in the bidder’s Technical Offer substantiate a compliant response. Mandatory Requirements will be confirmed on a simple pass or fail basis.
If a proposal fails to satisfy any of the Mandatory Requirements, CATSA will issue the bidder a rectification notice identifying the deficiencies and providing the bidder an opportunity to rectify the deficiencies. If the bidder fails to satisfy the Mandatory Requirements within the Rectification Period, its proposal will be rejected and will receive no further consideration. The Rectification Period will begin to run from the date and time that CATSA issues a rectification notice to the bidder. The Mandatory Requirements are set out in Schedule “C” (Technical Offer Requirements and Evaluation) and Schedule “C-1” (Technical Requirements Template).
Step 2: Evaluation of Rated Requirements (one thousand (1000) Points)
Technical Offers will be evaluated against the Rated Requirements, as outlined in Schedule “C” (Technical Offer Requirements and Evaluation). Technical Offers will be assigned a score for each rated requirement to establish a Step 2 “Technical Score”. The maximum Technical Score is one thousand points.
At the end of this Step 2 (Evaluation of Rated Requirements), CATSA will establish a shortlist of up to the top three bidders with the highest total Technical Scores that are within a twenty percent (20%) range of the highest Technical Score. Only the bidders meeting these criteria will be eligible to proceed to the next step of the evaluation and selection process.
Step 3: Presentation
The bidders from the shortlist created in Step 2 will be invited to present their proposed solution to the CATSA evaluation team via web based presentation. Presentations will be limited to a duration of no more than two hours.
The Bidder will be required to deliver a live, on-line demonstration of its proposed solution, to tangibly demonstrate its compliance to CATSA’s requirements, as described in Schedule “A” (Statement of Work) and specifically the sections identified in Section 6 of Schedule “C” (Technical Offer Requirements), as well as address any questions regarding the technical portion of its Proposal.
Presentations will not be evaluated, but can be used to increase or decrease the technical scores. The purpose of the presentation is to demonstrate and validate what has been proposed in the technical proposal. Bidders will not be allowed to present anything that wasn’t included in their Technical Proposal or to introduce any new information that wasn’t included in the bidder’s proposal.
The shortlisted bidders’ technical scores will be adjusted following the presentations, if required. In the event that the adjusted score of any of the bidders would fall outside the twenty percent (20%) threshold, it will be removed from the shortlist and will not continue to Step 4. Further, no other bidders will be added to the shortlist should any of the shortlisted bidders be removed at this stage.
Step 4: Evaluation of Financial Offer
Financial Offers will be evaluated and assigned an “Evaluated Price” in accordance with Schedule “D”, (Financial Offer Requirements and Evaluation).
Step 5: Ranking of Bidders
Bidders will be ranked in order of lowest Evaluated Price Per Point. The top-ranked bidder will receive a written invitation to enter into direct contract negotiations to finalize the Contract with CATSA, subject to Schedule “G” (Security Requirements Assessments) and without limitation to any other provision in this RFP, including but not limited to Section 11 (CATSA’s Reserved Rights).
The top ranked bidder will be identified BY CATSA in accordance with the above at which point the RFP will be at an end.
The evaluations under this RFP and the preceding steps in this RFP, AND ANY SCHEDULE UNDER THIS RFP are solely for the purposes of establishing a TOP ranked bidder with whom to Enter into negotiationS and nothing shall limit CATSA’s ability to negotiate and to conclude an agreement with the Top ranked bidder (or successive ranked bidders) on terms, commitments or prices different from those identifed in this RFP, any Schedule under this RFP or the TOP Ranked Bidder’s Proposal.
Step 6: Negotiations
Negotiations will be subject to the process rules contained in this RFP, including Section 19 of the Instructions to Bidders, and will not constitute a legally binding offer to enter into a contract on the part of CATSA or the bidder and there will be no legally binding relationship created with any bidder prior to the execution of a written agreement. The terms and conditions attached as Appendix “A” to Schedule “F” (Contract) are to form the basis for commencing negotiations between CATSA and the top ranked bidder. The scope of negotiations and the process of negotiations will be determined by CATSA and will be identified in a document provided to the top ranked bidder. Without limiting the foregoing, negotiations may include requests by CATSA for supplementary information from the bidder to verify, clarify or supplement the information provided in its proposal or to confirm the conclusions reached in the evaluation, and may include requests by CATSA for improved pricing or performance terms from the bidder.
The RFP contains additional details for Step 6 (Negotiation).
9.0 Use of MERX
CATSA will only use MERX as its web-based forum to post solicitations. As such, the attached procurement document has only been posted on MERX, and all related documents, notices, addendums, and questions and responses thereto will only be posted on MERX.
See MERX at http://www.merx.com for details respecting how to access the solicitation documents and any costs related thereto.
CATSA does not authorize, or make any representations or warranties in respect of, any postings relating to its procurements found on any other web-based forum.
10.0 Language
Proposals may be submitted in either the English or French language.
11.0 General
In the event of any discrepancy, inconsistency or conflicts between the wording of this Notice of Proposed Procurement or any related documents and the wording in the MERX EBS system in respect of this RFP, the wording of this RFP shall prevail.
