DoD Clause Logic Service

THIS SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS HAS BEEN UPDATED TO EXTEND THE DATE TO REQUEST INCLUSION FOR THE INDUSTRY DAY (MONDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2024) TO THURSDAY, 5 DECEMBER 2024, AT 12:00PM EST).

This Sources Sought Synopsis is published for market research purposes only. There is no solicitation available at this time. This sources sought synopsis does not constitute a Request for Quotation (RFQ), Request for Proposal (RFP) or an Invitation for Bid (IFB), nor does this issuance restrict the Government's acquisition approach. Only responses from US companies will be accepted. Any information provided by the Government at this time is preliminary and may be updated or changed prior to a formal release of a Request for Proposal. The Government expects to conduct an industry day subsequent to receiving submittals in response to this notice. Industry day details are included herein.

The Government will neither award a contract solely on the basis of this sources sought synopsis (or industry day), nor will it reimburse any contractor/prospective contractor for any costs associated with preparing or submitting a response to this notice (or industry day). The Government has not yet determined the acquisition strategy for this requirement, including whether a small business set-aside strategy is applicable.

The Clause Logic Service (CLS) is a software capability that, given a set of inputs, provides extensible markup language (XML) data outputs for Terms and Conditions (Ts&Cs) inclusion in solicitations, awards, and modifications for the Department of Defense and some other Federal agencies. Additional publicly available information about the current CLS capability is published at https://dodprocurementtoolbox.com/site-pages/ebusiness-cls.

The Government is seeking to modernize or replace its current Clause Logic Service (CLS) capability using notional concepts in slides attached to this notice. Concepts are shared to encourage dialog with industry, and they are not yet considered final plans or approaches. This market research effort is intended to inform the Government’s future strategy, as a make or buy decision has not yet been made. No acquisition strategy has been determined at this point. The Government is surveying the market for commercially available solutions, nondevelopmental solutions, solutions that may serve as a starting point for further development, business process model platforms that may be leveraged to quickly develop capabilities, and more. The Government is not seeking a complete contract writing system/solution as part of this effort, but rather the Government ultimately intends to make or buy a modular capability that complements contract writing systems. The ultimate solution will need to support multiple configurations for different environments (e.g., stand-alone cloud hosted web application, “headless” service using application programming interfaces to communicate with cloud-hosted contract writing systems, and classified contracting).

Respondents must possess the expertise, capabilities, and experience in developing and/or providing the same or similar solutions, meeting all relevant cybersecurity, accessibility, and audit requirements for the Department of Defense.

Respondents shall submit a Capabilities Package in response to this sources sought synopsis that demonstrates detailed knowledge and experience in the following areas:

1. DoD procurement processes, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) in various contracting methods (e.g., commercial/non-commercial contracts, competitive/sole source solicitations, simplified/complex contracts) for various contracting scenarios (e.g., installation, construction, research and development, expeditionary/contingency, classified, major systems, logistics).
2. Business system design and sustainment within the DoD, including cybersecurity requirements.
3. DoD data standard structures, including the Procurement Data Standard (PDS).
4. Integration with cloud hosted contract writing system platforms such as the Department of the Air Force’s CON-IT, the Department of the Army’s Army Contract Writing System (ACWS), the Department of the Navy’s Electronic Procurement System (ePS), and the Fourth Estate’s Electronic Contract Writing Module (ECWM).
5. Section 508 requirements, W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and Web Accessibility Initiative-Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA), and modern user interface/user experience design practices for web applications such as those listed at https://digital.gov/resources/checklist-of-requirements-for-federal-digital-services/.
6. Any current or previous clause logic capability (or similar) matching one or more sources of functional data inputs (interview question responses, data from the procurement data standard, etc.) with a rules-based logic engine to accurately provide predictable outputs.
7. Integration with Acquisition.gov or other similar data source for XML and/or XHTML representations of terms and conditions.
8. Use of models (e.g., statistical, machine learning, artificial intelligence) to offer inferences on missing or unknown input data elements, with the goal of improving data accuracy while decreasing the time required by users to provide data entry.

Capability packages shall also address the following items:

1. Company name, address, point of contact, telephone number, e-mail address, Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) Code, and Unique Entity Identifier (UEI).
2. Business size (if 8(a) provide proof of certification, etc.) under the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code 541519. Additionally, firms responding to this announcement as the "prime contractor" should indicate whether they are:  ‘other than small business’ or ‘small business’ in relation to NAICS code 541519. Firms responding to this announcement as the "prime contractor" should also indicate whether, in relation to NAICS code 541519, they are considered a small disadvantaged business, veteran-owned small business, woman-owned small business, or a Small Business Administration certified Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) program participant as a WOSB concern or Economically Disadvantaged WOSB (EDWOSB) concern, ‘8(a) program participant’, ‘service-disabled veteran-owned small business’, or ‘historically underutilized business zone small business’.
3. Under which NAICS code does your company usually provide supplies identified above? Do you consider a NAICS code other than 541519 to be more appropriate as a classification for the supplies identified above? Please include the rationale for your answer.
4. Overarching description of technical maturity and scalability/configurability of existing solution(s), if applicable. Approach if partial or full development is required.
5. Qualifications and competencies of skilled personnel that may be needed, as required. Expertise and ability to identify specialized skill sets, conduct training to meet these skill sets.
6. Potential business arrangements/models (cost sharing development, product already ready but for sale with licenses, etc.).
7. Intellectual property licensing arrangements for existing capabilities.

Responses to this RFI must be received No Later Than 12:00 PM (EST) 5 December 2024. Information packages may be submitted in an Adobe or MS Word compatible format by e-mail to osd.pentagon.ousd-a-s.mbx.dpc-cb@mail.mil. Include ‘Clause Logic Service Sources Sought’ in the subject line of your email.  E-mails to any other address will not be accepted or receive a response. The PCO is the sole point of contact for this notice. Submissions shall not exceed 20-25 pages (8" X 11"). Font shall be 12-pitch with one-inch borders. Industry is encouraged to respond with information not constrained by proprietary data rights; however, if any information submitted is considered proprietary, then the pages containing such information must be marked accordingly. The capabilities package should be brief and concise, yet clearly address requested information. Requests for solicitation will receive no response. The Government shall not reimburse the cost of preparing responses to this request for information.

Industry Day:

An in-person industry day is planned for Monday, 9 December 2024 in the National Capital Region. A virtual option is not planned at this time. The Government will provide a general session to discuss its intent and overarching objectives. Private break-out sessions will be available to meet with individual companies for further discussion and demonstrations, if applicable. Only respondents to this notice will be invited to attend, and respondents to this notice should indicate in their response to this notice that they wish to (1) attend industry day and (2) have a private session. Length of private sessions will be determined once the Government has a count of how many private sessions are requested. The Government will contact those expressing interest in having a private session to inform allotted time by 4:00 p.m., EST, Friday, 6 December 2024. The Government shall not reimburse the cost of attending the planned industry day, including preparation, travel or any other costs.